Cold Blood (14 page)

“Bill, I am prepared to split my fee, you gimme what yqjj got and vice versa.”

“But you got squat.”

“Correct.”

Nick laughed. It was as good as hisfciile, a lovely chortling sound.

“So why should we pool with you? We’re doing okay ourselves.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I got a bit extra that bein’ drunk didn’t loosen out of me. You think I didn’t know what you were up to?”

Again Rooney snorted; for all his easygoing manner Nick was nobody’s fool.

“It’d have to be somethin’ if you want in with us.”

Nick Bartello rubbed the stubble on his chin.

“Well, maybe I just got somethin’ that’d be worth wantin’ to split that one million Mrs. Caley promised as a bonus.”

Rosie looked at Rooney; he’d obviously been drunk enough to tell Bartello, and for a moment he looked abashed.

She banged down the mug of coffee.

“Don’t you think we should discuss this with Lorraine?”

Bartello laughed.

“Look, I know her type, if Jack Lubrinski rated her, she’s cool, she’d go for this. She’s a drinker, right?”

“Not anymore,”

said Rosie angrily.

“Okay, maybe she isn’t, but all I am suggesting is we pool info and you cut me in on the one million. I dump my job and everyone is happy and able to pay the mortgage with a few extras on the side.”

Rooney gave Rosie a frown and then turned to Bartello.

“Okay, I agree. Lorraine will, what you got?”

“We should wait for her to be in on this,”

Rosie interjected as she poured more coffee.

“Come on, you only got two weeks,”

Nick said.

Rosie glared at Rooney, knowing he must have told Nick everything about their case.

“You’re already one day down and I been on this for a few weeks, so I got information that’ll save valuable time.”

“You got nothing,”

Rooney said flatly.

“Okay, I’ll come clean, I got something I didn’t tell you last night, but no way am I gonna spill the beans unless we shake hands.”

Rooney looked at Rosie and she shrugged.

“Okay, we got a deal.”

The two men shook hands. Then Bartello sipped his coffee.

“Right, try this for starters, I got from a very reliable source that Elizabeth Caley is into drugs in a big way. So maybe, just maybe, the disappearance of her precious daughter is connected.”

“Fuckin’ hell, is that true?”

Rooney asked.

Nick sipped his coffee.

“Yep, it’s true, like she’s got a habit of over three thousand dollars a week. I’m checkin’ into dealers, I mean, she might owe some shit that got nasty with her daughter. I got the name of her doctor as well. He’s like top drawer for the stars, but he’s also known on the street for passing on risky prescriptions.”

“Is it cocaine?”

“Apparently the lady will take whatever she can lay her pretty hands on. She’s been in two drug rehab centers, the type with a lot of glamour.”

Nick passed over some crumpled xeroxed medical sheets, stuck together with a safety pin.

“Got those from a sweet-faced nurse for a hundred bucks. By the look of the doc I’d say this angel could make a few thousand bucks on the side passin’ this kind of stuff to the tabloids.”

Rooney looked over Elizabeth Caley’s medical sheet.

“Says the woman is called Maureen Sweeney.”

“Yeah, well, she’s not likely to put her real name on their register, is she? But it’s substance-abuse routine”

Rooney finished reading and then passed it to Rosie.

“That it?”

Nick rocked back in his chair.

“Well, for starters. What you got?”

“Lorraine went to see this psychic,”

Rosie said, and got a kick from Rooney.

I

LYNDA LA PLANTS B5

Nick stared at Rosie.

“Juda Salina?”

Rosie frowned.

“Er, I’m not sure.”

Rooney turn^back to Nick.

“She give you anythin’?”

Nick shook his head.

“Nah, she’s a fake.”

Rooney nodded.

“Yeah, I agree, that’s why I never bothered seein’ her. Dunno why Lorraine’s so interested.”

“So, what else you got?”

Nick waited, saw Rooney glance at Rosie, and then threw his arms up into the air.

“Holy shit, you lyin’ bastard, you got diddly-squat.”

“Rooney did what?”

Lorraine yelled into the receiver of her cell phone.

“Now calm down,”

Rosie said, quivering.

“Calm down? Are you crazy? You tell me that stupid fat bastard has brought on some half-assed guy, not only told him everything we got, but even offered him a share of the million-dollar bonus and you tell me to calm down?”

“They were trading information,”

Rosie stammered.

“I don’t give a shit what they were trading.”

“But Nick’s information was good”

“It stinks. You think I didn’t already know Elizabeth Caley was stoned out of her mind? Jesus Christ, Rosie, I knew it the first tigie we met her.”

“Well, I didn’t.”

“You’ve never met her,”

Lorraine snapped.

“Well, maybe we can sort it out,”

Rosie saidfcervously.

“Oh, yeah, the bastard works for Agnew, woesn’t he? Yes? Yes? And don’t you think he’s gonna go straight back there and tell them?”

“I don’t think he will,”

Rosie said nervously.

“You don’t think, period, and neither does that stupid son of a bitch Rooney. How could he do this?”

Lorraine thumped the dashboard in frustration.

“Where are they now, Rooney and this Bartello character?”

“I think they’re at our place.”

“I’ll see you there.”

It took Rosie about twenty minutes to walk from the office to the main Orange Grove intersection, then she headed down Marengo Drive. She saw the rented car parked at a bad angle, right under the NO PARKING sign. She also saw Rooney’s car across the road from the apartment.

Rosie could hear them arguing from the street.

“I told you, Bill, that I was running this case, not you. Me.”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry, but no way is Nick gonna report back to his agency.” “Oh yeah? You know that for sure, do you?”

Lorraine was shouting.

“I fucking know Nick Bartello, an’ I’m telling you he’s on the level.”

“Oh, you’re telling me, are you?”

‘Yes! An’ if you’d just get off your box for a second and calm down”

“Don’t tell me to calm down, Bill, because I am steaming!”

Rosie banged in, but neither Rooney nor Lorraine even glanced at her. Rooney was red-faced and looked guilty.

“Nick’ll be here any minute and we can talk this through.”

“No way am 1 splitting this four ways!”

“Shouldn’t we put this to the vote?”

Rosie interjected, and then wished she hadn’t.

Lorraine glared at her as she unbuttoned her blouse, heading for the bedroom.

“When are you two gonna get it? This is my case, mine, no fucking votes, I make the decisions!”

Rosie was on a carb meal of pasta and salad and had actually lost four pounds since they started on the Caley case. She was surprised at how much better she felt, and decided that she really would cut out cupcakes and pastries between meals.

“What is this?”

Lorraine asked, jabbing a spiral piece of pasta with her fork.

“It’s just fusilli with garlic and tomato sauce. You don’t like it, there’s more for me and Bill.”

Lorraine took a mouthful and grimaced.

“My God, you went heavy on the garlic.”

“You wanna cook, then the kitchen is all yours,”

Rosie said.

“So what time is this Nick guy arriving?”

“Anytime now,”

Rooney said.

Lorraine got up and fetched her notebook.

“Okay, )uda Salina told me nothin’ apart from the fact she was hired not by Robert Caley but by his wife. She wouldn’t say much because of her socalled client confidentiality shit, and Mrs. Caley is prepared to withdraw the bonus if we make contact with her again. I’m gonna have to have another talk with Mrs. Movie Star, who is hooked on socalled painkillers. Robert Caley admitted his wife is hooked on drugs, and to my mind she seemed scared of her husband, or if not of him, maybe of me finding out she’s a druggie. Anyway, he was pretty straight, but as a possible suspect his motive could be that if his daughter is out of the way, he stands to inherit the fortune because he’s the main beneficiary. That’s just supposition because Mrs. Caley said that

they both named their daughter in their wills, so whoever should go first, bingo, the other’s a hell of a sight richer.”

She looked up as Rosie lifted her plate, about to Łťrk her leftovers onto her own.

“Shit, Rosie, I haven’t finished.”

“Sorry, but I thought maybe the garlic

“

“No, it’s great.”

Lorraine drew her plate closer and took a mouthful.

“He a suspect, then?”

Rosie asked.

“Right now maybe, I need to know the financial

“

They turned as Nick Bartello opened the screen door and peered in, having overheard the last few lines of their conversation.

“I’d say it’s a motive, the will. Elizabeth exmovie star Caley is worth about fifty-five million dollars.”

Rooney pulled his napkin out of his shirt collar and rose to his feet.

“Hi, Nick, lemme introduce you, this is”

“Lorraine Page of Page Investigations,”

Nick said, smiling, his hand outstretched. Lorraine did not take it, but lifted her glass of water.

“So you’re Nick Bartello?”

“Yep, that’s me.”

“Have we met before?”

Lorraine continued to eat.

“Nope, but you got one hell of a reputation.”

“Have I?”

Lorraine said.

Nick looked at Rooney, puzzled by her coldness, l]e drew up a chair and Rosie poured him a glass of water.

“What’s your reputation, Nick?”

Lorraine said sarcastically.

“Or is ‘the Limp’ sufficient?”

Ł.

“I’m a real lovable motherfucker, how’s Piat for starters?”

The smile that had smitten Rosie cut no ice with Lorraine. She’d come across a lot of Nick Bartellos, invalided out of the force or not, and he didn’t even have that much of a limp.

“What division were you in?”

“Minewell, at one time, when I was with the drug squad,”

Rooney said flatly.

“Really? So you an’ Bill are old friends?”

“Yep, insomuch as I got a leg full of lead courtesy of this fat fucker sending me out on a domestic, but not informing me that the cokehead had a personal armory that’d make the U.S. artillery think twice before they sent in tanks.”

Lorraine nodded.

“So you reckon Bill here owes you?”

Suddenly Nick Bartello quit the jokes.

“I got nobody but myself to blame, Mrs. Page, nobody owes me nothin’. What I did was my business and I got a pension to prove it. Bill and me are just old buddies.”

88 Rooney, feeling very uneasy, thought he’d better get it in before Nick blurted it out.

“Nick partnered Jack Lubrinski for a few weeks. When I moved I took Jack with me.”

“Yeah, thank Christ, he was a mad fucker.”

“My, my, you must have been some double act.”

Nick hesitated.

“Yeah, we were, Mrs. Page, for ten minutes.”

She turned away.

“And now you work for Agnew Investigation Agency? Lubrinski would be real proud of your progress.”

“Yes, ma’am, I most sincerely do work for them and maybe I know what Jack would think a whole lot better than you. Way I heard it, you were quite a lush.”

He lifted the glass to his lips, trying to figure her out. She was cool, he’d give her that, because she didn’t rise to the cutting remark.

“So, have you informed Agnew about us?”

“No.”

“You haven’t? Really? Not even tipped them off we’ve been offered a big bonus?”

“No, I’ll tell them squat, especially not if I get a cut.”

“Does that mean you will tell them or you won’t, Mr. Bartello?”

“Nick.”

“Okay, Nick, why should I believe a word you say?”

He put his glass down carefully.

“Because I’m just a hired hand and a cut of the bonus would mean the finger to Agnew and all who sail in her. What is it with you? You want a fucking resume? Hasn’t Bill told you we worked together?”

“Yes, but limping around is not what I’d call a really good recommendation, Mr. Bartello.”

“Fuck off! Hey, Billy, what is this? What’s with this broad?”

He was angry, and his eyes glinted at Rooney as he tried to control his temper.

“She’s the boss, Nick.”

He turned and stared at Lorraine.

“My, my, my, haven’t you cleaned up your act. Lady Boss now, huh?”

“My, my, my, Mr. Bartello, haven’t I just, so why don’t we cut the bullshit and you tell me why we should cut you in if we find Anna Louise Caley? Because what Bill here got from you about Mrs. Caley I already knew, and it’s not worth enough to give you a slice of our possible bonus.”

He leaned closer to her.

“Maybe, bright eyes, I got something else.”

“I’m all ears, Mr. Bartello. Can you match what we got?”

He smiled that killer smile again.

“Oh yeah, what you want me to do, give you a round of applause? So far you got shit”

“You haven’t come up with much better,”

she said, and she was warming to that smile. As Rooney and Rosie watched their interaction they could almost see the sparks between them.

Nick rockedUback in his chair and took out a crumpled pack of Kool cigarettes. He flicked one out and flipped open his lighter, then gave Lorraine a hooded look.

“You got Robert Caley earmarked as a suspect? Well, you might be close. Way I see it is, with his daughter dead, he’s the main beneficiary, isn’t he?”

“Yep, but he’d have to kill the old movie star to get his hands on her cash.”

“Maybe he’s planning it.”

“Maybe he is.”

“You think a guy who has bumped off his own daughter wouldn’t go to those lengths? The top agencies were hired not by Mrs. Caley but by her husband, so the same reasoning could apply to her. She might want his dough.”

Nick waited for the comeback.