the Prostitutes' Ball (2010) by Stephen - Scully 10 Cannell Read Free Book Online

view of the sparkling lights of Bel Air. We headed along a hedge-trimmed path to a carriage house, which was bigger than my place in Venice. Brooks opened the front door.
    The main room was a mess. Beer cans, empty scotch bottles, and old fast-food boxes littered every surface. Girls' undergarments bloomed like lacy, pastel mushrooms on the furniture and floor. There was a dusting of white powder on most of the tabletops.
    " 'Scuse the mess," Dunbar mumbled as he led me upstairs to the large master suite.
    The bedroom looked like a bomb had gone off in a men's store.
    I followed him over to a table littered with a ton of debris. He swept it off onto the floor with his hand and there, serving as an elaborate base for a glass-topped coffee table, was a .50 caliber, water-cooled, antique Browning Model 1809 machine gun from World War I. It was sitting on a low tripod stand.
    "Does it even work?" I asked.
    It looked like an art piece, a decorative table base for gun freaks or Rambo fans. It was undoubtedly welded in place and missing the firing pin. I was starting to fantasize about smacking this little chump.
    "I don't know," he whined. "How should I know? Can I go now?"
    "Do you know Scott Berman?" I asked.
    "The producer?"
    "No, the butterfly collector."
    I was losing it.
    "I think my dad knows him. He's been here at parties and stuff. I don't pay much attention to shit like that. I got my own life."
    "What do you pay attention to?"
    "The color of Lindsay's or Paris's undies or the lack thereof." He giggled. Then he touched the bum marks on his T-shirt. "Man, that taze was brutal. My nipples are still stinging."
    "Detective Scully, is it really necessary to do this tonight?" Stender Sheedy Jr. interjected.
    "Yes it is." I turned to Dunbar. "When was the last time you went to your house on Skyline Drive?"
    "I don't go up there. I told you, it's a fucking investment. It's in my trust."
    "The Dorothy White Foundation?"
    "Yes."
    "Who is Dorothy White?"
    "My mother. It's her maiden name. They named my dumbass trust after her for some fucked-up reason nobody can ever quite explain." "And you never go up to 3151 Skyline?"
    "It's an investment," he almost shrieked. "I don't fuck with that shit. I have people who do that for me." He was becoming very agitated.
    Then, apropos of absolutely nothing, he said, "It's fucking Christmas, dude. You know, Christmas?"
    "How much cocaine do you do?"
    "I'm taking the fifth on that one, buddy," he sneered angrily.
    Now Stender Sheedy, sensing my displeasure and his client's jeopardy, stepped forward. "Brooks wants to cooperate, Detective, it's just hard when he has fifty guests."
    I turned to Brooks. "Where were you between ten and ten fifteen tonight?"
    "He was here," Stender said.
    "Yeah," Brooks agreed. "I was right here, asshole."
    "The party started at nine thirty," Stender said. "He's got fifty witnesses. He doesn't know anything."
    Which had to be the understatement of this entire holiday season.
    "Okay. Here's the deal, Mr. Sheedy. You have your client in my office tomorrow morning at nine A . M . Have him cleaned up and sober. Otherwise, I'm going to issue a warrant for his arrest as a material witness."
    I already knew that this stoned pudgeball wasn't involved in my triple murder, but I had some more questions that I needed to ask him on background. As it was, he was so loaded I'd have to do all of this again anyway, because a statement taken while a witness is under the influence of a powerful drug wouldn't hold up in court. I took out two business cards and handed one to Brooks, the other to Sheedy.
    "Where do they make these up, Kinko's?" Brooks said, frowning at the department-issued card.
    "I'll find my partner and get out of here," I told Sheedy. "Have him there on time tomorrow."
    "He'll be there," Stender promised.
    I walked back to the main house and was just heading into the living room when I saw the girl in the green sequined mini come out of the powder room.
    "Excuse me,