Blood in the Big Apple

Chapter 6

                  The night at O’Malley’s passed without incident. Vivien went with the fish and chips, while talking herself into the notion that going with the seafood even if it was deep fried offered a healthier choice over the corned beef. She got back to the hotel at a reasonable hour and took Mooky out for a walk into the myriad smells and sounds of the city. She repeated the ritual the next morning, both times pausing by Lenny’s door and listening for any signs of activity that she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear. She thought she heard some bumping around during the evening walk-by, but the morning offered only silence.  Still no messages from him or Will, so tried to focus on herself and why she was here.

                  The next morning, the event’s hosts had coffee and breakfast items set up in the large foyer in front of the meeting rooms as Vivien helped herself to coffee, a chocolate croissant and a plastic cup of yogurt. She scanned the crowd and caught a glimpse of Jon Doe talking to a group of people on the far side of the room. Most of the attendees looked like what she expected. Retired cops who left the force in their forties or fifties without enough pension money to survive on or they just liked the work and weren’t ready to play golf for the rest of their lives.

                  There were a few women and some younger people scattered into the group, but it was mostly middle-aged white men who didn’t look completely comfortable while not wearing some kind of uniform.  She double checked the agenda on her form and walked into the breakout room to sit in on her first seminar, which was called. “Starting Your PI Business – Getting Licensed, Getting Clients, and Staying Legal.”

                  She found a seat, pulled out a fresh yellow legal pad and clicked her pen into action mode. The course sounded perfect for accomplishing her goals as she briefly flashed back on the first days of school from her childhood in Wisconsin. The seminar was informative, full of the nuts-and-bolts Vivien was hoping for which included a rundown of fees, licensing requirements and marketing strategies.  The seminar wrapped up as Vivien drifted back out to the lobby looking for more coffee and pastries.

                  Her phone beeped and she felt a rush of excitement and participation as she hoped for a makeup request from Will but instead it was an odd text from Lenny.

                  “Can you come up to my room ASAP?”

                  “Sure, did it not go well?”

                  “Just come up please and hurry.”

                  Vivien felt her blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety levels start to spike as her thoughts went to Mooky. She’d already been out and seemed fine. It couldn’t be that. Lenny had a spare key but there was no reason for him to go in there unless she was barking at something. She pushed the elevator button and rubbed her neck. The date must have headed south. Her mind swung back and forth between possibilities. He was being over dramatic as usual. Buddy probably ate something and threw up. They’d have to find an emergency vet in New York. How much would that cost?

                  The elevator doors shut as she watched the round lighted buttons designating floor levels go on and out in turn. The elevator dinged, the doors opened as she walked down the hall, her heart pounding despite her own attempts to talk herself down. She stood in front of his door, listened, smelled, looked up and down the hallway and softly knocked. 

                  It seemed like a long time, but the door finally cracked open with the security bolt in place. She’d never seen Lenny in such a state. He was unshaven, a bristle of gray hair stubbling his stunned face. He was wearing a blue checkered flannel bathrobe that had lost most of its shape that she could envision her grandfather wearing. She could see Buddy, sticking his nose through the crack in the door, his tail wagging.

                  “What’s going on,” asked Vivien. “What’s wrong?” 

                  Lenny tried peering around the hallway, but his vision was limited. “Are you by yourself? Is there anybody else out there?”

                  “No, of course not, what is going on?  Is it Mooky? Is she in there with you?”

                  He shook his head, looked down and then back up at her. “No, Mooky isn’t in here, sweety. As far as I know she’s fine but there’s a dead man in my bed. I may have killed somebody.” 

                  Vivien was temporarily relieved when he called her sweety but now the rest of the statement sunk in and spun her around on the inside.

                  She tried to keep her voice low and said, “What? What are you talking about? Let me come in.”  He nodded, the door closed, the sound indicated the security latch was disengaged and then the door re-opened.  She entered the room and felt her own instincts kick in as she reached for her hip feeling for a gun that wasn’t there. She scanned behind the door, walked to the bathroom checked behind the door and came back out.

                  Her best friend stood in front of her, barefoot, one arm crossed across his torso, the other supporting his crest-fallen chin, his eyes looking at the floor in dread.  Buddy stood next to him, sensing that something was wrong. She looked past him and surveyed a man-sized lump under the covers, a shock of blonde hair and bare shoulder sticking out.

                  “How do you know he’s…”

                  “Dead?”

                  “Yes.”

                  “Take a look for yourself Viv but I do hold a medical degree.”

                  “Yes, I know, I’m sorry.”

                  She stepped towards him and threw her arms around him as he returned the embrace. “Are you okay?  What the hell is happening? Is this Tommy? I can’t believe you aren’t more upset.” 

                  He pushed out of the hug and looked at her, now appearing to be getting ahold on himself.

“Going in order, yes, I appear to be fine although I believe I was dosed last night with some kind of powerful, quick-acting depressant. I don’t remember anything that happened after dinner. I do not know what the hell is happening and I’m pretty sure it’s not Tommy. The hair is similar, but I haven’t rolled him over to verify. I woke up, freaked out briefly, checked for a pulse, found none, and texted you. I haven’t called the police or 911 or whoever you’re supposed to call when this thing happens.”

“Well, if you’re sure he’s dead we’re probably past the 911 phase.”     

“Right, so who do we call, call the hotel dick? I’m sure we have to get the real police involved. I mean, this probably looks a bit suspicious, no?”    

Her eyes scanned the floor for anything that looked out of place. There was a pile of clothes in the corner nearest the corpse, neatly folded.  Nothing on the bed table, what appeared to be Lenny’s clothes were on a chair in the far corner, not folded.

“If you were drugged, that’s very suspicious. Let’s not touch anything.” She reached into the back pocket of her jeans and looked at the screen as she imagined a disruptive parade of plainclothes detectives, uniformed police officers, paramedics, stretchers, mixing in with two dogs, a distraught friend and a conference of private investigators that she was hoping to blend into without making a spectacle of herself.

She slid her phone back into her pocket, changing her mind about calling the nearest police precinct, walked into the bathroom, pulled a tissue out of the box, came back into the room and put two fingers on the neck of the body in the bed. There was no pulse and the flesh felt cool to the touch. Using the tissue, she picked up the landline.

“Front desk, how may I help?”

“This is Vivien Szabo I’m a guest in the hotel and I’m calling on behalf of Dr. Leonard Thomas in room 1017. We have what appears to be a dead body in the room. Do you have somebody in security I can speak to, or should I just call 911?”

There was a pregnant pause on the line followed by, “What room, ma’am?”

She winced at the being called ma’am and said, “1017 and I’d like to handle this with a minimum amount of commotion.” 

“Of course, we’ll send someone right up. Please don’t leave the room.”

Vivien hung up the phone and looked at Lenny who had now sat in the upholstered chair gathering his clothes, and hugging his dog.

“What did they say?”

“Said they are sending somebody up. Maybe there really is such a thing as a hotel detective.”

“Even now, huh?” 

“Even now,” said Vivien as she walked back towards the bed, bent down and gently lifted the covers hiding the body. She couldn’t see any blood and he appeared naked at least from the waist up.  “So, did you in fact have dinner with your friend, I mean before any of this happened?  What was the last thing you remember?”

He glanced skyward as if looking for clues on the off-white ceiling.  “Yes, we met as planned. He looked older, obviously but still quite attractive and he’s been sober on and off for the last twelve years. I remember that much. It was awkward at first but after a few minutes I felt like I had traveled back in time. The way he laughed, they way he moves, just the way he carries himself, the attraction was still there.”

“And that was it? You woke up here?”

He shook his head, rubbing temple. It’s kind of hazy. “We had dinner at an Italian place, not far from here. We ate. A friend of his joined us. Kind of a weird guy that insisted on buying us a bottle of wine, which we drank. Even Tommy had one, which was probably a mistake. Then he wanted us to go to an opening of some sort and this is when things get really hazy. Maybe a cab ride somewhere. Hell, let me look at his face.”  He rose from the chair, found a pair of glasses in his pile of clothes and walked confidently towards the bed.  He moved around Vivien, pushed the dog towards her, bent down and squinted at the dead man and stood up straight, a look of determination on his face.

“Oh my God, this is him.”

“Who?”

The weird guy who bought the wine. Thank god it’s not Tommy. How did this asshole end up in my bed and this dead state of not being?”

“You don’t think you might have…” she let her voice trail off on purpose waiting for him to finish his thought and already second guessing her near accusation.

 “What? With him?  God no. I told you he was weird. I don’t think Tommy even liked him. I think I’m being set up or something. This whole thing is quite bizarre.”

Vivien exhaled a sigh of relief as the notion of a dead nearly stranger in her friend’s bed seemed more palatable than a dead ex-lover.  There was an official sounding knock at the door as Vivien looked directly at Lenny. “Ready for this?”

“Ready as I shall ever be.” 

Vivien nodded, stepped towards the door, opened it looked up into the face of John Doe.

“Oh my God,” she said.

“Hello Vivien, from Wisconsin.”