Chapter 22

 The inside of the shop was not exactly what Norm was expecting. This ‘Madame Toulon’ did have a few black lights but, currently, they were not on. She did have a few odds and ends that were more odd than end but, most of her merchandise consisted of a floor full of boxes that were stuffed with plastic sleeves. As they walked in, Norm stopped and pulled one of the tabs up so he could see what seemed to be this stores bread and butter. He was a little surprised. He would have never even imagined that this kind of store existed.

Norm winced and pushed the sleeve back down in it's box, “comic books?”

Danni was as easy going about it as one could be, “yeah. What did you think this place was?”

The shop appeared to be empty except for the skinny little girl in the back. Judging from her multi colored hair, pale complexion, thick glasses, and unusual choice of clothing, Norm was pretty sure that was the infamous ‘Madame Toulon.’ The girl was sitting at a table that had all kinds of junk on it that Norm did not even wish to guess the nature of. He recognized the graph paper and grease pencils but the funny little blocks and figures were alien looking.

These items were sure of interest to the Madame. She barely noticed her visitors as she rolled one of the funny looking blocks. She then wrote something on the graph paper with her grease pencil as she consulted an open book in front of her. From what Norm could tell, the book was no comic. It seemed to be technical and full of charts and graphs.

Danni walked up to the table with a big smile and said to the girl, “hey Toulon, long time no see.”

The girl took a minute to think and then snapped her finger, “you’re that girl with the funny name, right? Danielle or…”

“Danniealla,” Danni replied in a friendly way.

The little girl stood up and shook hands, “well hey. Glad you’re back.” The smile vanished when Toulon saw Norm standing quietly in the background. Toulon pointed at him and said, “who’s the cop?”

That made Danni laugh. She then pulled her own badge and said, “actually we both are. We just wanted to ask you a few questions.”

Toulon was very interested in the badge. She gestured for it and then Danni handed it to her. Toulon felt of the weight, examined it from every side, and then looked impressed “wow, it looks real.” Then she saw the little name engraved under the colonial seal and read it. Toulon looked confused as she handed it back. She noted, “Colonial Rangers? I didn’t know we still had those.”

Norm was slightly agitated with this girl, “it’s real Miss, uh, what’s your name?”

“Shelly Rothman,” the girl replied. “Look if this is about those little bottles of air fresheners, I don’t have any control what people do with them when they walk out of here.”

Now it was Danni’s turn to be confused, “Shelly? I thought your name was…”

Shelly blew it off, “that’s just the nick name I use at the clubs. I mean, come on, you don’t go around telling people you’re a cop, ranger, whatever it is you are.”

Danni shrugged, “fair enough.”

Norm was not really interested. He walked up to the table and asked, “it’s kind of slow around here. Is it always like this?”
Shelly became nervous, “I hope that’s not illegal?” Then she sighed and said, “my customers are more of the late crowd. I really hope that’s not illegal. I’ve had enough problems with the city as it is. That’s not even counting all the other crap.”

Danni asked, “what other crap?”

Shelly just shrugged and said, “the people that want me out of here.”

Now Norm was definitely interested, “just you?”

“Oh no,” Shelly told him definitively. “You might have noticed all the empty store fronts. This plaza was filled three months ago.”

Danni was now even more confused, “what happened?”

“Well,” Shelly replied, “mostly that Family Day crap over at the palace. Course that put Fred Winchester’s little tavern out. He wasn’t doing very good anyway. Darts just aren’t that popular right now. Now, I would have expected him to go under but, that’s when we started having the problems.”

Norm remained official sounding, “what kind of problems would those be Miss Rothman?”

The girl did not really know what to say, “the vandals and stuff. One by one they ran everybody either out of here or out of business. Up till this week it was just me, Callie’s dress shop, and Miss Cole’s flowers down on the end. You might have noticed they aren’t open. They’re leaving too.”

Danni thought about it for a second and then added, “so you plan on staying?”

“I really don’t have a choice,” Shelly told them. “I can’t find any other space in a descent area. I can barely pay the rent here as it is. Most of my customers are close by too. If I’m gone I’ll loose them so…”

Norm nodded to the girl, “it’s either stay or die.”

“Something like that,” Shelly came back. “The City already tried to get me out of here. I got lucky, there, cause my Mom has some pull with the city. She filed an injunction and hit up some of her judge buddies to get the zoning violations stopped.”

Suddenly, a lot of little things came together and Norm asked, in a very surprised tone, “your Mother is Halley Rothman? The Attorney?”

Now Danni suddenly realized it and added, “doesn’t she work for the District Attorney’s Office?”

“Sometimes,” Norm replied but then got back on track, “these vandals you’re talking about, Miss Rothman. You ever got a good look at them?”

“I can do you one better,” Shelly said as she rushed off to the back of her shop. She came back with a black and white print out. It was a picture from her security system and she explained, “that got snapped when they busted out my back door.”

Danni and Norm looked at the photo together. Danni asked her, “they didn’t come in and take anything?”

“Nope,” Shelly said. She just shrugged, “they never take anything. They just do crap like that.”

Norm slid the picture in his jacket and then asked the girl, “why would anybody want this property?”
That question went beyond Shelly, “I have no idea what’s so important about this place. It’s just a dumpy little run down strip mall. There’s nothing down here worth bothering with, if you ask me. That’s one reason I wound up here in the first place.”

Danni then asked, “do you know who owns this building?”

Shelly shrugged, “no but…” She ran off to her back room again and came back with another print out. This time it was a statement and, after handing it over to Norm she continued, “that’s who I pay my rent too. Maybe that guy would know something.”

Once they were back in the car, Norm started it up and then he asked Danni, “them two in the picture look familiar?”

Danni took a deep breath and replied, “well I’ve never seen them before but…”

“But,” Norm continued, “they sure look a hell of a lot like the description of our two would be hit men.”

Facetiously, Danni replied, “you mean the two hit men that Barbara told us to be looking for? Those two?”

Norm began to drive, “not looking for, Danni. I’d say we just found them. Wouldn’t you?”

Danni’s face lit up, “oh I see. We know where they’re going to be now. We can set a trap for them!”

Norm turned into traffic, “you let me worry about the strategizing little girl. We still got a few more folks to go talk with.”