Free Bliss by Bill Clem Page A

murder charge.
    Her father, Mickey Walsh had been a customer of Deldeo’s boss, Lou Salvano. Walsh had a small grocery store on New York’s east side. When the local real estate boom hit, Walsh needed money to upgrade his store to compete with the larger grocery chains that had moved into the area. Having been from the old Irish class, he’d never bothered establishing any credit, so when he needed a loan, the banks turned him down cold. Enter Lou Salvano, loan shark.
    Walsh borrowed ten thousand with a vig of half that amount. When he was late with his monthly payment, Salvano sent Deldeo to collect. Walsh refused to pay the loan off any further until Salvano agreed to lower the interest. When Salvano refused, Walsh threatened to go to the police. Before he did, Deldeo returned and took Walsh to one of Salvano’s construction projects. After beating the old man unconscious, Deldeo threw him from atop the 20-story building.
    The daughter, Deldeo couldn’t remember her name, had led police to him after she’d found his name and number in her father’s belongings.
    Deldeo still cursed himself for being so stupid.
    After a lengthy trial, they’d found Deldeo guilty, based mostly on circumstantial evidence. He got twenty years. But after only nine months they released him on a technicality his lawyer had discovered after going over the trial transcripts.
    Now, pulling into his parking space, Deldeo wondered if the girl knew. Judging from the look on her face at the party, he was the last person she ever expected to see. Now he had to figure out what to do about it. First he’d talk to that asshole Vetter. Find out more about her. Then he could get her address and deal with her directly. He still wanted to know what the hell she was doing at Vetter’s party. But first he had other things to attend to. The body in his trunk had started to reek. He’d have to make another trip to his favorite burial ground in the desert.
    He couldn’t have ole Dr. Collett stinking up his trunk.

24
    Two and a half days passed; by Wednesday, Lindsey had called Katherine a dozen times and stopped at her office twice that much. She couldn’t help herself. Katherine might be the last and only thread connecting her to hope of learning more about the connection between Stephen Vetter and Frank Deldeo. She understood it was a long shot; Katherine had made it clear that Vetter forbid her to speak about certain aspects of the Bliss project. Lindsey also knew she acted suspicious herself, going by Katherine’s office so often. Each time she passed the door, Katherine’s secretary would give her a dirty look.
    Finally, on her thirteenth trip there in two days, she stopped short of the secretary’s view and stared at the office door. She wished it could somehow give her all the answers she needed. Thankful for the opportunity of reaching the elevator unobserved, she slipped inside and decided to leave for the day. On the ride down to the lobby, it stopped on five. To Lindsey’s horror, when the doors opened, on stepped Stephen Vetter.
    He gave Lindsey one of his toothy smiles. “Haven’t seen you all week.”
    Lindsey gave him a fake smile of her own. “I’ve been busy writing reports.”
    She felt relieved when the elevator stopped again immediately, on the fourth floor, where it picked up several other employees. She didn’t direct her gaze at Vetter the rest of the ride, but had the distinct feeling he was watching her.
    Lindsey and Vetter got off last. He held his hand in front of the door to keep it from closing.
    “Have a pleasant evening.” He smiled and stepped off.
    “Thanks,” Lindsey said.
    His arrogance tempted her to ask where Katherine was. But having come this far, she needed to act as normal as possible if she wanted to pull this off. She reminded herself around the Imec complex to adopt an air of business-as-usual, but keep her eyes and ears open. Until Katherine returned from wherever she’d gone. Then she would get