When he got to the first floor, the doors opened and his two favorite detectives, Reese and Shabato, were waiting, their jaws somewhat slack.
“I warmed him up for you,” Tony said, passing them.
Not bad. He’d managed to get thrown out of two offices in just a few days. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a record for him.
BOOM TOWN 85
CHAPTER 14
Tony got back to Bend in the late afternoon. The pass around Mount Hood had been cleared, with the exception of the very top, which still had piles of heavy snow unplowed.
Bend itself was clear and cloud-free, like it was nearly three hundred days a year.
Tony would be the first to admit that his methods when working a case were somewhat unorthodox. Trying to use logic, he collected information from those he thought should give him what he needed to know. Then he sifted out the bullshit. What remained should be the truth. Problem was, damn near everything he was currently collecting seemed to be irrelevant bullshit.
He didn’t know if Frank Peroni had anything to do with Dan and Barb Humphrey dying, yet he was certain the man knew something about it. And the fact that he had disappeared right around the same time as their deaths was reason for concern.
He’d watched far too many old episodes of Barnaby Jones to dismiss the notion that Frank might have died in the fire at Cascade Peaks Estates. Since there hadn’t been much left of Dan after the blast and blaze, it was a possibility.
Tony pulled into the parking lot of a new development west of Bend’s old downtown. It was one of those trendy complexes of tourist shops, condos, and high tech manufacturing along the Deschutes River on the former site of a huge wood products facility. At one time a couple thousand people used to work there dur-86
TREVOR SCOTT
ing Bend’s heyday as a lumbering town. Pickup trucks and black coffee. Now it was Beemers and cappuccino.
As he walked up to the building housing Cliff Humphrey’s development company, he stopped for a moment taking in the scene of Mount Bachelor to the west. He had found out that this was Humphrey’s second office. The main office was in downtown Portland on the twentieth floor of the Lange Building, a tall mirrored generic structure with a view of Riverfront Park and the Willamette River, and, presumably, Mount Hood whenever it wasn’t raining.
Looking out across the Deschutes, Tony realized that almost directly across the river was Dan Humphrey’s old office. Dad looking down on son. Nice.
The outside of the building was stone over wood. It was a single story structure with a prime spot along the river. Canada geese wandered about in the wet grass along the shore.
Inside was a large, open room with fairly modest industrial carpet, pure white walls with original watercolors, and large plants positioned nearly everywhere. There were a few drafting desks facing away from the bank of windows that ran the length of the room. Tony could see why. The architects wouldn’t have gotten any work done with a view of the Cascades like that. In the center of the room was a few more desks divided by padded parti-tions.
There wasn’t much activity in the place for a Monday. Maybe the boss had let them go early to catch some of the powder that had fallen on the mountain the night before.
A receptionist sat at the front of the large room. Although she had all the attributes of a full-fledged woman, she looked pre-pubescent in her retro 70s attire. Reminded Tony of someone he might have asked to a high school dance in the Disco era. She was wearing one of those headset phones over curly red hair, talking at someone who didn’t want to listen. So she hung up and smiled at Tony.
“You’re Tony Caruso,” she said.
BOOM TOWN 87
“Good guess.”
“It wasn’t a guess,” she said. “I looked you up on the web for Mr. Humphrey. Saw the picture of you after that explosion in Seattle.”
One of his finer moments. Tony had damn near lost his left arm in that debacle.
“I warmed him up for you,” Tony said, passing them.
Not bad. He’d managed to get thrown out of two offices in just a few days. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a record for him.
BOOM TOWN 85
CHAPTER 14
Tony got back to Bend in the late afternoon. The pass around Mount Hood had been cleared, with the exception of the very top, which still had piles of heavy snow unplowed.
Bend itself was clear and cloud-free, like it was nearly three hundred days a year.
Tony would be the first to admit that his methods when working a case were somewhat unorthodox. Trying to use logic, he collected information from those he thought should give him what he needed to know. Then he sifted out the bullshit. What remained should be the truth. Problem was, damn near everything he was currently collecting seemed to be irrelevant bullshit.
He didn’t know if Frank Peroni had anything to do with Dan and Barb Humphrey dying, yet he was certain the man knew something about it. And the fact that he had disappeared right around the same time as their deaths was reason for concern.
He’d watched far too many old episodes of Barnaby Jones to dismiss the notion that Frank might have died in the fire at Cascade Peaks Estates. Since there hadn’t been much left of Dan after the blast and blaze, it was a possibility.
Tony pulled into the parking lot of a new development west of Bend’s old downtown. It was one of those trendy complexes of tourist shops, condos, and high tech manufacturing along the Deschutes River on the former site of a huge wood products facility. At one time a couple thousand people used to work there dur-86
TREVOR SCOTT
ing Bend’s heyday as a lumbering town. Pickup trucks and black coffee. Now it was Beemers and cappuccino.
As he walked up to the building housing Cliff Humphrey’s development company, he stopped for a moment taking in the scene of Mount Bachelor to the west. He had found out that this was Humphrey’s second office. The main office was in downtown Portland on the twentieth floor of the Lange Building, a tall mirrored generic structure with a view of Riverfront Park and the Willamette River, and, presumably, Mount Hood whenever it wasn’t raining.
Looking out across the Deschutes, Tony realized that almost directly across the river was Dan Humphrey’s old office. Dad looking down on son. Nice.
The outside of the building was stone over wood. It was a single story structure with a prime spot along the river. Canada geese wandered about in the wet grass along the shore.
Inside was a large, open room with fairly modest industrial carpet, pure white walls with original watercolors, and large plants positioned nearly everywhere. There were a few drafting desks facing away from the bank of windows that ran the length of the room. Tony could see why. The architects wouldn’t have gotten any work done with a view of the Cascades like that. In the center of the room was a few more desks divided by padded parti-tions.
There wasn’t much activity in the place for a Monday. Maybe the boss had let them go early to catch some of the powder that had fallen on the mountain the night before.
A receptionist sat at the front of the large room. Although she had all the attributes of a full-fledged woman, she looked pre-pubescent in her retro 70s attire. Reminded Tony of someone he might have asked to a high school dance in the Disco era. She was wearing one of those headset phones over curly red hair, talking at someone who didn’t want to listen. So she hung up and smiled at Tony.
“You’re Tony Caruso,” she said.
BOOM TOWN 87
“Good guess.”
“It wasn’t a guess,” she said. “I looked you up on the web for Mr. Humphrey. Saw the picture of you after that explosion in Seattle.”
One of his finer moments. Tony had damn near lost his left arm in that debacle.
Similar Books
