Honorable Death

by Linda S. Prather

  I continued to watch him until he disappeared around the corner, and Dave touched my arm. “You okay, Kacy?”

  “Fine.” Park was headed our way, and I motioned for him to join us. “I could use a cup of coffee, though.”

  “I’ll get it.” Stevens headed to the coffee station.

  I tried to drum up the excitement Park would expect. “We nailed him, sir.”

  “Show me.”

  Greg returned with my coffee, and I gave him a quick smile. “Follow me.” I took my coffee and entered the room Marcone and I had just vacated. “I don’t know how we missed this.” I spread out the photos then played the video, running through the scenario the same way Marcone had done with me.

  “What’s Marcone’s game?” Dave asked. “He sold out his client.”

  “He said it was part of the deal he made with us on Lenglases, and he hasn’t signed a contract with Sevier yet.”

  “He didn’t violate any attorney-client privilege.” Park smiled. “And this is information we already had in our possession. There won’t be any question of tampered evidence.” He stood and walked to the door. “Good work, detectives. With that evidence, there’s no need for an interrogation. When his attorney is finished with him, lock him up.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Frederickson is screaming about police brutality and not getting a phone call. Take care of that before you leave.” He held up his hand to fend off any comments. “Unless something drastic happens tonight, the three of you can take tomorrow off.”

  Dave closed the door behind Park and stood in front of it. “We ain’t going nowhere until you tell us what’s going on with Marcone.”

  I finished my coffee and tossed the cup in the garbage. “I’d tell you if I knew. All I’m sure of is he’s involved in this.” Clipping on my badge, I checked my gun and holstered it. “We’ve still got a long afternoon and evening ahead of us. Let’s lock up Sevier, rough up Frederickson, and we’ll have time to eat before we meet with Greg’s brother. Park gave us tomorrow off. That gives us twenty-four hours to find answers.”

  “You’re buying dinner.” Dave opened the door and held it. He’d accepted my explanation, and once again, guilt was heavy on my shoulders.

  “You look like your mother when you smile.” Marcone wasn’t the type of man to be trusted, but until he answered some serious questions, I needed to keep what he’d told me under wraps.

  “I could use a day off.” Greg said. “But didn’t Marcone say he was bringing in this Culver guy tomorrow to confess to the drugs in Lenglases’s warehouse?”

  “Damn. I forgot all about that.” I glanced at Dave. “Any suggestions, partner? We could turn that over to Sims and Gardner. We got what we wanted.”

  Dave pursed his lips and stared at Greg. “You up for it, kid? We can talk it over with Marcone after we get Sevier out of the way. You know what’s going on.”

  “Sure, if you think I can do it.”

  “We’ll go over your question list tonight. Since Marcone came through on Moore’s killer, we can’t protest too much.”

  “I may not be your guy then. I’m not sure I can see an innocent man go to jail for someone else’s crimes.”

  “Look, kid, Culver isn’t innocent. We don’t know that he didn’t put the drugs there. I can guarantee you he isn’t taking the fall for nothing. Lenglases paid him and his family a lot of money.” Dave opened the door. “I’m hungry, and Kacy’s buying.”

  Greg glanced at me, and I shrugged. “You wanted to be a detective. Welcome to our world.”

  “Not that much different than mine. We lock them up, and some smart lawyer gets them off, or a crooked judge turns them loose.”

  We made our way to Interrogation Room Two right before the screaming started.

  Dave jerked open the door. “What’s going on in here?”

  Sevier yanked on the chains holding him to the table. “You’re a dead man, Marcone. You hear me!”

  “I’ve explained to Mr. Sevier the technicalities of his case and that I’m declining representation.” Marcone was on the opposite side of the table, unconcerned by Sevier’s outburst.

  I closed the door and crossed my arms over my chest. “Do you want to press charges? He threatened you.”

  Sevier laughed. “Add all the charges you want, bitch. You won’t live long enough to press them. You’ll wind up like that brother of yours. Min had him screaming like a little girl.”

  Any doubts I’d had about how dangerous Marcone was were quickly dispelled. Within seconds, he’d moved around the table, and Sevier’s throat was clenched in his huge left hand. With one quick movement, he slammed his right hand below Sevier’s chin, crushing the man’s teeth together. “You will never kill anyone again.”

  I raced toward Marcone on the left, with Greg and Dave rushing him from the right. I grabbed his arm and jerked him away from Sevier. “Let him go.”

  “I did.”

  Marcone’s smile caused my hands to tremble, and my legs started tingling as my feet turned ice cold. “You’re under arrest.”

  He didn’t resist, turning his back and placing his hands behind him. I zip-tied them and glanced to where Dave and Greg were hovering over Sevier.

  “He’s not breathing.” Dave was digging through his pockets for a key to the cuffs. “Call an ambulance, Greg.”

  I pushed Marcone out the door. “I’ll be back.”

  “An ambulance won’t save him.”

  “You better hope it does. Right now, you’re up on assault and battery. If he dies, you’ll be charged with murder.”

  “Suicide.” He stopped walking and turned to face me. “Cyanide in the back tooth.”

  “Nobody does that anymore.” My voice was quivering as I stared into his dark-brown eyes. The truth was looking back at me. “Shit!” I jerked on his arm, dragging him back to the room with me.

  Dave had managed to stretch Sevier out on the floor to begin CPR.

  “Cyanide poisoning, Dave. Be careful.”

  Dave rose and shook his head. “Must have been a massive dose. Killed him almost instantly.” He waved a hand at Marcone. “What do we do with him?”

  “If you want to find Wong, you’ll let me go.” He turned to Dave. “You can’t protect her. If you don’t let me go, he’ll kill her, and he’ll kill you, your wife, and your two little girls for sport.”

  “Kacy?” Dave had that sad-puppy-dog look in his eyes again.

  Stevens opened the door for the paramedics, giving me a few extra seconds to think. “Take him to Interrogation Room Four. We’ll decide what to do with him once we’ve cleaned up this mess.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  So much for a day off. I sipped a cup of lukewarm coffee as we watched the paramedics carry out the body. A suspect, even one like Sevier, dying in custody, would result in a massive IA investigation. We would be lucky to receive desk assignments while it was ongoing, and the outcome could be suspension.

  “It wasn’t videoed.” Stevens took my cup, emptied it, and refilled it. “And we were in there less than a minute when it happened.”

  “What are you saying, Greg?”

  “We get our stories straight. Marcone and Sevier were arguing when we went in, Sevier slammed his chin against the table. How were we supposed to know he had a cyanide pill in his mouth?”

  Dave placed a hand on my shoulder. “You heard Marcone. This Wong guy is still out there, and he’s coming after you, me, and anyone else that gets in his way. We don’t even know what he looks like.”

  The fact Dave was willing to lie emphasized how scared he was. “A lot of people saw me walk Marcone out in cuffs. How do we explain that?”

  “We thought he gave Sevier the cyanide. We question him and let him go.” Stevens shrugged. “If it had happened the way we’re explaining, that’s what we would have done.”

  I finished the coffee and sighed. “And here I thought we were the good guys. Let’s go question Marcone.”

  Dave caught up
with me after a few steps. “We are the good guys, Kacy. You know I’d never lie if we’d done something wrong. If Illinois still had the death penalty, Sevier would have been headed for a lethal injection. He saved the state a lot of money.”

  I wasn’t averse to breaking the rules to catch a criminal. I’d broken my share since pinning on my first badge. And if I were honest, the thought of letting Marcone go had crossed my mind, but I didn’t want to implicate Stevens and Dave. All it would take was one wrong turn, and we’d all lose our badges. Dave and Stevens were waiting for a response. “Let’s wait and see what he has to say.”

  There was something distressing about a man that’s comfortable in cuffs and left alone in an interrogation room. He’s too calm, like a snake, watching, waiting for the moment to pounce. I walked around the table and took off the ties. “It’s time we talked. And it’s time you told us the truth.” I took a seat across from him and looked him dead in the eyes. “If I don’t think you’re telling me the truth, then I’m walking out, and you’ll be booked for murder.”

  “I’ll tell you what I can. If it isn’t enough, you’ll have to do whatever you think is best.” He nodded to Stevens and Dave. “Perhaps it would be better if we did this alone.”

  “Not—” Dave started to speak, and I interrupted him.

  “If we decide to let you go, then the three of us have put our jobs, our honesty, and our integrity on the line. They stay.”

  “All right. What do you want to know?”

  “Why did you kill Sevier? Was there something he could have told us you didn’t want us to hear?”

  “Temporary insanity. He threatened you.” A soft smile curved his lips. “And he told us the name of the person who killed my son. Now I know who, but I still don’t know why.”

  “Your son?” My head was spinning, and someone had sucked all the air out of the room. “But…”

  Dave placed an arm around my shoulders. “Breathe, Kacy. Nice and slow. Keep talking, Marcone.”

  “You were less than twenty-four hours old when they took you. We’d barely had a chance to hold you. We did everything the police told us to do. Your mother fasted and prayed for hours every day. Months passed, and the grief was more than Kayla could take. She grew weaker every day. I begged her to eat, and she begged me to find you.” Marcone cleared his throat. “She died in my arms six months from the day you were born.”

  Stevens coughed. “We should give them some time alone, Dave.”

  “No.” Marcone leaned forward and placed his arms on the table. “This is a family matter, and after watching the three of you for the past week, you’re closer than most families I know. I may be her father, but she doesn’t know me. Kacy needs you.”

  Dave was patting my back absently. “Why don’t we get out of here and go someplace where we can talk in private.”

  A myriad of emotions were surging through my system, and I wasn’t sure what they were going to be when they finally finished. I fell back on my safeguard. “You’re just hungry, Dave.”

  “I get hungry when I get nervous, stressed, or mad.”

  “What about Frederickson?” Stevens asked. “Park told us to deal with it.”

  “Call the IRS and turn him over to the feds. Let them deal with him.” I took a deep breath and finally looked at Marcone. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Would you have believed me?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. Are you representing Lenglases, or was that all a ruse too?”

  “He’s currently an asset to my employer. There’s another shipment coming in next month.” Marcone smiled. “Should he lose another shipment, he’ll no longer be an asset.”

  The natural follow-up question would be who his employer was, but I knew he wouldn’t answer. “Dave’s right. We should get out of here before IA shows up. Greg, would you fill Mr. Marcone in on your plan? I’d like to speak to Dave alone for a minute.”

  Greg nodded, and Dave followed me from the room. His normal curiosity was showing by the way he shuffled from one foot to the other. That or he had to pee really bad. I waited until we were a good distance away from the door. “We need to get rid of him.”

  “What do you mean when you say rid?”

  “Send him somewhere else. I don’t think he knows about Kurt and Katherine’s involvement. If he did, he’d kill them.” I glanced over my shoulder. “Not that their deaths would be any great loss if they’re involved in Kyle’s death, but I’d prefer not to have to lock him up.”

  “We need to know what this Min Wong guy looks like before we let him go. The guy could walk up to us on the street, and we wouldn’t know it.”

  “We’ll ask him that. He’s involved with criminals. If we told him we’re meeting with the FBI tonight, he’d steer clear until we get a handle on this thing.”

  Dave shook his head. “Won’t work. I doubt that guy is scared of anything—except losing you now that he’s found you.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and blinked away the mist in my eyes. “Then what? If he stays here, we’ll wind up having to arrest him or kill him, and I don’t think I can do that.”

  “I’ve got an idea, but you’re not gonna like it.”

  “If it works and gets rid of him until we find this Min Wong character and figure out how Kurt and Katherine play into this, then it doesn’t matter whether I like it or not.”

  “Send him after Yoshe. You said yourself he’s dangerous. He’ll find her, and I can guarantee you he’ll protect her. We both know if they’re looking for her, they’ll eventually find her.”

  Dave was right. I didn’t like it, but it was the right thing to do. If he is my father. “Let’s go back in. I have a few questions for him first.”

  Greg was looking uncomfortable when we returned, and his shoulders slumped in relief. “We’re all on board with the same story.”

  “Good. One more thing before we go. Do you have a picture of my mother?”

  He retrieved his wallet and sat for a moment, staring at the picture, before removing it. “This one was taken right after you were born.” He passed it to me. “Your mother is holding Kyle, and I’m holding you.”

  I ran my finger over the faces, closed my eyes, and dug deep looking for anger, hate, frustration—anything except the excruciating pain around my heart. My life could have been different. My voice came out a little shaky, but at least it worked. “Dave, why don’t you and Greg go take care of Frederickson?”

  The door closed, and the only sound in the room was the ticking of the clock. “I’m sorry, Kacy. If I’d arrived a week earlier, I could have saved Kyle. I’ll never forgive myself for that.”

  “You look happy here.” I took a deep breath before holding out the picture. “Thank you.”

  “We were happy. Keep the picture. I have another.”

  I swiped at my eyes. “This is kind of awkward.”

  He laughed, and I felt the familiarity, only now understanding why. His laugh. He sounds like Kyle. “There’s something you can do for Kyle.”

  “Anything.”

  The brown in his eyes had darkened, once again reminding me of how dangerous a man he could be. “Kyle has a daughter. The people who killed him are looking for her. He died protecting her, as did his best friend, Simon. I don’t have the resources to find her, and even if I did, they’re watching me, and I’d lead them right to her. I need you to find her and protect her.”

  “Tell me everything you know, and I promise you I’ll find her. If they want to hurt her, they’ll have to kill me first.”

  “I don’t know much. The mother’s name may be Yoshekita Saito. I think Kyle used that lost shipment Lenglases mentioned to buy her freedom. When he came back, he borrowed the money from Frederickson to pay Lenglases. I have some friends looking into it in Tokyo, but I haven’t heard from them yet. She can’t be over two or three, and her name is Yoshe.”

  “I’ll find her.” He rose and passed me a cell phone. “My personal cell number is programmed in. No one
else has it. Call me if you find anything else.” He paused for a moment. “Or if you need me.”

  I’d spent my entire life building walls around me so that I didn’t need anyone. That was the real reason the dates Dave had set up for me had failed. It was also the reason I hadn’t tried harder to find Kyle. I don’t know how to need anyone. “We should go. IA will want to talk to you tomorrow.”

  “I’ll take care of that when I bring Culver in.”

  I’d almost forgotten what Dave had wanted. “Do you have a picture or description of this Min Wong or Drysdon?”

  “If I did, he’d be dead already for what he did to you two years ago.”

  Honesty might have been refreshing, but it was also scary as hell. “Thank you for the picture.” I opened the door, grateful for the fresh air and the fact Dave and Stevens were on the other side. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

  “Good night, Kacy.”

  I watched him walk away. Part of me wanted to run after him and beg him not to go. I squelched that part and blew out the breath I’d been holding. Even if I did need him, Yoshe needed him more. “If we hurry, we’ll have time to grab a bite before Greg’s brother gets here.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  “He doesn’t look like FBI.” Greg was cute, but his brother was one of those men women drooled over. He could have passed for a young Mel Gibson twin. His hair fell to right above his shoulders, and muscles rippled beneath the knit shirt when he removed his overcoat.

  “That’s his undercover look.” Greg walked across the room, and the two hugged. “Derek, I’d like you to meet Detective Kacy Lang.”

  Derek smiled and stretched out his hand. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “Don’t believe everything you hear.”

  “And this is Detective Dave Capello.” Greg finished the introductions, and Derek shook Dave’s hand.

  “Your brother doesn’t talk about me?” Dave’s lips puckered. “Figures.”

  “Get over it, Dave. We’ve set up in the kitchen, and there’s fresh coffee if you’d like some.”