The Rock 'N Roll Detective's Greatest Hits - a Spike Berenger Anthology Read Online Free

it layered, just covering her ears and the back of her neck. Thin bangs hung about an inch on her forehead.
    “Seventy-nine?” Patterson asked. “But you and Flame…?”
    “Yeah, we were divorced,” Gina answered. “Had been for seven or eight years. Flame was married to that other harlot at the time.” She laughed to show she was kidding but Berenger knew she wasn’t.
    “You and Adrian met up with us in Paris, didn’t you?” Berenger offered. “Came to the show and saw Flame backstage?”
    “Yeah, wasn’t that a wonderful moment in the lives of the rich and famous? That bitch Carol threw a fit. Scared Adrian half to death. He was, what, seven? Eight? Spike here happened to step in and calm everyone down. Before you know it, he’s taking us to our hotel. The next day was your day off, wasn’t it, Spike?”
    “That’s right.”
    “And we toured Paris together.”
    Rudy looked at him with an “Oh, I see! ” expression. Berenger blushed.
    “We met again in LA, gosh, a year later?” she continued.
    “I think so,” Berenger said. He felt awkward with all this stuff coming out.
    “We dated for six weeks,” she said, looking at Berenger out the corner of her eye. “And then he dumped me!”
    Berenger cleared his throat and said, “Uhm, I seem to remember it was you that dumped me .”
    “I did? Why would I want to do that?” she said playfully. “You were quite the catch.”
    “Frankly, I don’t remember,” Berenger said, totally embarrassed. He couldn’t imagine how anyone could dump Gina Tipton, even Peter Flame. Berenger looked over at Rudy and saw that the forty-seven year old entrepreneur was already bopping in his chair. Extremely hyper, Rudy could never keep still. He was always drumming his fingers on the table or wiggling his leg or bouncing to a rhythm that only he could hear. Rudy knew the music business inside and out but he could be a maniac.
    “Uhm, is this, er, history , going to affect our working together?” Rudy asked.
    “Of course not!” Gina said. She looked at Berenger. “Is it?”
    “Uh, no, not at all,” Berenger said. “What are we doing together?”
    “I want you to clear my son,” she said. “He was arrested for murdering his father, for God’s sake.”
    “I take it you believe he’s innocent?” Berenger asked.
    “ Of course he’s innocent!” she said indignantly. “It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Someone’s trying to frame Adrian.”
    Patterson spoke up. “I’m representing Adrian and we’re doing everything possible to make sure this thing doesn’t go to trial. We’d like to hire your firm to investigate Flame’s murder and at the very least come up with some other suspects that the police aren’t considering. Our goal is to get the charges dropped.”
    “Where is Adrian now?” Berenger asked.
    “In jail!” Gina said.
    “They’re not going to let him out,” Patterson continued. “Bail has already been denied and frankly we’re not pushing for it for Adrian’s safety. There are Flame fans out there that would lynch the young man if he was seen on the street.”
    “I believe it,” Berenger said. The same thing would have happened to John Lennon’s assailant back in 1980. The fans were out for blood.
    “They’re transferring him to a protective custody facility at Rikers this afternoon,” the lawyer said.
    “Okay, let’s start at the beginning, as they say. Tell me exactly what happened this morning.” Berenger grabbed a legal pad and pen off of Rudy’s desk and began to take notes. Rudy began to drum his fingers on the desktop, completely unaware of how annoying it was.
    As Gina spoke, Berenger was impressed by her composure but he could see through the façade. She was very upset and her earlier kidding around was merely bravado.
    “I came east to visit Adrian a little over two weeks ago,” she said. “Adrian lives on the Upper West Side. I have a room at the Empire Hotel, across from Lincoln Center. I