Chapter 28

“Shit,” Norm complained, “I think it’s broken.”

Danni slapped her forehead with one hand and held out her other, palm up. Norm grumbled in frustration and put his phone in her hand just before putting the car back in drive and pulling out onto the road with a u-turn that only a cop would make. Danni was used to his driving so she ignored it and did something that was far more interesting. She finally had unlimited access to the messages that Norm would not talk about. It was pretty easy to find them since, first off, his phone was not really broken, and secondly, there just were not that many texts to begin with.

Of course, Danni did not bother to tell Norm that. As far he knew, she was fixing his phone. The truth of it was, the only reason that he had not gotten a reply was probably because Jake was too busy to do it. That was fine by Danni as she read the conspiracy in painfully boring sentences that were composed of full words and not the texter short hand that she was used too. She figured out the format, the obvious inept ability at using a phone keypad, and everything else as she got further into the messages.

Finally Danni could not help herself and she muttered, “holy shit.”

Norm was driving a little faster than usual as he asked, “did you fix it?”

“Nothing wrong with it,” Danni replied in a very disinterested tone, “you guys have been going behind Barbara’s back! That‘s why you‘ve been texting!” Danni shoved the phone into Norm’s jacket pocket and, before Norm could reply to her last comment, she asked, “so why are we going back to Smokes’ place?”

“Cause he’s involved Danni girl,” Norm told her with as much disinterest as she had shown him about reading all his messages. Of course, to Norm, the most disturbing part about this entire case was that he had no idea you could call up text messages after you were done with them.

Danni was not so convinced about Norm’s hypothesis, “how do you figure that? It wasn’t the impression I got.”

“That’s cause you got the impression he wanted you to see,” Norm told her as he spotted the sign for the real estate office, just down the road, “there was a lot that guy wasn’t saying.”

“So?” Danni just shrugged, “doesn’t that go for everybody?”

“Got to remember something,” Norm explained, “that guy bullshits people for a living. That means he is both good at it and, when he does, it’s for a reason.”

Danni still did not get it but, she got out of the car and followed Norm to the office door anyway. Then she saw the sign on the little door and said, “he’s not even here?”

Norm was already busy looking around the parking lot of the former motel. It was a U shaped building with a parking lot that had been expanded by filling in what had probably been a swimming pool. All of the former motel rooms used exterior doors and had been boarded up except for the five or six closest to the office. Norm looked along the buildings overhang and spotted what he was looking for. It was the reason why the rentals had been centralized to that particular spot.

When Norm got back to Danni he had already found what he needed right on the ground. The young girl asked him with a shrug, “what now?”

Without so much as a second thought, Norm casually tossed the brick through the window of the office door, reached in the new hole, and unlocked it. He told a very unbelieving Danni, “it’s a bad neighborhood.”

As Danni stepped over the glass and back into the nasty office she still felt unsure about being here. It was obvious that Norm did not have any such reservations. He went right to the back room, the only place they had not seen on their first visit. Then Norm called Danni back and she stepped into what was an even smaller and nastier office that had only one advantage, if you could call it that, over the one out front. This one was graced with a toilet in the corner.

Norm was sitting at the only desk in the room and, unlike it’s counterpart out front, it was actually clear. It did have a video monitor sitting on it with a little black box next to it. Danni had never seen any electronics like this before. There was no keyboard, no controller pen, and the screen was even touch activated. Norm was scrolling through video’s by using a couple of buttons on the black box that seemed to do nothing but fast forward and rewind. What a piece of crap!

“Um, Norm?” Danni noticed that the video was basically all the same thing. It was one shot of one location that, unless she missed her guess, was just right outside the front door of the very office she was standing in. She shrugged, “what the hell is that?”

“It’s a WMD special,” Norm said but never let his eyes drift away from the video, “a security system that’s dirt ass cheap.”

Danni just shrugged, “who would buy something like that? It’s almost like a baby room monitor.”

“Somebody’s who smart Danni girl,” Norm mumbled, “and doesn’t want everybody in his business.” When it was clear she didn’t get it, Norm told her, “if you were looking for security footage where would you go?”

The answer to that was quite obvious, “to a computer or somebody’s phone. Why? I mean… oh!”

“Exactly,” Norm said and froze the frame on the screen, “and Smokes made double sure this door was closed when we came in.” Norm pointed at the screen, “see these three people standing by that room down on the far end?”

“Well yeah,” Danni saw them but, so what?

After telling Norm as much, he replied, “the guy in the tie look familiar?”

“No,” then something hit Danni, “those other two fit the description of our hit men though. Only problem is there’s thousands of people who fit that description.”

Norm backed up several frames until you could see the faces of the blond headed woman and the short guy with greasy hair, “they don’t just fit the description Danni. That is them.”

Danni put her hands on her hips and in an accusing tone, “how can you know that?”

“Cause you didn’t see everything on my phone you little snoop,” Norm shot back before he hit the fast forward button again. He kept comparing the time stamp with the picture and it became obvious that their two hit men were not only meeting here with the suit but, they lived in that room down on the end.

Danni noted something as they passed by yet another meeting of the three culprits, “that guy is giving them something every time. What do you figure? Cash maybe?”

“Unless I miss my guess,” Norm replied, “probably.”

Danni then asked, “so who is he? Our suit?”

“Gregory Beckett,” Norm replied.

Danni’s jaw dropped, “April’s boyfriend? Wait a minute, that’s the same…”

“Yep,” Norm replied. “That’s the same guy who does the books for Smokes.” Norm’s eye detected something wrong on the security video and he slowed it down. Now he seriously wished the guy had not been this cheap and, at least, had gotten a system with sound. As he watched the slow motion he told Danni, “when we interviewed Smokes, it was pretty obvious he knew more than he was saying.”
Danni crossed her arms and skeptically replied, “how do you figure that?”

“Cause he knew enough to drop a name that we knew already,” Norm told her point blank. “Danni girl, in the real world, hot leads don’t just pop up unless somebody wants you to know. How many people could you talk about in just a normal conversation? Without even realizing it?”

That caused the girl to shrug, “I mean, I don’t know. I guess it would depend on what we were talking about.”

“If we were talking about your work,” Norm put it to her.

“Everybody I guess,” Danni was unsure where he was going with this.

“Exactly,” Norm replied. “Somebody who manages real estate has to deal with lots of people and that was the only name that he dropped? That don’t sound fishy to you? Sounds more like, to me, he was playing his cards close to his chest. People only do that when they’re hiding something and, that means, he had to have something to hide and he knew he needed to hide it from us.”

“So,” Danni asked after thinking about it, “why did he drop Beckett’s name?”

“I don’t know for…” Norm stopped when he saw the new images on the screen. The picture was not exactly an answer to Danni’s question but, it was getting there. Norm got up from the chair and rushed out.

Danni was hot on his heels, “is that what I think it was?”

Norm opened his car door, paused for a second to look the girl in the eye, “depends on what you think it was but…”

Danni blurted out quickly. Norm’s sense of urgency had effected her as well, “where are we going?” When Norm told her, Danni suddenly spun around and ran back into the office. When she came sprinting back to the car she said with a dire sense of urgency, “it’s gone.”

Norm nodded and slid into the drivers seat, “we need to go now.”

As Norm sped out of the parking lot he realized there was one more thing he needed to do. Since he was too busy driving and in too much of a hurry to stop, he told Danni, “get my phone out of my pocket.” Danni nervously complied and then Norm told her, “see the text from the number and not the name?”

“Yeah,” Danni replied, “who is it?”

“Hit reply,” Norm said as if Danni had never asked a question. Then, when Danni complied, Norm told her, “send the following message, ‘take them down.’ You got that?”

“Uh,” Danni typed it out and hit send, “whatever.”