The Daddy P.I. Casefiles: The First Collection by Frost, J (great novels .txt) π
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βItβs a relational database,β she explains, which doesnβt mean anything to me. βOnce the informationβs entered, you can sort it any way you want. If you assign categories to the entries, you can group and shuffle them that way, too.β
βVery cool, little girl.β
Reviewing the CCTV footage is much less cool. We figure out how to load the clips into my laptopβs media player, and how to fast-forward, but we canβt go too fast, or we risk missing something. Fast-forwarding at a speed that lets us see each face means four to five hours of watching in real time.
To divert from the corridor tedium, Emily takes a pack of thin, pastel-colored paper out of the desk and shows me another of her many hobbies: origami. With quick flicks of her fingers, as easily and dexterously as she wielded chopsticks that night in L.A., she folds a crane.
My hands, toughened by years of working ropes and smacking bottoms, arenβt up to the delicate task and the misshapen twist of paper I put next to Emilyβs makes us both laugh.
Our laughter trails off at movement on the screen; Emily taps the controls and slows the playback to normal speed. A man in his mid-fifties, casual in a white shirt, khakis, and sandals, with a dayβs growth of stubble and the start of a comb-over, emerges from Cabin D-21.
βThatβs Bill Black,β I tell Emily, familiar with his appearance from the passenger ID picture the Pink Pearl people sent me.
She logs the date and time off the counter at the corner of the video. Friday, nineteen-ten. For someone who supposedly had a debilitating headache, Black looks pretty chipper as he saunters down the hall. βBlack leaves cabin?β
βSure.β
Thatβs as good a description as any. I freeze the frame. Pink Pearlβs CCTV system isnβt bad. Itβs in color, which is better than a lot of the systems Iβve worked with. The resolution is decent. I can see the shine of Blackβs scalp underneath his comb-over, the taut fabric at his waistline where his shirt and belt are fighting a losing battle against the bulge. I can also see a bulge in his pants pocket. Not his dick or a wallet or a phone. This looks like a squat cylinder.
βTake a look at his pocket.β I tap the screen.
Emily peers at it, then starts fiddling with my laptop and, a moment later, the image enlarges, centered on Blackβs pants. The resolution deteriorates as the image grows, but the contours of whatβs in his pocket are pretty clear.
βPager?β Emily asks, tipping her head to the side.
βPrescription bottle, I think.β
βOh, I see it now. Is that what you were talking about with Dr. Lehmann? Do you think theyβre smuggling the pills on board that way?β
βDefinite possibility. When I interviewed the room cleaner, he remembered seeing some in Blackβs bathroom, and we know Black wasnβt on any medication except painkillers. Easy to hide a recreational drug in a pill bottle, particularly if the color would have made it stand out from the other tablets.β
βPink friend.β Emily nods.
βUh-huh. Letβs see if we can catch him returning.β
He does, a little over two hours later, twenty minutes after Jan Millek has come and gone. Blackβs shirt is untucked, so we canβt see whatβs in his pocket, and heβs carrying his sandals. Emily makes a low noise as we watch him move slowly, and a little unsteadily, up the corridor to his cabin door.
βIs that how I look when Iβm plugged?β she asks, watching the screen. βThatβs how I feel like Iβm walking.β
I watch Black for another second before I answer her. Bow-legged. He definitely has, or has had, something up his ass. βYouβre much sexier when youβre plugged, baby doll,β I tell her. I couldnβt say sheβs much more graceful, because, God knows, that would not be the truth. But it is very cute, and more than a bit of a turn-on, to watch her toddle around as she struggles with a plug. βLog that as βBlack returns alone, unsteady.β β
She types it in and I begin fast-forwarding again. At 10:10, a man in a cream thong appears, carrying a tray. Black opens the door at his knock, dressed in a bathrobe and holding a tumbler of clear liquid and ice. Black takes the tray with its two covered dishes and disappears back into his cabin.
βHe got the munchies,β I say to Emily. βLog that as, room service delivery, Black drinking. Can you make notes with the entries?β
βSure.β She taps away. βWhat do you want the note to say?β
βAction item one: cross-ref room service bill. Action item two: ask M.L. if brick stimulates appetite.β
βGot it.β
I hit the fast forward again and we watch as passengers and staff come and go past D-21, but the door doesnβt open again until 8:40 the next morning, when Black emerges in a Hawaiian shirt so bright it makes my eyes bleed, with a towel slung over his shoulder.
Emily starts typing. βIs he going to the pool?β she asks.
Possibly. Or maybe to a really colorful beach scene.
βPut a note with that. βAction item three: cross-ref spa bill.ββ
βOkay, Daddy. Should I put anything about his shirt?β
I chuckle. βNo, crazy baby. His fashion sense isnβt relevant to the investigation.β
She giggles. βItβs a very ugly shirt.β
That it is. An hour and half later, he returns without it.
βWhereβd the ugly shirt go, Daddy?β Emily asks, peering at the screen.
Heβs wearing the towel wrapped around his waist and a pair of flip-flops but nothing else. His barrel chest and meaty legs are on display. All the skin heβs showing makes the sheen on it easy to spot.
βHe look wet to you?β I ask Emily.
She freezes the image and enlarges it. His skinβs gleaming, and there are dots of somethingβwater, sweat, or maybe oilβall across it. Heβs flushed, the mottling apparent even under his California tan in the close up. And thereβs a big, red suck-mark on the
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