Early the next afternoon, Montoya crept into the club, using a key that Dent had given her the night before. The interior was dark and her footsteps echoed on the floor as she entered from the rear door. The very back of the building was the storage area, holding the alcohol and other necessities for running the bar. To her right were a series of tiny rooms that were used as dressing rooms for the singers. There were only five rooms, which meant that on any given night, someone was sharing with one other girl.
Continuing down the small hall, Montoya came across the break room to the right and Morley's office on her left. Beyond that lay the kitchen and dishwashing area and then the main part of the club and stage. It was a large club, holding two hundred at its peak. Most nights it only held half of that, from what Morley had told her. Montoya looked around, knowing that somewhere in this building, was one of TwoFace's hideouts. A hideout that he was currently using.
Shaking away the thought, she returned to the backstage area and entered Morley's office. Carefully, she slipped into his char, uneasy. She had been given permission to be here. Yet, she still felt somehow uninvited. Shrugging off the feeling, she powered up the PC and waited for it to load up. In the silence of the early afternoon, the sounds of the computer booting up sounded deafening to Montoya.
The first thing that Montoya learned that day was that Bob Morley was not an orderly person. His desktop, both they physical one and the one on his computer, were grumbled and cluttered with all sorts of useless information. Clicking on the search button, she typed in "schedule" and waited for a hit.
As she sat there, she started flipping through the stacks of papers on Bob Morley's desk. There were hundreds of song lyrics stuck between empty take-out bins. Empty checkbooks and overflowing files full of invoices and bills. Curious, she opened up one of the files. They were typical for the business; liquor store, restaurant supply, that kind of thing. Nothing was catching her eye and she was about to turn her attention back to the computer when an invoice did catch her eye.
Jay's Sound Systems
System Refurbish: Sanyo 3x2505 $5000
Picked up 3/16 by Jay Moore
Delivered 3/17 by Jay Moore
Serviced by Jay Moore
This normally would not have caught her eye, but her brother's girlfriend owned a karaoke bar and Montoya remembered that she had just picked up a new system for around that price. She also thought back to the previous night, when while she was singing, the system had cut out on her. Jay obviously did not to quality work. However, as she really did not see this as being relevant to her case, she was about to put it to the side. The detective in her could not though, and she found herself writing down all the pertinent information about the invoice. She also searched the invoice files and found eight more jobs that Jay did for the Two of Hearts in the last year.
"Interesting," she whispered to herself, now intent on her find. She picked up the phone and dialed the number for "Jays" and let it ring. A young man picked up on the fifth ring.
"Jay's Sound Systems"
"Yes, I have an old Sanyo 3x2505 that just broke down. How much would that be to fix or refurbish?"
"Can you hold on a few minutes, I'll have to go check."
"Sure thing."
Absentmindedly, she flipped through one of the many catalogues scattered on the desk as she waited. Minutes passed, and suddenly, she felt as if she were no longer alone. She lifted her eyes and saw Morley leaning against the door jam. He did not look happy. She nodded to him in greeting just as the other end of the line came back to life.
"Ma'am?"
"Yes?" She motioned for Morley to remain silent, just as her eyes caught sight of the new Sanyo system listed in the catalogue for $7000. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"That system is REAL old, we can re-furb it for you for $3000, but your best bet would be to shell out the extra for the new G90. For the price it's tons better and comes with a warranty."
"I see. Thank you. I'll think about it."
She hung up the phone and turned to Morley as he spoke.
"What are you doing in here?"
She ignored the question and dismissed it with a wave of her hand.
"Your getting ripped off." She held up the invoices, then the catalogue she had just been reading. "And, more than that, you know you're getting screwed. Why?"
The detective waited for a few moments for an answer. When none was forthcoming, she continued.
"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. The easy way involves you telling me what is really going on around here, Bob. The hard way? I go and get your boss, which you neglected to tell me about. Have you ever heard of obstruction of justice? Or how about harboring a fugitive? I highly doubt that TwoFace is the kind of guy who will take your skimming of profits easily. So, why don't you shut the door and we can chat."
To his credit, Morley did as he was told and entered the office and shut the door quietly behind him. He started to pace nervously, obviously agitated.
"I'm waiting, Morley. Don't waste my time."
He looked over at her and glared daggers with his eyes. She met his gaze with her own unwavering. They stayed like this for several long moments, before Morley finally backed down. Sighing, he cast his eyes away.
"What do you want to know?"
"Lets start with this," she gestured to the papers in her hand. "Then we can move on to other topics."
"Jay and I go way back. Ran with the came crowd, you know. Well, he came up with the idea. Split the extra 50/50 and no one would be the wiser. I mean come on, what was he going to do, go to the cops?"
Montoya hated stupid thieves.
"Actually, yes, he could. As much as it boggles the mind, you can be a felon, a criminally insane one at that, and still own property. As long as it's legit and taxes are paid. Check the law books, Morley…. Hell, haven't you ever heard of the Iceberg Lounge?"
Morley pales at this new information, then sat down in an extra chair and held his head in his hands, groaning.
"Damn my luck!"
"It appears to me that you've created your own bad luck. Now, what I want to know is are you just a thief, of should I put you on the suspect list for murder, too?"
Bob looked up at that, a shocked expression on his face.
"M…Murder? I thought…" He lapsed into stunned silence, standing up and went over to a picture on the wall. A picture of him and a pretty blonde girl. "So, they aren't coming back, then?"
Montoya hated being the one to give news like this. She never knew what to say. Still, something tugged at the back of her mind. She could not place it, but it would come to her.
"You are going to find who's doing this, right?"
Morley had taken the picture down, and was holding it in his hands. Quite the shaken employer. Suddenly, one of last night's thoughts returned to her. Her caution to herself about trusting Morley. He had lied to her once; she would not rule him out as a suspect. She would have to be more careful this time.
"You bet I'm going to catch the bastard. I was just going to check the girls' schedules out. I wanted to see if there was any sort of pattern that the schedules might help me out with. Since you are here now, why don't you grab me that info?"
Montoya slid out of the chair and stood to the side, motioning for Morley to take the chair. He did so, albeit a bit reluctantly. Quickly, he pulled up the schedule databases and printed them of for her in silence.
"There you go, anything else," he asked her, obviously irritated. He handed her the printouts.
"Just one question. Why did you wait until he made you, to report this?"
He looked at her, his expression one of annoyance and anger. It appeared, for a time, that he was not going to answer her. She decided he needed a bit of persuasion to aid him.
"You know what you did…. It's called fraud? You know that fraud is a felony, right? I think you should be cooperative, Bob."
That, she noticed, got him talking right away.
"I honestly thought that the girls had just picked up their roots and left. It's not so strange, not in this city. Gotham had bad memories for them all."
You didn't notice the pattern to the disappearances?"
"Look, lady! I'm busy making sure the girls know their sons, that they look good. I need to make sure the booze keeps flowing and the customers are happy. Do you have any comprehension as to how many 'crises' these divas have a night? YOU keep track. The girls come and go. That's just how it is around here."
"You ever hook up with any of your girls? Try to get a little something on the side, maybe?"
"No…I mean, I have dated several of the women, but I don't use them." He shrugged for emphasis. " You date who you know. I'm sure you date other cops or something. I date my singers."
Morley's comment left the detective peeved. She took a deep breath and pushed his comment to the side. There was no sense in getting upset at his comment
"My love life isn't in question here. Yours is. Did you sleep with any of the missing women?"
"Just…Just one of them." He was lying. Montoya could spot a junkie any day just by looking at him. It was the same when she was with a liar. "Nicki Balint. She was the second to go missing. She's from Dayton originally. Had a brother in Gotham, but the Feds busted him for something. Then she was on her own. We connected."
Morley held up the picture that he had taken down earlier and handed it to Montoya.
"It was taken three days before she vanished."
Carefully, she scrutinized the picture for clues. The blonde woman had a mid calf green silk dress on and Morley was in a suit.
"It was our one month anniversary. Dating. You know how you women are. I took her out for a night on the town. She really enjoyed herself. It was the best night of our lives."
As he reminisced, she continued to examine the picture. She thought that she could just make bruising under the bangle bracelets that Nicki had worn on both arms. Bruises like she had been held or tied up. She wanted to take the picture to the CSI lab and have an expert look it over for her. She checked her watch and found that she still had over an hour before rehearsals would begin.
"Would you mind if I took this with me?"
Morley nodded in agreement and Montoya thanked him for his help. Gathering her things, she noticed a pensive look upon the man's face. She firmly believed that he knew more than he was telling her. She would think more on how to move forward with that after she got the picture to CSI. She wanted to know if the bruising on Nicki was consistent with any of the bruises on the victims. She knew there was going to be a long day's work ahead.
Continuing down the small hall, Montoya came across the break room to the right and Morley's office on her left. Beyond that lay the kitchen and dishwashing area and then the main part of the club and stage. It was a large club, holding two hundred at its peak. Most nights it only held half of that, from what Morley had told her. Montoya looked around, knowing that somewhere in this building, was one of TwoFace's hideouts. A hideout that he was currently using.
Shaking away the thought, she returned to the backstage area and entered Morley's office. Carefully, she slipped into his char, uneasy. She had been given permission to be here. Yet, she still felt somehow uninvited. Shrugging off the feeling, she powered up the PC and waited for it to load up. In the silence of the early afternoon, the sounds of the computer booting up sounded deafening to Montoya.
The first thing that Montoya learned that day was that Bob Morley was not an orderly person. His desktop, both they physical one and the one on his computer, were grumbled and cluttered with all sorts of useless information. Clicking on the search button, she typed in "schedule" and waited for a hit.
As she sat there, she started flipping through the stacks of papers on Bob Morley's desk. There were hundreds of song lyrics stuck between empty take-out bins. Empty checkbooks and overflowing files full of invoices and bills. Curious, she opened up one of the files. They were typical for the business; liquor store, restaurant supply, that kind of thing. Nothing was catching her eye and she was about to turn her attention back to the computer when an invoice did catch her eye.
Jay's Sound Systems
System Refurbish: Sanyo 3x2505 $5000
Picked up 3/16 by Jay Moore
Delivered 3/17 by Jay Moore
Serviced by Jay Moore
This normally would not have caught her eye, but her brother's girlfriend owned a karaoke bar and Montoya remembered that she had just picked up a new system for around that price. She also thought back to the previous night, when while she was singing, the system had cut out on her. Jay obviously did not to quality work. However, as she really did not see this as being relevant to her case, she was about to put it to the side. The detective in her could not though, and she found herself writing down all the pertinent information about the invoice. She also searched the invoice files and found eight more jobs that Jay did for the Two of Hearts in the last year.
"Interesting," she whispered to herself, now intent on her find. She picked up the phone and dialed the number for "Jays" and let it ring. A young man picked up on the fifth ring.
"Jay's Sound Systems"
"Yes, I have an old Sanyo 3x2505 that just broke down. How much would that be to fix or refurbish?"
"Can you hold on a few minutes, I'll have to go check."
"Sure thing."
Absentmindedly, she flipped through one of the many catalogues scattered on the desk as she waited. Minutes passed, and suddenly, she felt as if she were no longer alone. She lifted her eyes and saw Morley leaning against the door jam. He did not look happy. She nodded to him in greeting just as the other end of the line came back to life.
"Ma'am?"
"Yes?" She motioned for Morley to remain silent, just as her eyes caught sight of the new Sanyo system listed in the catalogue for $7000. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"That system is REAL old, we can re-furb it for you for $3000, but your best bet would be to shell out the extra for the new G90. For the price it's tons better and comes with a warranty."
"I see. Thank you. I'll think about it."
She hung up the phone and turned to Morley as he spoke.
"What are you doing in here?"
She ignored the question and dismissed it with a wave of her hand.
"Your getting ripped off." She held up the invoices, then the catalogue she had just been reading. "And, more than that, you know you're getting screwed. Why?"
The detective waited for a few moments for an answer. When none was forthcoming, she continued.
"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. The easy way involves you telling me what is really going on around here, Bob. The hard way? I go and get your boss, which you neglected to tell me about. Have you ever heard of obstruction of justice? Or how about harboring a fugitive? I highly doubt that TwoFace is the kind of guy who will take your skimming of profits easily. So, why don't you shut the door and we can chat."
To his credit, Morley did as he was told and entered the office and shut the door quietly behind him. He started to pace nervously, obviously agitated.
"I'm waiting, Morley. Don't waste my time."
He looked over at her and glared daggers with his eyes. She met his gaze with her own unwavering. They stayed like this for several long moments, before Morley finally backed down. Sighing, he cast his eyes away.
"What do you want to know?"
"Lets start with this," she gestured to the papers in her hand. "Then we can move on to other topics."
"Jay and I go way back. Ran with the came crowd, you know. Well, he came up with the idea. Split the extra 50/50 and no one would be the wiser. I mean come on, what was he going to do, go to the cops?"
Montoya hated stupid thieves.
"Actually, yes, he could. As much as it boggles the mind, you can be a felon, a criminally insane one at that, and still own property. As long as it's legit and taxes are paid. Check the law books, Morley…. Hell, haven't you ever heard of the Iceberg Lounge?"
Morley pales at this new information, then sat down in an extra chair and held his head in his hands, groaning.
"Damn my luck!"
"It appears to me that you've created your own bad luck. Now, what I want to know is are you just a thief, of should I put you on the suspect list for murder, too?"
Bob looked up at that, a shocked expression on his face.
"M…Murder? I thought…" He lapsed into stunned silence, standing up and went over to a picture on the wall. A picture of him and a pretty blonde girl. "So, they aren't coming back, then?"
Montoya hated being the one to give news like this. She never knew what to say. Still, something tugged at the back of her mind. She could not place it, but it would come to her.
"You are going to find who's doing this, right?"
Morley had taken the picture down, and was holding it in his hands. Quite the shaken employer. Suddenly, one of last night's thoughts returned to her. Her caution to herself about trusting Morley. He had lied to her once; she would not rule him out as a suspect. She would have to be more careful this time.
"You bet I'm going to catch the bastard. I was just going to check the girls' schedules out. I wanted to see if there was any sort of pattern that the schedules might help me out with. Since you are here now, why don't you grab me that info?"
Montoya slid out of the chair and stood to the side, motioning for Morley to take the chair. He did so, albeit a bit reluctantly. Quickly, he pulled up the schedule databases and printed them of for her in silence.
"There you go, anything else," he asked her, obviously irritated. He handed her the printouts.
"Just one question. Why did you wait until he made you, to report this?"
He looked at her, his expression one of annoyance and anger. It appeared, for a time, that he was not going to answer her. She decided he needed a bit of persuasion to aid him.
"You know what you did…. It's called fraud? You know that fraud is a felony, right? I think you should be cooperative, Bob."
That, she noticed, got him talking right away.
"I honestly thought that the girls had just picked up their roots and left. It's not so strange, not in this city. Gotham had bad memories for them all."
You didn't notice the pattern to the disappearances?"
"Look, lady! I'm busy making sure the girls know their sons, that they look good. I need to make sure the booze keeps flowing and the customers are happy. Do you have any comprehension as to how many 'crises' these divas have a night? YOU keep track. The girls come and go. That's just how it is around here."
"You ever hook up with any of your girls? Try to get a little something on the side, maybe?"
"No…I mean, I have dated several of the women, but I don't use them." He shrugged for emphasis. " You date who you know. I'm sure you date other cops or something. I date my singers."
Morley's comment left the detective peeved. She took a deep breath and pushed his comment to the side. There was no sense in getting upset at his comment
"My love life isn't in question here. Yours is. Did you sleep with any of the missing women?"
"Just…Just one of them." He was lying. Montoya could spot a junkie any day just by looking at him. It was the same when she was with a liar. "Nicki Balint. She was the second to go missing. She's from Dayton originally. Had a brother in Gotham, but the Feds busted him for something. Then she was on her own. We connected."
Morley held up the picture that he had taken down earlier and handed it to Montoya.
"It was taken three days before she vanished."
Carefully, she scrutinized the picture for clues. The blonde woman had a mid calf green silk dress on and Morley was in a suit.
"It was our one month anniversary. Dating. You know how you women are. I took her out for a night on the town. She really enjoyed herself. It was the best night of our lives."
As he reminisced, she continued to examine the picture. She thought that she could just make bruising under the bangle bracelets that Nicki had worn on both arms. Bruises like she had been held or tied up. She wanted to take the picture to the CSI lab and have an expert look it over for her. She checked her watch and found that she still had over an hour before rehearsals would begin.
"Would you mind if I took this with me?"
Morley nodded in agreement and Montoya thanked him for his help. Gathering her things, she noticed a pensive look upon the man's face. She firmly believed that he knew more than he was telling her. She would think more on how to move forward with that after she got the picture to CSI. She wanted to know if the bruising on Nicki was consistent with any of the bruises on the victims. She knew there was going to be a long day's work ahead.