Tail of two killers, p.26
Tail of Two Killers, page 26
part #4 of Dog Groomer Mysteries Series
The man was clearly feeling harassed, and though both Patricia and Miss May were unhappy with their result, they could see they were not going to do any better.
The captain shouted for an officer to escort the ladies back to their friends in reception and was on the phone before a young man in uniform appeared.
It wasn’t exactly a bust, but it was far from a result. Mercifully, Patricia had an inkling of a plan forming at the back of her head. This was not the first time she had faced similar odds. There were rival gangs all after one thing and they believed she, or her friends, held the key to getting it.
Her plan was nuts, but it had worked once before. Sort of.
18
RUGGED TIRES
‘N o, Patty!’ exclaimed Barbie. ‘Patty, that is a terrible idea.’
‘Do you have a better one?’ Patricia countered knowing that her blonde friend was going to have to say no.
‘Hold on. Just, quick clarification,’ Chelsea said. ‘What exactly is “doing a Malta”?’
Barbie frowned at her English friend. ‘Malta is a place we went to a few months ago. Patricia found herself in possession of a data storage device that half the spies on the planet were ready to kill for. I’m still not sure how we got out of that one alive.’
‘We did it by turning everyone against themselves,’ Patricia reminded her. ‘Everyone wants the marker. If we let them know we have it, we can lure them all to a single point and have the cops arrest them all.’
Miss May flared her eyes. ‘That’s a bold plan, Patricia.’
Barbie rolled her eyes. ‘Patty specialises in those. Once we all dressed up as corpses and pretended to be zombies to scare people out of the infirmary on the ship.’
Patricia snorted a laugh. ‘Yeah, that was a good one.’ Catching Barbie’s expression, she pointed out, ‘Hey, it worked, didn’t it?’
Teeny voiced her opinion. ‘It sounds kinda dangerous. Not that I’m afraid or anything. Just an observation, like, oh the sky is blue, that plan sounds reckless and terrifying.’
‘It is,’ agreed Barbie.
Patricia raised her hands in surrender. ‘Ok. No pulling a Malta. I get it. Let’s come up with something else.’
‘All we need is something tangible to take to the cops, right?’ Chelsea got everyone to listen to her. ‘We need ice-cold, rock-hard evidence that will cast doubt on Bobbie and Petey’s guilt.’
‘Yeah,’ agreed Teeny. ‘Do we have anything like that?’
Miss May shook her head. ‘Nope.’
‘How about if we find the marker?’ asked Teeny.
Chelsea chuckled sadly. ‘I mean, that would be great. Only problem? We don’t have any idea where it is. Half of Chinatown is looking for it.’
‘Actually,’ started Patricia, the back of her head itching like mad as thoughts aligned in her head.
Miss May jumped in. ‘I think maybe we do know where it is.’
She locked eyes with Patricia and they both blurted, ‘The biker bar!’
‘What?’ questioned Barbie.
‘Why would it be there?’ Chelsea asked. ‘I mean, a dive bar filled with drunk bikers … seems like a questionable place to stash your millions.’
Teeny raised her hand. ‘What biker bar?’
They explained on the way, filling Teeny in on more of the events she had missed that day.
Patricia explained what she heard as they were being kicked out of the bar. ‘One of the men drinking in the bar complained about there being a Chinese guy in there the previous evening. I tried to question it at the time, but the owner kicked us out.’
Barbie was used to Patricia making massive leaps in her investigations and that they often turned out to be bang on the money, but this was a little too random even for her.
‘A Chinese man was in the bar, Patty? How many Chinese men do you think live in New York?’
Miss May corrected her. ‘The man didn’t just say a Chinese man, he said a Chinese man came in, stayed a while and then left. Then another Chinese man arrived. First one and then another and then more.’
Chelsea was with Barbie. ‘So? Barbie is right, there are lots of Chinese people in New York. How can you be so sure any of them were Kris Wu and why would that mean the marker is there?’
Miss May and Patricia exchanged a look, the English sleuth giving her American counterpart the nod so she could explain.
‘The first man was Kris Wu.’ Seeing confused faces looking back at her in the tight confines of Big Dan’s car, she went back a step further. ‘What do we know about Kris Wu?’ she asked.
‘Not much,’ replied Chelsea.
‘But what we do know is pertinent,’ Miss May countered. ‘He was a member of an organised crime family and had turned informant. He was providing information to an FBI agent, right?’
Barbie made a connection. ‘He got spooked when the FBI agent was killed and worried they might be coming for him next.’
‘Like maybe the guy gave up his name when they were “making him talk”,’ Teeny used air quotes around the terrifying term.
‘Exactly,’ agreed Miss May. ‘Kris Wu is scared but he can’t leave because his wife and child are about to arrive. Believing he has no choice but to run, he snatches a load of money, which he’ll need to evade the gangs and start a new life somewhere else.’
Patricia took over the story, ‘But he doesn’t get away clean. Something he did, whether it was getting spotted by someone, or just that Agent Chang really did give up his name, they are on to him and so he leaves the letter for his wife.’
‘Hold up,’ Chelsea jumped in, seeing a flaw in their theory. ‘How was his wife ever going to find the briefcase? We had the ticket for the luggage place. It was in the alley where he died. She had no way of tracking it down.’
Miss May tapped her nose with her pointer finger. ‘Great question, Chels. My guess is that Mr Wu was trying to get to somewhere, but he never made it. His killer caught up to him before he could hand the letter over. I think he was on his way to Grand Central to drop off the marker with the letter and that was when his luck ran out.’
Barbie and Chelsea were still arguing. ‘But if the killer caught up to him in the biker bar, how was it that he was in the same bar as Bobbie and Petey? That had to be after he left the biker bar, because he was killed after he left the Orange Banana Bar.’
Again, and quite frustratingly, Patricia and Miss May nodded.
With a hand, Miss May deferred to Patricia so she could explain.
Patricia pursed her lips and framed her thoughts before she started talking.
‘If we go back to what the man said in Rugged Tires Biker Bar before we left, you will remember a Chinese man came in and then another, and then a whole group. The first was Kris Wu. He knew he was being tailed, so attempted to find somewhere he could hide out. If the gangs were looking for him, they might have positioned people at the Metro stations or in the streets.’
Chelsea picked up what the English woman was saying. ‘He had to get off the streets and go somewhere the gangs might not look. Okay, okay. That makes sense.’
Patricia nodded. ‘Hence a biker bar. He left the marker there somewhere, stayed for one drink and then tried to move on. Then his killer arrived. He was looking for Kris Wu because he wanted the marker. The killer planned to cash it in or hand it back to the Shenyang. Whichever it is doesn’t matter, but he also left the bar when he discovered Kris Wu wasn’t there and moved on. Kris Wu’s aim must have been to get to Grand Central but the streets were crawling with Chinese gang members. He can’t move for fear of being seen, so he ducks into yet another bar.’
‘The Orange Banana,’ guessed Teeny, smiling to herself for getting it right when Miss May nodded. ‘That reminds me of the knock-knock joke, how does it go? Banana, banana, banana, orange ya glad I didn’t say banana? Sorry. Bad time for a joke. Continue.’
‘It’s there that his killer finds him,’ Miss May explained. ‘Not sure how, but I’m assuming this killer was smart and has eyes everywhere. The point is, Kris Wu sees him and flees, probably going out of a back door which leads him into the alley where his luck truly runs out.’
Barbie finished the tale, ‘Then Bobbie and Petey leave the bar, stop in the alley, and find Kris Wu bleeding to death and beyond saving.’
Chelsea frowned deeply, aiming her eyes at Patricia, ‘How can you be so sure the marker is in the biker bar?’
Patricia shrugged. ‘I’m not sure.’
Chelsea threw her hands in the air.
‘But,’ Miss May added quickly, ‘we know Kris Wu went to see Freddie. We know Kris stole the money earlier that day, and we know the marker is yet to be found. The police would have been all over the Orange Banana Bar. I’m willing to bet we were sitting a few feet from it in Rugged Tires earlier today.’
The ladies fell silent, each holding their own thoughts as they covered the final couple of blocks back to the biker bar.
Barbie pulled out the old marker they picked up in the Chinese restaurant, turning it over and over in her hand and wondering what story it might hold.
Parking Big Dan’s uncle’s now battered vintage Buick around the corner from the Rugged Tires bar, the ladies paused for a second to discuss their strategy.
‘What are we waiting for?’ asked Teeny. Trapped in the middle of the backseat between Patricia and Miss May, she couldn’t reach a door handle and had no idea why no one was moving.
‘The owner told us not to come back,’ explained Miss May. ‘He wasn’t pleased about the Chinese gangsters showing up in his bar.’
‘Well, that’s true,’ agreed Chelsea. ‘Except I saw the way the motorcycle club leader was looking at Miss Tall and Blonde,’ she pointed out while trying to keep her tone neutral – she wasn’t jealous of the younger, prettier, taller woman with the gravity defying chest. Not one bit, and you cannot prove otherwise.
Barbie’s eyes took on a wistful look. ‘Yeah, he was …’
‘… shockingly good-looking?’ Chelsea supplied. ‘Like a giant bowl of ice cream you want to pour toffee sauce all over and eat with a spoon?’
‘And sprinkles,’ Teeny added. ‘I mean, I didn’t see the guy, but sprinkles never hurt.’
‘I have a boyfriend,’ Barbie protested. ‘It’s quite serious.’
Chelsea wasn’t convinced. ‘I have a boyfriend too. The guy in the biker bar was something else though.’
Interrupting the conversation for fear they might start discussing what they wanted to do to the biker man, Miss May said, ‘Well, I don’t like the idea of sending Barbie in alone with all those men.’ She grabbed her door handle. ‘Maybe the bar staff will have switched over and they won’t know us,’ she added hopefully.
‘I mean, based on my limited knowledge of bar shifts, that seems pretty improbable,’ chuckled Chelsea. ‘It’s only been a few hours. Sorry. Was that know-it-all-y?’
That so little time had passed, and they had squeezed so much drama into it seemed unfathomable, but the clock wasn’t lying, it was only just ten o’clock.
‘So, we’re all going?’ Teeny wanted to confirm, poised on the back seat and ready to get out. ‘I’ve never been in a biker bar. I mean, I’ve been in bars, and there were bikers there. But, a real NYC biker bar? Kind of exciting.’
Patricia leaned forward to tap Barbie on the arm. ‘We need to sex you up a bit, doll.’
Barbie huffed out a breath that ruffled her lips. ‘Do I at least get to keep my clothes on this time?’
19
WOLF
By common vote, Barbie was to be used to distract the predominantly male clientele outside of the bar. The five women had spent five minutes adjusting Barbie’s dress so it showed the maximum amount of cleavage, and rooting around in their various handbags and pockets to find some suitable makeup.
They also refused to return her coat once they got it off to sort out her dress.
‘It gives you a vulnerable look,’ Patricia did her best to convince her friend being cold was a small sacrifice.
‘Plus, it um, highlights, certain uh, features you’ve got that might catch a man’s eye. Or… poke it out,’ added Chelsea, trying not to stare at Barbie’s visible nipples.
Barbie glanced downward, and grimacing, she placed her hands over her boobs to warm them up.
‘My dress is ruined, you know,’ Barbie complained.
‘It adds to the vulnerable look,’ Patricia gave her a big thumbs up.
Accepting defeat, Barbie snatched the dusty blue mascara Patricia found in her handbag. Then she quickly tidied her hair using her reflection in the car’s one remaining side window, and they found a fire engine red lipstick in the glove box.
‘What is Big Dan’s uncle doing with a red lipstick in his glovebox?’ Chelsea asked and then decided she probably didn’t want to know.
From the trunk, which Patricia confusingly called the boot, Teeny produced a pair of pink leather cowboy boots she’d hurriedly thrown in as she packed to leave Pine Grove. They didn’t exactly go with Barbie’s dress which had seen better days admittedly, but they were better than the sneakers she’d bought earlier.
‘They’re a bit tight,’ winced the tall blonde as she forced her feet into the boots. Standing up, the women agreed that it didn’t matter if she couldn’t walk, the men outside the bar were going to struggle to notice anything other than her chest.
Out the front of Rugged Tires, there were now three times as many bikes parked. Chelsea tried to count them as she peered around the corner but gave up because people kept walking in front of them and new ones were still arriving.
‘There’re a lot of people in there now,’ she summarised. ‘I lost count at too many to karate kick by myself.’
Patricia grabbed hold of Barbie’s arm. ‘Are you okay with the plan, sweetie?’
Barbie understood the plan and was willing to go along with it because she wanted to save her brother. Being okay with it was a whole different thing.
She drew in a deep breath to steady her nerves and recited how they hoped it was all going to go.
‘I parade around outside the bar, flirting with the men and drawing as many outside as I can.’
‘How are you going to do that?’ Teeny wanted to know.
Barbie sighed. ‘I have a plan. You don’t need to know what it is. I keep them entertained until you call me to say you have the marker and hope you come to rescue me in the car before I find myself kidnapped and on my way to some biker hideout in the countryside. Is that about right?’ she asked with a distinct trace of snark in her voice.
Chelsea was feeling very much glad she wasn’t the tall, pretty one in this particular moment. Not that she was ever going to be the tall one, unless she was standing next to Teeny and a bunch of toddlers.
With a final exhalation of air, Barbie lifted her head, jiggled her boobs around to make them sit higher and strolled around the corner. As she headed toward the bikers, Miss May, Patricia, Chelsea, and Teeny all hustled the other way, back around to the rear door where they knew the emergency exit could be accessed.
This time when they went inside, the owner wasn’t there to surprise them. Passing the storeroom in the back as they made their way past the restrooms and toward the bar, they could hear a crowd outside the bar.
Squinting to get a view through the windows, they could see a wall of men out front, but no sign of Barbie.
‘Do you think she’ll be okay?’ asked Miss May.
‘Probably,’ replied Patricia, somewhat hesitantly. ‘However, the longer we leave her out there, the less likely it is that she remains that way.’
With that in mind, the ladies sidled into the bar area looking to see who was still there. The answer, incredibly, was no one. Looking into the bar from the back corner, they could see over a hundred people outside. Just inside the door, the two barmen and the owner were crammed together to get a look at the show outside without having to abandon the premises.
As silently as they could, the women split up to search.
For two seconds.
That was all it took to find the marker. Above the bar and along the walls, beer mats, foreign currency, and photographs were stapled. They were everywhere. There had to be a few thousand of them and many were faded with age and had to have been in the same place for years.
That Miss May spotted it the moment she stared at the first piece of wall was entirely typical of her. Chelsea often marvelled at how she seemed to see everything.
She picked out the thumb tack pinning it to the woodwork, held it aloft for the others to see, and started back toward the emergency exit.
Outside in the street, Barbie was beginning to get nervous. Her ploy, very simply, was to get all the men looking her way. With her body that wasn’t hard to do, and she was prepared, if necessary, to drop the front of her dress and show off the goods. They were just a bunch of strangers – at least that’s what she told herself – and she would never have to see them again. If she succeeded in saving her brother, it was no big deal.
What she hadn’t counted on was the bikers having girlfriends with them.
Half a dozen ladies wearing thick denim or leather were advancing on her as she started to back away. They had a wide range of names they wished to call her, and they all fell into the same category.
Alone and starting to worry she might have to make a run for it in the too-tight pink cowboy boots, Barbie glanced left and right as she weighed up her options.
‘Stop,’ commanded a man’s deep voice. It sounded like it was used to being obeyed, so it came as no surprise, and a blessed relief to Barbie, when the six women advancing on her with menacing expressions all stopped moving.
Their faces didn’t change, but they did wait for further instruction.
‘This lady is just looking to have a good time,’ said the deep voice. The crowd of men outside the bar parted as the broad-shouldered, handsome man stepped out from between them. It was the same alpha male Barbie saw across the bar earlier. ‘One cannot blame her for seeking out the real men of this city.’
