In The Company of Deceit

Chapter 23 - Chocolate Dreams

Bruce was glowing with excitement, the kind you see in a kid that's about to open a surprise package. He bounced down the hall as Ted got off the elevator, hands flapping and talking a mile a minute.

"Hold on, Jesus, Bruce. Slow down."

"Sorry, sorry. I checked the two rooms again, this one," he stopped in front of one room, "is Virginia Stahl's. It was empty and unused. I checked with the cleaning staff, and they say it hadn't been used for two or three days. Next I went to Benjamin Hagen's room and no one answered there either, but I could hear music. I tried again with no luck so I got the clerk from downstairs to open the door─"

"Whoa! You had him open the door without a warrant?"

"There was a legitimate concern for the occupant . . . the music and all. Anyway, we went in and- well you just have to see for yourself. Ian and the forensic boys are on the way as we speak."

"You called Ian?"

"You had already left."

Ted knew that was crap, Bruce just wanted recognition in the reports that would be following the investigation. He followed his partner down the hall and waited while he opened the door with a flourish, stopping just inside, gaping. Spread-eagled on the floor of the living room was a nude man with hundred dollar bills stuck all over his body. On close examination he smelled of a chocolate liqueur and Ted could see signs of the liquid on his skin.

All around the room, bills were scattered, some crumpled others still held together by paper bands, all covered in chocolate.

"There's more." Bruce said, steering him toward the bedroom.

The first thing Ted noticed was the pull along luggage piece from the Las Vegas police pictures, and then he saw the woman in the bed.

Her feet were on the wall over the headboard, and she had money stuck all over her with the same liqueur, and even some in her mouth. On the floor beside the bed lay a heap of used condoms that looked like garden snails. Ted made a sound of disgust and bent down for a closer look at the woman's face.

"Is this Stahl?"

"Yes, ID'd by the desk clerk. He left pretty shaken."

"Any idea of how much money they did this with?"

"Not yet but I can almost guarantee it's nowhere near what was taken from the casino, several thou maybe."

Ted straightened up and rubbed a hand over his face. "What the hell happened with this gang anyway?"A noise from the other room brought them both out of the bedroom in time to see Ian jumping back up from the man who was now groaning and trying to sit up.

"Son-of-a-bitch isn't dead for Christ's sake; he's bombed out of his tree."

"Maybe we can learn what happened after all." Bruce said.

Ted beckoned to Ian and went back to the bedroom.

"Better check this one too.

"Oh for God's sake..." Ian went to the bed and straightened the woman around, checked her pulse and heart and shook his head. "Same thing with her, drunk as a skunk." He stomped back out of the room and gave Bruce a wicked glare before waving out the forensic team and leaving the two detectives with the mess.

"You wanted to know, Ian." Ted called down the hall after him.

The raised finger said it all.

Virginia Stahl sat in the interview room, hands folded in her lap and eyes glued blankly to the corner of the room where years of grime had stained the baseboard and the wall. The fluorescent light flickered once or twice, and she closed her eyes against the pain it caused. Virginia had an Olympic hangover. To make matters worse, she had to suffer the humiliation of the medical staff cleaning the dried chocolate liqueur off her body, and removing the sticky bills from her skin and sensitive areas.

In another room down the hall, Benjamin lay with his head on his arms on the metal table, his eyes burning and his head roaring like the MGM lion. His own experience getting cleaned up was spent mostly in an unconscious state, having shared the entire contents of the room bar along with several deliveries of champagne.

Benjamin was left to make his way back to the land of the living at his own speed. Virginia was deemed lucid enough to interview and Ted gathered his notes and went into the room. He set his folder on the table along with a couple of coffees and sat opposite Virginia.

"Miss Stahl, I'm detective Faulkner and I'll be asking you a few questions about the money you and Mister Hagen acquired." She raised her head and winced, looking at him through her lashes. "I brought you a coffee, Miss Stahl." He shoved the container across the table and Virginia followed the movement with drugged concentration. "This interview will be recorded, so I have to start with your full name and residence."

She sipped the coffee and grimaced. "Virginia Helen Stahl, Las Vegas, at the moment."

"Is your primary address in New York City?"

"Yes, but I'm all over the world so it's just as temporary." She tried the coffee again and placed her fingers across her forehead. "God, I feel awful."

"The coffee should help. Now, you were a passenger on the bus that was in the accident outside Levan?"

"Yes."

"And the other passengers were," Ted consulted a list and read off all the names. "Is that correct?"

"I guess, I never really knew the names of the Mexican men on board... except for Del Darrigo."

"And why was he of interest?"

"He disappeared after the crash; the police were looking for him, but nobody knew what happened to him."

"So you never spoke to him or had any dealing with him?" Virginia raised her eyebrows and shook her head as if his question was ridiculous, then groaned at the action. "And what about the Ashbury-Starks?"

"Well we greeted one another, and said the usual passing comments when getting on and off for stops." She shaded her eyes with her fingers.

"Nothing more intimate with either of them?"

"Intimate? Absolutely not."

"I meant in a social manner as in business."

"No."

Ted sat back and drank from his own coffee, studying her. "Okay, Miss Stahl, please explain to me the matter of having Mrs. Belinda Ashbury-Stark's luggage in a room occupied by Benjamin Hagen."

Her eyes went in and out of focus, and she shifted on the chair, taking another large gulp of the coffee before launching into a long rambling explanation ending with the blackout and her subsequent arrest.

"You heard shots but failed to notify either the hotel personnel or the police."

"I didn't hear anything, Benji- Benjamin said he heard them."

"But he told you what he thought was happening."

"Yes but-" She swallowed and closed her eyes. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Interview terminated at ten-fifteen on the morning of Thursday the seventh." He quickly gathered his things and left the room, telling a patrolman to see that Miss Stahl reached the washroom fast.

******

Benjamin groaned as the officer pulled him upright in the chair and slapped an ice pack on his face. The door opened and closed and he moved the pack away from his eyes to see the young man staring at him across the table.

"Welcome back, Hagen."

"Where is this? Where am I?"

"At the police station. You were arrested at the hotel and taken to the hospital to get the results of your little celebration scrubbed off your body and then brought here for questioning."

"Have I been arrested?" He looked down at his shirt and wrinkled his brow.

"Yes. And now that you have asked your questions I will begin mine . .  and they will be recorded."