Stone Barrington 27 - Doing Hard Time

computers, and your employment record from the computer at the hotel. Were you ever fingerprinted for any reason other than the casino application?”
    “Yes, for my carry license.”
    “I’ll delete that record tomorrow and make up a California license for you.”
    “You, sir, are a marvel,” she said to him.
    “Get changed into your new clothes,” he said. “I’ve booked a table at Spago Beverly Hills.”
    •   •   •
    While Betsy Barnett was applying her makeup, something occurred to her. If her ex-husband, Jimmy Sayer, tried to get in touch with her and failed, he would start looking for her, and she knew him to be tenacious. After a moment’s consideration, she called him.
    “Hello?”
    “Jimmy, it’s Charmaine.”
    “Hey, babe, I was just thinking about you. How about dinner and a roll in the hay?”
    “I’m afraid not, Jimmy. I got married.”
    “Really? Anybody I know?”
    “No, you don’t know him.”
    “One of your customers?”
    “Yes.”
    “And where are you living?”
    She hesitated. “That’s not important, Jimmy. You won’t be hearing from me again, and I don’t want you to try to find me.”
    “You sound serious,” he said.
    “I’m absolutely serious. For all practical purposes, I no longer exist. Understand?”
    “I can’t say that I do, but if this is what you want . . .”
    “It’s exactly what I want, Jimmy. This is goodbye.” She hung up, relieved that she was done with him forever.
    •   •   •
    Harry Katz knocked on Pete Genaro’s door and was invited in and told to sit.
    “How many cases you working on, Harry?” Genaro asked.
    “Three, at the moment.”
    “Hand ’em off to somebody else. I’ve got a special case for you, and I want you to devote a hundred percent of your time to it.”
    Harry produced a notebook and a pen. He was an ex–LAPD detective, and he had been trained to take copious notes. “Go.”
    “Remember Charmaine? One of my hostesses?”
    “The little blonde?”
    “That’s the one.”
    “What’s her last name?”
    “Evans.”
    Harry sighed. “Why do they all have such common names? Does she have any family?”
    “I’m working from memory, here,” Genaro said, “because her personnel file has been deleted from the hotel computer.”
    “No kidding? How’d she do that? Did she have anything to do with computers in her work here?”
    “Just her schedule.”
    “How about the state record of her casino worker’s application?”
    “Good idea, check that.”
    “Any close friends?”
    “Not that I know of. Her apartment’s been cleaned out, and her car was picked up by the leasing company from the employees’ lot.”
    “How about that husband of hers, the one we busted for that card-counting scam?”
    “Now, there’s a thought—I forgot about him. Last I heard he was working as a parking valet at the Sands. He won’t ever work indoors at a casino again.”
    “You have an address on him?”
    Genaro turned to his computer and searched the out-of-date employment files. “Got one, but who knows if he’s still there?”
    Harry made a note of it. “Well,” he said, “it’s a start.”
    “There’s something else, Harry.”
    “Shoot.”
    “Charmaine has a boyfriend named Billy Burnett. He checked in here a few weeks ago, wired us a quarter-million, and played poker for three or four days. Walked away up sixty grand. I ran every sort of check on the guy and came up with the standard stuff, but nothing that would help track him down.”
    “Billy Burnett,” Harry said, writing down the name.
    “William J. Burnett. Harry, the man is dangerous.”
    “How so?”
    “He doesn’t like being tracked. One of our major stockholders has lost four—count ’em, four—men who tried to track him. Two of them are buried
in their car
in the New Mexico desert. The other two have been found in the trunks of their cars in the parking garage at Shutters, in Santa Monica.”
    “Holy shit!” Harry said. “I guess that is what you’d call dangerous.” He noted the names of the four men, then took down the colors and tail number of Burnett’s airplane.
    Genaro was still typing away at his computer. “Well, shit,” he said, “her casino card application is gone from the state’s records, too.”
    “This Burnett sounds like a major computer geek,” Harry said.
    Genaro told him everything he could remember about both Charmaine and Billy Burnett. “Go get ’em,” he said. “When you find ’em,