by Hadley Quinn
Jack sat down with Van at the table. He glanced him over for a few seconds, realizing the kid looked ten years older than the last time he’d seen him. It’d only been a year, but the stress and the worry were there.
“Tell me where you were last night,” he finally said.
Van stared at him for a few seconds and then glanced around the room. The door was shut and there were no windows, but he still didn’t feel comfortable.
“We can talk in here; it’s private,” Jack assured him.
Van shook his head and took a deep breath. “I have nothing to hide.”
“Okay,” Jack bobbed his head. “So where were you last night?”
“I was at home with my wife. I got home around five-thirty; she was already home before me. She had dinner in the oven, uh, I showered, we ate…we just…spent the evening at home. Watched TV for a little bit…”
Jack barely nodded. “What time did you go to bed?”
Van thought for a few seconds. “Well…probably before eleven, I guess.”
Jack paused again. “You were at home all night?”
Van stared at him, slightly confused. “Yeah we were home all night. Jack, what the hell is going on? Tell me what happened.”
“Van you need to be completely honest with me right now, okay? I’m not kidding around. If you lie to me—”
“What the hell would I lie to you about? Jesus Jack. Tell me what happened. Brian Thompson? What happened to him? He’s dead? Is that the truth? Tell me what’s going on!”
Jack sighed and leaned back in his seat. “He was shot. One bullet through his head.” He motioned with his finger pointing into his right temple.
“It wasn’t suicide?”
Jack barely smiled but said, “Not unless he could kick his own ass as severely as it was kicked.”
Van tilted his head slightly. “Someone roughed him up?”
“Roughed him up? Jesus, the guy had six broken bones. There was more blood from that than there was from the bullet to his head. Not really, but just sayin’…”
Van thought silently. Someone had beat him to it. Someone found the motherfucker and gave him what he deserved. But Van’s other concerns were that of the brotherly sort and he knew where Jack was heading next.
“Van, you know anyone that could do something like that to a guy?” he implied.
Van scoffed, well aware of what Jack was suggesting. But it wasn’t any of his friends. Not without Van knowing about it. “It could be anybody. The guy was a piece of shit.”
“Thompson?”
“I’m sure you’re aware of what’s been going on.”
“Yeah, I’ve been informed somewhat. I’ll be studying it even further now, though. Your wife’s history with this guy…”
“Oh God, Dani…”
“She’s fine. I’ve already spoken to her.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s still in the precinct. They kept her for questioning.” Van’s heart sank, but before he could respond Jack said, “She had her lawyer with her.”
“Not Clarence Teagan.”
“Yeah, Teagan. I hate that asshole.”
“I don’t trust him, Jack. Is there something you can do?”
“You mean like kick his ass?”
Van smiled at the older man. “Yeah, something like that.”
“He’s your wife’s lawyer?”
“Her parents’ lawyer. But he’s done nothing for Dani.”
“Hmm.” Jack thought for a few seconds. “She hasn’t been charged with anything; they just like to get what they can while they’re able to. But she’s only said that she was with you all night, far as I know. Even after Teagan arrived.”
“Is there any way you can get him out of this? Honestly, Jack… I don’t feel comfortable with it. Just tell Dani that I’m asking her to trust me, okay? Tell her to cut him loose.”
Jack nodded. “She doesn’t need a lawyer right now, but yeah, I’ll do what I can. But you’re my priority, Van. I’ll be honest with you, it doesn’t look good. I took a lot of time looking over what they got and… There’s gotta be something you say that changes things.”
“What evidence? Tell me how they’ve pinned this on me.”
Jack sighed. “Well, there’s a matter of the gun. It was a nine mil.”
Van barely shrugged. “I don’t own a gun.”
“They found it in your truck.”
“What?”
“Under the seat. One round was fired, and it’s the same round that went through Thompson’s head and into the floor of his living room. The gun was wiped clean of fingerprints. Every inch of it.”
Van shook his head, trying to process the information. “A nine mil? Quincy owns a nine mil.”
“There was no serial on the weapon.”
“Yeah, it’s not registered,” he mumbled.
“When was the last time you saw Quincy? You had a disagreement?”
With a glower Van said, “Yeah, he’s not my favorite person. But I haven’t seen him since a week after I busted his nose.”
“Yeah, hopefully that’ll work in your favor,” Jack muttered, jotting something else down.
“Do you know what he did?” Van growled.
“We’ll get to that in a minute. Back to the evidence. They found shoeprints in the dirt outside Thompson’s house; there’s dirt inside the house from the same set of shoes. The shoes were in the bed of your truck.”
“In the bed of the truck? Anyone could have put those there!”
“There’s dirt inside the truck that matches the dirt on the shoes. And how do you explain the gun under the seat? You keep your truck locked?”
“Of course I do.”
“Where are your spare keys?”
Van paused for a moment but said, “In a drawer in the kitchen.”
“Dani doesn’t have a set?” he asked. Van narrowed his eyes at him but Jack held up his hands and said, “Van, I’m not gonna coddle you. Answer the goddamn question.”
“Yes she has a copy on her keychain.”
“So we look into that first; who could have had access to your keys, the spare, or hers. But maybe you left it unlocked, or maybe someone jimmied the lock.”
Van took a deep breath. “What else. What other evidence is there? I mean they honestly can’t charge me with murder just on that, right? That shit was obviously planted.”
“Someone claims they saw you.”
Van stared at him. “Saw me where?”
“Saw you leave the apartment complex that night.”
“That’s impossible because I never left!”
“Well apparently this person swore it was you.”
“Who?” Van growled.
“It’s not relevant until I figure things out.”
“The fuck it is! I wanna know who’s lying their fucking teeth out!”
“It’s listed as anonymous, so I have no idea. Someone called from the payphone a block from your apartment building. It could have been the real killer, but I’m working on it. But moving on… You’ve been looking for Brian for weeks now. Don’t deny that because I’ve seen proof of it.”
“So? I wanted to know where the little prick was.”
“Sure, that’s fine. But you also went to Overlander’s office fuming about it, too. That will be a very credible source to the prosecution. You were raging mad at Thompson’s former place of employment and apparently they were about to call the police. Someone saw you coming out of Thompson’s old apartment after you busted his door in. You threatened him on the street when he was parked outside your building. He allegedly vandalized your truck, right? Jesus, Van. You’ve got a mountain of motive that keeps piling up.”
Van didn’t reply.
“And what about you conveniently heading out of town?”
Van studied him for a few seconds until he read between the lines. “You want to know if I killed Brian and then was gonna head out of town to make it look like I couldn’t have done it? Are you kiddin
g me?”
“I’m just asking the questions, Van. If you can’t answer them without yelling at me, I’m just gonna leave. I understand you’re pissed, but help yourself here. I gotta ask these questions whether you did it or not.”
“You never even asked me if I did it.”
“Do I need to?”
“Shouldn’t you?”
“I don’t believe you did it, but if it makes you feel better, did you kill him?”
“No. But I wanted to.”
“Fair enough. Just don’t say that to anyone else.”
“I’ve said it enough.”
“I’m sure you have. I’ve heard you’ve been pretty irate several times because of this guy.”
“So? He’s done some horrific things.”
“He raped your wife.”
Van felt his body recoil. “She was my girlfriend at the time, but yeah, same thing. And you know this how?”
“She told me.”
Van sighed and buried his head into his hands. “He made a video of it.”
“What?”
Van clenched his jaw and repeated, “He made a video of that night. Brian. He recorded it. He sent it to me.”
“Oh Jesus, Van.”
“It was edited, though. He cut out the part where he threatened her and made it look like it was consensual.”
“Where’s the video?”
“I destroyed it.”
“A DVD?”
“Yes. I busted it into a million pieces and threw it in the trash.”
“When was this?”
“Couple weeks ago.”
“And then you started looking for him. You know how bad that looks? They’ll find the video. The recording. They could find out that he sent you a copy.”
“Can you find it first?”
“Van, I can’t get in that house right now. They’re still processing everything.”
“So you didn’t know about it? It wasn’t added to the evidence against me? Motive, or whatever?”
Jack didn’t respond at first, and then he realized, “No because they don’t know yet…”
“I would check his brother. Andy. He’s kind of the techie geek of the two. Dani says that Brian was always using Andy for different things. He tried to hack into her laptop once.”
“Okay, I’ll start there. But it’s only one part of the puzzle, Van. It might not save you from much. You’ve already been charged on other evidence.”
“I don’t care; I don’t want that to get out, Jack. It’s Dani’s life.”
Jack nodded and rubbed his thick eyebrows with his fingertips. “I understand.”
They were both silent for a while, Jack thinking about the anonymous phone call and Van thinking about Brian.
“Where was he?” Van asked. “Brian. Where’s he been living?”
The lawyer was a little confused at first, but he could tell that Van really didn’t know. He placed his arms on the table and informed him, “He lived two blocks from you, Van.”
That sent Van’s stomach into his gut. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“No, I’m not. He’s lived over on Denning for the past five months. Since he moved out of his apartment.”
Van couldn’t even believe it. Two blocks? He was speechless. His mind was racing a thousand miles per second. Two blocks?
“Van, you honestly had no idea?”
“What? No, I had no idea! If I had known he was that close I would’ve—”
Jack cut him off with his hand in the air and shook his head. “Don’t go there. Let’s focus on the facts.”
“Well here’s a fact. Two blocks away, why would I drive there? I would’ve just walked.”
“I thought of the same thing.”
“Well I didn’t even know where he lived.”
Jack paused briefly. “There was a piece of paper in your truck. With his address on it.”
Van frowned. “Well I didn’t write it.”
“We’ll prove that, but they could claim someone wrote it for you. What about Dani? Did she know where he lived?”
“What? That he lived just around the corner? Hell no! She would have freaked out!”
“Do you and Brian have any mutual friends?”
Van thought for a second. “No, I don’t believe so. But back to the gun, Jack. Can you prove that it’s not mine?”
“Have you ever owned a gun?”
“Hell no. I’ve never even used one, to be honest. Not my thing.”
Jack questioned Van for another hour and made phone calls to get his defense rolling. By the time Jack left for the night and Van had been returned to his cell, it was midnight.
And he still hadn’t been allowed to see his wife.
Chapter Twenty-One
“I don’t understand,” Jaime said, facing her sister. Dani looked like she’d been up all night, which she had, but the stress on her face and in her eyes was upsetting. “Why won’t you use Dad’s lawyer? It’s not like you’re the one that’s been arrested. And if Van already has his own lawyer, what does it matter that you talk to another one? Maybe you’d get better advice that way. You know, more help.”
Dani sighed. “Van requested that I not consult with Clarence. I don’t know why because I haven’t been allowed to see my husband. But Jack—Van’s lawyer—told me that Van didn’t trust him.”
“He threatened his investigator, did you hear that?”
Dani sighed again. “Yes, Clarence told me that.”
“So you did talk to him?”
“Just for a little bit. Enough to get some legal advice about Van’s situation.”
“And what did he tell you? To sit here until they let you see him?”
The two of them were sitting on a bench at the precinct, and even though Dani had been treated politely by most of the detectives and officers there, she still hadn’t been allowed to see her husband.
“At midnight he told me to go home. They were done searching our apartment.”
“And I agree with him. What good is it going to do you to sit here all day?”
“I just want to see Van. Once I get to see him I’ll consider going home for a little bit. It’s just hard to think about being comfortable at home when he’s stuck here in a cell, wrongly accused of killing someone.”
Jaime nodded her understanding. It was six in the morning and she was tired, but she needed to be there for her sister. “What did Dad have to say?” she asked, sipping her coffee.
Dani barely scoffed. “You mean after he lit on fire?”
Jaime chuckled. “I’m sure he wasn’t too pleased that you told his lawyer to take a hike?”
“Well they aren’t going to back off, I can tell you that.”
“Mom and Dad?”
Dani nodded. “Apparently Mom was ‘too distraught’ to come,” she added, sipping her own container of coffee.
With a smirk Jaime said, “Yeah, I’m sure it wasn’t because she was afraid of being spotted in a police department.”
Dani lightly laughed, and that caused the nearest detective to glance from his desk. It made her feel guilty, like she was having a light moment when her husband was suffering.
She stood and walked over to him. “Please let me see Van. I’ve answered your questions, he’s spoken to his lawyer, and I’m about to go crazy.”
Detective Reyes put down his pen and said, “If the charges stick, he’ll have a bail hearing and arraignment. You’ll see him then.”
“But why not now? I don’t understand.”
“It’s up to the captain and he says no. I’m sorry.”
“The captain? That guy right there?” she pointed to the office at the back of the room. Before he responded, Dani was already six steps towards Captain Verhei’s office. Reyes was right behind her to prevent her from entering the office, but she very loudly resisted, and the captain motioned for him to stop. With hands in the air, Detective Reyes left Dani at the doorway and returned to his desk.
“May I speak to you for
a moment?” she asked the captain. He motioned to a seat across from him so she sat. “I would like to see my husband. I don’t care if it’s five minutes or five seconds, but I want to see him.”
John Verhei took a slow, silent breath of air and placed his hands on the desk in front of him. “It’s not a matter of giving you want you want, Mrs. Kemp. My job is to protect the people in my jurisdiction from danger, and this is just the way it goes.”
“He’s my husband, not just some stranger,” she growled. “And he didn’t do what you’ve accused him of! He was with me all night! I’ve been asked that question ten times, and I’ve answered it ten times! If the crime happened at two a.m., you can’t possibly accuse my husband! He was with me!” she emphasized again.
“Ma’am, I don’t care if you swear to me until you’re blue in the face. There are procedures that we follow here, and right now your husband has been accused of murder. We don’t allow alleged murderers to have any privileges while they are in our custody.”
“If you say that again I will sue you for slander. You cannot call him that!”
“I said ‘alleged,’ which is perfectly within my legal right. And for the record, he’s been here for a night, Mrs. Kemp. That’s hardly injustice. The evidence spoke, a judge agreed, and the arrest warrant was issued. Now we have the authority to keep him here until his bail hearing, and just because you don’t agree with that, doesn’t give you the right to pitch a fit every hour. I suggest you go home until your lawyer speaks to you.”
“And this has nothing to do with Donny Kemp, right? Just because his dad was convicted of a crime, you’re going to look at Van that way, too? Divide and conquer, right? Keep us apart because we’re each other’s alibis, hoping you can get something from it?”
The captain’s heart changed pace but he chose not to respond to the accusation when he said, “You may leave now.”
She did leave, but not because he told her to. She left before she climbed across the desk and slapped that stupid smile off his face. She returned to Jaime, who had been standing up trying to monitor the situation from across the room. Jaime followed her sister back to the bench and sat down with her, only for Dani to jump up and exclaim, “Jack!”