The Holy City Murders: A Duke Dempsey Mystery by Ron Plante Jr

Author:Ron Plante Jr [Plante Jr, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
Published: 2019-07-28T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17- French Champagne

The loss of Parker was eating at Stampkin and Duke. They met up at Duke’s office to discuss what he found earlier that day but the tone was very somber. Stampkin had a rough time talking to Parker’s parents and looked like he just needed to blow off some steam. Duke tried to get him to go to Doc’s for some drinks and not talk about the case for a few hours but he declined. Johnny was a loner when it came to dealing with his emotions and he just needed some time to get through it. Plus he had to stop by the station and speak to the brass. Captain Slate filed a complaint from the incident at the motel and Johnny was being called into the principal’s office. There was no way they were going to suspend Stampkin. He was the only detective with any clout to stop this killer and they weren’t about to take him off the case. They had to play politics as usual and slap him on the wrists.

Johnny left and they decided they would meet up in the morning to figure out where to go next. They still weren’t sure if the killer already got the location from Murphy but the fact that he was still hanging around the area probably meant he didn’t. Either way, the only play they had was to keep tracking down the relic and hope for the best. Duke sat at his desk and opened the top drawer. Sitting on top was a phone number he had been dying to call, but just couldn’t find the time. “Now is as good of a time as any,” he thought to himself.

As Duke tied his bowtie in his spider cracked mirror he smiled, “You do clean up pretty good.” For this occasion, Duke broke out his white dinner jacket and black bow tie. He took another glance at his freshly parted hair that he slicked to the side with a little extra Murray’s. Hard to believe the beaux in the mirror lived in a hole like this. Well after the score with the Vatican, Duke definitely planned on moving up. The phone call to Mary went better than expected considering he turned her down once already. She played the game and mentioned how calling her on such short notice was unbecoming a gentleman, but she eventually folded like a bad hand of poker. Duke was able to square some reservations at the new French joint, Rue De La Reine. Since the news article, Duke Dempsey was back in the good graces of the city and they were more than happy to accommodate once he gave them his name. As he walked out the door he almost went into his icebox on pure reflex. “Not tonight dear, “Duke said to himself as he smiled and walked out of his flat unarmed.

Duke got to the restaurant a little early. He wanted to grab a drink and build up a little liquid courage before his date.

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