Stilettos & Scoundrels (37 page)

“Yes, that’s Garrison Palazzo. He’s highly connected in Vegas and is owner or part owner in many different businesses there. One of which is the Blue Royale Casino, which is where I played and lost. Lost big. I was so stupid,
”
Bobby said
,
putting his head in his hands.

“So, is that the same person the Senator owed?”

“I don’t know who the Senator owed, or even if he did,” Bobby replied looking back up. If he knew about any connection, he hid it well. He seemed to be telling the truth, which
disappointed me
. Not the fact he was telling the truth
,
but the fact
that
he didn’t seem to have
anything much to add to what I
already knew.
I
knew it was a long
shot
,
but
I
had been hop
ing he would be able to tell me
something that would lead me
to the killer.

“Now, will you please get out of my car?” He leaned over her and tried to open the passenger door.

I
pushed his arm away. “No. What were you two discussing?”

“Jeez, Presley. I already told you
:
my debt and how I can pay him back. I’ve been doing some odd jobs for him since I don’t have even close to that kind of money
,
and I can’t go to my parents for any more. I’ve hurt them enough as it is.”

“What kind of odd jobs?” When
I
thought of odd jobs,
I
thought of helping someone around the house or running errands. Somehow,
I
didn’t think those were the type Bobby was doing for Mob Dude.

“Just things,” Bobby hedged, o
bviously not wanting to tell me
the truth, which
I
couldn’t blame him.

“Like what? Mowing his lawn? Watering his plants?”
I
questioned sarcastically.

“Presley, I really don’t want to talk about it. I got myself into this mess
,
and I’m doing what I can to get out of it. I need to start a new life
,
and I can’t until I get this resolved. And I sure as hell don’t need you bugging me. It’s not helping any. Why don’t you go back to Chicago?”

I
just stared at him because
,
of course,
I
thought
that
whatever he was doing had a big chance of being illegal
, w
hich
,
even for Bobby
,
was a stretch
,
but he must feel he didn’t have any options
. He probably
didn’t
.

Sensing
what
I
was thinking
, Bobby spoke up.
“Don’t worry, Presley. I am not doing anything more wrong than the gambling in the first place. I want to get out of this mess, not make it worse. Now, please get out of my car.”

Bobby seemed depressed and
I
couldn’t blame him. He was in so deep
and it
was going to take a lot to get out. Add to that what
I
imagined were his personal problems, and well,
I
’d be depressed to
o
. Who wouldn’t? Speaking of his personal life,
I
almost hated to ask
—
almost
.
I
tried n
ot to let these things bother me
, especially when
I
had a problem to solve. Even if his personal life was nothing to do with the murder,
I
wanted to know. It was good gossip and might come in handy.
“I saw a car that looked like that Lincoln, as a matter of fact, looked exactly like that Lincoln, at the grocery store talking to Simon. Why?”

“I don’t know, Pres.
Got everything you wanted? Would you please get out of my car…now?”

“You didn’t answer my last question, Bobby. What’s the deal with you and Tobey?”

Bobby threw himself back against his seat, almost like he was having a temper tantrum. “Now what are you talking about?”

“Bobby, don’t play dumb. I’ve heard the gossip, more than just gossip actually, and there’s nothing wrong with it. Plus, Tobey’s a great guy. I’m not judging you.”

“Tobey and I are friends, Pres.
T
hat’s it. Don’t make something to
be what it’s not.”

The way Bobby looked at
me I
knew
he was
n’t
going to come out of the closet, so to speak. At least not now, even though it was obvious he was lying.
I
knew it and
I was pretty sure he knew I
knew, but why push it?
I
had terrorized him enough for one day.

I
opened the door to get out and paused, thinking of one more thing. “Bobby, do you think you could ask Garrison if he knew anything about the Senator owing people money?”

Bobby looked at me as if I
was crazy. Actually, make that one
step past crazy to insane.
“Are you freaking kidding me? You want me to ask a Mob boss about other people that owe him money. Specifically, someone who’s now dead? Are you sure you don’t want me to just ask him if he murdered the Senator?”

“If you could, that would be great.”
I
said
,
pretending
to ignore the
sarcas
m
.

“Get out
,
Presley! Go ask him yourself! Wait. Forget I said that. Just leave me alone.”

“Okay, okay. But don’t think you can hide this
,
Bobby. Dirt and
Cooper
a
re
going to find the connection at some point.”

“Do me a favor and don’t tell them.”

Already halfway out the do
or, Bobby pretty much pushed me the
rest of the way out.
How rude he was being,
I
thought.
When
I
walked back to
my
car,
I
spotted the sign on the knock-off coffee shop door that said
“
Internet access: 30 minutes per customer.
”
This gave
me
a thought. Never underestimate the power of Google
;
the world was really at
my
fingertips.

Bobby watched Presley walk off and felt his anxiety mounting. He really needed a larger dose of Lexapro.
How was she getting all this information? Why couldn’t she just go back home?
She was going to open a big can of worms that didn’t need to be opened, if she wasn’t careful. He needed to make a phone call, and he was getting so paranoid that he didn’t want to use his cell. Between Garrison coming into town and his encounter with Presley, he was about to explode. He couldn’t handle this. How did he get here? God, he just wanted it to end
.

I
sipped
my
large mocha latte, which wasn’t Starbucks, but wasn’t
actually
bad, and munched on the double chocolate brownie
I
wasn’t able to resist.
I
tried not to think about those five pounds standing in the way of
my
looking super hot in
my
Diesel jeans, as
I
sat down at the computer terminal and typed in
“
Garrison Palazzo.
”

It was a
mazing what
one
could find these days on the
I
nternet.
I
almost regret
ted
some of the crazy things
I
did when
I
was young because it could always come back to haunt
me
now.
I
hadn’t ever searched
my
name because
I
didn’t want to know what might come up.

The search engine pulled up multiple hits. Many were from the
Las Vegas Sun
, which must
be
the local newspaper out there. Garrison Palazzo couldn’t be all
bad, as there were several articles
on how
he had given money to different charities. Probably did the philanthropic stuff to cover up what he really did for a living.
Wow, last year he gave one million dollars to a children’s hospital and they named a wing after him.
He was either an up and up business man or really good at hiding his shady side
by
giving away huge sums of money, thinking it would help his cause.
I
kept scrolling down and to more of the same, all making him look like a good guy. Okay, this was getting boring. Wait a minute.
I
was scrolling quickly through the repetitive articles when one jumped out at
me
. “Back up, sister,”
I
muttered to
my
self.
I
knew
I
passed it, it was right here.
For the love of Pete! Where did it go?
I
was getting annoyed when finally,
I
found it again. The headline read
“
Local Vegas patriarch honored by the Business Women of Vegas.
”
But
it wasn’t the headline that grabbed
me
, although the idea of him being honored by a women’s group did seem out there, even for him. Rather, the picture next to the headline is what
caught my
attention. It showed a picture of Garrison and someone
I
presumed was the head of the Business Women in Vegas organization. That in itself was not a big deal, but the people in the background
were what caught my
eye. At a table behind the podium w
ere
Helen and Tom, which wasn’t a big surprise, but
Cooper
was with them.
What the hell?
Why didn’t
Cooper
ever mention he was in Vegas with He
len and the Senator? He told me
he had only been working for the Senator for the past six months
,
and this luncheon took place over nine months ago.
Why would Cooper lie?
At this point,
I
was more curious than ticked off.
Cooper would have no reason to lie, would he?
I
was also going to have to ask Helen how they knew Garrison Palazzo well enough to be at a luncheon for him.
I
guessed that
put him firmly in the
running as a suspect.
He could have inside information that could be important. But then that shot my
theory of Bo
b
by and the Senator having that issue in common since
I
knew Booby owed him
,
and he gambled at the same place the Senator did. You wouldn’t go to a luncheon for someone you owed money to and who was threatening you, would you? Unless that was part of the debt repayment plan.
Though maybe it was to keep Senator Daniels on his toes, so he would know that people were watching his every move. It was strange
that
Helen didn’t say anything about it. If they had a relationship with Garrison Palazzo, couldn’t they go to him for help with this mess?
Or if he was the one involved in this mess, why couldn’t Helen just say something? It sure would make this much easier.

I
went on to search
for
Helen and Tom Daniels, which pretty much brought up the same information.
I
found it odd
that I
couldn’t find anything on Simon Atkins
,
but maybe he was not very noteworthy
,
which could mean either he had no involvement or he was so involved
that
he was beyond the regular public eye.

I
wondered what
I
would get if
I
put in
Cooper
’s name.
I
was almost scared to do it, it seemed like such an invasion of privacy, but his l
ies made me
curio
u
s.
I
entered his name
,
hit the search button, and then sat back to see what it would pull up. Once the hits popped up,
I
was shocked and almost wished
I
hadn’t done the search. As
I
read the lead article,
I
couldn’t believe what I
was seeing. This couldn’t have any truth to it. There was no way
Cooper
was involved in what the article said.