It was dark when the SUV turned onto Colfax, and I suddenly had an idea where they were going. The SUV went a few blocks and turned onto a side street. I’d flicked my headlights off, pulled over at the corner, and peered down the street. The SUV had parked at the curb in front of the apartment complex where Davon had been this afternoon. Davon got out of the SUV, glanced around, then hurried into the parking lot.
I shut off the 4-Runner and grabbed my binoculars. Then I got out and quietly closed the door. I stayed in the shadows, crouched down, and hurried down the block. I stopped by a big truck and peeked over the hood. The SUV was farther up the street, its engine running. I focused the binoculars on the parking lot. It was illuminated by a few streetlights, but no one was about. Then I spotted Davon. He sauntered up to an older model Honda Accord, glanced around, then pulled something from his pocket. He went to the driver-side door, and although I couldn’t see him, I knew what he was doing – breaking into the car. Seconds later, he had the door open and he vanished from view. Then the door closed and the Accord backed up.
I ducked down and ran back to the 4-Runner. By now, the Accord had pulled into the street, and the SUV followed it back to Colfax. I tailed them again, being extremely cautious. Davon drove to Interstate 70 and headed east to Quebec. The SUV stayed right with him.
We were now in a part of town that had a lot of warehouses and business complexes. I kept my distance as the two cars turned north, but when they turned onto Sandcreek Drive, where there were several warehouses nearby, I kept going. There was not enough traffic around the warehouses at that time of night, and I didn’t want to be so conspicuous. I made a U-turn at the next light, then turned on Sandcreek. I flicked off my headlights and drove down the street, then meandered up and down the next few blocks, but I didn’t see the Accord. Disappointed, I headed back to Quebec.
I parked at a 7-Eleven to the north where I could watch Sandcreek Drive. I wasn’t sure if I’d see Davon and his pal again, but I had a pretty good guess that a chop shop was located in one of the warehouses in the area, and that Davon was dropping off the stolen Accord there.
About the time I was ready to give up, an SUV appeared. As it passed under a streetlight, I could see the bald man, and Davon in the passenger seat. I assumed that they’d dropped off the Accord somewhere. I wondered how much Davon and his buddy got for the car they’d stolen.
I thought back to my conversation with Luis Hernandez, and how he’d overheard Davon arguing with Gabe about selling something, and threatening Gabe if he told anyone. Had Gabe been involved with Davon in stealing cars? It was a safe guess. But if Davon had killed Gabe, the question was why?
I shelved that thought as the SUV turned south. I tailed it, wondering if they were going to go after another car, but the SUV drove directly to Davon’s apartment building without stopping. Davon got out and said something to the driver, and then the SUV headed away. I was about to follow it when Davon walked to his Trans Am, hopped in, and sped away. I decided to continue tailing him. He made his way to Hampden Avenue, went west, and turned into a shopping center just west of Broadway. He pulled into a space outside an IHOP, then moseyed inside. He had apparently been oblivious to me the entire night. But I was about to change that.
Chapter Twenty-One
It was almost eleven, and the restaurant was nearly empty when I walked in. Davon was seated at a booth near the back, reading a menu. I went up to the booth and slid into the seat across from him. He jerked his head up in surprise, then recognition dawned on his face.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he snarled.
I gave him a big smile. “We need to talk.”
“Get lost.”
I settled back into the seat, indicating that I wasn’t going anywhere. Then I pointed at him.
“You’ve been a bad boy.”
Wariness flickered in his eyes. “Huh?”
“You lied to me.”
“About what?”
“Your alibi, for one. I talked to your grandmother. But then, you know that.”
He studied me carefully and shrugged. “So what?” He leaned forward. “You need to leave now.”
Right then, a middle-aged waitress came up to the table. “You ready to order?”
“I’ll have the double blueberry pancakes and a glass of milk,” I said, then grinned at Davon. “What’ll you have?”
Davon glared at me. The waitress sensed the tension in the air and her eyes darted between us. She stood with her pen poised over her order pad, not sure what to do.
“Hon?” she finally said to Davon.
“I’ll have the burger with fries and a Coke.” He handed her the menu, but still stared at me.
“Good choice,” I said as the waitress ambled away.
“What do you want?” he hissed.
I jerked a thumb toward the kitchen. “Dinner – er, well, breakfast. Don’t you like restaurants that serve breakfast at dinner?”
He wasn’t sure what to make of me, so he stayed silent. I leaned toward him.
“You’ve been stealing cars,” I said. He opened his mouth to protest, and I held up a hand. “Don’t bother lying about that, too. I just saw you and your buddy with the SUV steal a Honda Accord.”
His face went pale. I let him sit with that knowledge for a bit.
“You going to turn me in?” he asked.
“If I were going to do that, I wouldn’t be having dinner with you.” That was a lie. I was going to turn him in, but not until I talked to him first.
“What do you want?”
“What was going on between you and Gabe? The truth this time, or I will go to the police, and then you’ll end up back in prison.”
The waitress returned with my milk and his Coke. He took a long drink, then set the glass down.
“You know I’ve done time,” he said.
I nodded. “I know a lot about you and your past. And I know there was something going on between you and Gabe.”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“Remember, your alibi’s not good. Was that because you were stealing cars the night Gabe was murdered?”
He hesitated, then nodded. “I couldn’t tell you what I was really doing.”
“No kidding.” I took a sip of my milk and thought about him and Gabe, and what I knew. “Sally said she overheard you and Gabe talking, and he didn’t want that action with you anymore. And a neighbor of Gabe’s overheard you arguing with him. He said you were really mad at Gabe and you threatened him, and said Gabe better not tell anyone.”
He grabbed a salt shaker and began fiddling with it. “So?”
“Let me take a guess, you and Gabe were stealing cars.”
He stared at the salt shaker, and it took him a long time to answer. “Yeah.”
“Why were you threatening Gabe?”
“He said he had another way of making money, that it was going to be big. He said he didn’t need to steal cars anymore, that he couldn’t risk getting into any kind of trouble. I told him he couldn’t bail on me, and he laughed and said I should get a life.” He snorted. “Can you believe that little punk was trying to tell me what I should do? I told him he didn’t just get to walk away, and that we were in this together. He told me to leave him alone, and if I didn’t, he’d call the cops on me. That’s when I threatened him.”
“Why were you messing around with him if you thought he was a punk?”
“Gabe was really good at stealing cars.” A little smile crept across his face. “He was fast, and knew what he was doing.”
Something else occurred to me. “You had the connections to the chop shops, so you’d let him steal the cars, and you knew where to sell them. You went together, but he actually stole the cars. But if he got caught, you’d drive off and leave him hanging.”
He wouldn’t make eye contact, and I knew I’d hit the nail on the head.
“That never happened,” he said.
“Some friend,” I muttered.
Now he glare
d at me. “Look, he got a split of some really good cash. And I was fair with him, even though I coulda taken more.”
“Because you had the connections.”
“Yeah.”
“Where’d you steal the gun?” I asked, trying to catch him off-guard.
“What gun?”
“The Glock.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
If he knew that was the gun that had killed Gabe, he wasn’t showing it. I thought for a moment.
“Had you heard any of Gabe’s music?” I asked. “Was he that good?”
“I don’t know. He was an okay deejay, got lots of girls. He’d try to play me some of his stuff, and it was all right, I guess.”
Not an enthusiastic endorsement.
I stared at him. “You know something else.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “I think this big thing he had going on was with a friend of his.”
“Who?”
“Beats me. But sometimes he’d say we got some deal going, not I have some deal going. And one time he was talking about if he could work it to get all the money himself, he’d be rich.”
“How would he do that?”
He shrugged and looked away.
I thought about something he had said in our first conversation. “You have the gambling problem, right? And you need cash fast.”
He turned red.
“Gabe didn’t owe you any money, did he?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“And now you’ve got a new guy to work with,” I said, “but you’re better at stealing cars than he is.”
“He’ll learn.”
“Who is he?”
“I’m not telling you his name.”
“But he’s not as good as Gabe was.”
He shrugged. “No.”
The waitress brought our meals and set them down. When she left, I clapped my hands together.
“Boy, this looks good,” I said with a grin. Davon glared at me. I dove into my pancakes and took a big bite. “Hmm, that’s good.” I pointed at him with my fork. “You should try yours.”
“You’re a real smartass,” he said as he picked up his burger.
“I try.”
The truth was, I was famished, and I ate quickly while we talked.
“How’d you meet Gabe?” I asked.
“Clubbing.”
“And that led to a mutual interest in stealing cars.”
He didn’t say anything to that, but took a bite of his burger.
“When we first talked, you tried to steer me in the wrong direction,” I said.
“I knew I had to say something to you. If I ran, you’d be suspicious.”
“Turns out I was anyway. And you knew Gabe had been murdered.”
“I told you, when you came to CJ’s asking about Gabe, it was easy to figure out that something had happened to him.”
“I see,” I said, although I wasn’t sure I believed him. “Who’s Gregory Reichs?”
His jaw dropped. “How do you know about him?”
“I know more than you think.”
“He’s just a guy I know, and I’m hanging at his place for a while.”
“Laying low? Don’t want the cops to find you?”
He could tell I was still suspicious of him, but shrugged as if he didn’t care, took another bite, and chewed slowly. “Now what?”
I shoveled the last of my pancakes in my mouth, then downed my milk. “I’m going to find out who killed Gabe,” I said as I set down my glass. “If it was you, I will find that out.”
He swallowed hard. “I was pissed off at him, but I didn’t kill him. I don’t want no murder rap.”
“We’ll see.” I wiped my hands on my napkin and stood up. “Thanks for dinner.”
I could feel his eyes boring into me as I walked out of the restaurant.
Chapter Twenty-Two
My mind was on Davon Edwards as I drove home. I felt as if he’d been telling the truth about his association with Gabe, but I wasn’t sure I bought his alibi for the night Gabe Culpepper had been murdered. The problem was, I had no way of checking Davon’s alibi, since it involved his stealing cars. I shook my head in frustration. I wasn’t ready to eliminate him from my suspect list, since I had no way of proving that he hadn’t killed Gabe. I was back to square one.
As I listened to some music, I wondered what big deal Gabe had going, and who knew about it. I’d add that to my list of questions to ask Sally, along with why she was at her old apartment building earlier today. I glanced at the dashboard clock. After eleven. Too late to call her now.
When I got home, the condo was dark. As I tiptoed down the hall, a tiny shadow leaped out of the darkness and almost tripped me. I reached down and picked up the kitten.
“Hey, little guy,” I whispered.
He meowed and batted at my hand. I petted him as I went into the bedroom. Willie was asleep. I quietly undressed and crawled under the covers, trying not to disturb her, but the kitten crawled around her hair, and it didn’t matter. Willie sighed and turned over.
“Hey,” she said sleepily as she put an arm around me. She pulled the kitten close to her with her other hand.
“Hi.” I leaned over and kissed her.
“How’d your day go?”
I filled her in, and when I finished, she said, “I’ve hardly seen you the last couple of days.”
“I know, I’m sorry. Do you have to work tomorrow?”
She shook her head.
“How about a nice breakfast then? I’ll cook,” I said. “I have a meeting, but not until ten.”
“That’d be great.”
We lapsed into silence, and soon she was breathing deeply, the kitten snuggled by her head. I tried to stay awake and think about the case. I was missing something, I just couldn’t figure out what. Minutes ticked by, and then I heard a dog barking outside. I waited, but it didn’t stop.
I finally got up, went to the window, and peeked through the blinds. A dark-colored car was parked down the street, its headlights off, but I spotted some light from the interior. I watched it for a minute, then went out into the living room, followed by the kitten. I opened the front door and stepped onto the porch. The kitten darted out and I scooped him up.
“Hey, stay here,” I whispered.
From the porch, I could see the car down the street. Suddenly, the car’s engine revved and it sped past my building and was gone. I watched the street for a minute, but nothing happened. The dog quit barking and an eerie silence followed. Was someone watching the condo, or was I being paranoid? I shrugged as I went back inside and made sure the door was locked. Then I tiptoed back into the bedroom. Willie hadn’t moved. I put the kitten on her pillow, slipped under the covers, and I too was soon asleep.
As promised, I fixed Willie a nice breakfast of Eggs Benedict, Canadian-style bacon, and toast. While we ate, we chatted about the case, and about her work. She told me about some of the drama at the hospital, and then she turned the conversation to the kitten.
“I have a good name for him,” she said as she scooped him up and put him on her lap. “I think you’ll like it.” She smiled mischievously.
I eyed her. “Oh yeah?”
“Humphrey.”
“Humphrey?”
“I know how much you’d like to give him a film noir kind of name, and you talk to Bogie all the time –”
“Not all the time,” I murmured.
“So you wouldn’t want to name the kitten ‘Bogie’ because that would be confusing, but he could be Humphrey.”
I studied the kitten. “He kind of looks like a Humphrey.”
“Then Humphrey it is.” She kissed his head and set him down. Humphrey dashed over to a bowl of kitten food and started eating.
We got up and started clearing dishes.
“Do me a favor,” I said casually, in order not to worry her. “Keep an eye out for anyone suspicious in the neighborhood, okay?”
“I always do,�
� she said as she cleaned up her dishes.
That gave me pause. “Really?”
She stopped rinsing her plate and looked at me. “When you’re on a case, I’m always extra careful.”
“Does that bother you?”
She thought about that. “Well, let’s just say it’s not always fun, but I knew what I was getting into when I fell in love with you.”
I came over and kissed her. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She kissed me again, hard, then patted me on the behind. “Go on, don’t worry about me.”
I grinned. “You know, I don’t have to leave right now.”
“You’re terrible.”
But she put down the plate, grabbed my hand, and led me into the bedroom.
On my way to my meeting with Chase Walker, I called Detective Spillman to tell her about Davon Edwards. Since she was a homicide detective, she said she’d pass along the information.
“What have you turned up?” she then asked.
“Nothing yet.”
“Ferguson,” she said slowly.
“I don’t have anything concrete, but when I do, I’ll let you know.”
“You better,” she said. “And don’t get into any trouble.”
“I never do.”
“Yeah, right.” With that, she hung up.
I laughed as I put my phone away.
At ten I was walking into the three-story Ghost Building on the corner of Eighteenth and Stout. I’d always been fascinated with the building, thinking it might have gotten that name because the place was haunted, but it was actually built in the late 1800’s for a man named Allen H. Ghost. I’d read that the building had been on Fourteenth and Glenarm, but in the 1970’s the stone façade structure had been removed piece by piece and stored for ten years before it was reassembled at its present location in Denver’s downtown historic district. I had yet to hear of the new building being plagued with ghosts.
I took the stairs to the second floor and marched down the hall to Walker Enterprises, then entered into a small lobby where a woman was sitting at a glass-top desk. She looked up from her computer with a smile.
Reed Ferguson Mystery Box Set 5 Page 48