Last Panda Standing Read online

  PROLOGUE

  Pandini Towers, the tallest and most splendid building in Kalamazoo City, was lit like a gigantic sparkler against the night sky. The penthouse suite was jammed with Kalamazoo City’s movers and shakers. Everyone was dressed to the nines, having paid top dollar to see and be seen, to gawp at the magnificent views of the city from the floor-to-ceiling windows, and above all, to rub elbows with the city’s most famous candidate for mayor—Frank Pandini Jr.

  Pandini had announced his candidacy not long after Mayor Saunders resigned from office as the result of the Kalamazoo City Dome scandal. At first it seemed like no one would have a chance against him. He was a celebrity. He was charming. A win was practically in the bag.

  But now, with just days remaining until the election, Pandini’s campaign was in trouble. His opponent, District Attorney Patrick McGovern, was running a scrappy grassroots push, convincing many that Pandini’s wealth and success put him out of touch with the typical Kalamazoo voter. Of course, McGovern himself was also one of the most prominent faces in Kalamazoo high society—but it wasn’t always that way. He grew up in one of the city’s poorer areas. And the more McGovern crowed about his own modest upbringing, the more he chipped away at the shine and polish that were the hallmarks of Pandini’s brand. Polls showed that Kalamazooans were starting to get the message.

  The Pandini campaign needed a shot in the arm.

  Pandini was always at his best when he was on the ropes, and this evening was no exception. Surrounded by supporters, encouraged by their generous campaign donations, Pandini beamed. He moved with ease from guest to guest, shaking hands and making jokes.

  Irving Myers, Pandini’s campaign manager, watched the scene from the sidelines. He needed this evening to be a complete success—and to be the lead story on the Eleven O’Clock Action News.

  The waitstaff navigated through the crowds, trays loaded with small filets of the finest fish, all caught by local fishermen, as well as tiny hot dogs from Frank’s Franks, a beloved Kalamazoo City haunt, now owned by Pandini.

  Carpy manned the bar, serving up root beer floats, the signature drink of Bamboo, Pandini’s five-star nightclub. The bartender had won “KC’s Best Drink Slinger” five years running in the Kalamazoo City Krier “Best of Kalamazoo City” poll. Everywhere they looked, the guests were reminded of the many ways Frank Pandini Jr. had helped make Kalamazoo City one of the nation’s finest.

  Myers sidled nervously up to a beefy bodyguard who was eyeballing the crowd, watching for any suspicious activity. “Bobby, our guy has to give the speech of his career tonight,” Myers murmured.

  “He’ll deliver,” said Bobby, without taking his eyes off the room. “He’s in his element here.”

  Myers looked beyond the donors to the gorgeous view of the Kalamazoo City skyline. “If he can do that, he’s as good as elected.”

  “For your sake, I hope so,” said Bobby with a dark chuckle.

  Irving Myers shuddered. He didn’t need the reminder. If he didn’t deliver a resounding victory to Frank Pandini Jr., he’d be lucky to get hired to run a student council campaign.

  Finally, it was show time. The lights dimmed, except for a spotlight trained on the podium placed right before the glimmering KC skyline. Myers stepped to the microphone.

  “Thank you all so much for coming out this evening. I am delighted to introduce to you our next mayor—Mr. Frank Pandini Jr.!”

  The crowd cheered wildly as their candidate took the podium. Pandini flashed his signature smile and waved to the crowd while a firing squad of cell phone cameras took photos that would soon be all over the internet. Pandini politely motioned for everyone to settle down.

  “Thank you for being here to support my campaign. And welcome to Pandini Towers! Gaze out! We stand atop the highest point in Kalamazoo City.” He paused to let that sink in. “And that is where I will continue to take this city—upward!”

  Irving Myers smiled as there was even more applause.

  “This campaign has taken me to every corner of this city, meeting with citizens and talking with them about their lives, their problems, their hopes and dreams. Let me tell you, without a doubt, this is our country’s greatest city!”

  Pandini paused again as the room filled with cheers.

  “You deserve the best leadership, and that is what I will deliver. You know my motto—” He paused yet again to let the crowd chime in:

  “YOUR CITY—BETTER!”

  Pandini continued, his booming voice filling every crevice of the room. “Better decisions coming out of the mayor’s office! Better compassion for the less fortunate among us! Better schools! Better roads! Better opportunities!”

  “YOU LIE!” shouted a voice from the back.

  Derek Dougherty and the Action News team turned their cameras toward the heckler, whose face was covered by a ski mask and who, to everyone’s horror, held a boomerang above his head.

  With hysterical shrieks, the crowd dropped to the floor. Bobby leaped to put himself between the weapon and Pandini. But before he could, the boomerang zoomed through the still air, grazing the candidate’s left shoulder, shattering the window behind him, and spraying the floor with glass shards that sparkled in the spotlight. The attacker ran for the podium, unfurling a banner that read “QUIT—OR ELSE!” then leaped out through the broken window, taking flight and disappearing into the night.

  Welcome to the campaign trail in Kalamazoo City.

  DEDICATION

  FOR ROBBY AND EMMA

  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Dedication

  Chapter 1: Kalamazoo City West Side, 9:15 P.M.

  Chapter 2: Pandini Towers, 9:45 P.M.

  Chapter 3: Pandini Towers Penthouse, 10:00 P.M.

  Chapter 4: Platypus Police Squad Headquarters, 8:55 A.M.

  Chapter 5: Sergeant Plazinski’s Office, 9:35 A.M.

  Chapter 6: PPS Squad Room, 9:45 A.M.

  Chapter 7: Bamboo, 10:25 A.M.

  Chapter 8: Kalamazoo City University, Student Union, 6:00 P.M.

  Chapter 9: Platypus Police Squad Headquarters, 7:45 P.M.

  Chapter 10: Zengo House, 6:50 A.M.

  Chapter 11: Pandini Enterprises, 8:00 A.M.

  Chapter 12: Kalamazoo City Streets, Downtown, 9:20 A.M.

  Chapter 13: Nutter’s Nut Factory, 9:45 A.M.

  Chapter 14: Nutter’s Peanut Butter Processing Center, 10:30 A.M.

  Chapter 15: Platypus Police Squad Headquarters, 6:10 P.M.

  Chapter 16: Pandini Campaign Headquarters, 7:15 A.M.

  Chapter 17: Mulligan’s Restaurant, 4:10 P.M.

  Chapter 18: Kalamazoo City University, Main Auditorium, 5:30 P.M.

  Chapter 19: The Streets of Kalamazoo City, 5:40 P.M.

  Chapter 20: Kalamazoo City University, Main Auditorium, 5:50 P.M.

  Chapter 21: Kalamazoo City University, Main Auditorium, 7:05 P.M.

  Chapter 22: The Streets of Kalamazoo City, 7:15 P.M.

  Chapter 23: Nutter’s Nut Factory, 7:33 P.M.

  Chapter 24: Platypus Police Squad Headquarters, 9:15 A.M.

  Chapter 25: Pandini Towers, 9:45 A.M.

  Acknowledgments

  Back Ads

  About the Author

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  KALAMAZOO CITY WEST SIDE, 9:15 P.M.

  Steering the unmarked squad car that was like his second home, Detective Corey O’Malley turned onto Parkside Avenue. As usual, his partner, Detective Rick Zengo, sat in the passenger seat. The partners were working a rare night shift, taking a call about a petty theft on the west side of town. It was a simple assignment—nail some punk teenagers who had been caught on camera multiple times shoplifting ba
ckpacks from the mall.

  “You hear Plazinski is bringing in a new detective to the team?” O’Malley asked as he brought the car to a stop in the neighborhood where the perps lived. “A ‘special investigator,’” he said, making air quotes.

  “‘Special investigator’?” Zengo replied. “Tell me more.”

  “All I know is what I overhear in the break room,” said O’Malley as he lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes. “So, not much of much. Some guy named Joe Cooper. I hear he’s loaded up with all the latest detective techniques. And I hear he’s tough as nails.”

  Zengo took this in. He liked the idea of not being the new guy any longer. But he wished the new detective were coming straight from the academy. Zengo was determined to finally shake the “rookie” moniker once and for all. “Let’s see what I can find out about him,” said Zengo, pulling out his phone. He opened the web browser and began to tap in the name of their soon-to-be colleague.

  “Not now!” barked O’Malley. “Put down your phone for once. Rule number one, kid . . .”

  Zengo rolled his eyes and sighed.

  “. . . keep your bill on the ball,” said O’Malley.

  “Right, right,” said Zengo as he slipped his phone back into his pocket. But not before he glanced at the news alerts that popped up on the screen. “Pandini sure is taking a beating in the polls,” he said. “McGovern is ahead by more than twenty points.”

  “I thought I asked you to put that darn phone away,” O’Malley barked.

  “Rule number one, old-timer. Crime happens only in places where we’re not paying attention.”

  “Hmpph.” Zengo knew O’Malley didn’t like it when he mouthed off. But he knew he had made a point, even if O’Malley didn’t care to admit it.

  Zengo observed a pack of teenagers with backpacks shuffling down the sidewalk. “O’Malley, look! Either this is a meeting of the Homework Club, or those are the punks we’re looking for.”

  O’Malley trained his binoculars on the teenagers. “Yup, those backpacks are stolen. Knuckleheads didn’t even bother removing the security tags.” O’Malley’s eyes tracked the suspects as they walked up a well-maintained pathway to one of the larger houses in the neighborhood.

  “Think those boys are interested in a pizza?” asked Zengo.

  “Roger that,” said O’Malley.

  The detectives had a guaranteed trick for getting teenage suspects to open the door. Zengo threw on a Dominick’s Delivery hat and reached for the pizza box in the backseat.

  That’s when the car radio crackled to life.

  “Car one fifty-three . . .” Zengo and O’Malley leaned in and waited. Dispatches from Peggy back at the station always took a while. “Request . . . for your presence at . . . Pandini Towers.”

  Zengo wondered what was going down at Pandini Towers. That fancy fundraiser had enough security guards to form its own police squad. He grabbed the receiver. “But Peggy, we’re about to close in on this shoplifting case!” They needed this collar to beat their fellow detectives Diaz and Lucinni in the monthly arrest competition. The winners won bragging rights and a free lunch.

  “Sergeant Plazinski is . . . adamant that you . . . drop whatever you are doing . . . and get over there.”

  “Buckle up, kid,” commanded O’Malley as he put the car into drive.

  “But . . .” Zengo began as he motioned to the house where he was sure the teen perps were stashing their loot.

  O’Malley swiped the receiver from Zengo and glared at him. “Ten-four, we’re on our way.”

  Zengo sat back in his seat. He felt like a kid who had saved up all his tickets at the arcade and, just when he was about to cash them in for the big prize, his dad told him it was time to go. “What’s another five minutes going to matter?”

  “You don’t question the sergeant, kid,” said O’Malley. He pressed the button on the receiver. “What’s the situation, dispatch? Over.”

  “There has been an attack on . . . Frank Pandini Jr. . . . in the middle of his . . . fundraiser.”

  O’Malley and Zengo slowly looked at each other.

  They were both flabbergasted.

  PANDINI TOWERS, 9:45 P.M.

  When Zengo and O’Malley screeched to a halt at Pandini Towers a few minutes later, the chaos inside had already spread to the street. Satellite trucks from all seven Kalamazoo City television news teams jammed the driveway in front of the building. Reporters, their camera operators trailing them, were shoving microphones into the faces of the surging, screaming onlookers, trying to capture the panic of the moment for the benefit of viewers across the city—and, with any luck, nationwide. An assault on the leading candidate for mayor in a major city was big news indeed.

  Zengo and O’Malley had to push their way through the crush of reporters to get close to a few beleaguered members of Pandini’s security detail, who seemed to be trying to clear an open path from the main door of the building to an ambulance waiting at the curb. As they moved through, a brash young reporter shoved a microphone in O’Malley’s face.

  “Detective!” said the reporter. “Does the Platypus Police Squad have any official comment on the attack on Frank Pandini Jr.?”

  O’Malley calmly said “no comment” and kept moving, but Zengo slowed down and eyed the microphone the reporter had extended over the police barricade. He flashed his biggest smile. “First of all, let me assure you that if anyone is trying to bring down Pandini’s campaign, the Platypus Police Squad will get to the bottom of it.”

  O’Malley impatiently motioned to Zengo to follow him, but the reporter wasn’t finished.

  “Do you have any leads at this time?”

  Cameras flashed. From behind Zengo, he could hear O’Malley hiss something, but it was drowned out in the din of people and traffic.

  “Well, it’s no secret Frank Pandini has his share of enemies. We don’t have any hard evidence yet, but if you ask me, I think—”

  Before he could say more, he was grabbed roughly by the arm and tugged away. O’Malley’s bill was right up in Zengo’s face. “What the heck do you think you’re doing, rookie?”

  “Answering a few questions—what did it look like?”

  “This isn’t some shoplifting case we’re dealing with here,” O’Malley said. “Look around. These reporters are hungry for any scrap of news that they can turn into a national story. With a case this big, they don’t care about the truth, they only care about what people will read and watch. It’s our job to care about the truth, and so we can’t go off speculating when we don’t even have any facts.” His expression softened. “Until we have something to report, we don’t say a word to a reporter. You need to wise up if you’re going to work a case like this, kid, you get me?”

  Zengo was speechless. He’d rarely seen O’Malley this angry. Or this scared. And O’Malley had a point—they hadn’t even examined the crime scene yet. Still, Zengo wasn’t some kid fresh out of the academy anymore. Hadn’t he been the one who exposed KC’s illegal fish ring? And the corruption at the Disaster Dome?

  He pulled his arm out of O’Malley’s grip. “I got you.” He made a big show of extending his flipper toward the tower lobby. “Why don’t you lead the way, Detective? I doubt I’d be able to find the front door without following your lead.”

  O’Malley ignored his sarcasm and turned toward the tower entrance, but before he could take a step, the door burst open. A stretcher carrying Pandini rolled out. At the sight of him, the crowd gasped.

  Pandini, clearly in pain, one arm clutched to his side, nonetheless raised himself up enough to acknowledge the people assembled. “My fellow Kalamazooans!” he called, in a voice that lacked only a small bit of its usual power. “There’s nothing to be worried about. It’s going to take more than a thug with a boomerang to stop me!”

  The crowd cheered. Zengo rolled his eyes. Pandini was already using this attack to his advantage.

  As Pandini was rolled past Zengo and O’Malley, he signaled for his guard to stop. �
�I am glad two of KC’s finest are already on the scene,” he said to them. “If you ask me, this is a lot of fuss over nothing.”

  “I wouldn’t say that, Mr. Pandini,” said O’Malley. “An attack like this would be serious business even if it hadn’t been made on a person like yourself.”

  “Spoken like a future police commissioner,” said Pandini. “I’m certainly happy to see you here too, Detective Zengo.” He leaned in close to them. “For a second, I was afraid Plazinski was going to send those clowns Diaz and Lucinni.”

  Zengo laughed. He couldn’t help himself. At least Pandini knows talent when he sees it, he thought.

  O’Malley smiled as well. “You should get going, Mr. Pandini, but we’d like to talk to some of your guests and staff.”

  “Certainly. I’ve already instructed my campaign manager, Irving Myers, to make sure you have access to anything you need. And Detectives”—he looked right at Zengo—“I’d be most grateful if you could wrap this case up with your usual speed and efficiency. I said a few words to the crowd a moment ago because they need to know that I will not be bullied out of this race. But the truth is that this is nothing more than a distraction, and I want it dealt with so that this campaign can get back to talking about things that actually matter to the citizens of Kalamazoo City. They deserve no less.”

  For the second time outside Pandini Towers that night, Zengo was speechless. This was certainly a side of Pandini he’d never seen before. “We’ll do our best, sir,” he said.

  Pandini nodded, then signaled to his handler and was whisked into the ambulance. Zengo watched until it turned a corner and disappeared.

  “Hard guy to read,” O’Malley said from beside him. “Can never tell if he’s being honest, or just telling us what we want to hear.”

  “Either way,” said Zengo, still thinking about Pandini’s words, “we’ve got to solve this case.”