“TJ, call your house and get Lucy and Jake over here. Tell Scott we’ve brought his brother in. Ask him to come in and talk to me. I’ll explain everything to him face to face.”
TJ headed for her desk, and Ethan turned to Keith. “Where’s Sullivan?”
Brian Sullivan had been the Adams County DA for eleven years. Ethan had met him twice, but hadn’t had to deal with him professionally since taking office, as most of the crimes committed in Dobbs Hollow were too minor to merit his direct oversight. Murder, on the other hand, required the man himself, not one of his underlings.
“He’s over at Maxie’s. He said to call him when we had a suspect for him.”
“Get him over here. I don’t want to wait when I get grounds for an arrest warrant for Jed Martin.”
Keith made the call, then asked, “What do we do now?”
“How well do you know Jed Martin?”
“Hardly at all, though I bought my car from him.”
“Anyone in the house close to him?”
“Not that I know of. Cal recommended his dealership. I think his sister might have dated Jed in high school.”
“Okay. Then take Cal with you and drive out to the dealership and ask Jed to come in for a chat. Tell him we’ve picked up Eric Allenby on drug charges and Eric’s pointing a finger at him, but that for the moment we just want to talk to him. When he gets here, we need to be sure he and Eric see each other.”
“Gotcha.”
Keith went to fetch Cal, and Ethan let himself into the observation room to keep any eye on Eric. Keith hadn’t exaggerated about the man’s nerves being shot. He checked his watch, got up and paced the room for a while, checked his watch again, and sat back down. He jiggled his knee, tapped his thumbs on the metal table, checked his watch again, and went back to pacing.
Scott arrived at the same time as Brian Sullivan and joined Ethan in the viewing room. He looked awful. This was killing him, but he was trying to hang on. Ethan laid a hand on his shoulder, and they stood together in silence for a long moment.
“He’s waiting for his lawyer?” Scott asked at last.
“Yeah. I’m sorry it has to go this way, but we got him cold on this.”
“Drugs.”
“Definitely drugs. And from what Chuck Hemming said, chances are Eric was involved in Ramirez’s murder, or at least the disposal of his body.”
“No way.”
“Then maybe his buddy Jed did it alone. But unless Eric gives us a wedge to use against Jed, we can’t help him. You know it.”
“You really believe he did it?”
“I’m sorry, Scott. I wish I could say different, but I can’t. It’s possible Eric found out about the murder after the fact, but right now everything points to him. He’s the one whose business Ramirez was stealing, he’s the one Richie Mack trusted and bought from.”
“Hell. Can I talk to him?”
“Go right ahead. But remind him that everything he says will be recorded and that if he wants to wait to talk to you until after his lawyer gets here, he has that right. And no interrogation; he’s asked for his lawyer. If we screw this up and it comes back to bite me on the ass in court, I won’t be the only one.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Ethan turned up the sound as Scott greeted his brother. While Scott was explaining the fact that their conversation could be recorded, and that Eric didn’t have to say anything, TJ slipped into the observation room.
“You think he’ll talk to Scott?”
“Not to him, no. But at him. If I have their relationship pegged right, Scott will piss him off. I only hope he can provoke a response before the lawyer gets here.”
“Do you think Eric has anything to do with my brother’s murder? Or Renee’s? Or Cecile’s?”
Ethan rubbed a hand through his hair, trying to push away the headache plaguing him.
“Hell if I know. When this all started, you said the week Cecile was killed made Dobbs Hollow seem like Stepford to you. Remember?” She nodded. “I’m beginning to understand what you meant. Every town has drug dealers. And where there are drugs there is violence. But this . . .I don’t see how the hell it all ties together.”
In the interview room, Scott had leaned over, pressing his palms into the table and staring at Eric. Through the loudspeaker, his voice crackled and hissed, but Ethan doubted it sounded so great in person, either.
“You need to tell the police whatever you can about Jed. I know you didn’t kill Ramirez. You couldn’t do that. But they’ll pin it on you if they can’t get Jed.” Even with the crappy sound system, Ethan could hear the plea in Scott’s voice, and it tore at him. He shouldn’t have let Scott go in. It was too much to ask of anyone.
“I couldn’t do what?”
“Kill a man! For God’s sake, Eric, listen to me! They have you dead to rights on the drugs. You can’t get out of that one no matter what kind of tricks your lawyer tries to pull. But you don’t have to take the fall for Jed’s actions.”
“You don’t think I could kill a man? Why not? Lack of balls? Lack of brains? Shit, killing is easy.”
“Don’t say that. Jesus, Eric.”
Ethan’s cell buzzed with a text message, but he ignored it.
“Why not? Destroys your precious image of your baby brother as an idiot? Well, too fucking bad. Yeah, Jed came up with the idea of hunting the Mexicans. But the truck—” before he could finish his thought, the door banged open and a heavyset, florid man in a suit shoved his way in.
“Shut your mouth, and shut it right now, Eric.”
After a moment, Ethan recognized the stranger as Thom Henderson, a criminal attorney.
“You”—Henderson pointed at Scott—“out. Now. We’ll have a chat later about the conflict of interest your presence here embodies.”
Ethan turned off the sound so Eric could talk to his lawyer in private and looked at the text.
Lawyer on the way in. Pissed.
“Well, that was illuminating,” he said to TJ.
“Hunting Mexicans? Please tell me that doesn’t mean what I think it means.”
“We’ll find out when Jed gets here. Let me go talk to Scott. You see whether Lucy and Jake have made it over yet.”
Ethan stepped out of the room and found Scott leaning against the wall, doubled over. He rested a hand on the man’s back for a moment.
“Where did I go wrong?”
“Scott, you didn’t create Eric. He’s your brother. And we still don’t know how deep his involvement runs. He said something about Jed hunting Mexicans, but he never admitted to being part of those hunts. It’s possible he only found out about them recently, when Jed needed his help to deal with Ramirez.”
“You think so?”
No, Ethan didn’t think so. But Scott needed an assurance to grab hold of at the moment. “Right now, we have to work with what information we have, not with speculation.”
Scott straightened. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.”
“Keith and Cal have gone to pick up Jed. You know him better than any of us, so if you’re up to it, I’d like you to watch the interrogation and give me your impressions.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t have history with this guy, so fill me in. He was a big football star, right?”
“Yeah. Big star, big ego, which he’s never lost.” Scott’s brow wrinkled, and Ethan saw him transform from worried brother to analytical cop. “He has a tendency to blame others for his problems. He got sacked on the field—normal accident in play—and it ruined his chances at pro ball, which he blamed on the school for not providing enough protection, stuff like that. He married his high school sweetheart, then divorced her because she supposedly wasn’t supportive enough in his time of need. Load of crap. He wanted adoration, not marriage. When the dealership ran into financial trouble, he blamed his salespeople, fire
d a couple of them over it, even.”
“He a bigot? From what Eric said, he chose Mexicans to kill.” Suddenly several mismatched pieces of evidence fell together, and Ethan knew where his interrogation would begin.
“He could be. His dad definitely was. But Jed’s also crafty. He could have chosen illegals because no one would report them missing.”
A knock on the door signaled the arrival of Jake and Lucy. Before Ethan could explain where they stood, the door opened again, and Sheriff Pike barged in. Lucy stepped backward, and without even thinking Ethan stepped between her and Pike.
“Can I help you, Sheriff?”
“What the hell? You make arrests in my county and you don’t call me in? I have to hear about it from the DA?”
“We’re not working your case, Sheriff. Nothing indicates that Eric Allenby had anything to do with Drew Dobbs’ death.”
“Sorry, Donovan, I have to overrule you there,” Sullivan said. “If Eric was, indeed, killing Mexicans in the woods, chances are good he’s responsible for the dead girl they found buried near Dobbs’s murder site.”
No arguing that logic, so Ethan shrugged and caught Pike, Jake, and Lucy up on where they stood. By the time he had arranged a code with Sullivan to buzz Ethan’s cell when he’d heard enough for an arrest warrant, Keith and Cal had returned with Jed Martin. Since the station had only one interrogation room, Ethan shifted Eric and his lawyer to his own office to continue their private conversation, posting a guard outside the door to be sure Eric couldn’t leave. Then he led Jed into the interrogation room.
“I’ve tried to be patient with you, Donovan,” Martin blustered as soon as he entered the room. “But seriously, I have a business to run, and you’re interfering with it. I came down here of my own accord today, but this is the last time.”
“And we’re very appreciative of that, Mr. Martin.” Ethan had to work to keep his tone smooth and even. “Good cop” had always been his partner’s role. But they had nothing concrete on Martin yet, and he needed to proceed carefully.
“You’re a smart man, Mr. Martin. You know we have too much on our plate right now to worry about minor code enforcement issues, little infractions people might feel the need to hide. Am I right?”
“I don’t know what you’re getting at.”
“I got the sense when we came to see you that you might be hiding something from me.”
Martin narrowed his eyes.
“I’m betting you were worried when you saw the list I brought you, the one with your company’s name on it. Because you hire illegals to clean your shop, don’t you? One of them dropped the list in the woods at some point, and we picked it up. If that’s all you’re hiding, you can go ahead and tell me. I swear to you, all you have to do is stop. I’m not going after you for it. It’s not like I can even prove it without more than the list, anyway. I need to figure out whether that list has anything to do with Renee.”
Martin thought for so long, Ethan almost lost faith, but at last he answered. “You’re not going to string me up if I do?”
“Hell, no. They’re illegals.” Ethan managed a little laugh, though it turned his stomach. “Not good for many jobs other than cleaning toilets. You want me to get the DA in here to swear you’re off the hook for hiring illegals, or can we talk about it?”
“Maybe it would be safer if we did that. You know, just in case.”
“Sure. Let me go call him.”
Ethan left Jed at the table and walked back into the viewing room. “Let him sit,” he said to Sullivan, who was preparing to go reassure Martin. “I don’t want him to know you’ve been here all this time.”
He turned to Lucy. “If we need you, you’ll be okay to come in and push his buttons?”
Pale but composed, she nodded. He wished he could wrap her in his arms and take her far from this windowless little room, far from this inhospitable town, somewhere she would be safe and happy. But he couldn’t. He settled for laying a hand on her shoulder while they waited for Jed to become anxious enough. Just as he appeared to be considering walking out of the interview room, both Ethan and Brian Sullivan headed in to join him.
“Sorry that took so long,” Ethan said. “I had a hard time locating the DA, but here he is. Do you two know each other?”
“I don’t believe we’ve met,” said Sullivan, holding out a hand.
“Yeah, well, not exactly the best circumstances,” Martin said.
The two men shook hands, and Sullivan smiled. “Well, I hope I can ease your mind a little. Ethan tells me you’ve agreed to talk to him about your hiring practices under condition of immunity against prosecution for hiring illegal immigrants?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s not a problem. I just want you to be aware that this immunity only counts toward previous violations. If you’re arrested at any point in the future for hiring undocumented workers, this immunity won’t count toward offenses after today.”
Sullivan was good at this. Ethan supposed most attorneys, most criminal attorneys at least, had to have some acting skills. They’d agreed Sullivan needed to be disapproving, but not overly harsh, and he was playing his role perfectly.
“Yeah, I get that.”
“All right, then. We have a deal.” He held out a hand again, and once again Jed took it. “That’s it?” he asked suspiciously. “We don’t need any forms?”
“Our conversation’s all on tape,” Sullivan assured him.
Martin nodded. “Okay.”
Sullivan excused himself and left. Ethan smiled across the table at Jed. “So. We can talk now?”
“Yeah, we can talk.”
“You hire illegal immigrants to work in your shop?”
“Yeah.”
“And the list I showed you, the list that was found in the woods near Renee Josephs’s body, that was an assignment list you would have given to one of those men or women?”
“Yeah. If you don’t lay things out very specifically, they don’t get done.”
“Of course. You’re running a business. You have to be clear about what you want.”
“Exactly.”
“But you never hired Renee Josephs?” Feel safe, feel as if you have nothing to hide.
“My God, no.”
“Where do you find the people you hire? A service?”
Martin’s eyes shifted away. Guilty as hell.
“No, no. It’s not that structured. They’re just from the day-labor stations.”
“Could you find one of the ones who’s worked for you in the past? I’m just trying to cross my t’s, you understand. To be sure the list is what it appears to be and no more, and that it’s not related to Renee Josephs in any way.”
“I could probably find one. But, you know, they move around all the time. They might not be at the same place I picked them up before.”
“Okay. Do you have any of their names?”
“Names?”
“Yeah. See, I am trying to trace one guy in particular, see what kind of jobs he worked, and I thought you might know him since you occasionally delve into that community.”
Jed’s eye twitched. “I don’t usually ask their names, and I pay them cash, so I don’t have to write their names on checks or anything. And they’re mostly women. Women clean better than men.”
“Huh.” Ethan leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers under his chin. “That’s confusing to me, I have to admit. Because Eric Allenby says you knew Juan Ramirez. In fact, he says you killed him.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about murder, Jed. And you have no immunity for that.” He read Jed his rights and Jed reacted precisely the way he’d expected.
“I don’t need a lawyer,” he spat. “I don’t even know any Juan Ramirez.”
“That’s quite possible. See, your budd
y Eric told us all about your little hunting game. I haven’t had a chance to ask him yet whether you asked your victims’ names. But one of them screwed you, Jed. What did you do, wait around after work and ask her if she needed a ride home?”
Ethan stood and leaned over the table, getting into Jed’s face. He needed this to work. Even if it did, there was a good chance they wouldn’t get Jed on the murders without finding evidence on the bodies they now knew were out there. But at this point, Ethan had moved on, though Martin didn’t need to know that.
“You set her loose in the woods to have your fun, but she had that chore list in her pocket and she dropped it. I’m betting once you’re behind bars, we find someone in the Mexican community willing to stand up and say she worked at your shop. Or maybe I’ll just go down the hall and ask Eric.”
“I have no idea—”
“Yeah, yeah. No idea what I’m talking about. I’ve heard it all before. But, see, at the moment Eric’s primary concern is saving his own ass. He claims all he’s ever done is help you dispose of Ramirez’s body once you were through torturing and murdering him. And, to be frank, he doesn’t seem like a killer. A drug dealer, sure. But not a killer. So I’m inclined to believe him. Plus, there’s the fact that his brother is a good cop. That carries a lot of weight.”
Ethan let that sink in for a few seconds, then pulled a swab out of his pocket. “Want to volunteer your DNA, or shall I get a court order?”
“No judge in this county will give you a warrant to invade my privacy like that!”
Ethan shrugged. “You’re probably right. After all, I’m still an outsider. Which is why I won’t be the one requesting the warrant; Tara Jean will. She may not have turned out the way folks here expected, she may have disappointed her daddy, but she’s still a Dobbs of Dobbs Hollow. She’ll have that warrant minutes after she asks for it.
“Of course, if you’ve done nothing wrong, you shouldn’t worry about us checking your DNA.”
“Shit. Go ahead and swab me. You won’t find anything.”
Ethan took the swab, then handed it Keith. “Take this in to Jake and see if he can get the FBI to run it for us. They’ll be faster than the state labs.”
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