Dead Drop

by Emma Rose Watts

  The next morning she awoke to Sam shaking her. “Come on, I’m going to be late for school.”

  She blinked hard. Her mouth was dry as she sat up and took in the world around her. She’d fallen asleep in her clothes, in the same chair from the night before. “What time is it?”

  He pointed to the clock.

  “Oh man. Okay, have you had breakfast?”

  “Yep.”

  “What about lunch? Have you made it?”

  “Already on top of it. Let’s just get in the truck.”

  She nodded, scooped up her keys and headed out to take him to school. When they pulled up outside and Sam got out, Skylar called out to him. “Remember. If you have any trouble call me. Let’s not see a repeat of yesterday.”

  “It won’t happen.”

  She smiled. “Okay. Have a good day.”

  After taking a shower and making her way to the police department, she took a deep breath preparing herself for the onslaught from Davenport, Harvey and probably all of the staff. Sure enough as she walked through the doors she got several looks of disappointment. Thankfully it didn’t look like Davenport and Harvey were in yet. She moved quickly to her desk and got started pulling up the case file on Nick. Skylar did a search on Rapid Loans to see what she could find online. It wasn’t uncommon to see people leaving reviews of establishments and with the Outlaws funding the operation there had to be several accusations being thrown at them.

  Strangely, there were none. Just glowing reviews. It didn’t add up. Not everyone would have been able to pay their loan back, which meant getting a call from either Bo or worse — the Outlaws. If that was the case there would have been a long list of people who had wound up in the hospital or gone missing in Miami. There was none. Perhaps no one spoke up out of fear.

  “Well here she is, the lady of the house,” Hanson said coming up behind her all stealth like and perching on the corner of her desk. He had a coffee in hand and a smug grin on his face. “Reid, rumor has it you screwed up big time. I hear you might not make it out of this one with your badge intact. Do you have anything to say?” He pretended his pastry that morning was a microphone by jabbing it in her face. Skylar scowled at him and tried to remain focused on her search. Hanson turned his head towards the computer.

  “Oh it’s closed. Out of business,” he said.

  “Yeah, I knew that.”

  “And you’re on the wrong website. Shouldn’t you be browsing job sites?”

  “Hilarious.”

  He groaned and stifled a laugh. “Got some good news for you though. We managed to find Darryl last night. Yep, guy was hanging out down at Ruby’s Bar. Can you imagine that? Of all the places to go and stay low, he chooses the one which is currently under surveillance.”

  Skylar’s ears perked up. “Where is he?”

  “In the cells sleeping off one hell of a hangover probably.”

  She got up and headed for the stairs that led down to the cells.

  “Um you might want to get permission from Davenport before—”

  She was already halfway down the staircase when he said that. Had it been last night she might have ripped off a few of his limbs but she’d had the evening to process it and let go of all the negative emotion towards him. As she rounded the corner that led past six cells, she looked through the slim glass window on each of the thick steel doors. Only three of them were occupied. The second had Darryl in it. He was lying on his side in a fetal position. Skylar inserted the key and pulled the door open. She glanced up at the camera outside before entering. All the cells were being monitored so she couldn’t exactly lash out and of course if she did she would be facing a civil lawsuit, however, that didn’t mean she couldn’t shake him up a bit.

  “Wake up!”

  He stirred, groaned and rolled over looking at her before blinking.

  “Am I getting out?”

  “Not for a long time. I’m going to make sure that you spend a good amount of time behind bars.”

  “Whatever, screw you.”

  As he rolled over she noticed his shirt pull down ever so slightly to reveal a small tattoo on his neck. She crouched over him and pulled back the shirt remembering what the bartender said about a man having a dragon tattoo. Sure enough, there it was. She hadn’t seen it when he came in the door yesterday as it was on the opposite side of his neck and hidden by his jacket collar.

  “You with the Outlaws?”

  He snorted. “Was.”

  “Two nights ago, were you at Ruby’s Bar?”

  “What if I was?”

  “Listen, I’ve not had a coffee today. In fact, I’m trying to quit the damn stuff because I’m tired of the drama between two cafés here in town but that’s neither here nor there. My point is. I have little patience for assholes who lie, and even less for those who beat up a woman. Now get up!”

  She seized him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him up.

  “Hey. Hey!” he said. “All right.”

  Once she had him sitting upright Skylar leaned against the wall on the far side of the cell and began her questioning.

  “Were you at Ruby’s or not?”

  “I might have been. What’s it worth to me?”

  “It’s worth not being charged with a murder.”

  “A murder? I haven’t murdered anyone.”

  “Were you there?”

  “Yeah. I was there. I met up with an old friend of mine.”

  “A biker?”

  He sighed and stared down at his knuckles which were bruised. The thought of Jenna’s bruised and cut face flashed across her mind. It took everything she had not to reach across and beat the living daylights out of him.

  “Look, it’s no mystery me and Jenna have been having problems.”

  “Problems? Is that what you call it? You know, I have problems but I don’t resort to beating the crap out of women. Men? Um, I’m thinking about that today.”

  His eyes widened. Yeah, he got the point.

  “I used to run with the Outlaws until I met Jenna.” He looked down despondently. “She made me see a life outside of it all. Away from the violence.”

  “Away from the violence?” She snorted, the irony wasn’t wasted.

  “Look, you know what, I get it. You think I’m a monster and you’re right. I need help.” He shook his head as if he didn’t know what to say. “Believe me or not but I love Jenna.”

  “You call beating her to a pulp love?” He glanced up but didn’t reply. “So?”

  “I was there, we had a few drinks and left later that evening.”

  “You mean you were thrown out.”

  “Thrown out, left, it’s all the same.”

  “Did you have a run-in with someone by the name of Nick Hammond?”

  “Who?”

  “Barrel-chested man, lawyer, was paying for drinks and groping women.”

  “Oh, him.” He chuckled. “Yeah, he came on to my buddy’s gal. So he slapped him a few times and the bouncers threw us out.”

  “Where did you go after that?”

  “Why?”

  “Where?”

  He blew out his cheeks. “I headed to another bar. Harry’s. After that I was dropped off home around eleven.”

  “And your buddy?”

  “He went back to Miami.”

  “Has your buddy got a name?”

  “Bo Gonzales.”

  Chapter 10

  Ten minutes later, Skylar was sitting in front of Davenport alongside Harvey. It was rare she saw him pissed but that morning he just looked like he was ready for an argument. Sensing it was going to spiral out of control real fast and Harvey was going to throw her under the bus, she put her best foot forward and tried to remain calm, composed and tell the truth.

  “Captain, it wasn’t a 911 call and she wouldn’t admit that he was behind the bruised eye,” Skylar said. “Had I been called out there, I would have arrested him. And had she admitted it was him, I would have arrested him.”

  “But y
ou knew she didn’t get that bruised eye from a fall.”

  “I didn’t know for certain. If you are asking what I think happened. Sure, yeah I believe Darryl was behind it but until you have someone willing to admit it, all we have is circumstantial evidence. It wouldn’t hold up.”

  “I would beg to differ,” Harvey said, cutting her a glance.

  “Look, the last time I saw her she had a mark on her wrist. I asked her about it but she covered it up and didn’t want to talk about it. You know how these things are. The court would have had a field day with this and probably thrown it out if I came in with Jenna and she said it was caused by a fall. I did what I thought I should do under the circumstances. I offered her to come back to my place for the night just in case, and in the hopes I might get her to open up to me, but she refused. Sure I could have waited outside but I have a job too. I told her to call 911 and not let him in if he returned. I did everything I could. If you want to discipline me over it, so be it. I’m sorry for what happened but sometimes we don’t get to save every single victim of violence.” She looked at them and they looked back with blank stares. “You know it’s the truth,” she said. Skylar sat there waiting for Harvey to give some detailed breakdown of the law but he didn’t. Davenport pulled back from his seat.

  “Well we have him now,” he said. “What have you managed to dig up so far on the Nick Hammond situation?”

  “We’re still waiting back on the ME for results but I should have those today,” Harvey said.

  “And you, Skylar?” Davenport asked.

  She scratched her neck. “Yeah, we’ve made some progress. It seems our boy down there in the cell, Darryl, he used to run with the Outlaws and on the night Nick died, he was the one down at the bar.”

  Harvey turned in his seat with a look of astonishment. “Are you sure?”

  “I got a confession out of him. And get this… the guy that was with him that night was Bo Gonzales.”

  “Rapid Loans owner. Hold on a minute. But wasn’t Keith there on the same night?”

  “Bingo. And all three don’t have alibis. Bo and Darryl were kicked out. According to the bartender, Keith left before that.”

  All three of them sat there staring at one another chewing it over.

  “Then it’s possible that any one of them could have could have done it.”

  “Exactly,” Skylar said.

  Davenport took a sip of his coffee. “Do we have the video?”

  Skylar frowned. “What?”

  “The video that was used for blackmail. Do we have that as evidence in all of this? I mean we assume that this is what is behind all of this, right?”

  “I’ll look into that,” Harvey said. “The next step is to find this Bo Gonzales.”

  Skylar reached into her jacket and pulled out her notepad. “Already one step ahead. Darryl gave us the address for his friend in Miami. You ready to catch a flight?”

  Harvey’s eyes widened. “Today?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But you have Sam to look after.”

  It suddenly dawned on her. “Oh man.”

  “Now you know what family life is like,” Harvey said with a smile on his face.

  “Harvey, take Hanson with you,” Davenport said leaning forward across his desk.

  “What? But captain…” Harvey protested. “We can just call the Miami-Dade Police Department and have them swing by the address.”

  “I want you to be there. I’ve seen these things go south all the time.”

  He groaned.

  “Seriously, Harvey. You have the best job in the world. Who gets to fly to Miami and do these kinds of things?” Davenport said.

  “Well can I leave Hanson here?”

  “No. I don’t want this screwed up.”

  “And by that you mean?”

  “Look, just take him with you.”

  Harvey blew out his cheeks and looked over at Skylar. Skylar had a smirk on her face. She knew Harvey hated Hanson. The animosity between them was palpable at the best of times. Harvey still blamed Hanson for raiding Callum Jackson’s place when he knew his sister was in danger. The reality was there were other women involved and many of them were saved because of Hanson’s quick decision. The fact was he was bitter over his sister’s death and until Callum was behind bars he was looking for anyone to punish.

  “And what about me, captain?” Skylar asked.

  “Get me the report from the ME’s office and get back in with Keith White and apply a bit more pressure. Perhaps he’s still holding back.”

  She nodded and got up and opened the door. Harvey brushed past her. He was in a foul mood. He crossed the office and pointed to Hanson. “You. Let’s go. We have a flight to catch.”

  Hanson scooped up his jacket from the back of his chair, tossed a half-eaten apple into the trash and tried to catch up. Harvey pushed out of the office and was gone in less than sixty seconds. There was something about the way he was acting that felt off. Sure, Skylar got on his nerves at times, and of course she wasn’t perfect or the easiest to work with, but he just seemed off-kilter. Although she was liable to heap more hot coals on her head, Skylar scooped up a phone and plunked herself down at her desk to make a call to Elizabeth. She was working at her antiques business in town. It was a nice little store that sold all manner of unique items from all over the South. Skylar had been in and bought a few items for the boat.

  “Baker’s Antiques.”

  “Elizabeth, it’s Skylar.”

  “Oh hi hon, how are yah?”

  “Good. I was just hoping to talk to you about Harvey.”

  “Oh no,” she groaned. “What’s he done now?”

  She leaned back in her chair and put her feet up on the corner of her table. “Is there anything I should know? Is he going through some kind of manopause?”

  “Manopause?” She laughed. “I like that.” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “He’s cranky, right?”

  “Is he ever. He raked me over the coals about the way things went with Jenna.”

  “Oh that.” Her tone of voice went soft. “Yeah. I heard about it last night. Terrible.”

  “I did everything I could.”

  “I’m sure you did, Skylar. You have to understand something about Harvey. But before I tell you, promise me you won’t say anything.”

  “You have my word.”

  “I mean it.”

  “My lips are sealed.”

  There was a pause as she hesitated. “His mother was a victim of domestic abuse. It was a long time ago and she survived but she nearly died from it.”

  Skylar felt her stomach twist.

  “He was there the night it happened. He froze. Didn’t know what to do.”

  “I didn’t know.”

  “Yeah, so if he rides you hard over it, that’s why. I thought it was best you knew being as you work with him and all.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Why don’t you come for dinner more often?”

  “I don’t want to intrude and with the foul mood Harvey has been in lately I just thought it was best I stayed out of the way.”

  She chuckled. “Believe me, I have days when I don’t want to be around him as well.”

  They chatted for a while before Skylar had to go. After getting off the phone she felt a little bit more relieved than before. There was still so much to Harvey that she was just learning about. He was like an onion. Behind every new layer of skin was something new. He had his wounds, his baggage, his issues but he just did a better job of covering them up.

  About two and a half hours later, Harvey and Hanson touched down in Miami. It was sweltering hot, and overcrowded.

  “You know, Baker, you really should work on your conversational skills.”

  “And you should work on giving your mouth a break,” he said as they headed out to collect their rental car.

  “All this animosity towards me can’t be good for your ulcer.”

  “Ulcer?”

  “Yeah, an old-time
r like you should have a dozen of them by now.”

  “I’ll have you know…”

  “Oh, this looks like our ride,” Hanson said cutting him off and heading over to a blue Ford SUV. He popped the trunk and tossed in a bag.

  “I don’t know why you insisted on picking up clothes. We are only going to be here until this evening.”

  “You never can be too careful,” Hanson said. “This one time…”

  “Save it,” Harvey said cutting him off. He knew if he got him started he would just end up yakking for the next half an hour. He glanced at his watch as he got into the driver’s side and waited for Hanson. They had a meeting with a lieutenant of the Miami-Dade Police Department just off Miami Gardens just to make sure they were in the loop. It had been a long while since he’d been down here. The last time he’d visited Miami was seven years ago when he and his wife took a cruise to the Bahamas. Since then he really hadn’t had a vacation so to speak. Sure, he’d had a few days here and there but that wasn’t time off. He needed a mental break from it all.

  On the way over, Hanson continued to go on like a broken record about all manner of stuff, much of which had no bearing on the case. All Harvey wanted to do was collect Bo and get the hell back to Carrabelle. He’d arranged to take in a ball game with his kid later that evening but at the rate things were going it wouldn’t be happening.

  “Anyway, so I go and see this acupuncture guy for stress. I’m telling you, Baker, it does wonders. You really should go and check it out. I know it sounds like mumbo jumbo but these Chinese folks really know what they are doing. He was telling me I had to work with my Chi energy and breathe more. He said…”

  “Did he say you talk too much?” Harvey muttered.

  “Who stuck something up your rear end?”

  “Look, I just want to get back.”