In The Company of Deceit

Chapter 17 - Questionable Action

Boots and Arlie learned the room number for Benjamin from High Hat's newspaper contact and then, returning by way of the garage, up the stairs to the third floor, avoiding the desk clerk. They didn't need anybody describing them as visitors for Benjamin Hagen. Boots knocked on the hotel room door and stood away from the viewer. When the door opened, he pushed inside and shoved Benjamin backwards into the living area.

"Hey, what the hell is this?"

"Calm down, man. I got a few questions is all."

"Questions about what? Who are you anyway?"

"We're the guys who are gonna whip yo skinny ass you keep lippin' us." Arlie swaggered around the room.

"Cool it, Arlie." Boots warned his friend. "We want to find Mickey Wireton and you were on the bus with him."

"Yes I was, but I'm not now am I. How do I know where he is. I never even spoke to him."

"Who is it Benj─" Virginia stopped in the bedroom doorway, quickly pulling her robe about her.

"You're Virginia Stahl." Boots said. "You were on the bus too."

"Man, I sure woulda liked to be on that bus." Arlie danced toward Virginia, his yellow eyes sweeping over her body.

Boots crossed the room and slapped Arlie upside the head. "I told you we were here for one reason only, Arlie."

"You cain't hit me like that jus 'cause you feel like it."

"I will if you don't focus on our reason for coming here."

Benjamin edged quietly toward the bedroom door and when he got close he jumped in, pushing Virginia back and locking the door.

"Now see what you've done." Boots snarled.

"Was you hittin' me that done it." Arlie whined.

Boots banged on the bedroom door. "Open up or I'm going to have to kick it down."

"I rang security, they're on their way up now." Benjamin called.

"Shit!" Boots stood undecided for a minute and then headed for the door. There was a knock and he stopped short, looking around for another way out.

"Mister Hagen, it's hotel security, are you all right? Mister Hagen?"

"What we gonna do now?" Arlie was tap dancing nervously on the spot.

The door opened and two large angry men in with serious intent entered the room and halted, eyes welded to the two black men facing them.

"What's going on here? Where's Mister Hagen?"

"He locked himself in the bedroom and he can't get the door open." Boots improvised. "We couldn't do anything, so I said to call you guys."

"That's not what─" Arlie blurted. The back of Boots' hand caught him across the mouth and in the same instant the two guards charged.

******

Ralph knocked on the door and waited. There was no car in the drive but a lot of lights on inside. The door opened a crack and he could see a sliver of female face.

"Rose Bodine?"

"Who're you?"

"My name is Ralph, I'm looking for Mickey Wireton and I understand you are his aunt?" The door opened a little wider.

"What do you want Mickey for?" She held the front of her nightgown tightly closed.

"Is he here?"

"No." The door started to close and Ralph leaned into it, slamming it back and sending Rose for another spill, this time onto the hall rug.

He shut the door and stepped past her into the living room, his eyes immediately falling on the bloodstained sofa. He did a quick search of the house and then came back to Rose who had managed to get up and flop into a chair.

"Where is he?"

"I don't─" Ralph slapped her hard and she began to choke and cry.

He walked around the room looking at the empty bottle and the three glasses on the table. The blood stained sofa caught his eye and he wondered what caused it, then he saw a small pile of cash on the table. He picked it up and counted five hundred dollars. Waving the money casually, he went back to Rose and asked her again about Mickey.

"He's gone." She sobbed.

"Where?"

"I don't know," she cringed. "He took my car and left."

"And this blood on your sofa?" Rose just stared at him, shivering. "How about three dirty glasses? You entertaining, Rose? What about these, where did they come from?" He flicked the bills against her cheek.

"He- he gave it to me for the car..." She looked up at her tormentor, praying he would believe her.

"Mickey just walked in here, handed you five hundred dollars and took your car and you said okay?" Rose didn't answer.

Ralph stared at her. "I asked you a question."

"Yes... I- I don't know. I- he just- he just..." She broke down and began to sob, her body shaking like a paint mixer.

"Okay, okay, enough." Ralph grabbed her by the arms and hauled her out of the chair. "Tell me the truth right now or lady you will really have something to cry about, trust me."

******

King Braddock read the list his money room manager had given him and his brow shrank as if a draw string had been pulled though it. The sum of money Edwin Del Darrigo had walked out with was only a third of what was actually missing from the casino's account.

"How can this be? Where the hell is the rest of my money?"

"We've checked and double checked everything, sir. The total missing from the vault is that amount you see there. We assumed Edwin only took sixty-seven thousand─"

"Only!"

The employee raised helpless hands. "I'm not dismissing the amount, sir, I just- I uh..."

"Yeah, yeah. Go on." Braddock tossed the sheet on his desk and glared after it.

"Well somehow he must have removed the entire amount; we just didn't catch it right away."

"Didn't catch it! What the hell are you there for? There's no goddamn way that he walked out of this casino that day with that crappy briefcase carrying all that money. You can see him on the tapes for Christ's sake!"

"I don't know what to say, sir."

"He had to have help, you idiot, more than I have around here!"

"But everyone was checked out; they're all clean."

"My man discovered that Del Darrigo was in one of the washrooms for twelve minutes or so and that right after he came out one of our cleaning carts went in for just two minutes. Doesn't that seem suspicious to you?"

"You think one of the cleaning staff was in on it?"

Braddock sat forward and pounded his desk. "I want you back here in one hour with an itemized list of where every single employee in this casino was during the two minutes on that security tape. Half a million dollars! Jesus H. Christ! And I want the balls of the prick that leaked the story to the press."