5 Tutti Frutti (15 page)

“Louie, I never even met
Swindle until yesterday. As for that guy’s wife, it was a one nighter. I didn’t know she was married. There I am, sound asleep in her bed, minding my own business, and she kicks me out just before he walks into the bedroom. I had to hide under the damn bed for about a week. Then sneak out of the place once he fell asleep. Hell, she picked me up, not the other way around. I haven’t seen her since that night.”

“
Oh God, you complete and absolute idiot. Look, whatever you do don’t bring the D’Angelos or Joey Cazzo into this, it won’t help your cause one damn bit and it’s bound to screw things up for me.”

“What, now I’m supposed to lie
to Manning to cover those creeps?”

“No, now you
’re supposed to use that thick skull of yours.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“Hope I’m not interrupting,
”
Manning called when he stuck his gleaming pink head back into the room. “All right to come in and pick up where we left off?”

Louie nodded.

Manning seemed barely able to contain himself and began rifling questions before he’d even sat down.

“I believe we were discuss
ing Mister Rockett. How well do you know him?”

“I think I saw him once or twice
from a distance, but I have never actually spoken to him, at least that I know of.”

“Ever been in his home?”

“No.”

“
What about his office?”

“
I didn’t even know he had one. To the best of my knowledge I’ve never been there,” I said.

Manning nodded then seemed to switch gears.

“So Swindle Lawless, your client. I thought she was an item with your friend Joey Cazzo?”

“If you say so,
he’s not really my friend. I was just sort of doing him a little favor,” I said and shrugged.

“Oh
I see a little favor for someone you really don’t know? How very nice,” Manning said then nodded like it all made perfect sense.

I could hear Louie give an exasperated exhale.

“Miss Lawless mentioned to us that you owe her a five hundred dollar debt, is that correct?” Manning asked.

Louie
turned to look at me as his mouth dropped open.

I looked stunned and couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Mister Haskell? The matter of five hundred dollars owed to Miss Lawless? Was she correct about that amount?”

“
I think she’s mistaken, I’ll have to check with her.”

“Not a problem on this end
, Mister Haskell. I’m sure it was a simple good faith arrangement on your part and she just probably misunderstood,” Manning said. “Of course I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But I believe she suggested she was planning to file rape charges against you.”

“I don’t know anything about that.”

“Probably just another misunderstanding then. I’m sure once she completes the rape examination any questions will be cleared up. They’re very efficient and through,” Manning flashed a predatory grin.

Louie shook his head and
let loose a frustrating exhale. From underneath the table he gave me the finger.

“Now
, Mister Haskell, can you account for your whereabouts between the hours of nine o’clock last night and ten o’clock this morning?”

“
Yes, I was at the Tutti Frutti Club until maybe midnight. I drove a friend home, Heidi Bauer. At approximately ten the following morning, I drove Miss Lawless to the Tutti Frutti Club to look for her purse. She decided to remain there, and I returned to my home until my attorney, Mister Laufen, phoned and told me that I should come down here for this interview.”

“I see,” Manning nodded and flipped a page in the open file
in front of him. “You drove Miss Bauer home. Had she been drinking?”

“Yes.”

“Were you drinking?”

“I may have had a beer, possibly two
, over the course of five hours.”

“Two beers! C
ommendable. So you acted as the sober cabdriver for Miss Bauer. That pretty much it?”

“Yes.”

“You would state you weren’t under the influence at any time during the evening?”

“Yeah.”

“And Miss Bauer, she was perhaps not in the best of shape to drive. Would that be a fair statement?”

“Yes, it would. In fact she slept on the way home.”

Louie stepped on my foot under the table.

“Passed out?”

“I don’t know, it may have been a long day and she was just tired.”

“I see. And Miss Lawless?”

“Miss Lawless?”

“She seemed
to think she may have been hired by the two of you for the purpose of a bit of late night sexual entertainment.”

“Yes
, I mean no. She wasn’t hired, but come to think of it, she was in the car.”

“I see. Did
she end up in bed with you and Miss Bauer?”

“
I believe she may have slept there, yes.”

“In the same bed?”

“Well yes, but nothing happened.”

“Was she clothed?”

“Not exactly.”

“Would you care to elaborate on
‘not exactly’?”

“She may have removed some of her clothing.”

“Care to define some?”

“Maybe all.”

“I see, so she was naked?”

“Yes, pretty much.”

“Were either you or Miss Bauer wearing clothes?”

“I, I don’t think so.”

Manning flipped a couple more pages and pulled out a pink sheet from the file. “Based on our toxicology report, the levels of alcohol and cocaine still in Miss Lawless’ blood workup approached the lethal level. Interesting. It sounds like she was severely drugged, forced to consume a large quantity of alcohol, and then raped, repeatedly. What do you think?”

“I don’t have any idea what you
’re talking about.”

“And yet you admit to being na
ked in the same bed with both Miss Lawless and Miss Bauer, is that correct?”

“Yes, but…”

Louie placed a hand on my wrist to quiet me.

“Never realized you could muster up so much restraint, Mister Haskell. One for the books.” Manning smiled
, but his eyes betrayed his mood.

“Is Mister Haskell being charged with rape? You know as well as I do there may be some questions regarding the character of Miss Lawless. The fact that she remained
in a drinking establishment after Mister Haskell last saw her certainly suggests she may have consumed more alcohol and possibly other substances after his departure. It would seem your toxicology report is therefore null and void, at least in relation to my client.”

“Perhaps,” Manning said.

“You know it is, Detective. Unless you have something more besides a blood sample with levels of alcohol and cocaine from an individual you picked up in a bar, I think you’re grasping at straws. Thus far the only crime my client would appear to be guilty of is providing an impaired individual a safe place to spend the night.”

“
In the same bed with another individual and your client, who proceeded to rape her.” Manning shot back.

“
Let’s see what the evidence says.”

“We intend to do just that,” Manning said and closed the file.

“Are we free to go?” Louie asked.

“Maybe just a couple more questions,” Manning said then held his hand out as crabby Clara Gutnacht
seemed to pull another file out of nowhere.

Chapter Thirty

We were out in
the parking lot talking. It was dark by now. Louie was seated in his car with the door open while I was standing in a pot hole. We’d been in the interrogation room for four or five hours. My head was pounding, and Louie was pissed off, really pissed off.

“I don’t know
, you tell me. I finally get a dream client, the D’Angelos. So many legal problems they’ll never find their way out of the court system. I got Joey Cazzo, a creep I admit, but the bastard tells me everything I have to do and pays for the privilege. I can work part time and make full time money and you, in just twenty four hours have managed to fuck everything up.”

“Louie
, I’m telling you I didn’t do anything.”

“I don’t know
, maybe you’ve heard this before, but you never do anything. It’s never your fault, it’s always someone else. Guess what? I’m the poor bastard up to his neck in shit. Your shit! You better get this mess cleaned up and fast, Dev.”

“Louie, I…”

“No. The first thing you are going to do is pay Swindle the five hundred for the three-way.”

“I never touched her.
There wasn’t any three-way, we all just went to sleep.”

“I don’t care. L
ook, Dev, make it go away. Figure it out, douche nozzle. If this charge remains, me or someone else unfortunate enough to represent you is gonna ream your ass for a good fifteen hundred to deal with this, and that’s just for starters. So your best option is to pay her five hundred bucks, make the charge go away, and consider yourself a thousand bucks ahead of the game.”

“Louie, don’t you think...”

“No, Dev, you’re not thinking. Next thing you do, you better find out if Swindle’s car was involved in that hit and run. I’ll lay you odds they towed that thing from The Spot once you cleverly told them where it was parked, and they’re tearing the God damned thing apart piece-by-piece right now.”

“Maybe she picked it up and…”

“You dropped her off at the Tutti Frutti around noon. That’s where they picked her up later in the afternoon. Do you really think she stopped the party to go get her car like any normal, responsible adult? We’re talking Swindle Lawless here, Dev. You had better find her, figure out a way to land on her good side, and make this mess disappear before it gets any worse.”

“Her go
od side? You mean she has one?”

“You’d know better than me, you were in bed with her. No,
” Louie said, holding up his hand, “don’t say another word. Then the next little bit of a problem is Dudley Rockett. You better figure something out there and fast. That restraining order Rockett filed against you does not help. Anything happens to him, Manning is going to come after you full speed.”

“Louie, all I did was…”

“No, I don’t want to hear it,” he said then slammed his car door. He turned the ignition, lowered the window, and yelled, “All you did was fuck things up royally. Get them fixed, pronto. Oh, and I want chocolate donuts tomorrow morning.” With that his car belched a cloud of black exhaust. I had to jump out of the pothole to avoid being run over.

“God d
amn, Swindle,” I swore, then watched as Louie’s tail lights bounced across the pot holes as he departed a cloud of dust and exhaust drifted over me.

Chapter Thirty-One

So much for my
legal representation. I thought it might be a better idea if I called Heidi and asked her to maybe make a phone call on my behalf. I figured she could sign a statement to the effect we didn’t participate in any sexual activity with Swindle. At least it was a start.

“Hi
, Heidi, Dev.”

I figured the call must have dropped because I didn’t hear anything.

“Hello, hello, Heidi?”

“Funny, I was just about to call you.”

“Oh, look, sorry about the way things sort of worked out this morning. I didn’t have Swindle’s address, she didn’t have her keys. I couldn’t just leave her at the Tutti Frutti last night and…”

“So you decided to drug th
e two of us and bring us both into my bed? In my bedroom you absolutely horrible, disgusting sleaze ball,” she screamed.

“Heidi, that’s not what happened.”

“Oh, really? Gee, must have been my fucking imagination playing tricks on me then. I guess there wasn’t another naked woman squeezing my boobs this morning. I guess you weren’t there enjoying the whole thing.”

“Well
, that wasn’t really what was going on, she just …”

“I guess I misunderstood her when she said we owed her five hundred dollars. I guess the detective that phoned this afternoon and asked me to come down tomorrow morning at nine for an interview called the wrong Heidi Bauer.”

“Manning phoned you?”

“How could you, you pervert? And after all I’ve done for you. The times I bailed you out. All the times we’ve…”

“Heidi, will you calm down. Hey
look, Swindle is a little crazy.”

“
Listen, asshole, she’s gift wrapped garbage. A little crazy? Dev, she’s fucking nuts and apparently underpaid. You’re gonna pay a lot more than five hundred to have your worthless ass in my bed ever again.” Click.