High Risk by G.K. Parks (books for 10th graders TXT) 📕

back to Brad. “Do you want to run down the names, or do you want to delve deeper into Michael Tolliver’s alibi?”

“I’ll take one for the team and contact the strip club. I might even have to go down there and flash his photograph around to make sure the management remembers him.” Brad shuffled the papers on his desk. “We already verified the information with the rideshare guy, but it’s possible Michael booked the car and instead of riding home with his buddies, he detoured to Star Cleaners to rob the place. As far as we know, Michael Tolliver had no reason to want to kill Gardner, but that would explain why Gardner allowed his killer to get so close and why he didn’t try to shoot the guy.”

“It might even explain why Gardner was killed. After all, he could definitely ID the thief.”

Brad pushed away from the desk. “All right. I’ll check it out and ask around. Maybe someone at the club remembers Michael Tolliver becoming angry or belligerent.”

“Check with the girl who popped out of the cake. I’m sure she’d remember.”

“Why? Don’t you think all drunk, horny men look the same?”

“Yeah, they kind of do. But if he was angry or possibly dangerous, she would have caught on. From the photos I saw on Michael’s phone, the men were all over her. She would have known who to avoid.”

“All right. I’ll call you if I find something.”

“Be careful. With the way you’re dressed, the ladies may eat you alive.”

He licked his lips, the comeback obvious from the smirk on his face. But my partner was too classy to say it out loud.

After he left, I ran each of the names Mac had pulled. Aside from two counts of public intoxication and one for public urination, these guys had no records. I turned my search back to Jonathan Gardner’s social media profile. I found most of the names on his friends list. They were mainly his college buddies. They’d all been in the same fraternity house. That also explained the public intoxication and urination.

I checked every person’s social media page, including Michael Tolliver’s, but they were the basic this is what I ate for dinner, this is my hot girlfriend, and here’s a funny video of a cat. Why couldn’t this be simple?

Banging my head against the desk seemed like a wonderful idea, but I didn’t want the other members in my unit to think I was crazy. They didn’t know me that well, and they might get the wrong idea. Instead, I pushed my chair back and rested my forehead on the edge of the desk, waiting for brilliance to strike.

“Hey, princess,” Detective Jake Voletek dropped into Brad’s empty chair, “where’s your other half?”

“Strip club. And I told you not to call me that.”

Voletek laughed, thinking it was a joke. “You guys always catch the best cases.”

“No, we don’t.” I sat up and pushed the case file toward him. “We got a dead security guard and an empty cash register.”

“You’re serious?”

“Yeah.”

“The guard worked at the strip club?”

“No, Jake, he worked at a dry cleaner’s.”

“Okay, now I know you’re yanking my chain.” Voletek read the jacket. “Sorry, I thought you were joking.”

“No, and we’re having a lousy time accepting the obvious motive. The perp also stole the ticket pad and the cash from our victim’s wallet.” I thought for a moment and reached for the phone. Gardner’s wallet had been emptied except for his gym membership. I needed to know if his debit or credit cards had been used since the murder.

The voice on the other end didn’t seem surprised to hear from me. “I was just about to notify you, Detective DeMarco. We ran Jonathan Gardner’s financial report. There haven’t been any charges since we found the body and started monitoring his financial activity, but the last charge came in at 5:17 a.m.”

“Where?”

“A twenty-four hour liquor store, 24/7 Spirits.” He gave me the address.

“Thanks.” I tore off the sheet and slipped into my jacket.

Voletek quirked an eyebrow. “Where are you going?”

“On a tequila run.”

“Your partner’s at a strip club, and you’re going out for tequila. Are you looking to get into trouble?”

“Not me, but someone is.”

Ten

“I don’t know.” The clerk remained behind the counter with his arms folded across his chest. “It was some guy.”

“Was he alone?” I asked.

The clerk shrugged.

“It’s a simple question, sir.”

“One guy came to the counter to pay for his purchase. He might have had someone else with him. I didn’t pay much attention.”

“But you were here at five o’clock this morning?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re still here?” That didn’t make much sense.

“So?”

I looked around for obvious violations. “Do you card?”

“Yeah, minors or people who might pass for minors. This guy, he was no minor.”

“Okay, so what did he look like?”

“He was just some guy. Some old guy.”

“Old, great. How old?”

The clerk picked at something stuck between his back teeth. “Dunno. Forty?”

“So not that old. And you still didn’t card him.”

“He’s over the legal age.”

“What about your security camera?” The red light in the corner remained on. It could have gotten a look at our killer.

“You want to see what’s on it?”

“Yes, sir.”

He pulled a step stool from beneath the counter and climbed up to the camera. A moment later, he pulled it down. It didn’t connect to anything. “Good luck.”

I checked, but the internal storage only saved a few minutes of data. It re-recorded on a continuous loop. Unless someone manually stopped the recording, it was useless. “You’re joking. What good is this?”

“The red light on the front is a great theft deterrent. I haven’t had a problem since I installed it.”

“You didn’t happen to get it from Moonlight Security,