Chapter Nine

Detective Sutton looked at the extremely attractive blonde behind the reception desk. He had made the journey downtown to the offices of US Rock as no-one had seemed to have the time to talk to him on the telephone, plus it was always better to get a face to face in order to read their body language. He unwrapped the wool scarf from around his neck, shivered as some melted snow briefly touched his bare neck, and smiled at the woman. The sign behind her on the wall read Bauer Media Corp, which he guessed was the parent company.

He stepped closer to the reception desk and smiled. She was more attractive the closer he got and was wearing the sexiest dress he‘d ever seen, even if it was totally unsuitable for the weather outside. A 1950’s style halter dress in black with sexy little cherry bomb prints dotted all over it.

He cleared his throat, his smile faltering a little as he struggled to stop staring at her.

‘Damn it all, I need to get laid’ he thought fleetingly as she looked up from some paperwork and smiled at him

‘Oh hell, I’m lost’

“Good morning, welcome to US Rock. How can I help you?”

‘British as well. Shit I am so dead.'

“Hi, Veronica,” he squinted, reading her name tag, “I’m Detective Luke Sutton and I’m here to see Steve Hallitt.” he said in a rush.

Veronica looked at the handsome Detective and smiled to herself. It was the dress, she knew it was. She’d managed to pull every time she’d worn it and it looked like New York’s finest weren’t immune either.

“Ok, if you’d like to take a seat I’ll let him know you’re here.” she said, flicking her long wavy blonde hair over her shoulder, “Please help yourself to coffee while you wait.”

Luke sat down on a quite comfortable chair and leant back. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so affected by someone he’d just met. She really was stunning. Mentally shaking himself, he thought about the case he’d been given. He flipped open the folder and began to remind himself of the facts he had.

He was so lost in reading about Jenna’s life that he didn’t see the tall man approach him until he heard a cough.

Luke looked up into the greenest eyes he’d ever seen behind a pair of round wire framed glasses. A rather pleasant, non threatening face topped off with a mop of dark brown hair.

‘Jeez, he looks like that Harry Potter actor.’ Luke caught himself thinking as he got up from his seat and went to shake the proffered hand.

“Hi. I’m Steve Hallitt.”

He noticed Luke staring at him and chuckled.

“I guess you’re thinking, Christ he looks like Harry Potter,” Steve said, good naturedly. “I’ve heard it pretty much every day since that first film came out. Even got to the point where I was going to carve that damned lightening scar into my forehead .” he ran his hands down his jeans.

Luke recovered himself and forced himself to stop staring. “I’m…I apologise for staring, it’s just so uncanny.”

Steve smiled. “Apology accepted. You know that’s one thing I miss about not having Jenna here. She’s so damned protective towards us you know. I had to stop her from physically hurting one band member once when he wouldn’t stop calling me Harry. Anyway, this is our meeting room,” Steve said, leading Luke into a small but airy room, containing a couple of sofas, a well worn coffee table, a couple of bottles of Jack Daniels and a widescreen TV.

“Well, the guys we interview won’t sit round a table like normal, they’d just get up and leave you know…so we have to provide a few home comforts.” Steve explained to Luke’s look of astonishment.

“It’s cool, just wish I could get our Captain to approve something like this.” He said, sitting down in a squishy leather seat.

Steve sat opposite him, straightening his tee shirt and rubbing the palms of his hands on his jeans.

“You ok? You look a bit nervous.” Luke said, curiously.

“Oh yeah man, I’m fine, you know even though my uncle is who he is, I still get nervous around cops. Guess it comes with the territory you know…we’re not meant to be the most law abiding people us rockers…” he trailed off, running his hand through his mop of hair, making it stick out in all directions.

Luke smiled to put the man at ease. It wasn’t the first time he’d interviewed someone who was nervous, though it did usually mean they were guilty, of something at least.

“So, down to business. You reported Miss Riley missing when exactly?” Luke asked, wanting to get Steve to tell the story again, rather than rely on his notes. That way if there were any discrepancies Luke would spot them.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, for Steve anyway, his story matched the one written down.

“Tell me what she’s like as a person.” Luke asked.

Steve looked at him, taken aback at the question.

“Erm.”

“You said she was protective of you all.”

“Well, yeah, to a point.”

“And that point being?” Luke tried to prompt him.

“Well, she is protective of us all but can be a bit acidic if any of us are late getting the mag to bed every month.”

“Ok. In what way acidic?” Luke looked at the man in front of him, taking in the fidgeting and twitching. He knew there was something behind it and if he could probe deep enough maybe he would get the full story. This was the bit he hated, the bit where he had to be polite and listen to well meaning but obviously bullshit diatribe before the speaker hopefully got the point.

“Well, I hate to speak ill of her but, oh man, she can be a right bitch.” Steve slumped in his seat.

Luke stared in astonishment as Steve began to unload. Ok, so maybe he didn’t have to wait that long before the truth came out.

“She’s been here for six months and, yeah the magazine’s never been run so smoothly but man, is it worth it? Everything has to be done just so. I mean you saw V on reception, yeah? She’s a looker right? Well Jenna hated the fact that she dresses like ‘a 1950’s housewife on acid’ and made it her life’s work to bully her into leaving.”

“Why don’t you fire her then, you are the editor, aren’t you?” Luke asked, causing Steve to stop mid-rant and look at the man in astonishment.

“Because she’s fucking good at her job. If I fired everyone I’d ever had an argument with I’d have no staff. Ok, listen, when I said bitch maybe that was a bit much and V? Well V can be a bit much sometimes, not much going on upstairs if you get my meaning. Listen this magazine was on its last legs before she came over. She was working for Kerrang magazine in London and came over for a year or two to get us back together which she is doing, so we forgive her for her rants and general bitchiness.”

Luke sighed inside. It was obvious he wasn’t going to get much out of Steve. Something was going on and Steve had decided to backtrack on his earlier rant making Luke’s job even harder.
“I mean she’s not that bad to work with, and it’s not like I’m Jon Bon Jovi…” Steve chuckled.

“What do you mean?” Luke asked, intrigued.

“Oh man, she fucking hates that dude with a passion. No-one knows why. She has done for, like, ever,” He got up from his seat, “Come and see her desk and you’ll get a better idea.”

Luke followed Steve out of the meeting room and into a large, overcrowded, bustling room, filled with rock memorabilia, tons of paper, and the generally harassed staff of a monthly rock magazine. Some unidentifiable song screamed out from a small digital radio that was half buried under a pile of paperwork.

He smiled at the people behind desks as he passed, feeling more and more like a Mormon caught knocking on Ozzy Osborne’s front door, asking him if he’d heard of Jesus.

He was led up to a neat and tidy desk, covered with rows of in trays, all with various stickers neatly typed and was struck by the contrast between this one and the rest. He couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, except for the tidiness until Steve opened the door of a small cupboard that sat adjacent to the desk.

Luke’s eyes widened as he took in the various and many defaced and pock marked pictures of not only Jon but the whole band. He gulped as he realised one of them still had a dart sticking in it, right slap bang in the middle of Jon’s forehead.

“Ok,” he said, “I see what you mean about ‘she hates them’. Why did you show me?” he asked.

“Just thought you needed to see she’s someone who can take care of herself and that she’s got a nasty and vicious side to her so if she’s missing? Something bad has happened to her.” Steve said, perturbed that the officer had obviously missed the in joke that no one who works for a rock magazine likes Bon Jovi.