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

of marriage. Anyway, in Flame’s dressing room that night, he and Adrian got into another one of their big arguments.”
    “What about?” Berenger asked.
    “The usual,” Gina replied. “Adrian’s career, mostly. Flame always accused Adrian of being lazy, and I suppose that’s true to an extent. It’s common knowledge that Adrian didn’t get along with his father. Flame disinherited him in 1988. At the time they were both doing a lot of drugs and drinking way too much. You know how Flame could get really belligerent when he was drunk? So can Adrian. Adrian resented the fact that Flame wouldn’t help him with a career in music. All he had to do was pull a few strings and Adrian could have had a head start, but no, Flame wouldn’t do it. Adrian is talented, too. You’ve probably heard some of his music.”
    Berenger merely nodded. He remembered that Adrian made a record in the late-eighties that was released with fanfare as the album by “Flame’s son,” but it tanked—big time.
    “Wasn’t there an incident at one of Flame’s concerts that involved Adrian?” Berenger asked.
    Gina rolled her eyes. “Yeah. Adrian was drunk. He caused what the police called a ‘disturbance,’ and he was arrested. Adrian spent two days in jail because I wasn’t around and his father wouldn’t help him. Look, I know Adrian’s got a reputation for being a bad boy. He’s been arrested a few times, that’s the tabloid truth. But is he capable of murder ? No. Absolutely not.”
    Berenger nodded, letting all this sink in. “Well, I’m going to have to talk to him. Can you get me in to see him?”
    “Yeah,” Patterson said. “Visiting hours are restricted, even with his counsel. But we’ll manage something.”
    Rudy asked, “How did murder enter into this picture, anyway? Didn’t the guy hang himself?”
    Patterson frowned. “That’s what it looked like, at first. I don’t have all the details yet, but obviously the post-mortem revealed some things that weren’t immediately apparent. Like the fact that Flame was strangled to death before he was hung. The crime scene was staged to make it look like he had committed suicide.”
    Berenger looked at Gina. “So who do you think killed him?”
    “If you ask me it’s probably one of those creepy Messengers that Flame was hanging with. They’re definitely involved,” she said.
    “How do you know?”
    “Have you ever met them?” she asked. “They’re totally bonkers. They’re what the Manson family would have been if they’d been into Jesus instead of… well, Manson . And that girlfriend of his...”
    “Brenda Twist,” Patterson said.
    “Yeah. What a phony. I can see right through her,” Gina said. “She acts like she’s Mother Theresa but I’ll bet she’s got skeletons in her closet. Those people are just after Flame’s money.”
    “All right,” Berenger said. “Anyone else?”
    “I hate to say it,” Gina said, “but Dave Bristol is high on my list, too.”
    Berenger was surprised. “Dave? He was Flame’s friend and partner for years! The drummer for Hay Fever and Flame’s Heat!”
    “Exactly. You know they had a big falling out when Flame broke up Flame’s Heat and started doing the religious stuff?”
    “I guess they did,” Berenger agreed.
    “And Bristol and the rest of the band wanted to use the name Hay Fever but Flame wouldn’t let him. So they started calling themselves Blister Pack.”
    “There are some writing credits in dispute, too,” Patterson said. “Bristol filed a lawsuit against Flame two years ago, did you hear about that?”
    “Yeah, I think I did, now that you mention it. So you think Bristol had a grudge big enough to warrant murder?”
    Gina said, “You know Dave, don’t you? He has a temper worse than Flame’s. And a drinking problem, if you ask me. I think he’s into the nose candy as well.” She tapped her nostrils and sniffed.
    Berenger acknowledged that. Bristol had always been an unpredictable and