Read Online Flashpoint by Ed Gorman - Free Book Online Page A

publicist hadn’t been able to do was disarm him. Because of his connection to the other side and its connection with judges all over the country, Ruskin was always armed with a Glock, insisting that ‘they’ (meaning us) were out to get him. Any time he got hassled by law enforcement he just made a call, and whoever he talked to made a call and Ruskin went back to spending his time wooing fabulous babes – another one of his problems.
    â€˜Is he staying in the hotel?’
    â€˜Four thirty-eight.’
    â€˜How many times did you see them together?’
    â€˜I work four to midnight. The last week I’d say I saw them together every night around dinner time. And a couple of times in the bar.’
    Howie Ruskin. I was going to meet the bastard.
    â€˜You see her with anybody else?’
    â€˜Hey, seems you’re getting a lot of talk for nothing. I’m a working man.’
    I eased my wallet out of my back pocket and laid a fifty across his open palm.
    â€˜I’ve seen her with about a couple dozen guys since she was here who tried to pick her up.’ The grin gave him a satanic look. ‘She’s probably the most beautiful woman who’s ever been in this town, if you want to put it that way.’
    â€˜Any of them succeed?’
    â€˜I don’t think so. She got rid of them pretty fast. She wasn’t much of a flirt. She’d shut them down fast. She wasn’t mean or anything; she just wasn’t interested.’
    This was the woman who’d come on to Robert so openly and seductively. But that had been her job. Robert’s mind had gotten caught in his zipper and he hadn’t figured it out until it was too late, despite my warning.
    â€˜Did you ever see the senator in the hotel?’
    The grin again. ‘Talk about somebody whose ass is in a sling, huh?’
    â€˜So did you ever see him here?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Was she ever involved in any kind of incident?’
    â€˜What does that mean?’
    â€˜Any kind of trouble or anything. Did she just have a nice, quiet stay?’
    â€˜Quiet except for everybody who wanted to sniff her panties.’
    â€˜How about her room? Have the police been up there yet?’
    â€˜I don’t know.’
    â€˜Could you get me in if they haven’t?’
    He took a deep breath. ‘That’d get me fired for sure.’ He was working both sides of the street. He was genuinely worried about losing his job while setting me up for a big raise in pay. ‘You’d really have to pay me.’
    â€˜How much?’
    â€˜Three hundred.’
    â€˜Two.’
    â€˜Two seventy-five.’
    â€˜Two-fifty.’
    â€˜Hell, I guess I might as well take it.’
    After I paid him all I had was a five and two ones in my wallet.
    â€˜How about putting my suitcase in my room after?’ I was still lugging it along.
    â€˜Oh. Yeah. Right.’
    He took it and surprised me by not asking for more money.
    Except for a maid in a light-blue uniform pushing her cart down the hall, this end of the fourth floor was quiet. I could see from here that the room had not been sealed, though likely it would be very soon. In the elevator Earl Leonard – he’d finally told me his name and it hadn’t cost me a cent – had begun breathing in tight little spurts. There was the gleam of sweat on his wolf face. He really was worried.
    â€˜I’m going to make this easy for you, Earl,’ I said now. ‘You let me in and then you take off. If I get nailed I’ll say that I was able to open the lock.’
    â€˜You know how?’
    â€˜Maybe.’ I was good but not great.
    â€˜I’d appreciate it. And you won’t mention me?’
    â€˜Not to anybody.’
    So now we stood at the door. He looked both ways, advertising that we shouldn’t be doing what we were doing. When he got it open he pushed it in and said, ‘It’s all yours, man.’
    Then