A Gambling Man by David Baldacci (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

I can’t find anyone who saw Fraser after she left dinner. She could have come back up here or gone out. But if she went out, you’d think one of the valet boys would have seen her, and none did. And she didn’t have a car, so somebody would have had to pick her up.”

“How about out the back?” said Archer.

“That’s certainly possible,” conceded Prettyman. “But why go out the back?”

“If she was meeting someone she didn’t want anyone to know about?” said Dash. “And just so you know, Sawyer Armstrong was here last night. With two of his ‘associates.’”

“They weren’t here when the first cops showed up, at least no one reported that they were.”

“Funny thing about reports,” said Dash. “They sometimes leave out more than they put in. Anything strike you looking around?”

“Yeah, she was a slob. And the fridge was empty. And the cooktop doesn’t look like it’s ever been used.”

“Mind if we look around?”

“Go ahead, Willie. I need to go check in with Pickett.”

“And why is he here when you’re here?”

“Ask him, only I advise you don’t.”

“Advice I’ll take.”

After Prettyman left, Dash pushed his hat back and squatted down in front of Fraser. “She’s in rigor mortis now,” he said as he tried to bend one of her arms. “That dovetails with Mortimer’s calculation.” He gazed more closely at the wound. “Damn, that is a helluva way to kill someone. One stab to the heart would have done it. Why do it like that?”

“And how do you cut someone’s throat like that and no one hears her scream?”

“Take a look at her right arm, Archer. In the crook of the elbow.”

Archer drew closer and saw the small bump of red with a pinprick in the middle. “Someone shot her up with something to knock her out.” He glanced sharply at Dash. “But you said she was a drug user. She could have done that herself.”

Dash shook his head. “I see her as a pill popper. Needle folks have tracks long as my arm. That’s the only one on her. Somebody else did it. Depending on what it was, Mortimer may find it when he checks her stomach.”

“You think Prettyman saw the red bump?”

“I would be surprised if he didn’t, considering I trained him.”

Archer’s jaw eased down in surprise. “He was a shamus before a cop?”

“Three years. I brought him on a couple years after I got here. He left and joined the police force when I had to take a leave of absence. That’s why he’s so nice to me.”

“Why did you take a leave of absence?”

“None of your business.” Dash walked around the space, taking in both small and large details.

“Got a question,” said Archer.

“Shoot.”

“How come I don’t see any fingerprint powder anywhere?”

“That’s right, you mentioned Irving Shaw told you about fingerprints.”

“There’s none on the doorknobs coming in or out. None in here, even though you’d think the killer might have touched the table, the chair, or something else. Prettyman seemed like a stickler for procedure but he didn’t mention it.”

“Ern’s a good man who wants to keep his job.”

“Is that supposed to be an answer?”

“I’ll leave it up to you to muddle. Anything else you need to tell me?”

“Yeah, last night Dawson told me that Ruby liked men. Rich men. She thought she might have gone off with one of them.”

“Well, why don’t we go ask her about it?”

Chapter 43

DAWSON WAS NOT IN THE FRONT ROOM when they walked back in there. They headed down the stairs. Fortunately, Pickett was no longer in the reception area as they made their way to Dawson’s office. She was seated at her desk, a bottle of gin sitting in front of her. She was staring at it like it was the second coming of Jesus. She looked up when they appeared.

“Dammit, can’t you leave me in peace?” she moaned.

Dash sat in the chair across from her. “So Ruby liked rich men, huh?”

Dawson poured out three fingers of the gin and slowly spun the cap back while glaring at Archer. She poured in a smidgen of tonic, drank down a finger, tongued her lips, and said, “What young woman doesn’t?”

“Don’t play that game with me, Mabel. I’m trying to find a killer.”

“What do I know about anything?”

“I think a lot more than you let on.”

She let out a sigh so long it seemed to Archer like her dying breath. She lit up a Camel and blew smoke all over Dash, who just sat there and absorbed it, like a sponge.

“You private dicks are all alike, nag, nag, nag. Mark my words, in another life you’re coming back as some poor schmuck’s mother-in-law.”

“That’s a good description, actually. So, rich men?”

She tapped ash and polished off a second finger, holding the glass to her forehead after, as though she might get the final liquid dollop inside her via absorption.

“Tell me who your client is.”

Dash didn’t hesitate. “You already know.”

“How?”

“We came here yesterday and pretty much told Ruby who it was. And there is no way you didn’t get that out of the girl, because as soon as we left, you had a little talk with her, didn’t you? I mean, you said that was your job: the girls?”

She took another puff of her smoke and eyed the man warily. “I know what you’re thinking and maybe what you want me to say, but I never saw Douglas Kemper with Ruby, not once. She wasn’t in his class. She was a kid from Kansas or Missouri or one of those places with more cows than people.”

“So she did tell you we were asking about Kemper?”

“She…I mean…yeah, she did.”

“Thanks for clearing that up. And she told us she was from Illinois, but they got cows there, too, so go ahead. What else?”

“She was pretty, she had a decent voice, and she was okay playing the dumb broad in the comedy skits. And that was it. She was not the second coming of Carole Lombard, trust me. She didn’t have the brains