The Maltese Pigeon: A Matt Kile Mystery, book 5 by David Bishop

Author:David Bishop [Bishop, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-10-12T04:00:00+00:00

22

Axel came in the next morning, and I headed out. An hour later I drove onto the property of the Bel-Air Hotel on Stone Canyon Road just outside downtown Los Angeles. At the counter, I asked for Bill Lonigan, the head of hotel security.

Lonigan was retired after thirty years working the robbery division for the LAPD. His career started with the Long Beach PD which is how I knew him. His pension was already partly vested the year Fidge and I got out of the academy to join the LBPD. Lonigan and I had stayed in touch from time to time, nothing regular. We were a couple of cops whose squad cars passed in the night. We connected enough to know we always would be. He even came up once to see me in prison. A good guy with an easy manner, Bill was known as Crease. He was a lifetime bachelor who always had his shirts done at the laundry. He liked his shirts folded, rather than hung. The fold created creases that always showed across the fronts of his shirts.

“How the hell are you? It’s always good to see you, Matt boy. You up here doing research for one of them books you write, or you actually working today?”

“You’re still working here, eh?” I asked, ignoring his question, and asking my own dumb one.

“I’m too old for serious copping, too lazy to get a real job, and too nervous to steal. So, here I stay. I get okay pay, free food, and a drink now and again from a friendly bartender. A waitress in the coffee shop who says I remind her of her papa digs my snuggle on her night off—which this is, so I’ll be busy later.”

“You haven’t changed a bit. You’re still sowing your wild oats.”

“They’re getting more tame as the years go by, but I’m still looking for fertile fields that need planting.”

“What a man. I miss ya, Pal.”

“How ‘bout some coffee?” I nodded. He led me through lobby furniture, down a short hallway, around a bank of elevators, and into the coffee shop.

First, we did some catching up, mostly my divorce, and my adjustment to life after getting out of prison, then his continuing commitment to life as a bachelor. “Despite the general wisdom of not sleeping with the enemy,” he said, “most men sleep with their wives.” It was an old joke that Crease often told, but still worthy of a polite laugh, so I gave it to him. “Okay, Matt, what’s this about? Something I can do to help?”

I told him I needed whatever he had on Gregory Kalma who had stayed at the hotel a few nights back.

“I remember the guy. Shit don’t stink type, built like a rhino, but soft from too much of everything.”

“That’s the guy.”

“He stayed in one of our high-end canyon guest suites. We get a lot a Hollywood types and some politicos back in the canyon. They pay through the nose. Security is tighter than with the other rooms.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.