“Them and you,” I said. “Without you catching true emotion on tape, Reality Check wouldn’t be the hit it is.”
“I didn’t finish. Mayo’s an ass, but he’s a true show runner. You gotta have someone like him to put it all together. He does that well.”
I nodded. “You’re probably right. Thanks for reminding me you can’t judge a car by the sound of the horn.”
The call from DeShay came while I was in the grocery store trying my best to balance boxes of Cocoa Puffs with equal parts broccoli. It took everything I had not to blurt out the news that Jeff was back in town. Especially when DeShay’s first words were, “You hear from the man today?”
“Have you?” I was hoping to avoid an outright lie.
“Voice mail. Guess he’s busy.”
“I talked to him last night.” At least that much was true. “He seemed to hint that he’d be home soon.”
“That’s good. Listen, I got a lead on our pro, Diamond. I decided to try a shortcut first and it worked. Remember Christine O’Meara had that one arrest?”
“Yeah.” I realized where he was going with this. “Did she get picked up because she was with her friend Diamond?”
“You got it. Diamond had lots of names, but funny thing-her fingerprints never changed. Her real name was Fiona Mancuso. Had multiple arrests for solicitation.”
My stomach sank. “You’re speaking of her in the past tense. Is she dead?” I’d stopped my cart in front of the Pop-Tarts and realized a woman with a toddler was staring at me, her mouth open. I guess the words Is she dead? don’t go over well in the supermarket.
“She’s dead to HPD,” DeShay went on. “No arrests since 1998. I’m running a print check through DPS to see if she’s still around, and then I’ll check the NCIC database. Maybe she relocated and is still in business.”
“And if she’s not?”
I’d maneuvered my cart over to a less trafficked area and stopped.
“Don’t get discouraged, Abby. Your boy DeShay has been on this all day. Last time she was brought in they also hauled in her pimp on drug charges, a guy named James Caldwell. We know he’s still around because he was recently released from prison. His next scheduled visit to his probation officer is Monday, and White and I plan to be there.”
“Would he know where to find Diamond after all this time?” I asked.
“Maybe not, but he might be able to give us a few names of friends, relatives, you know.”
“By the way, I know why someone tailed me so easily last week. Guess what I found stuck under my bumper?” I told him about the GPS device.
“Could be Kravitz had it put on your car.”
“That’s what I thought,” I said.
“White’s been dealing with the Crime Time jerks. He could ask one of them, but he took off today and tomorrow to spend time at the hospital, I guess I could call him, see if he wants to make a call.”
“Don’t bother him with this yet. The good news is, I found the stupid thing, so-Wait a minute. What about Emma? Could she have one on her rental car?”
He sighed. “She might. I’m on my way out of here. I’ll stop by the hotel and check her car. What’s she driving?”
I gave him the description.
“Are you home?” he asked. “I can pick up the device you found, turn it over to the tech people. We may be able to find out who bought it.”
“Actually, I’m not home. I-I’m shopping for a friend who’s not feeling well.” More skirting the truth. I hated this. “I could meet you in the hotel parking lot and give the thing to you-say, in about thirty minutes?”
“That’ll work.”
“Another question. Did you talk to Billings’s family? Ask if he came into any money around the time he changed his mind about his Crime Stoppers tip?”
“I did, as a matter of fact. If he had any extra cash, the ex didn’t know about it or she would have taken everything she could for back child support.”
“Hmm. Maybe he didn’t blackmail anyone, then. See you soon.” I hung up and hurriedly finished shopping.
When I pulled into the hotel lot a half hour later, I spotted the rented Caddy right away, but DeShay wasn’t there. I found him on the other end of the parking lot, and as I handed over the GPS device, he told me he’d spotted someone he thought he recognized-a local PI named Louie Titlson-sitting in a car with the window down, and smoking.
“I think Louie and I need to talk. Want to come?” DeShay said.
I smiled. “I would love nothing more.”
I climbed in the T-bird and we made the short trip. DeShay didn’t bother to find a parking spot. He just braked when we reached Tillson’s car. DeShay got out and rapped on the driver’s-side window, which was now rolled up.
Slowly the window came down, revealing a man with the perfect face for PI work. If I had to describe him to someone else, the only word I could think of would be ordinary.
“Hey, Peters. What’s going down?” Tillson said.
“Nothing, man. You working?” DeShay said.
“You wouldn’t be knocking on my window if I wasn’t. Who’s the lady?”
I was leaning against the T-bird and planned to keep my mouth shut, as DeShay had suggested on the drive across the lot.
“I’ll bet you’ve seen her before, isn’t that right?” DeShay said.
“Me? No way.” He laughed.
But all three of us knew this was a lie, and I wondered if Louie Tillson had followed me to that dry cleaner with Paul Kravitz in the passenger seat.
“Louie, I’ll pass on your bullshit,” DeShay said. “Why are you hanging around here? No, don’t bother answering. Emma Lopez, right? And if she finds out, she might have to resort to that nasty stalker law.”
“You know that ain’t gonna fly, Peters. Public streets are a PI’s domain.”
“But see, this isn’t a public street, man. This here is a private parking lot, and I don’t think you’ve rented a room at the hotel. Or am I wrong?”
Tillson’s face colored. “You running me off? Is that it?”
“Depends on who hired you and why you’re here.”
“You know I can’t tell you that,” Tillson said. “I’ll go park in the street if that’s what you want.”
“From what I saw on the drive here, you won’t find a metered spot unless you go about five blocks.”
“I can do my job without any help from you, Peters.”
“Sure. That’s right.” DeShay turned to me. “Abby, you got your phone handy?”
I pulled it from my pocket. “Right here.”
“Take a picture of my friend Louie, would you?”
I flipped open the phone, hit the camera button and pressed capture before Louie could blink. I didn’t even get his ear in the shot, but I nodded, saved the worthless photo and closed my phone with a satisfied smile.
“Thank you,” DeShay said. “Now here’s the deal, Louie. You tell me why you’re here-not who hired you, ’cause I know you got your ethical standards to uphold-and maybe I won’t show this picture to hotel security and tell them they’ve got a pest on their property. If I do that, I’m thinking they’ll throw your ass out of here every time you show up.”
“She’s an investment, a reluctant one, they say,” Louie replied. “They want her protected, want to see where she goes and with who.”
“And what about my friend Abby? Are they protecting her, too?”
“Nah. They’re just interested in what she’s up to. I don’t know if anyone’s even on her anymore.”
DeShay walked over to the T-bird for the GPS device. He then brought it back to Louie and held it out. “This belong to you?”
“What the hell is that?” Tillson asked.
“Don’t play dumb, Louie.”
Tillson squinted and then said, “A GPS monitor?”
“If I look under Ms. Lopez’s rental, am I going to find one like it?”