Croaker: Grave Sins (Fey Croaker Book 2)

by Paul Bishop

  “I know,” agreed Monk. “If he wasn’t defending JoJo, it would be some other high-profile celebrity footing his bill.”

  Ash rested his arms across the back of the chair he was straddling. “I’d love to put Zelman Tucker up as a suspect. He stands to make a fortune writing a book about this case. But I have to say the same argument holds true for him as with Wyatt. He’s going to make a mint somehow whether it’s writing about this case or the next spectacular one that comes along.”

  “How about revenge?” Hammersmith asked, moving along to the next topic. “Is there somebody out there who could hate JoJo enough to not just kill him, but destroy him?”

  “Some kid he was punking, maybe,” Alphabet said.

  “I doubt you’d find a street chicken sophisticated enough,” Ash said. “They might kill somebody up front and personal, but this has been planned. Street chickens are too busy simply staying alive.”

  “It would have to be somebody close to JoJo,” Fey said. “Somebody who knew about his predilection for young boys. I think that was almost as big a revelation in this case as the fact that JoJo could be a murderer.”

  “You know we may have something there,” Brindle chipped in.

  “What do you mean?” Fey asked.

  Harry Crown interrupted the flow of conversation with food and drink. Nobody had ordered, but Harry knew what was needed to stimulate the think tank.

  “Thanks Harry,” Fey said, giving him her best smile and then turned her attention back to Brindle.

  Brindle was looking at Alphabet who spoke up for both of them. “When we were working the street for a lead on the first victim, Rush ... This isn’t anything much,” he said sounding dubious.

  “Come on,” Fey urged. “Let’s hear it.”

  Alphabet shrugged. “Well, one of the kids we talked to came to see us at the station. We’d helped out a friend of hers that night so she came to return the favor.”

  Brindle picked up the thread of the story. “She told us about this guy that had tried to grab one of the kids after he’d been with JoJo, but the kid got away. Apparently, JoJo’s secret life was well known on the street even if it wasn’t public knowledge.”

  “This girl told us that the night Ricky Long was killed, he’d been with JoJo right before being picked up by the same guy in a blue van that had tried before to grab the other kid who’d been with JoJo.”

  “A blue van,” Hammer and Nails both said together, both sitting upright.

  “What is it?” Fey asked. The mention of a blue van had set her own adrenaline flowing.

  Hammer looked at Nails. “I have no idea,” he said and shrugged. “But we got the same info from another source.”

  “Who,” Fey demanded.

  “Darcy Wyatt,” Nails said. “He called us. Wanted to make a deal for information regarding JoJo. We got his cellmate changed, but he wants a deal on the whole rape case. He says that what he’s got is that big.”

  “Without making a deal,” Hammer said, “he would only tell us that there was a blue van involved.”

  Ash spoke up. “Your brother also mentioned a blue van – in connection with Rush.”

  “I remember,” Fey said. “I didn’t think anything of it at the time. It was too innocuous. But there is something else.” She closed her eyes in thought. “A blue van. A blue van,” she muttered. “Why is that ringing a bell?” She opened her eyes and looked over at Monk.

  “Beats me,” he said. “But I’m hearing the same ringing.”

  “How would Darcy Wyatt have anything to trade that pertains to JoJo?”

  “His father, maybe,” Hammer said with a shrug.

  “I don’t think so,” Fey said. “If he was on the outside, I would say maybe he overheard something. But being locked up, I don’t think he would have the chance to get anything out of his father.” She stopped and thought for a second. “Is he trying to pull some kind of a scam? Does he really expect us to trade off the rapes?”

  “I don’t think it’s a scam,” Rhonda spoke up. “He does think he can cut some kind of a deal. And now that the lead of a blue van has been confirmed from another source, it gives it credence.”

  Harry Crown came back over to the tables. “I’m sorry to interrupt,” he said. “But I thought you should know. They’ve just announced on the radio. JoJo’s being given bail.”

  A collective, “What!” emanated from everyone around the table.

  “Wait,” said Fey. “Maybe this is a good thing.”

  “What do you mean?” Ash asked.

  “When JoJo was locked up, he was Robbery/Homicide’s baby. We had no access to him. Now he’s out, he’s fair game.”

  “You mean you’re going to try and talk to him?” Alphabet scoffed. “Devon Wyatt will laugh you right out of his office.”

  “Maybe not,” Fey said. “Because I’ve got something he wants.”

  Chapter 56

  “Tell me exactly why I should let you have access to my client,” Devon Wyatt said to Fey. He was savoring every moment of this unexpected pleasure.

  Fey and Ash were in Wyatt’s Beverly Hills office. Wyatt was ensconced behind his desk enjoying another expensive cigar. Ash was leaning against a wall next to a Chagall original. This was Fey’s show right now. His turn would come later.

  Fey stood in front of Wyatt’s desk. He’d offered her a chair when she came in, but she had been too stubborn to accept. She didn’t like what she was going to have to do her to get what she wanted, but she couldn’t see any way around it.

  “You’re very good at what you do, Wyatt,” Fey said. “I can’t say as I like it, or admire it, but you’re good at it.”

  “If you are talking about my ability to defend innocent clients –”

  “Innocent clients have nothing to do with this,” Fey said. She was fighting to keep a handle on her temper. Maybe her time with Dr. Winter had done some good after all, despite all the damage. “You had no idea JoJo Cullen was innocent. You took the case to do a smear campaign against both myself and the department – it was personal – and you’ve done a hell of a job.” Fey threw up her hands, “Well, you’ve got what you wanted. You’ve won. You want me to capitulate, I will. But don’t let your anger with me over the arrest of your son allow a killer to get away.”

  Wyatt sat smoking his cigar.

  “Impressive,” he said. “But I don’t buy it.”

  “This city is going to tear itself apart unless you back down.” Fey said. Leaning forward she put her hands flat on Wyatt’s Empire table desk. “I know you have connections to Aloysius Brown. I’m not stupid. I know how street structure works. I’ve seen Brown on the television telling everyone to remain calm out of one side of his mouth. It’s what he’s saying out of the other side of his mouth that concerns me. The tape of my shrink session wouldn’t have been enough by itself to get JoJo released on bail. You needed to couple it with the type of pressure Brown could bring to bear on the city.”

  Wyatt’s expression changed slightly. “I’m a little more impressed,” he said. “But again I ask, what’s in it for me?”

  Fey had to give a little laugh at that statement. “Not what’s in for your client?”

  Wyatt shrugged. “We’re both putting some of our cards on the table.”

  “I can’t take back what your son did. He takes his chances in court just like anyone else. I’ll help the DA prosecute him, but I won’t persecute him. I wouldn’t offer him a deal – even if I could – but I won’t fight a deal if he cuts one with the DA.”

  Wyatt looked at the tip of his smoldering cigar, but didn’t say anything.

  “I need to talk to JoJo,” Fey said.

  Silence from Wyatt.

  Fey gave it her last shot. “You deal in favors, Wyatt. At some time you’re going to need one from somebody like me. Let me talk to JoJo, and you’ve got a marker you can call in.”

  Wyatt shift his gaze from his cigar to Fey and rearranged himself in his chair. “How big a marker?”

/>   “We’ll have to play that by ear when the time comes.”

  Wyatt stood up suddenly. “You know,” he said. “I really think you mean what you say. People with principles never cease to amaze me.” He walked around his desk. “Wait here.”

  Ash pushed himself off the wall. “You’re going to pay for this,” he said. “Wyatt will take what you owe him out in blood.”

  “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. Right now I can hear a clock ticking and it has nothing to do with my biology.”

  Wyatt returned a few minutes later with JoJo in tow. JoJo was wearing a custom made suit and didn’t look physically any worse for his time in jail.

  “JoJo Cullen,” Wyatt said by way of introduction, “Detective Croaker.”

  Fey and Cullen sat in the two chairs in front of Wyatt’s desk. Wyatt returned to his own chair, and Ash went back to supporting the wall.

  JoJo sat with his hands in his lap. Fey didn’t quite know where to start so she hopped in with both feet.

  “I’m sure you’re aware that the police now believe that somebody else may be behind the murders of which you are accused.”

  “I could have told you that,” JoJo said. His tone wasn’t aggressive, just conversational. “I kept asking Mr. Wyatt to let me tell you my side, but he told me it was best to remain silent until we got to court.”

  Fey felt anger rising inside of her and fought to keep it in check. Wyatt didn’t care about his clients. If he did, he would have let JoJo make a statement.

  “Well, none of us had the chance to let you tell us,” Fey said. She felt like shooting a dirty look in Wyatt’s direction, but knew it would have fallen on barren ground. “There are some questions that I want you to ask you. Hopefully, what you can tell us will give us some sort of lead to the real killer.”

  “I don’t know who it is,” JoJo said. He was becoming visibly upset.

  “Relax,” Fey said. “Relax. Nobody is saying you know who it is. But there are some things you can tell us.”

  JoJo watched Fey closely. “Okay,” he said.

  “When we searched your house, we found some Polaroid photos of two of the victims and some tapes of the victims screaming. Where did they come from?”

  Tears welled up in JoJo’s eyes. “They came in the mail one day. I didn’t know what to do about them.”

  “Why didn’t you go to the police?”

  “How could I? I didn’t want anybody to find out about ... what ... what ...”

  “About the fact that you had sexual relations with young male prostitutes?” Fey said.

  “Yes,” JoJo said. “It was bad enough trying to fight those urges, let alone admit that I gave into them. I also didn’t know if it was some kind of cruel joke. I didn’t know those kids were actually dead. I didn’t want to believe it.”

  Fey changed tact. “On the night you were arrested, why were you down at the beach?”

  “I got a telephone call – a call telling me that another boy was going to die unless I went to the beach.”

  “Did you recognize the voice on the phone?”

  “No it was all muffled.”

  “Why didn’t you call the police?”

  JoJo shrugged. “I was scared. I figured that if the first two boys were actually dead, then the police might blame me if I told them the story since I hadn’t come forward right away.”

  “What happened at the beach?”

  “The voice on the phone had told me to wait under the lifeguard station. I went there, but there was nobody around. Then I saw the arm sticking out of the sand and I freaked out. And suddenly the cops were there and everything got crazy. I wanted to die. I wanted that cop to shoot me. I didn’t want to let Sister Ruth and everybody down.” Tears were flowing down JoJo’s face now, but he made no move to hide them.

  “Who would want to do this to you, JoJo?” Fey asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know. Don’t you think I’ve asked myself that question a thousand times?”

  “Do you know anybody who drives a blue van?”

  “A blue van? Why?”

  Fey picked up on JoJo’s hesitation. She sat forward on her chair and took one of JoJo’s hands. Even Wyatt had tensed.

  “Come on, JoJo. Who do you know that drives a blue van?”

  JoJo hesitated for another moment and then said softly, “My brother from the family that adopted me does.”

  Chapter 57

  “Here we go,” Fey had said to Ash on their way back to the station.

  Ash had known exactly what she meant. There was a time in every case when suddenly a solitary leak leads to the sudden crumpling of the whole dam. As long as there wasn’t a little Dutch boy around to stick his finger in the dyke, the whole case suddenly opened up and started to speed away almost out of control.

  This was the feeling that every detective lives for. The scent of blood is in the air and electricity flows through your veins. You feel as if you could swallow lightening and crap thunder. You are on the jazz and there ain’t any way of getting off the bullet train.

  Devon Wyatt had proven to be as good as his word. In the short time it took for Fey and Ash to drive from Wyatt’s office back to West Los Angeles Area station, the crowds in the streets had dispersed into the rat holes they had originally sprouted from.

  The barricades were still up around the station, but the city appeared to be well on the way back to its normal state of chaos.

  At her desk, Fey phoned San Diego PD and asked for Montague.

  When he answered, Fey jumped right in the middle of him.

  “Montague, you are a jerk.”

  “What? Who is this?”

  “This is Croaker. Why didn’t you give us the low down on the rest of the Kingston family?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “We’ve just come from interviewing JoJo Cullen. He said he’s got two brothers from his adopted family. One named Kenny and the other one named Jim.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  Fey was pissed. “So, you give use this shuck and jive about how you think JoJo’s adopted old man might have been murdered, but you don’t say squat about the brother who dropped off the face of the earth one day never to be seen again.”

  “Hey, I was speculating enough already. I had no idea there was any connection between the two. Can you prove one?”

  “I don’t have to at this point. There’s too much coincidence in this whole mess for them not to be connected.”

  “So, what do you want from me?”

  “First of all I want you to cut me some slack for being a first class bitch,” Fey said, backing off. “I’m all wired up with a good case of twenty-twenty hind sight, and I’m taking it out on you.”

  Montague’s soft chuckle came down the line. “All is forgiven, but I’m sure as hell glad you’re not my boss. What else do you need?”

  “I need anything you’ve got on the other brother, Kenny Kingston. JoJo said he’s a drifter, but maybe you can come up with a line on him down there. We ran his driver’s license and it shows a San Diego address.” Fey picked up a printout and read off the address.

  “That’s no good,” Montague told her. “That’s the address of his dad’s house. It was sold ages ago. There’s another family living there now.”

  “Okay. We also show a van registered to Kenny with the same address and a P.O. box number.” Fey gave the P.O. box to Montague.

  “Sounds like a mail drop, not the post office,” Montague said. “I’ll check it out. You need a photo if I can find one?”

  “Yeah, we got one faxed from DMV. It’s good enough to start with, but it’s black and white and fuzzy.”

  “Sounds like a panda.”

  “Har, har,” Fey said. “Listen, things are breaking. You get anything call my beeper.” She gave Montague the number. “And thanks.”

  Monk Lawson sauntered over. “I’m still bugged about the blue van,” he said. “I know we think we’ve got it pinned down to Kenny Kingston. And
I know that it has come up from three different sources. But none of the sources were connected to me, and I still feel there is something else there – something else that we’re missing.”

  “I don’t know,” Fey said. “I felt that same way too, but I don’t know if it matters anymore.”

  Monk was still thoughtful. “The street kid and your brother who works the raves – I can see them moving in the same circles and getting the same information. But how does Darcy Wyatt come up with it?”

  Fey dry washed her face with her hands and yawned. “Beats me.” She stood up and arched her back. “I know this is stupid, but I’m starved. I didn’t get to chow down on any of that stuff Harry Crown put out for us at the Gunnery. Anybody want to order in a pizza?”

  Fey stopped and looked at Monk. She felt chills.

  Monk’s eyes got big.

  “Pizza,” he said.

  “Pizza,” Fey said. “Darcy Wyatt used a blue van to deliver pizzas.”

  “He borrowed it from another worker at the restaurant,” Monk said. “What was the name of it?”

  “Fratelli Pizza,” Fey said. “And there’s another connection.”

  “What?”

  “On the directory of automatic numbers on the phone in JoJo’s local townhome. When we searched the place, I ran all the numbers. They were all fast food joints, and one of them was Fratelli Pizza. If Darcy Wyatt has something to do with a blue van –”

  “And if that blue van belongs to Kenny Kingston –” Monk continued.

  “It’s a lot of ifs, but if Darcy delivered pizzas to JoJo it could give an explanation for how the evidence got planted in the townhome and why Darcy thinks he has something to trade,” Fey ran the line of reasoning to completion.

  Ash interrupted both of them. “Fratelli Pizza?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Fey and Monk said in unison.

  “Do either of you know what Fratelli means?”

  “No,” said Fey.

  “I figured it was the owner’s name,” Monk said.

  “Kenny Kingston must have been laughing his ass off,” Ash said.