Frowning, Sam slips off her seat and paces. “One more thing. Did he pay his bills on time? Have any money problems?”
Our suspect stands and moves a stack of crumpled receipts to find his laptop. “It’s funny you should ask. The day he was murdered, he paid me in full… a couple thousand bucks.”
“Was that unusual?” Rising, I join my girl in looking over his shoulder at the ledger.
“Yeah. See? I usually had to bug him for months.” He points at the screen as Sam purses her lips.
Generally, if people change their habits, there’s a story behind it. “Did he say why?”
Tube shrugs, unaware of the telepathy in the room. “Nope. Like I said, we weren’t best buds.”
Without a warrant, there’s not much more we’re going to get out of him so I nod to Sam and hand him our card. “If you think of anything else, give us a call.”
He leads us to the door, turns, and catches my eye. “Hey, do you know who’s going to inherit the amplifier?”
“It’ll probably remain as evidence for quite a while. Why?” Pausing at the open door, I watch his face which, for the first time today, shows some empathy.
“Damn. I’d hate to see it end up in a garage sale or worse. Can you text me Cal’s next of kin?”
“Sure thing.” With my hand to Sam’s lower back, I lead her onto the sidewalk, toward the SUV.
As I start the ignition, her lips purse and she closes her eyes. “At first, I thought he might be a suspect but no way would he damage his precious.”
“Agreed.” Easing into traffic, I replay the interview in my mind and curse the wasted time. “Did you glean anything of value?”
She shakes her head. “Only how tube electronics are a lost art and he was lying about something.”
My phone pings. “Can you get that?”
She picks it up and swipes an index finger across the screen. “It’s Slate. He says Sienna is free to talk… Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I got an email from my dad. I asked if he could arrange a visit with Olafson and he agreed but said not to expect much. One of his geeks searched Olafson’s communications and found nothing. I’m hoping we can find something they missed.”
I turn onto the thruway, my phone chirps, and she glances down once more. “Slate says Sienna’s in Bensonhurst. Do I need to ask him for the address?”
“No.” I grin. “It’s where I was staying when I met you.” I don’t add it was Andy’s before that.
“Huh. Well, at least it’s not far.”
Traffic thickens and I need to focus so she opens her iPad and mulls over the evidence we’ve gathered. “Shit, we need to debunk the myth she was sleeping with Calvin. Maybe we can talk to her girlfriends… find a diary… something. We can ask her what proof she has the next time we see her.”
“Good. What else?”
Her pretty face scrunches and my cock twitches.
Down boy. Later. We got work, pal. Then play.
She tucks a lock of hair behind her ear and sighs. “Well, we really need to talk to her ex… What a cluster fuck.”
I pull out my notes on our recent interrogation. “We should follow the money. Where did Calvin find the dough to pay off Tubes?”
“Right. And what about all the womanizing? Let me ask Jason to search social media.”
She thumbs, connects to my SUV’s Bluetooth and the artificial intelligence’s voice sounds through my speakers. “Good Afternoon, Samantha. How can I help you?”
“I forwarded you an email of all of Peter Olafson’s communications from prison, including emails. Can you see if there is any connection between him and Calvin?”
“There is one.”
“Who’s that?”
