by H Hiller
I could see where he was headed with this, and I didn't want to waste anyone's time with the version of this story he had been practicing.
“What do you mean?”
“I might believe that you didn’t know the original intention was to kill anybody. I could even see where you would agree to swap out the dogs. But the minute you switched dogs with a dog you knew was one of your killer dogs you knew damn well what was going to happen.”
“Why do you think it was a fighting dog?”
“You did a lousy job erasing the tattoo. You know, the one that will match the ones in your other fighting dogs that only attack when they hear the fight song you play at your matches. Did you think I wouldn't do my homework?” He stared at me for a very short moment and then looked at his cuffed wrists. “So get it out and get it straight.”
“Okay. Okay.”
He doubted that I knew everything, but was sure I knew enough to catch most of his lies. The thing I needed him to believe was that any leniency he could expect from the woman next to me was going to be determined by how satisfied I was with his version of things.
“Can we make a deal first?” Logan interrupted. Katie laughed at him.
Cisco took that as his cue to begin. “I used to be at parties at Biggie’s a lot because of my cousin. This girl I met there said Bumper was blackmailing her boss lady. She said she worked for some movie actress that had adopted Biggie’s kid. She told me Bumper was trying to make it look like Biggie was doing it but that she was paying the money to Bumper and biggie never mentioned it. I believed the girl because Bumper treated everyone around him like crap and it sounded like something he would do. She also said Bumper was hitting on her anytime she brought the kid by the studio to see Biggie. Anyway, she wanted a dog that would attack Bumper because she didn’t trust him to keep what she was doing with Biggie a secret. She just wanted it to hurt him enough so he’d go away, but I don’t think she would have minded if it killed him.”
“And the name of this girl you keep talking about?” I had a name in mind.
“Tanya. Tanya Lansing. She’s a white girl about my height.” The height matched the name I thought he would say, but I was very relieved he did not name Amanda or Georgia. It also gave me a reason to dismiss the whole thing as being a story he had been fed, maybe by his lawyer, that he had blown by using the wrong name. One other thing now began to bother me. I had never considered that anyone but Biggie had been the target of the dog’s vicious attack. I did not interrupt again and he pressed on, not sure how much, if any, of this tale I was buying. “So she started to work on Bumper about having Biggie get a dog. Tyshika told me they was looking and I had her bring them to the kennel. I suggested Biggie buy the real Taz and train with him. Then I had one of the groomers put that dye on one of the dogs I had been training for the fights and then I put him in the cage. The dog was supposed to kill Bumper, not Biggie. Biggie used to drive his-self and Bumper would sit in the back seat when Tyshika was in the car with them. I figured the dog would break through the paper and attack Bumper on the way across the Causeway.”
“How much did you sell the real Taz for?” I wanted to know for my own sake. It was not a useful piece of information in his prosecution.
“I’ve still got him,” Cisco said, surprised I had not figured this much out, but I had not heard back about the search of Cisco’s house that Avery had added to the list of search warrants being executed that morning. I would have to be sure somebody checked the impounded dogs. “I was gonna keep the dog and breed him.”
“Walk me through that Friday afternoon. Who helped you wrap the cage?”
“Nobody helped me with that. The groomers dyed the dog I gave them and I wrapped the cage in my office and they helped me load it in the SUV when I was done.”
“And Jerry didn’t bother to check to be sure it was the right dog?”
“Why would he?” This was a fair question. Jerry wanted to trust his trainer.
“Tyshika didn’t want to see what she had bought?”
“Nah,” he laughed. “She didn’t want to get her dress dirty looking at no dogs. One of the dogs had pissed in the lobby and I thought she was going to puke. I told her I had made it blue because someone had left a message to do that. Besides, Biggie loved them blue dog paintings. Tyshika laughed about it but didn’t ask to see.”
“Why did you really give the dog a dye job?” I was not convinced the trainer really knew about Biggie’s interest in Rodrique’s artwork.
“I thought sure the cops would shoot the dog when it attacked Biggie,” he admitted. “If they did then nobody would have probably washed the dog off and found out it was different.”
This was exactly what I had come to believe after I learned about the switch myself. He had a perfect plan right up until my sister ruined it. I still had to wonder what would have happened had Biggie let his real dog loose in that white-on-white world he and Tyshika shared at the lakefront. Tyshika probably would have killed Biggie herself then. I gave all of this a moment’s thought but still didn’t trust this version of things. I had no idea how else he might know about Amanda’s assistant, but he had her name very wrong. I actually doubted that Logan would have his client actually lie to me, but someone else may have had fewer concerns. Cisco would probably lie to me if he had been told to by someone he was afraid of. Someone like Bumper, and Bumper had enough names and motive to make up a story for him. Maybe Bumper thought I wouldn’t suspect him of the crime if I thought he was the intended victim. He would be underestimating how much I hated him and wanted to see him in handcuffs and his smugness crushed. There was still also the possibility that Cisco knew he was going to prison for his role but might be willing to shield someone else’s role.
“I don’t believe your story, but I’ll check it out. I still like your cousin for this,” I told him. “The money Tyshika will get from suing the kennel could easily pay you off for helping her kill Biggie.”
“Sure my cousin could get some money suing Jerry, but does she strike you as the kind of person that is ever gonna split a nickel two ways?” Cisco proved to be a lot wiser than I gave him credit for being. “And I swear that whatever reason you have to think that I am lying is dumb. I will admit to my part, but I won’t take the all the blame for killing Biggie.”
“So that’s your story and you’re sticking to it?” This had hardly played out the way I thought it would. Everyone in the room agreed that Tyshika was likely innocent but no saint, Cisco had just confessed to killing Biggie, though apparently by accident, and that someone else was involved. That someone else may or may not be named Tanya Lansing, but at least for now she was not named Georgia.
“I don’t have anything else to tell you,” Cisco declared and sat back in his chair.
“Well I have one more thing. What's up with the fight song? Why do the dogs get so excited?”
He actually grinned when I admitted I had not already figured this out. “Dog whistles, man. We recorded six of those whistles only the dogs can hear and put that up under the song. It drives them nuts.”
“It sure does.” I had to agree. The genius of this was debatable, but the effect was immediate and certain. I had seen the efficiency twice so far.
“So who put the whistle on the CD Biggie was listening to when the dog attacked?” I asked in hopes he would finally implicate Bumper in something he had witnessed. He could not testify to any blackmail plot on Bumper’s part because he had only been told about it.
“I didn’t know there was one.” Cisco looked genuinely surprised at the very idea.
“Here’s one you do know the answer to. It’s been bugging me since I watched the dogs fight. When a dog attacks, will it focus on one spot or will it bite twice if it can?”
“Once. They always go for the throat first and will keep at it until they get there.”
“Why would the dog have chewed on Biggie in two places then?”
“Maybe he was bleeding. The dog may have gone for th
e blood, but it always goes for the kill at the throat. It’s how they’re trained.”
I thanked him for his help and advised him to learn to go without showers, as pretty boys like him didn’t do well in the showers at Angola. It was just a mean thing to say.
Katie wasted no time pinning my ears back once we closed the door behind us.
“I'm not sure what I can do with any of that. You do know you didn't read him his rights.”
“Yep.”
“Do you think Logan didn't notice?” We both knew the answer to that question. “Why the hell didn't you read him his rights?”
“So he'd talk. You have him solid on the dog charges. He will plead to whatever you want on that just to beat the murder rap. I don’t think anyone cares if he ever does a day for his work on the murder of Biggie. The kennel he works for is going to take a pretty big hit just from the dog fighting story. Being even remotely involved in the murder would put them out of business. Cisco is not the fish I want to catch, and now you can get him to testify against anyone else in the dog fighting case without having to say you made a deal.”
“My father said I'd likely want to slap you if we ever met.”
“Do I know your father?”
“Connor Murphy. Reilly was my married name. My father knew yours. They used to deer hunt together in Missouri every year. It’s where he chose to retire after Katrina.”
“Yeah, I was a little rough when I called him,” I admitted. I had all but accused him of trying to cover up whatever had happened. I changed the subject. “Did Avery happen to tell you who we are actually looking at for orchestrating the murder?”
“No.” Katie waved away the unamusing offer of a free slap to my face.
“Despite what Cisco is trying to sell us, I may get to hand you a crooked Fed on a silver platter. I can probably get the blackmail charge to stick, but am still working on the murder charge.”
“Keep me posted,” Katie requested and returned to the interrogation room.
I had found no connection whatsoever between Amanda and any of these criminals, other than her being blackmailed. Georgia had proven to be demonstrably over-protective towards her boss, and was probably no less so towards Parker, but that is a long ways from actually crafting such an elaborate murder scheme. All the same, I couldn’t ignore what Cisco was telling me just because I didn’t want to hear it. He also might be getting the players right but the names wrong.
TWENTY SEVEN
I was spared having to pursue Cisco’s allegations against Georgia for a few days by the trip that Georgia and Parker made to Mobile with Amanda for a USO fund raiser on the USS Alabama. Amanda told me she did not make a point of trading on her background as a debutante, but was always ready to play the part of the Southern belle that made it big in Hollywood if it served a good purpose. She had no intention of actually touring with the USO in Afghanistan or Iraq, less because of the time away from her son than the presence of people that might shoot at her. I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling her how little difference I felt there was between the streets of those places and New Orleans.
I decided to use the time to continue working on getting Bumper Jackson to implicate himself. I broke my promise to Avery to stay away from the man until Avery had been able to establish Bumper’s true identity. I did not really care who he was, only whether I would be able to make a prosecutable case for blackmail or homicide against the guy. Something about him was beginning to really annoy me and I had to remind myself that he might actually be innocent and I simply hated him.
I returned to BC Studios the next afternoon and found Bumper and a mixing engineer in the recording studio laying percussion tracks under a song whose lyrics glorified the treatment of women as sexual objects. The record label might make a lot of money from the song, but it wouldn’t be from my wallet. Bumper turned the project off, and whispered something to the engineer before motioning the man to leave the room. I took a seat in the engineer’s empty chair.
“What can I do for you, Detective?” Bumper spoke the last word with a bit of derision he had begun to use towards me whenever possible.
“Is pleading guilty to blackmail and murder out of the question?” I stretched my feet out ahead of me to block his exit. Bumper wasn’t going anywhere anyway.
“Yeah, probably so.” Bumper laughed. He did not ask me what I was talking about. He also did not immediately plead innocence. He was going to make me do all the talking, perhaps hoping that I might show my hand before he even played his own cards.
“Everyone seems to be sending me your way about Biggie's murder these days.” I tried lying because I really had nothing solid to use against him. “One story is that you had to get Biggie out of the way to make the moves on Tyshika. I doubt she’d have you, but maybe you just wanted to take over the record label and studio. Those are the theories. I like the evidence I have that the CD you gave Biggie cued the dog to attack. And just the other day someone was telling me they might be willing to testify about a ten grand a month scam you have going to keep quiet about the adoption of Biggie’s kid. I still plan to tie you to that empty locker’s worth of guns out in Harahan. Are you sure you have time to do all this and run a music studio?”
I had hoped to give him enough things to debate that I might steer him into defending himself against the accusation he thought I might actually have enough for an indictment. I could then focus on finding that evidence. I just needed to be careful about being too specific about who my sources were.
“I doubt a jury is going to convict me of lying about giving bad advice on pets, and I have no idea what you are talking about when you say I am blackmailing anyone.” Bumper threw up both hands in mock defense. “The CD that I gave Biggie was just a collection of songs some of his bands had been working on lately. I don’t know a thing about any hidden messages. Do you have the CD with you?”
“Funny you should ask,” I gloated and removed the CD from the evidence bag I had transferred it to after using it the day before with Roger and the Trooper.
Bumper loaded the CD into a player next to the huge mixing board and cued up the track I was convinced had been the trigger. The song was no less annoying when played through professional loudspeakers. Bumper started to grin as he manipulated the mixing board spread out before him.
“What’s so funny?”
“There’s nothing here. Watch the bar graph over there.”
Bumper pointed to a set of lights and began removing frequencies one at a time. Each time he made an adjustment I could hear a difference in the music. He removed the last tonal abomination and the graph was black before us. I had no idea what this meant, but based my assumption that my theory had just sprung a leak on his triumphant grin.
“Try this one.” I offered him the CD from the dog fight. He repeated the process, but this time the board remained lit up with frequencies we were unable to hear.
“Those are some ultra-high frequencies,” Bumper pointed to the graph and moved more things about on the board. “I’d guess it’s a dog whistle.”
“Why do you think it’s a dog whistle?” I understood he could isolate the tone, but to be able to immediately identify the sound made him seem too smart about such things.
“Because I was here when Cisco had some added to a CD. He and Biggie did it months ago, but I never asked why. I thought it was for some practical joke. You thought I had added a dog whistle to the CD I gave Biggie? That would have been pretty dumb of me. Sooner or later someone would have run a test like this.”
“So you’re saying you knew about Cisco’s dog fighting operation?” I shifted gears. The idea that the three of them had sat here and made the alteration without Cisco giving the reason seemed far-fetched at best.
“I knew, but knowing isn’t a crime. As for the dog that killed Biggie, getting a dog at all was Biggie's idea. I'm sure Tyshika paid the trainer to switch the dogs so she could sue the kennel for wrongful death. She probably thought she'd inherit the busine
ss. Cisco did tell me how easy it would be to switch the dogs and kill someone if I were ever interested in doing so. I told him to get lost. My job was to protect the big man, so I would hardly plan to kill him.”
“You must have spent some time making that alibi up.” I had to admit to myself it could be enough for reasonable doubt. Being able to say he was working undercover and needed to protect his cover rather than expose crimes his subject was not directly involved in would probably work in his favor with a lot of juries, although maybe not a New Orleans jury. The locals have a less than favorable opinion about police officers and their motives.
Bumper handed me my CDs and stood up abruptly. He motioned for me to follow him out of the recording studio. I looked around the room as we walked out, and my eyes fell on a series of framed pictures on the wall. Most of them were of the bands that recorded here, and most of these had Biggie or the engineers posed with them. A few had been taken in the nightclub as well. The ones that immediately drew my attention featured Biggie with an all too familiar young boy on his lap. There was a strong paternal look on Biggie's face as he looked towards his son. Bumper followed my gaze and started to laugh.
“Oh, man, you hadn’t figured that out yet?” I had figured out he was an undercover cop, but I was surprised by these pictures. “The kid is Biggie's.”
“I know about the adoption but I didn't believe Biggie had any contact with his son after the adoption. These look fairly new.”
“They sure are. That one was taken a week before Biggie died. Biggie bribed the kid's nanny behind that actress, Amanda something or another’s, back. She'd bring him by once a week or so.” The way Bumper said this at least indicated he was not aware of my budding romance with Amanda, or he was keeping this knowledge to himself. He was leading me towards his office as we spoke.
“Why would the nanny do that?”
“Biggie told her he regretted the deal he had made. He told her how he met Amanda’s husband and found out the actress chick couldn't have any babies. He claimed he sold them his kid in exchange for the money to get started here.”