Fallon's Flaw Read online

  “Jesse Limerick?” Fallon asked.

  The guy at the pool table froze, and she watched as he shook his head and said, “He’s not here today.”

  He didn’t react to seeing her. She wondered about that.

  “What the fuck, man,” said one of the other guys from the counter. “You’re Jesse.”

  “I am not,” he said, as he turned to Fallon and added, “What can I help you with?”

  “We’re looking for Jesse Limerick,” he said. “It’s something to do with his grandfather.”

  At that, the kid stopped and stared. “What about my grandfather?”

  “So you are Jesse Limerick?”

  The other guy up at the counter laughed and laughed.

  Jesse turned and said to him, “Shut the hell up.” Then he faced Fallon. “What about my grandfather?”

  “He’s dead,” Fallon said easily.

  The kid looked at him in shock, and then he started to laugh. “Well, maybe I can finally move my grandmother out of my place then. Jesus Christ, living with her is a pain in the ass. I moved here to get away from her.”

  “Yet apparently she pays all your bills,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

  “That’s a damn lie,” he sneered. “And she’s a pain in the ass. Now she can move back home again.”

  “She says that she hasn’t lived there for years.”

  “Not for about six months or so,” he said. “Don’t know if it’s been even as long as that.”

  “Not according to what she said,” Fallon said, his voice cautious.

  “It doesn’t matter what she says. She’s loopy in the head. She stays with me, so I make sure she gets some food in her. Otherwise she’ll not eat for days. So what happened to him?”

  “We don’t know. He’s been dead for a while.”

  “Of course he was. That figures. If he died alone, I’m all for it. He was a mean old bastard.”

  “So, no love lost there, huh?”

  “Nope, not at all. Last time I saw him, we had a hell of a fight.”

  “Did you hit him, and then he hit you?”

  “Who gives a shit,” he said. “By the end of it, we were both hitting each other. It was years ago. I wouldn’t have had anything to do with even my grandmother, but she arrived on my doorstep, looking for help. What the hell was I supposed to do?”

  “Well, it’s a good thing that you did help her,” he said. “Obviously she might need help through this trying period as well.”

  “Not likely,” he said. “Those two, they never got along.”

  As they headed back to Ben’s apartment building, based on a tip Jesse gave them, she glanced at Fallon, still surprised and somehow warmed on the inside that she was with him. She tossed him a special smile, seeing a fire light up the dark depths of those wonderful eyes.

  Quinn was driving, which was a damn good thing, given the charged atmosphere. Fallon shifted slightly and turned his attention to his phone and the GPS.

  “Do you think Jesse is the same guy that Ice found on Interpol?” she asked.

  “If he is, he’s a good actor.”

  “Doesn’t mean that he, in his own weird way, wasn’t just telling the truth as he saw it,” Quinn said. “We’ve seen guys like that too.”

  “Doesn’t make me feel any better,” she muttered. “Feels like we have more going on than ever, and it’s hard to sort out the origins of these issues.”

  “That’s fairly typical, when we track down people and crimes. These other threads get caught up in our net, so we have to solve them or weed them out, yet stay on our target and not get sidetracked,” he said. “Now Jesse pointed us to Keith and John, wherever he is, but both those names were written on the back of the photos on Ben’s door. Hopefully Keith can lead us to a John in the same building. From there, who knows? Does any of this lead us to finding who sabotaged Bullard’s plane? I hope so, but, to date, that answer eludes us.”

  They hit Ben’s apartment building again, with all of them getting out and locking up the vehicle. Back upstairs at the apartment where Ben had stayed, Fallon stopped and said, “So this is Ben’s apartment, and up several floors is the idiot Keith, but Limerick is saying that somewhere in between the two of them, is where this other guy John lived?”

  “Do we trust Limerick though?” Quinn asked. “Think about that. We don’t have anything other than Limerick’s word for it.”

  “And I wouldn’t trust him at all,” she said.

  “So what are we doing, starting with Keith, the same guy upstairs?” Quinn asked.

  “If he’s even alive,” she muttered.

  Quinn shot her a sharp glance. “Why would you say that?”

  “Because a lot of people end up dead. It’s like they’re turning on each other and don’t care what the tale is.”

  “That’s what happens when rats get cornered,” Fallon murmured. “Let’s start with the neighbor lady. She may have more info. We just won’t tell her that Ben’s dead.” They walked down to the apartment of the lady Quinn had spoken to yesterday.

  Linny knocked here and, when the woman answered, Linny smiled at her and said, “Hi, we’re looking for that friend of yours again, Ben, or John maybe?”

  She looked out and saw Quinn. Immediately she fluffed up her hair and said, “Hey, handsome.”

  He smiled at her and asked, “Hey, have you seen Ben lately?”

  “Nope, sure haven’t seen that loser,” she said, with a sneer.

  “Have you seen anybody else around here, like John or Keith?” Linny asked.

  “No,” she said. “Place has been dead as a doorknob.”

  “So you haven’t seen Keith come or go at all?”

  “No.”

  At that, Fallon stiffened. Because that could possibly mean something completely different than what they wanted. They all smiled and thanked her.

  The woman headed back inside her apartment, then she turned and asked, “You’re the girl, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” Linny said, without any argument. “I certainly am. But not by choice.”

  “Good,” she said. “You don’t want to get mixed up with none of that photography stuff. That turns bad, fast.”

  “Well, they did it without my permission,” she said, murmuring to herself as she walked away. She didn’t want anybody thinking that she’d been a willing part of this, but somehow just having her face all over the door or walls was likely to do that.

  They all headed up to the sixth floor to return to Keith’s penthouse apartment. As they got to his apartment, she watched as Fallon quickly unlocked the door and stepped inside. Quinn stayed out in the hall with her.

  “Shouldn’t we go in?” she asked, surprised that they remained in the hallway.

  “Well, it’s probably a good idea,” he said. “But first we’ll wait to make sure it’s clear.”

  She frowned. “Meaning?”

  He motioned at the open door where Fallon stood. He turned to her as he had heard the entire conversation.

  “I’m checking to see if Keith’s here,” Fallon said. He turned and strode down through the entry hallway in this apartment. As he walked from room to room, it seemed like the place was completely empty. He saw the suitcases that the guy had been trying to run away with, when they’d talked to him before, and they didn’t appear to have been opened or disturbed in any way. He frowned at that and then turned to look back at Quinn. Fallon did a full search through the place but found nothing.

  When he came back to them, he said, “Nothing’s different from when we were here last time. The suitcases are still packed, but Keith’s not here.” He said all of that, with emphasis. He looked at her and said, “Meaning, he’s not dead inside his apartment.”

  Relief washed over her face. “Well, I’m glad to hear that,” she said, “because that’s pretty irritating to think that would be the killer’s next solution.”

  “It’s not a solution,” he said, “but it’s definitely something we have to look at.” />
  “So I suggest we go downstairs,” Quinn said. “Just make sure that Ben’s apartment is still the same.”

  “The cops have been in there by now, haven’t they?” she asked.

  “Don’t know,” Fallon said. “Let’s go find out.” They trooped back downstairs, and, even as she walked out on Ben’s floor, she turned to look back at the woman’s door. But it was closed.

  Fallon looked at it. “Anything wrong?”

  She just shrugged. “There’s a lot wrong,” she said. “Just nothing I can pinpoint.”

  “Well, we know the feeling,” he muttered, looping his arm with hers.

  “When people get like this,” she said, “it’s hard to even imagine how some of this stuff came about.”

  “It is,” Fallon agreed. “On the other hand, we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

  She nodded and said, “Every step, we’re getting a little closer.”

  “That’s how these puzzles work.”

  At Ben’s apartment, Fallon found it locked, but no crime scene tape was affixed or anything to say that they weren’t allowed to enter. Of course it was a locked apartment, so, in theory, they weren’t allowed to enter at all. He looked at Quinn who quickly stepped forward and picked the lock, letting them in. As soon as they opened the door, they both reared back.

  She closed her eyes and groaned. “Okay, so another dead body,” she said. “Who will volunteer to go see which one it is?”

  “I will,” Quinn said, as he stepped forward. He returned a moment later.

  Her fingers tightly clenched Fallon’s. She tried to ease back her grip, but he just gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. She looked at Quinn. “Who is it?”

  “Keith. Our guy from upstairs, with his luggage all packed,” he said heavily. “Looks like he took five to the chest, with heavier ammunition. In fact, most of his chest was just blown apart.”

  “Wow,” she said. “So he came down here to do what?”

  “Rob the photos in this place most likely,” Quinn said. He turned to look around. “I don’t see anything different, except for the addition of a body,” he said.

  “Interesting,” she murmured. “So he just came in because we told him Ben was dead or what?”

  “It’s hard to say,” he said. “We’ll have to let Wagner know.”

  She groaned and said, “Well, somebody else is contacting him this time. He won’t take my calls anymore, after all this.”

  The two men smiled at her.

  “Get used to it,” Quinn said cheerfully. “At one point in time or another, these guys don’t like any of our calls.”

  She smiled. “You know what? I’m starting to realize why,” she joked. Something about having that bit of humor to play with made it a whole lot easier to be here.

  Sure enough, Quinn pulled out his phone and called Wagner to report yet another death. She heard the disgust in Wagner’s voice on the other end of the phone, as Quinn held up his phone for them.

  “We don’t do this on purpose,” she added into the phone.

  “Is that you, Linny?” he asked. “You should know better than to hang around with these guys.”

  “I’ve been hanging around with them for a lot of years,” she muttered.

  “I’m coming,” he said. “Would you just get out of everybody’s apartment?”

  “Well, we could,” Fallon said, “providing you guys were actually doing your job.”

  At that, Wagner’s voice hardened. “I should charge you for breaking and entering.”

  “Or you could reward us,” she said. “For making a welfare call, out of concern for a person who’s been missing.”

  He stopped at that and said, “Whatever.” Then he hung up on them.

  Quinn looked at Fallon. “Wow, we’re making friends every time we turn around.”

  “Do you guys have friends?” she asked curiously. Both men just glared at her, and she started to laugh.

  “See? Humor makes it easier, doesn’t it?” Fallon whispered.

  She nodded. “It’s a little hard to realize that, every time we turn around, we’re coming across a dead body.”

  “It’s not getting us the answers we need,” he said. “Somebody is ahead of us.”

  “There always is, and that’s what’s frustrating,” she said. “Who else is even involved in this, and why?”

  “That’s what we have to figure out.” Fallon sighed.

  She shook her head. “Are you sure you don’t want to go in and take a quick glance around?”

  “Oh, I will,” he said, as he looked at Quinn. “I’ll be back in a moment.” Fallon turned to her. “You want to come in?”

  “Not particularly,” she said. “I’ve seen my share of dead bodies in my world.”

  “Of course,” he said, as he stepped in.

  She looked at Quinn. “Do you think I should go in?”

  “Only if you think we might have missed something, or you might recognize something specifically from last time.”

  “Not particularly,” she said. “Wasn’t it a mess before?”

  “Yes, and nothing’s really changed,” he said, giving her that half smile.

  She nodded. “It all sucks.”

  Just then Fallon stepped back out again and looked at her. “Last chance.”

  She groaned and said, “Well, I should, I guess.” And, with him at her side, she stepped forward and walked through the small apartment. As she got deeper inside, she said, “I wish I understood what if anything this had to do with me.”

  “Well, Ben’s body was found outside your compound.”

  “And yours and yours,” she said, as they walked out to join Quinn.

  “That’s true, and that’s something that hopefully we can link them to, when we get there.”

  “Maybe, but, at the moment, we don’t really have a whole lot to go on.”

  “Except that we’re under watch,” he said. “As we know from Paris, everybody is watching us, even when you think they’re not.”

  “Creepy,” she muttered.

  They walked back outside the building to wait for Wagner to arrive. When he did, he looked at them, frowned, and said, “Are you three done causing trouble?”

  “Do you want us to show you or not?” Fallon asked.

  “Yes,” he said. “Lead the way. After all, you guys are apparently law enforcement around here.”

  So much sarcasm filled his tone that it was all she could do to not laugh. She looked up at Quinn. “I’ll stay out here with you, if you don’t mind.”

  “Absolutely,” he said, as they both watched the two men head inside the apartment building.

  “Doesn’t Wagner look thrilled,” she murmured.

  “He always looks that way because this just adds more work to his plate.”

  “So aren’t we solving some of these problems for him?”

  “I don’t think he considers it a good trade-off.”

  “Of course not,” she muttered, as she walked around in a small circle, easing the strain on her neck.

  “Is that a tension headache?”

  “Absolutely,” she said. Just then a vehicle drove by very slowly.

  He said, “Don’t look now, but we’re being watched.”

  She froze. “How do you not look?” she muttered. “I mean, I instinctively want to turn around and take pictures.”

  “Not going to work,” he said. “It’s gone.”

  “It doesn’t matter that somebody did that?”

  “It’s hard to say. But they slowed down, as they came upon us out here.”

  “Great,” she muttered. “Is that related to you or to this mess? Or maybe they just saw Wagner’s vehicle here.”

  “Always and again, a lot of options.”

  “And none are giving us any answers,” she noted.

  “Nope, answers are one of those things we have to work for.”

  Just then they heard somebody walking down the street. As the footsteps came around the corner, she recogni
zed Jesse from the pool hall. “Wow, look at that,” she said to him. “Fancy seeing you here.”

  “What?” he said. “I was just coming to talk to Keith. To see if you guys figured out what he was up to.”

  “Interesting,” she murmured. “We don’t exactly have anybody to talk to.”

  “Besides,” Quinn added, “the cops took him in for questioning.”

  At that she froze, looked back at Quinn, and frowned. He just gave her a gentle nudge, and she realized that nobody had asked when Keith had been released from the police interview, pinpointing what time he had gone home. Had he come straight home or gone straight to Ben’s apartment?

  She looked at the pool player and said, “Besides, what do you care? You said he wasn’t even a friend.”

  “The whole group of them were just weird,” he said.

  “So that makes you weird by association, doesn’t it?”

  “Hell no,” he said. “I’m not one of them.”

  She nodded slowly. “Well, they’re all dying like flies,” she said. “So maybe that’s a good thing. Unless of course you’ve got anything to do with it.”

  He glared at her and said, “You got no cause to even say that to me.”

  “I can say what I want,” she said smoothly. “Until you’ve proven your innocence.”

  “Could have been you who killed him,” he stated. “I mean, I kind of like that idea. Maybe you were jealous that he wasn’t paying you the royalties for your photos.”

  “Oh, so you did recognize me,” she said, with a smirk. “In the bar it looked like you were trying so hard to not let on that you knew who I was.”

  “Well, if you think you’re some kind of a celebrity, you’re wrong,” he snapped. “This guy, and what he was doing to those photos, should have made you very wary.”

  “In what way?” Quinn asked curiously.

  “In the sense that his mind was obviously not fully there. How long before his affections went from photographs to wanting actual flesh-and-blood?”

  A chill washed over her shoulders as she studied him. “Or how long before anybody who was collecting those photographs,” she murmured, “would have the same transference issues.”

  He looked at her, smiled, and nodded. “Right, lots of guys have those photographs,” he said. “So how well do you sleep at night?” Then he started to whistle as he turned and walked away.