Mona Lisa Eyes (Danny Logan Mystery #4) (20 page)

“Judie will
always
talk, but if
she’s stoned, she’ll really let loose. You should
talk to her, by the way.”

“We intend to,” Ron
said. “Maybe she’ll open up with us.”

“Probably,” Nicki
said. “One day, I think she was rattling on about
her business, and I realized she was about to tell
me who else was buying from her.”

“And?”

“And I
stopped her, of course. I didn’t want to know
. I figured what I don’t know can’t hurt
me.”

I nodded. “So eventually Judie got sacked?”

“Yes. But
it didn’t matter. By then, she’d already developed
a number of new customers for her and Josh’s
business.”

“And how was Sophie during all this?” Toni asked
. “What was her involvement? What was her reaction? You’ve
said before that Sophie didn’t really do drugs, so
what was her feeling about the way Judie and Josh
kind of set up shop?”

Nicki shrugged. “There was absolutely
no involvement. In fact, she was horrified at the notion
. She didn’t have anything to do with Josh and
Judie’s drug business. She was absolutely mortified that she
’d been responsible for bringing a drug dealer into the
middle of the Foundation—vouched for her at that.” Nicki
smiled. “It was kind of funny, really. Anyway, as luck
would have it, Judie only lasted for what, ninety days
? After Judie got sacked and was no longer a threat
to the Foundation in Sophie’s eyes, then their relationship
was strictly social again. Sophie was very much relieved. We
still saw Josh and Judie at the clubs from time
to time. As a matter of fact, Sophie still went
out with Judie—at least until she hooked up with
Ryan Crosby. And Josh still did some work for Sophie
around her condo. But Sophie was definitely more comfortable after
Judie didn’t work for the Foundation anymore.”

“And you
continued to buy drugs from Josh?” Ron said. She nodded
.

“Speaking now of Josh Bannister,” I said, “we don’t
know anything about him, other than what we can see
here on the photo and the bits and pieces we
’ve heard, mostly from people who don’t know him
well. Can you describe him for us?”

“Yeah. He’s
not very tall. He’s slender, not very muscular. He
’s kind of pale, like he doesn’t get much
sun. He’s always a pleasant guy, though—at least
he was whenever he’d accompany us to the clubs
. He was fun to be around—kind of nonthreatening.”

“Nonthreatening
?” Toni asked.

“Yeah. He never tried to hit on us
. Not like most guys.”

“You and he were never lovers
?” Ron asked.

Nicki gave him a hard look. “No, we
were not.”

“How about Sophie and him?” Ron followed up
.

“Ha!” Nicki said. “Sophie lovers with Josh? That’s a
laugh. Sophie would never, and besides, Josh isn’t like
that. He’s steady with Judie.”

“Does he strike you
as a violent man?” Ron asked.

Nicki shook her head
. “No, not at all. I mean, we knew he’d
been in prison—he didn’t really try to hide
it. But he definitely didn’t come across like the
ex-cons you see on the telly. He was more
like a little brother.” She laughed. “One time at the
Genesis he actually tried to break up a fight between
two girls, and one of them accidentally decked him—gave
him quite the shiner.” She laughed again. “The way he
carried on afterward, I thought he might actually start crying
.”

Ron nodded. “Tell us about the drugs.”

She shrugged. “Josh
sells drugs, what else is there is to say? I
don’t think he sells enough to leave his position
—he still works at the Four Seasons today.” She nodded
. “But he does sell. He was always willing to run
out to his car with us and draw some lines
—he calls it his promotional stash.”

“What kind of drugs
?” Ron said. “I’m trying to get an idea as
to how substantial a dealer Bannister is. What quantities were
you able to buy from him?”

Nicki looked at him
. “You’re sure I don’t need a lawyer? If
I answer these questions, I mean?”

Ron shook his head
. “Nope. I’m here to find out who killed Sophie
.” He paused. “Your drug use is your own problem.” He
paused, then added, “Incidentally, though, here’s the speech: get
yourself cleaned up. Maybe you should ask yourself if getting
straightened out might not be a fitting way to honor
your sister’s memory.” He paused. “But that’s up
to you. I’m here to bust the scumbag that
killed her and to do that, it’ll be helpful
to know about Joshua Bannister’s business. What drugs did
he move? What quantities? That sort of thing.”

She nodded
. “Far as I know, cocaine: grams, maybe eight-balls. Weed
: ounces.”

“Heroin?”

She shook her head. “Wouldn’t know. I
don’t know if he sold it, and even if
he did, I wouldn’t touch it anyway.” She smiled
. “Even I draw the line somewhere.”

Ron nodded and turned
to me. “What do you think? Grams and eight-balls
? He sounds pretty small-time, huh?”

I nodded. Ron looked
over at me, then at Toni. I think the same
thought went through all of our minds: we finally had
a break in this case.

Ron said, “Well, we gotta
bring ’em both in and talk to them.”

Nicki nodded
again, a worried look on her face. “I suppose when
word gets out about this then the cat’s going
to be out of the bag, isn’t it? I
mean, regarding me and the drugs.”

“I don’t think
it’s a big secret even now,” I said. “I
think a lot of people already suspect there’s a
problem. Your aunt and uncle do, for sure.”

She grimaced
. “True, I suppose. But then, no one really knows for
sure, do they?”

“At this point, who cares who knows
?” I asked. “No time like the present to start all
over, like Ron said. You’ll have a lot of
help.”

She thought for a moment. Tears started to roll
down her face. “I really am sick to death of
it, you know? I want to stop, but I can
’t.” She paused and sniffed, then she looked up and
smiled, her eyes glistening. “You know, I actually used to
think I could paint while I was high. That’s
basically how I got through college. I felt like a
goddess. The brushes just flew—they seemed to have a
mind of their own.” She gave a quick laugh. “But
now, sometimes when I’m straight, I look back at
all that work, and it’s just crap. I wouldn
’t hang them in the loo.” She paused, tears starting
to form in her eyes again. “Sophie used to hound
me relentlessly about it, about quitting. She never let up
.” The tears started flowing harder now. I’d been just
a tiny bit concerned that her seeming contrition, even including
the tears, had been a bit of a put-on
for our benefit. Now, though, looking at her, I was
convinced—she was sincere. She needed help. Toni must have
felt the same way because she got up and walked
over to Nicki and hugged her for a minute while
Ron and Yoshi and I looked on.

“Nicki,” Toni said
. “If anything good can be said to come out of
Sophie’s death, maybe this is it. Maybe Sophie’s
still looking after you.”

Yoshi rejoined us shortly after Nicki
left. “Bannister, Joshua Allen,” he read off a printout when
he entered the room. “DOB 8-29-80. Makes him, what, thirty
-two years old? Driver’s license says he lives at
1476 Thirteenth Avenue.” He looked up. “That’s up on
Capitol Hill.” Referring to the sheet again, he said, “Mr
. Bannister was a house guest for three years at Monroe
Correctional for . . .” he flipped the page, “possession with intent. He
’s on probation now. Works at the Four Seasons Hotel
.

“And then we’ve got Lawton, Judith Anne. DOB 5-16-87
. I guess that makes her twenty-five. She’s at
148 Twelfth Avenue, #302, also up on Capitol Hill. No
record for her at all.” He’d pulled mug shots
of Bannister and a driver’s license photo of Judie
Lawton.

“A former coworker and an ex-con, both with
ties to drugs, both in close proximity to our murder
victim, both seen leaving with her the night she disappeared
,” Toni said. “Should we be getting our hopes up?”

“I
am,” I said.

“Got nothin’ to do with hope,” Ron
said. “Got everything to do with running down leads. That
’s all. Running ’em down.”

“Running ’em down,” Yoshi repeated
.

“Speaking of which,” Ron said, “maybe we should call this
guy’s boss at the Four Seasons? See if he
’s there before we drive over.”

“Call him?” Yoshi said
. “What? And spoil the surprise?”

Ron thought about this for
a second, then he nodded and said, “Good point. Let
’s just go. If he’s gone, we’ll swing
past his apartment and invite him over for a little
visit.” He turned to Toni and me. “You two care
to tag along? You can ride with us.”

The manager
at the Four Seasons, a very nice lady named Christina
Richards, told us that Josh Bannister indeed worked at the
hotel as a construction project supervisor and had done so
for the last two years. But we’d missed him
. This past Tuesday afternoon—day before yesterday—he’d walked
in and abruptly asked to begin his two-week vacation
at the end of his shift.

“I was surprised,” Christina
said, “the sudden notice and all. But Josh is a
hard worker—totally reliable. Never causes any trouble, never asks
for anything. The residents all love him. And he has
about two years’ accrued vacation that I’ve been threatening
him to use or lose.” She shrugged. “I didn’t
have a good reason to turn him down, so I
approved it. He took off that afternoon, and we haven
’t seem him around here since. He’s still got
a week to go.”

We thanked her, loaded up, and
rolled on over to his apartment on Capitol Hill.

He
wasn’t there either. Nor was his blue Ranger pickup
in the parking lot.

We stood on the sidewalk outside
his building and talked it out.

“We can’t go
inside without a warrant,” I said.

“Correct,” Ron said.

“And
we can’t get a warrant because we don’t
have probable cause yet,” Yoshi said. “Just a hunch, really
.”

Ron nodded. “Correct, again. So we’ll do it the
old-fashioned way. Yosh, when we get back, I want
you to start running down friends and relatives.”

“Will do
. I already know he has a brother. Saw it on
his sheet.”

“Yeah? Live around here?”

“In a manner of
speaking.”

Ron cocked his head. “The hell’s that mean
?”

Yoshi smiled. “Gabriel Bannister. Got busted the same time Joshua
did. He’s still living at the big house in
Monroe. Got another year to go.”

“No shit. Joshua and
Gabriel? Sounds like the parents were of the biblical persuasion
. I’ll bet they didn’t expect their boys to
turn out this way.”

“Probably not.”

Ron thought about this
. “With brother Gabriel in Monroe, maybe we can go talk
to the man. He might hate cops, but then again
, he might not.” He looked at Toni. “Sorry about that
, Toni. You’ll have to sit this one out.”