Page 47 of Givin' Me Fitz!
Sawyer smiled, put his hand on my shoulder, and pointed to the right. “Head that way.”
I followed his directions, and within a few minutes, I saw a sign with a cow dressed in a pink bikini and the word, Cowpokes, in lights across the bottom. I pulled into the gravel parking lot with a group of mobile homes, each with a small, covered porch.
There was one large double-wide trailer at the front of the property, with three smaller trailers in an L-shape next to it. The total number of trailers was nine, and it was the strangest setup I’d ever seen.
“You couldn’t build a big house or a hotel or somethin’ else here?”
Sawyer grinned. “According to the law, brothels can’t be permanent structures. These are all unattached from each other and can be moved at any time. Come on. I’ll show you.”
We walked to the front porch of the large double-wide and he opened the door, motioning for me to go first. A small woman met me at the counter near the door. “Good evening. I’m Bess. Do you have an appointment?”
“I, uh…”
I glanced behind me as Sawyer stepped inside. “He’s with me, Bess. Is TJ available?”
The woman looked between Sawyer and me. “What’s this about, Bones? These are my kids to look after. What’s going on?”
“Ma’am, I’m not here to do any harm to any of your kids. I just need to speak with TJ regarding his recent arrest. I’ve spoken to Mr. Abbott about it, and he’s agreed to bring me here and allow me to have a conversation with the young man.”
Bess didn’t look happy, but she picked up a phone and dialed a number. “TJ, Bones is on his way over with a cop.”
I chuckled, not correcting her, as we walked back outside and Sawyer led me past four trailers until we came to a small white one with a sign tacked onto the outside with the initialsTJ.
Sawyer knocked and called out, “TJ, it’s me.”
The door opened, and the young man greeted us with a big smile. “Hello, Bones. Is this asocialcall?” TJ scanned my body until he came to my face. His smile faded as he seemed to recognize me from when I bailed him out of jail.
“No, not really.” Sawyer handed the young man a hundred-dollar bill.
The kid took the money and stuffed it into the pocket of his gray sweatpants. He stepped aside and extended his hand. “Come in, please.”
The room was larger than I expected it to be, based on the size of the trailer. Though, my only frame of reference was the camping trailer a couple of wandering cowboys parked on the ranch in Midland one summer when they worked for my dad. It had a couple of tiny rooms, but this TJ’s trailer had been gutted and rebuilt as one large room.
There was a sitting area with a couple of chairs and a table with a lamp on one side of the bed, another chair was on the other side near a door, and in the middle was a king-sized bed. Hanging over it was a black leather sex swing.
I wasn’t sure where the hell to sit.
“TJ, take a seat. You remember Fitz Morgan. He bailed you out of jail not too long ago.” Sawyer pointed to the side of the bed, and TJ sat. I took the blue chair, and Sawyer sat in the other, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the sex swing. I’d never seen one before.
“Hi, Mr. Morgan.” TJ was a nice, polite kid… the kind of kid who could lie to his mother’s face with a sincere smile. I knew those types. I’d been one when I was young.
Sawyer cleared his throat. “Ricky tells me you’ve got a fight coming up. How’d he hear about it?”
“Fight? What fight, Bones?” TJ’s nose scrunched up, and his gaze wouldn’t meet Sawyer’s. It was a dead giveaway he was lying.
I reached for my phone and pulled up the video, turning the screen toward TJ. “What’s this about?” He reached out and took the device.
When the video started, the young man swallowed and glanced at me. “Where’d you get this?”
I sat up straighter, pulling up the authoritarian voice I’d honed to perfection over the years. “TJ, son, there isn’t a street, lane, boulevard, or alley in Las Vegas that doesn’t have a street camera recording every move people make. This is the age of big brother, with facial recognition capabilities to identify wanted criminals and possible crimes in progress.
“I’m aware that’s Jimmy Germaine. He’s been identified as a trainer at Boxed In, where you happen to occasionally be a sparring partner for some MMA fighters. Tell us why you met Jimmy at the Blue Diamond Casino?”
I might have embellished the ability of LVPD to run facial recognition through the municipal cameras because I didn’t know what they could or couldn’t do since I’d never worked for them. It was widely known that the big casinos employed it every day to keep an eye on the clientele for signs of cheating, pickpocketing, or any trouble that might disrupt the good times people flocked to Las Vegas to experience.
I was willing to bet my pinky toe that Lawry Schatz was hacking into a few of the cameras at Blue Diamond Casino as I sat there interrogating the kid. The man was fucking thorough.
“Jimmy said I might have a shot at a sanctioned fight so I could get my name out and start building a ranking to get picked up by the league. Ricky said the same thing, so I went to meet with Romero Garza to discuss a match.” His face flushed as he answered.
