REMEMBER.
Li would never forget.
Why did she let him go? Why did she let him walk away with his knowledge? How did he escape with his life? He racked his brain, trying to jar the memory loose. What did she say at the end? “I’m satisfied with his answers.” Satisfied with his station in town. Satisfied that he didn’t know her secret. Satisfied with her ability to silence him. That mad tea party served as a test, a chance for Constance Henderson to sum up his character.
He passed. Just barely.
But that didn’t mean he was out of danger yet.
Because he wanted to know that secret. It was a secret that could possibly save Reuben. There were dark motives at work here. And he felt he had opportunities Constance didn’t consider. Opportunities to learn certain information.
One: She, much like Oscar, hardly cared for Jason Lindstrom and didn’t realize the young man saw, heard, and understood many things without people knowing.
Two: Per their agreement, she stayed away from Frank Dixon and he from her.
Three: Whoever this mysterious Juliana Esposito was.
Li had opportunities. The question was how to best employ them.
Frantic knocking exploded on his apartment door, a noise that gnawed into Li’s howling head wound. A voice, shrill, panicked, burst from the other side.
“Li? It’s Noah! I need your help! It’s an emergency! Please open up!”
Li stumbled to the door. His hand had no more touched the doorknob when Noah rushed into Li’s apartment. Noah’s eyes were huge and red, his skin ashen, and his golden hair mussed. His panic filled the air with a volatile electricity.
“Li! The police arrested Reuben!”
CHAPTER 14
Day of Wrath
“Oh, it’s you again.”
Detective Hughes frowned as he saw Li march into his cubicle at the police station. The expression on Li’s face—grim, firmly set eyes flashing—was more suited for a man astride a horse tearing into a bloody battle.
“Yes, it’s me again. I’d like to know why you arrested Reuben Rodriguez.”
“First things first, we did not arrest him. He and his brother, Fernando Rodriguez, are being held as material witnesses pending further questioning. We’ve learned that they were responsible for leaving the threatening package on Oscar’s doorstep. They’ve confessed to it.” He glared at the young man. “Second, you do not have the authority to demand information from me. In fact, I have a feeling this has been the secret you were holding back, and I have half a mind to toss you in a cell with them.”
Li thrust his chin forward, his eyes defiant. “Fine. I confess. I thought it was possible that Reuben could have killed Oscar Lindstrom. He loathed Oscar, but he wouldn’t tell me why. It’s been ripping me in half all this time. I had no proof. All I knew is that Reuben was hiding something from me. And if this is what he was hiding, any other accusation falls flat.”
“That may be your biased belief, but I don’t work like that. Now unless you want to make a statement, find someone else to harass.”
Li yanked out the visitor’s chair and plopped in it. “Yeah, I’ll make a statement. No more secrets. I’ll tell you everything I know and think. Better get out your notebook, Detective. We’ll be here awhile.”
Detective Hughes scowled. His glare transmitted a desire to lock Li in jail until the Rapture. He pulled out a notebook and slid into his seat. “I’m not fond of this attitude, Liam.”
“I’m not fond of losing the few friends I have.”
“Very well.” Detective Hughes poised a pen over the blank page, hostile eyes drilling into the angry eyes of his witness. “You have my attention. Make it count.”
And Li did. In spades. Starting from his suspicions on Sunday to waking up after the kidnapping tea party this morning, Li outlined everything he could. He talked about his meetings with Kathryn and Jason, what he learned about Reuben, the game of verbal chess with Constance. Everything. As he listened, Detective Hughes seemed to shift between three settings: the impervious police mask, quiet contemplation, and downright fury.
“After I woke up with this headache that is still bothering me, I found my new shoes slashed with a note on them. It was one word: REMEMBER. I think it was a final threat from this guy Morley, the guy who broke into my apartment.” Li lifted a foot to display the damaged sneaker. Bits of his sock peeped through the fraying gashes. He pulled the note out his jeans pocket and pushed it toward the detective. “Then Reuben’s boyfriend, Noah, stopped at my place in a panic, because the police hauled Reuben in for questioning. I came straight here. And that’s everything.”
Detective Hughes shut the now full-to-bursting notebook. “Thorough.”
Li snorted like a pissed-off bull. “Thorough? Is that all?”
“I’ll have to check on every claim you made. It’s a lot to shovel through.” His eyes became needle-thin slits. “I don’t know what to make of you, Liam. Are you a good guy or a bad guy? Are you telling me the truth at last? Or are you spinning a wild fairy tale to try and get your friend off the hook? You are the mystery that’s driving me the craziest.”
“Detective … I’m sorry for withholding information. I didn’t know what to believe about Reuben. But when Noah told me that Reuben had been ‘arrested,’ I realized how stupid I was. I went off my fears, my insecurities, my own personal issues. I withheld information because I couldn’t resolve the issues in my head. I’m over it now. You need to catch Oscar’s killer, whoever it is. I’ll help however I can.”
Detective Hughes took to twirling his pen between his fingers, but his eyes were cold. “A pretty speech. But who are you, Liam Johnson?” He pulled a file folder out of his desk and dropped it in front of his guest. “What have you been up to?”
Li didn’t need to be psychic to predict what lay within that folder. A background check.
“It says here that you were peripherally involved in at least three deaths at your last job, which you left under a thundercloud, if I’m not mistaken. Now you come to my city and, in less than a week at your new job, a citizen is murdered. Exactly what am I supposed to make of this, Liam? What kind of things are you involved in?”
Li gritted his teeth. “I have rotten luck. None of this is my fault.”
“Rotten luck doesn’t explain half of it. It seems wherever you go, death follows. You are lucky in the sense there is no evidence to tie you directly to any of these deaths.”
Li’s scowl tore across his face. Then the glower relaxed, and his thoughts turned away from the police station and the nebulous accusations. Three deaths then. One death now.
Detective Hughes scrutinized that faraway expression. “I know that look. You’ve thought of something.”
“Detective, don’t you find it odd that there’s been only one murder?”
A hint of horror tinged the detective’s tone. “Exactly how many do you want, kid?”
“I just realized that Oscar was the only one killed. No one else. There have been a lot witnesses, and I’ve basically stuck my finger into everyone’s business, but no one else has been murdered. Surely someone must have seen something and could be a danger to the killer. But that hasn’t surfaced. So either the murderer doesn’t know about all of this, or he felt he had accomplished all he needed to do when he killed Oscar. Like Oscar’s death was the end of the problem, not the start of new ones.”
“I think you’ve theorized enough for one day.” Detective Hughes stood, a silent dismissal. “I don’t have evidence to hold you other than your suspicious habit of being everywhere I don’t want you to be. And I am not a man who ‘hauls people in’ unless I have solid evidence. If there’s nothing else—”
“There is.” Li launched to his feet, the same laser determination in his eyes. He had a scrappiness today, a terrier ready to dig up a dinosaur bone. “I’d like to see Reuben, please.”
Shock practically jettisoned Detective Hughes’s eyebrows off his forehead. “You must be out of your mind.
”
“Detective, I’m going to talk to him. You said yourself that you’re just holding him as a witness. Unless you’re fully prepared to charge him with murder, you’re going to have to release him eventually. Wouldn’t you rather hear what I’m going to say to him rather than let me do it in private? You are totally welcome to listen in. Heck, stand in the room with me if you’re so worried.” Li didn’t flinch before the detective’s stony gaze this time. “I have nothing to hide anymore. And I have nothing to lose.”
Detective Hughes grumbled under his breath, but Li was able to snatch the words “completely insane” and “disregard for authority.”
“Fine,” he barked. “Ten minutes. No more. An officer will be outside the room, and I’ll be listening. If I see you even thinking about doing something funny, you’re out of there.” He walked to the entrance of his cubicle. “Officer Flores? Could you escort this young man to interrogation room two? Ten minutes only. And whatever you do”—he skewered Li with his basilisk glare—“don’t let him out of your sight for a millisecond.”
The interrogation room reminded Li of Leo’s shabby office at the grocery store. Everything in a thousand tints and shades of gray. The long mirror against one wall seemed to double the size of the cold chamber, but Li could feel the detective’s eyes incinerate him through the glass. Plunked at the metal table were two people who had all the energy and spirit sucked out of them.
Reuben’s eyes were as red as his boyfriend’s. His face sagged like a deflated balloon; the fight sapped out of his whole body. His brother, the mysterious Fernando Rodriguez, was twitchy, wringing his hands and fidgeting in the rigid metal chair. His face, much like Reuben’s, reflected his Latino heritage, and closer inspection revealed the vines on his rose tattoo were actually letters that spelled the name Sarah.
They both looked up when Li walked in, Fernando confused, Reuben mortified.
The introductions were awkward, stilted. Neither brother was in the mood for conversation.
Reuben made a tentative step forward, asking a question that Li believed plagued him ever since he had been taken to the station. “How … H-how’s Noah?”
Li paused. “He’s … upset.” Hysterical was more like it. Li had to get Noah to stop hyperventilating in his apartment. But he thought Reuben had suffered enough.
Reuben plunged his face in his hands, muffling his words. “I screwed up. I just ruined the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Oh God, Noah! I’m so sorry!”
Fernando placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. His face strained. “Take it easy, little bro. I shouldn’t have asked you to do this. It was my problem, not yours. I put you up to it.”
“But I hated him too. I hated him so much. I wanted to hurt him. And now I might never see Noah again!”
Li’s voice, calm, rational, sliced through their grief. “Reuben … we’ll figure this out. The police just want to get the facts straight. If you come clean, put everything on the table, it might turn out better than you think. You’re both in a lot of pain. Let me help you.” He closed his hand on Reuben’s arm, gave it a supportive squeeze. “I will not let them take you away from Noah. I promise.”
Reuben’s bloodshot eye peeked out between his fingers through a glaze of tears.
Li kept his tone even and cool. “Tell me what happened, please. How did you feel?”
Reuben unearthed his face, sniffed, and smeared away his tears with his forearm. His lip quivered. “Fern was a chef at Bauer when Oscar came and tore the place apart. Fern … Fern always wanted to be a chef. He loved it. He worked really hard and graduated top of his class at culinary school. And working at Bauer was a dream come true for him.”
Fernando’s voice was heavy, and his dark brown eyes were shiny with the memory. “Chef Felix was the best man I ever worked for. He believed in us. He gave us a chance. He hired women and minorities and let anyone with a passion for food learn in his kitchen. He was the first one to look at me and say ‘chef’ instead of ‘dishwasher’ because of my Mexican heritage. Do you know how important that was to me? I finally got to do the job I loved. And I was able to plan a life for my girlfriend and me. Especially once we learned about the breast cancer.” A spasm of pain broke his composure.
Reuben took up the tale. “Then Oscar came. His wife got sick, but no one knew how.”
“It wasn’t us!” Fernando’s voice cracked, and his eyes blazed like lit coals. “Felix was strict on cleanliness. I personally handled their meal, and I can tell you that nothing was wrong. Our service staff checked for food allergies like they were supposed to. Our suppliers were dumbfounded. No one had any clue! Not even Oscar! He turned it into a witch hunt!”
“The review came out, which wasn’t great. But his blog post was disgusting. You met Oscar, Li. You knew he was a racist. Well, he basically dumped a truckload of manure on Bauer and aimed a nuclear warhead at it. It was vile. Nothing but hate speech. And Shorewood is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the state. Just look around the police station! People of all types! I don’t know how Oscar thought he could get away with it.”
“But a bunch of these white supremacists got together and decided to riot and attack us for ‘trying to kill them.’ They went after Bauer’s staff with their torches.”
Reuben’s eyes darkened to that familiar color of molten tar. “It was a horrible night. It was family game night, and all of us were there. My four brothers and me. Noah was, thankfully, at work. My parents were there. My nephews and nieces. My sisters-in-law. My abuela. Big, happy family. Then those lunatics attacked. It was like the end of the world. They threw bricks through our windows, burned Mexican flags on our lawn, screamed at us to leave the country, set off things that sounded like gunfire. We huddled in the corner, too frightened to move. I thought they were going to slaughter us. We heard sirens and screaming and suddenly one of the crazies threw a flaming torch and smoke bombs in the house. The house was on fire! My … My oldest brother, Angelo, ran to the kitchen to get water to put it out. His son was just six years old and didn’t understand why people were attacking us. He tore away from his mom to reach his dad, screaming for Daddy because he thought he’d lose him. Those monsters threw a balloon filled with pig’s blood at him. It hit him right in the face.” Reuben’s face crumpled, and tears welled against his eyelids. “Can you imagine what it sounds like to hear your little nephew wail as if his soul got ripped out? We didn’t know what happened at first. We thought they shot him. All we saw was Devin standing there drenched in blood and howling for the daddy he thought was going to die.” Reuben shuddered. “I’ll never forget it. That wail. That absolute certainty that you were going to die. That blood all over Devin’s face. I was near my youngest brother, Miguel, during the whole thing. He was home from college and I remember him muttering in Latin, which was a class he took at the time. It sounded like ‘Desireé.’ He said it so deeply, and his voice shook. I don’t know why, but that’s how I remember that night. As Desireé.”
Li, numb with horror, said under his breath, “Dies irae. The day of wrath.”
Fernando’s jaw hardened, his eyes dark and flashing. “Oscar was, if not responsible for the attacks, at least the catalyst to them. He approved of them. His blog practically congratulated those terrorists. I loathed him from then on. He used to be something of a hero in the food community. His books inspired so many chefs and foodies. But that … That was murder. Even though no one died, Oscar destroyed everything we built and devastated innocent families. I hated him with all my heart.”
Li saw the same hardening of Reuben’s jaw. The two brothers got along very well because of their similar temperaments. Both were powerfully devoted to the ones they loved and had swift, fiery tempers. “So why the beef heart?”
Now shame and embarrassment washed away the fury. Fernando cleared his throat. “We … I wasn’t thinking all that clearly. I saw a recent review he gave and I could smell the ethnic slights in it, just like he did with Bauer. He was going t
o do it again. What if there were more riots? What if someone got killed? I … I couldn’t take it anymore. I just lost it. I wanted to make him afraid, afraid like we had been. It was stupid, but I couldn’t stop myself. I got a beef heart from one of my suppliers.” A cinnamon flush spead over his cheeks. “I … I run a taco stand on Clark Street, and I said I was using it for beef heart tacos. Actually, that doesn’t sound too bad …”
Li nudged him back on track. “The beef heart symbolized your heart, right? And the hearts of your friends and family and any other chef victimized by Oscar Lindstrom?”
Fernando’s nod was slow, reluctant. “Yeah … I guess. I chopped it up and planned to drop it off on his doorstep. At the last second, I … I saw his first book still in my kitchen, the book I admired so much. I tore out a few pages before writing a stupid note on one and wrapping it with the heart. It said FIRST WARNING. It was melodramatic, but I wanted to scare him. And … And I wasn’t really rational at the time. My temper is ugly sometimes.”
“That’s where I came in,” Reuben said. “Fern told me about his plan, and I agreed with him. Oscar had a hand in that nightmare. I wanted to get back at him. All I did was drop the package off on my way to work. He lived on Pricey Pritchard, pretty damn close to the store. 218 Pritchard Avenue. I was there and gone in no time.”
Li’s tone was pensive. “And the very next day after your threat, someone kills Oscar.”
The brothers shouted in unison. “We didn’t do it!”
Reuben became frantic, spitting out words faster than he could think about them. “We didn’t want to kill him! Well, I mean maybe, but we didn’t! We were angry! But we wouldn’t actually hurt anyone! There’s been enough pain! We just wanted to scare him, to make him think twice before he destroyed more people! We didn’t know what else to do!”
“Reuben, breathe.” Reuben gulped air, color returning to his cheeks. Li continued to share his ideas. “So I’m going to see if I understand what happened next. You were both frightened when you learned Oscar had been murdered. You had threatened him the previous day. Despite your intentions, it was still a threat. You resolved to keep quiet about it, hoping it would go away. I made things worse, didn’t I, Reuben? I knew you were hiding something. My constant questions and suspicions frayed your nerves. You were miserable. Above all, you’ve both been afraid of hurting the ones you love most in the entire universe.”
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