The Price of Greed

CHAPTER 22

Thursday

Keith Hood sat at his desk, sleeves pushed up, collar open and a sheen of sweat coating his face. He flipped the file closed and swiveled idly in his chair. The office air conditioning was still not working properly and the pages were sticking to his arms and one another.

"Contemplating the universe, laddie?"

"Just my small corner. I'm not having much success with your case, Scottie and the weather isn't helping. I wish to hell it would make up its mind."

"You aren't focusing, my boy. You have to stop thinking about the weather and your probation."

"I know. I just can't grab hold of a decent thought and run with it. Other than Jarlayne Brighton that is." He offered a smile.

"The P.I.? Is that detective—once bitten—Keith Hood I hear? She must be quite a stunner."

"You hear right—and she's definitely got the moxy for her job."

"Well, well. I guess your probationary case isn't so bad after all."

"You think not? It's a pain, Scott, a royal pain. How would you like being on the force as long as I have and getting slapped with probation for just doing your job?"

"A little too aggressively perhaps?" Scott corrected.

"Depends on your point of view, Scotty; mine didn't count."

"So, about this case then, what's your next move?"

"I've got no motives for any of those I might consider as suspects. Gloria Enland; it was her brother, her husband. Milo French. That's three people who, in a stretch, could have enough reason to kill Metcalf.

"Maybe we should be looking elsewhere."

"Swell. There are eight million stories in the naked city." Hood said sarcastically.

"What about your fantasy woman, she talked to him the night he was killed. Anything there?"

"She's not my fantasy woman."

"Of course."

"Brighton seems to be making better progress than me though; she was at Enland Company before me."

"Why?"

"She said she wanted to see if Gloria had any idea why Grover called her for help."

"And?"

"I took my interview first and when I left she was gone. They never met. Not then anyway."

"Got you cowed, has she?"

"She's more than capable, Scottie. Hell before I even got into speak with her that first day she had a bio of me on her computer screen. Talk about feeling at a disadvantage."

Scott assessed his friend for a few moments then tossed him a thin file.

"We need to make some progress soon, laddie. Haggart is taking heat from above and deftly passing it down to me... us."

Hood opened the file and flipped through the few pages. "Shit, did you see this? The cameras in the hotel were a dead loss. Did you see the pictures? We got great shots of the fire extinguisher cupboard and a skewed view of the main lobby. Nothing on the elevators and nothing in the garage. Useless."

"The phone records show his call to your- to Brighton when she said she got it. There were other unanswered calls that night and his phone shows several calls to an airline ticketing office."

"There was a strike. A lot of flights had to be rescheduled."

"Maybe it's back to your P.I. then if you think she's getting somewhere. She was one of the ones who communicated with your victim the night he died."