Free Fly Me to the Morgue by Robert J. Randisi Page B

stared at Penny and said, ‘Shut up.’
    She laughed.
    â€˜You didn’t think of that?’
    â€˜I thought of it,’ he said. ‘If he gets dropped at another casino some cab driver there will see him.’
    â€˜So what are you going to do in the meantime?’ she asked.
    â€˜Paperwork,’ he said. ‘I want lunch at my desk.’
    â€˜The usual?’
    â€˜Yes.’

TWENTY
    Danny was at his desk eating his usual lunch – a burger platter from the Horseshoe Coffee Shop – when the phone rang.
    â€˜This Danny Bardini?’ a voice asked.
    â€˜That’s right.’ Stupid question, he thought. Penny would have already told the caller that this was the office of Bardini Investigations.
    â€˜Yeah, this is Frankie? The cab driver you talked to at the airport, this morning?’
    â€˜Yeah, Frankie, whataya got?’
    â€˜One of my drivers saw your guy.’
    â€˜Where?’
    â€˜Ten for me and ten for him, right?’
    â€˜Right.’
    â€˜If this is the right guy, could you make it twenty?’ the driver asked.
    â€˜For you or for him?’
    â€˜Well, me.’
    â€˜Let’s see if it pans out.’
    â€˜OK. My guy saw him gettin’ out of a dark sedan in front of the Hotel Raleigh. You know where that is?’
    â€˜I do,’ Danny said. It was a rundown hotel in a seedy part of town. This didn’t bode well.
    â€˜I’ll get back to you, Frankie.’
    â€˜Twenty would be a big help,’ Frankie said.
    Danny hung up.
    When he passed through the outer office Penny said, ‘Are you going down there?’
    â€˜Yes,’ he said, on the way to the door.
    â€˜Alone?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Without backup?’
    He stopped, turned and looked at her. ‘You want me to give you a forty-five and let you come with me?’
    â€˜Would you?’ she asked, excited.
    â€˜No,’ he said. ‘Stay by the phone.’
    When Danny got to the Hotel Raleigh it was even worse than he remembered. There was a homeless guy out front, a drunk sleeping on the steps. There were two more guys sleeping in the lobby, and one of them was the desk clerk.
    â€˜Hey!’
    The guy’s head jerked up off the desk.
    â€˜Welcome to the Hotel Raleigh,’ he mumbled. ‘Can I get you a room?’
    â€˜Jesus, no,’ Danny said. ‘I’m lookin’ for a man who was brought here by a dark sedan. Short, thick, big ears—’
    â€˜No, man—’
    â€˜Don’t interrupt me!’ Danny snapped. ‘We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way you make five bucks. The hard way costs you more than five bucks’ worth of dental work.’
    â€˜Take it easy, man,’ the young clerk said, leaning back.
    â€˜Which way you wanna go?’
    The clerk reached behind him, taking a key off the wall.
    â€˜Upstairs, room five, man.’
    Danny took the key, then pointed his finger at the clerk.
    â€˜You call ahead and I’ll come down and provide that dental work. Get me?’
    â€˜I gotcha, man.’
    â€˜Go back to sleep,’ Danny told him. ‘It’s safer.’
    He went up the stairs and down the hall to room five. He listened at the door, heard nothing. He knocked. Still nothing. Then he used the key and opened the door . . .
    â€˜. . . and there he was, lyin’ on the bed,’ Danny said. ‘The sheets were a bloody mess.’
    â€˜Shot? Stabbed?’
    Danny shook his head and said, ‘Beaten.’
    â€˜Damn.’
    â€˜Why?’
    â€˜Arnold was beaten, too.’
    â€˜You’re thinkin’ the same person killed them both?’ he asked.
    â€˜We don’t know who was killed first, right?’ I asked. ‘We don’t even know if Arnold was killed yesterday or today. So we don’t know if one person could’ve done it.’
    â€˜I can get the autopsy results from the coroner here