IN THE LAND OF THE DOLLAR BILL

Chicago 5 A.M

PROLOGUE

EVERYONE HAD THEIR price and tonight, Lisa's was a few free drinks, a line of coke, and the promise of something more exciting than staring at her apartment walls again. Running in the big city was old hat now for the once-farm girl from Indiana. Having escaped the mundane of that existence a year after her sister had graduated from college, Lisa headed for Chicago in search of something, anything. What she found was a dead-end job working as a waitress in some no-name diner, making a measly wage, and living in a run-down apartment on the near west side with another girl, Valerie. So, both of them filled their nights with the underground club scene--a dangerously loose crowd of stragglers like themselves, young kids on the verge of going nowhere fast. The price of one big city night would soon catch up to the young small town girl and it was a price she would never be able to pay.

"Hey, Lisa, let's stop by Teddy's place and hang out before we head downtown."

Lisa poked her head out of the bathroom where she had been dressing and looked at Valerie sitting on the couch, drinking a beer. She had first met the young woman when she answered an ad for a roommate she saw in the Reader in July. Valerie was originally from New York and had moved here a couple of years ago, presumably to avoid some legal trouble in the city. They were an unlikely pairing, but Lisa soon found herself intrigued by the fast-talking rough girl who was so unlike anyone she grew up around. It was Valerie who introduced her to the club scene and the friends they often hung out with. However, along with the few meager belongings Valerie had moved to Chicago, the pierced girl with a crew cut had also brought her penchant for incredibly weird and somewhat sadistic friends. Teddy was a rather nasty fellow, large, tattooed everywhere and heavily into the rough leather scene. Lisa never liked him or his crowd. Scrunching up her nose and brows, the petite, brown-haired girl looked at her roommate.

"Ugh..you know I can't stand him, Valerie. He gives me the creeps."

The young woman in leather pants and black boots rose and came over to the bathroom door and leaned against it as she handed Lisa her beer. She smiled as she watched the girl take a swig, grimacing. She had molded this farm girl into a fairly decent party friend if she did say so herself. Valerie considered everyone she met a potential partner in crime and someone to take with her when she went clubbing. Someone had to be responsible because Valerie wasn't willing to do it.

"I think he's kind of cute, actually. Don't you think his eyes are sorta like a sad puppy dog's?"

Handing the beer back, Lisa just shook her head at her roommate as she turned off the light in the grimy bathroom.

"Yeah, a dog alright. I wouldn't want to meet him in an alley that's for sure.."

Valerie smiled as she got her leather coat and gave Lisa the once over. The small town girl had started dressing a bit more hip these days thanks to her guidance and now she wore a black minidress and clunky shoes. Yeah, Teddy would approve.

"We'll only go for just a bit. I hear he just got some new stuff in and I wanna see if I can coax him into sharing some of it."

Valerie winked as Lisa slung her long black coat over her shoulders and headed toward the door. The nights had turned decidedly chilly lately it seemed. Stopping just before she unlocked the deadbolts, Lisa turned and narrowed her eyes at her.

"Valerie, I am not going to do any of that stuff, you know that don't you?"

Putting her hand on the door to open it and usher them out, Valerie just smiled and shrugged her shoulders at Lisa.

"Whatever. Let's go."

And with that, Lisa left the apartment she would never see again.

CHAPTER 1

BIG CITY

THE CRAMPED OFFICE that doubled as a coat closet occupied the corner of an equally small building on Dearborn. Wedged between a high rise and a parking garage, this building seemed out of place in the neighborhood with its grand old charm. Inside, various businesses and independent offices called this place home. The windows that covered one wall of the office afforded a view of Lake Michigan to the east. With her feet kicked up on the desk and her chair leaned back, Tina Amphipoli wasn't the least bit interested in the view outside her window. Instead, her attention was directed at the police detective standing in her office as he explained the situation to her. With an even tone, she slightly raised one eyebrow in response to his request, her blue eyes pinning him where he stood.

"Let me get this straight, Sam. First of all, you want me to take this case. And then you want me to take a partner. Is that right?"

Sam Lamonie nervously looked out the window and then looked back into deep blue eyes. While both of these requests were true, he couldn't bring himself to say it in a statement, so the answer came out as a question.

"Yes?"

"No."

With that, Tina swivelled her chair around and proceeded to slide down into her chair with her feet propped up on the window sill, the heat of the radiator warming her up as the cold fall wind blew outside. October was such an unpredictable month in Chicago; sometimes it was 90 degrees one week and then 20 degrees and snowing the next. Unfortunately it had chosen this week to dip down to some of the coldest of the season and Tina wasn't about to go outside unless she needed to. At least not until it was time to go home.

"But, Tina, please. Our people have been working this case for months now and we're nowhere close to turning up a fruitful clue. The chief is breathing down my neck. If I don't come up with one good lead soon, it'll be my job. Please..."

The woman of few words simply picked up her Tribune and continued to read the sports page. Reading any other part of the paper was tedious and depressing. She had been reading about the new womens' basketball leagues for over a year now and she was still trying to figure out whether Kate Starbird had signed with the WNBA or with the ABL. Why wasn't there more coverage in this paper, dammit?

"One more turned up missing last night, Tina."

With Sam's soft words, the tall woman lowered her paper and sighed. Turning around in her chair, she looked down at her hands for a moment, as if pondering whether an answer lay in her palms. Standing, she was a good foot and a half taller than the balding desperate detective as she looked down at him. Of course, she knew that they only came to her when the cases were hopeless. The brass still had it in for her ever since the night she was kicked off the force but they would reluctantly turn a blind eye when Lamonie would seek out her assistance in the more dire of cases. There was no love lost between her and Chicago PD. But, her renegade ways were effective and sometimes, that was more important than protocol.

"Fine. I'll take the case."

Lamonie's face lit up at that statement as he started to move towards her to do something silly like hug her. One raised eyebrow stopped him dead in his tracks and he just stood there awkwardly.

"But I don't take partners."

With that, Tina turned to her coat rack and grabbed her brown leather jacket and put it on. The thigh-length jacket was worn, having seen too many Chicago winters, but the bronze zipper and small buckles at the cuffs shone as bright as they did the day it was custom made. Adjusting her collar and pulling her long jet-black hair free, Tina reached into her inside coat pocket and dug out her wire-rim sunglasses and put them on. Her usual v-neck white t-shirt was loosely tucked into her usual blue jeans, a wide brown leather belt and brown cowboy boots completing the outfit. She rarely varied her style, justifying it as easier to put the same type of thing on day after day than to have to choose what to wear in the morning. It was functional and served it's purpose, why change?

Reaching into her desk drawer, Tina pulled out her gun and holster and clipped it on her belt at her back, under the jacket and tucked into her jeans. It was a shining silver .38 Special with a black handle and a brass trigger. Frowning upon some of the newer guns out there on the street, the private eye preferred the time honored weapon of choice by police departments for years. Besides, this was her brother's gun when he had been on the force and she never let it out of her sight. She reached in the drawer to grab her other weapon, an illegal switchblade, and tucked into her boot. Standing up, she eyed Lamonie and grabbed her keys.

"What?"

The detective was nervously wringing his hands together as he looked at his watch.

"Um..Tina. Look, I promised the department that I would involve one other person in the investigation."

Tina narrowed her eyes behind her glasses and crossed her arms over her chest, decidedly irritated.

"Why? So they can keep an eye on me? No deal."

The tall woman shoved past Sam and headed out the door, switching out the lights and leaving the detective in the dark. He scrambled out the door before she shut and locked it and stood in front of her in the hallway, his eyes pleading.

"Tina, please, they don't want to watch over you.."

"Ha..right."

The private eye snorted and put her hand on Lamonie's shoulder to move him out of the way. He didn't budge and his face grew serious. Tina looked at him like he was half-crazy to try to stop her, pulling down her glasses to pierce him with a cold stare, raising her eyebrow in surprise.

"Please, Tina, your partner knows a lot about this case already and has studied others like it. If it doesn't work out, I promise we can make other plans, but please, please give this a try. We need all the help we can get on this. Kids are disappearing into thin air. Please.."

Tina looked up at the ceiling and sighed. If it weren't for that one haunting fact, Tina would have no trouble turning Sam down. Every day she witnessed the growing malaise in the city and across the nation. Young kids today were directionless and vulnerable to social forces more than when she was growing up. Many were lost and she felt a special pull towards defending the innocents. She had seen too many of the problems that plagued young kids today. Of course, her own childhood and adolescence in Detroit was not a bowl of cherries, especially after...

Shaking her head to clear her mind, Tina looked down at the anxious detective. With a slight nod of her head, she headed towards the exit.

"Fine. But I'll make no promises. I won't hesitate to go it alone if this 'partner' of yours gets in my way, ya got that?"

The tall woman stopped with her hand on the outside door, prepared to exit into the cool fall late afternoon. Lamonie sighed heavily and smiled.

"Yes, of course. Thank you..I knew I could count on you. I've arranged a meeting with your new partner in a half hour at the Italian Village. I figured we could kill two birds with one stone and have dinner as well."

Tina raised an eyebrow at Sam's presumptuous planning, not particularly liking the fact that he assumed she would say yes to the deal. She'd make him pay for dinner.

"Fine. You're paying. I'll see you there."

And with that, she climbed into her trusty gold '76 Buick Regal and started it, enjoying the feel of the supped up engine rumbling under her that she herself had built. Lamonie was just about to go around to the side of the car and get in as well, since he had been dropped off by a patrol car earlier.

"But..."

She smiled at Sam as she hit the gas pedal and roared down the street, leaving him standing on the sidewalk as a particularly biting wind blew through his flimsy coat.

"Damn.."

The overweight detective muttered under his breath and looked around for the nearest cab. Of course, there weren't any on this street it seemed and he'd have to walk three blocks up to get one. He wished he hadn't traded his own car in exchange for that worthless motor scooter he thought he'd use to save money on gas. Too bad it pretty much fell apart a day after he tried riding it up to the station. He never had much luck when it came to buying and selling things. But, he had persuaded Tina Amphipoli to take this case and right now, that's what motivated him down the street. That and the thought of some linguini and clam sauce.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 580