Courting Suspicion

The uniform’s Adam’s apple bobbed. ‘Solicitation, sir, and breaking and entering.’

Well, that was a combination.

Josh muttered a curse and swiped a hand through his mussed hair. He hadn’t taken the time to primp before he’d driven over here. ‘Sounds like something you guys could handle. Why am I here?’

The cop swallowed hard again and shrugged.

The tired ache in Josh’s head pressed harder. He turned on his heel and strode down the hallway. The place was swanky. The carpeting was a deep emerald green. There were skinny wooden tables with spindly legs holding vases of flowers. The wall sconces looked to be brass, with frosted glass shades. The staff downstairs had all been clad in uniforms that matched the green carpeting, and just the air of the place said money.

It definitely wasn’t the kind of place that rented by the hour.

That didn’t mean that all the wealthy patrons didn’t have their eyes pressed against their doors’ peepholes right now, watching everything that was going on. They were probably just as pleased as he was at having been awakened in the wee hours, although the Emissary would no doubt be making it right with them.

He might get a handshake out of the deal.

With a grunt, he focused on the spectacle ahead of him. Police swarmed the end of the hallway, a lot for a solicitation charge. There were uniformed cops, a hotel manager, and some guy in a suit on a phone.

He frowned. What had happened? Had the john gotten rough? Was it a freaking orgy in there?

The young officer who’d called him stepped into the hallway, writing feverishly in his notebook. Simons was a good cop, and the son of the guy who’d mentored Josh. Blue ran in the family’s blood. The kid wouldn’t have called him here if he wasn’t needed.

‘Simons,’ Josh said.

The cop looked up and a relieved expression settled onto his face. ‘Detective Morgan. Thanks for coming.’

Josh crossed his arms over his chest. He felt a bit better for having been rolled out of bed. ‘You need an assist?’

‘Yeah.’ Simons blew out a breath and looked over his shoulder towards the hotel room. ‘I’m in over my head.’

So he’d called in someone he trusted enough to admit that to. Josh nodded in understanding. Usually, in cases like this, the patrol units handled the onsite arrests, and the case was handed off to the detective division for further follow-up. Something must be hinky for Simons to call in the detective unit early.

‘Solicitation, huh? You guys running a sting?’

‘No, we were called in because of the B&E.’

Josh frowned. ‘Who broke in? The pimp?’

Simons looked at his notebook. ‘TMI News. They’re one of those paparazzi news shows.’

The dull ache in Josh’s head intensified. He was starting to catch on now. It wasn’t what had happened that was causing the uproar. ‘Who is it?’

Someone he knew? Someone from one of his other cases trying to make a bad situation worse?

‘Senator Gunderson. The news guys swear he’s here with a prostitute.’

Ah, hell. That explained the extra personnel. Whenever you brought a political player into a case, things got messy. Like sewer-system messy. He knew. He was DC Metro PD. He’d had interactions with the Capitol Hill types before, but it had been a while. He didn’t want to get within a hundred feet of a stinker case like this.

But the kid was even less well equipped to deal with it.

Josh sighed. ‘You did good calling me.’

Everything needed to be handled by the book. All I’s needed to be dotted, and all T’s crossed. Not only did they have a political player, the press was already on the scene.

‘Walk me through it.’

Simons nodded feverishly. Colour was starting to come back to his cheeks. He flipped his notes through several pages. ‘The senator and his … date … rented the room around midnight. Not much later they were interrupted in the middle of … you know … doing the deed by two guys with a camera.’

Josh glanced at the door and doorframe for Room 740. They didn’t seem to be damaged. ‘How did they get in?’

‘I don’t know. I haven’t gotten that far yet.’

‘Who called it in?’

‘A few of the other guests on the floor. Apparently the news guys weren’t quiet.’ Simons jerked his thumb at the man in the hotel uniform. ‘Hotel management then called us.’

‘Did they tell you the guy was a senator?’

The cop confirmed with a nod. ‘Gunderson checked in under his own name. I don’t know much more than that. We just got the groups separated.’

‘All right.’ Josh rubbed the back of his neck. It was awfully strange for a politician to check in under his own name if he was with a prostitute – unless he was well known and knew people could identify him anyway.

Personally, he’d never heard of the guy. He must be doing a bang-up job on Capitol Hill.

Weren’t they all?

‘Oh, and one more thing,’ Simons said. ‘The senator is running for re-election.’

Shit. There went Josh’s hope of getting back to bed any time tonight.

‘Let’s see what everyone has to say.’ Political prima donna or not, the crime scene process was the same. Josh shook off his tiredness as he started to look over everything. Simons was on his heels, but they both stopped to take a better gander at the door. There weren’t any signs of impact or tampering, just normal wear and tear.

‘Hey, you,’ somebody inside the room called. ‘You in charge here?’

Josh’s eyes narrowed on the scruffy-looking duo. They had to be the so-called reporters. One was wearing a ragged old George Washington University hoodie, ripped jeans and rundown tennis shoes. The other had floppy hair and a bad neck twitch. He kept jerking it around to get his hair out of his eyes. Hoodie carried a GoPro camera in his hand. It didn’t give the duo the appearance of ‘real’ reporters, but the camera was cheaper and probably more portable than the larger units professional news crews carried.

‘I’m Detective Morgan. I’ll be handling the investigation.’

‘Finally! Lance Durquist from TMI News. We caught them on film – dead to rights – the senator and his lady of the night.’ The reporter lifted his camera and started shooting again. ‘What can you tell us, Detective? When will the senator be hauled in front of a judge to pay for his crime?’

‘Turn that thing off,’ Josh growled.

He didn’t have to ask twice.

Hoodie looked nervous. ‘Arrest them, and we’ll get it on the morning web news.’

Like that was an incentive.

The reporter thrust out the camera. ‘Just watch it. It explains everything.’