Chapter Seventeen
It was a few weeks after our meeting with Hector. Annabel and I were having dinner at The Diner at North Point and getting ready to dive into one of their monster pieces of cake, when Detective Gage Mitchell walked in and over to our table. He was about my height, but with less meat on his frame.
When he got to our table, he said, “Sorry to bother you, Raph, but can we talk for a few minutes?”
“Is my family okay?” I asked urgently.
“It’s not about anyone you care about. It’s concerning a recent homicide on the west side of Atlanta,” he said.
I took in some air. “So you want to talk to me about a homicide and you chose seven in the evening to do that, and while I’m out to dinner with this beautiful woman?”
He looked ashamed and I didn’t care.
Annabel chimed in. “It's okay, Raph, I can go to the ladies room for a while.”
“It’s not okay, baby, you just sit right there.” I looked up at the detective. “Have a seat.”
He sat, “Are you sure it’s okay to talk with her here?”
“Either you can say it now or I will tell her later; I don’t keep anything from her,” I said.
He turned to her, “No offense, ma’am,” then back to me “We found the body of Luis Ortega about a week ago and we understand you or Mac might be one of the last ones to see him alive. He was killed with two bullets to the back of the head and then dumped at the Westview Cemetery. Is there anything you can tell me that might help find his killer?”
“No.”
“No, that’s it? I know you guys had a meeting with them not too long ago. Can you tell me what it was about?”
“Sure. We met with Hector and he told me he was getting out of the trafficking business. That he didn’t like it because he has daughters and never felt right about it,” I said.
“That’s it. He set up a meeting with you guys just to tell you he was done with sex trafficking?” Gage said.
“Pretty much,” I said.
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“Maybe you need a vacation. Been spending too much time with the real criminals,” I said.
“Or maybe you’re just lying to me,” he said.
“Could be I just don’t feel like telling you everything, since it really won’t help. It’s not like Luis was the nicest guy in the world,” I said.
“Hey, Raph. A murder is a murder. You don’t get to decide what’s relevant. I could arrest you for obstruction of justice,” he said with a lot of attitude.
I moved in a little closer and waved at him to move closer while I was looking around at the other patrons. He moved in, “Gage, you come all the way out here and interrupt my dinner and now you are threating to arrest me for not talking to you about a murder, you know I didn’t have anything to do with. If I were a different man, you might be embarrassing me in front of my new favorite person. However, since I know what it’s like to hit a dead end, I’ll give you a pass today. Now my advice would be to get up and leave now, or you could put the handcuffs on me if you feel like it will help you.” I sat back and waited for his response.
He shook his head, stood up and said, “Please stand up and turn around.”
Annabel finally showed something. Her mouth opened from shock.
I turned to her, “Please call Mac and let him know what happened here. I am so sorry, baby.”
I stood up and grabbed my new crutches to help me stand. Gage walked over to me and looked at me for a second. “Maybe we could do this without the cuffs?”
I just looked at him without saying a word. I was done talking to this bonehead.
Gage put his hand under my left upper arm and I looked down at his hand. He rethought it and let me go. Then he put his hand out showing me which way to go. As I went passed Annabel, I could hear talking to Mac. She had started to cry. I stopped by the host booth, gave her my card, and told her to charge our dinner to it and give the card back to Annabel. She agreed.
When we were in the car, he tried to talk some sense into me, but I would not have any of it. I just sat there and acted as if he wasn’t talking.
By the time we got to the station, Mac was there with Sam’s father and his lawyer, as I found out later. Gage walked me into the station and his captain was waiting for us. Gage stopped when he saw his captain. “Sir, he was not…” the captain cut him off.
“Please don’t say anything else and go to my office.”
He turned to me, I nodded. “Captain Smith, how’s your family doing?”
Gage stopped when he heard me ask the captain that, he took a deep breath and started walking again.
“I’m sorry about this. If you will come to my office, we will get you out of here in a few minutes,” the captain said.
I followed him, he held the door for me while I entered. Then he slammed the door shut. I was surprised the glass didn’t shatter. I was only on the crutches for about a week and a half, but since I was in pretty good shape I was able to sit down pretty quickly.
Before the captain sat down, Gage started in, “Captain, why are you here? You had gone home for the evening already.”
The captain sat and took in some air. “Is that why you decided to bring him in? Did you not think I would find out about it? Were you hoping to get him to answer some questions under some hot lights or something?”
“No, sir, none of that, but I know he knows more than he is telling me and I have a murder to solve. I know he can share something that will help me,” Gage said.
“So your solution was to find out where he was eating dinner on a date. Go into the restaurant, interrupt their meal, and then make him do the perp walk out of the restaurant because you feel like he can help you? Is that about right?” the captain asked.
“That was not my plan, sir, but what other choice did I have? I know him…” once again, he was cut off.
Captain Isaiah Smith was a mid-forties black man who worked his ass off to get to captain. He was six foot four, low cropped hair, and had a commanding voice when it was used just right. Well, this was one of the times he put it to use. As he spoke now he got louder and louder. “So rather than, I don’t know, call him and ask him to come in, you interrupt a date of a citizen who just saved six young girls from a sex trafficking ring and, in the meantime, took a bullet to the leg and is just now up barely walking around with a halo still attached to his leg.” Captain Smith took a deep breath. I was hoping he wouldn’t get any louder, my ears were starting to hurt. “Did you see the people outside waiting for him?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, let me tell you, those are just a couple of people that are upset by this whole thing. Do you know I got a call while I was at home from the Atlanta FBI Special Agent in Charge, he is the one who told me what you had done and asked me to see what I could do.” At this point, I was really wondering what that glass was made of. I have never met anyone who had such volume. I was glad to have been arrested just so I could be here for this special event. The captain stop for a moment and took another breath. “Actually, you know what,” he turned to me. “Mr. Dawson, please accept my deepest apologies for this. Detective Mitchell will reimburse you for dinner. You can leave whenever you like and I will finish with him later. There is no need for you being here any longer.” He turned back to Gage and said to him, “Is there something you’d like to say to, Mr. Dawson?”
Gage looked at the captain in wonder, “YOU HAD BEST APOLIGIZE TO THE MAN. NOW!!”
“Oh, yes sir.” Gage turned to me. “Mr. Dawson, please accept my deepest apologies for doing this to you.” He got his wallet out and searched for the correct amount and being the smart ass I am, I saw a hundred dollar bill and snatched it up.
“That should cover it.” I started for the door.
The captain said to Gage, “Get the damn door for the man!” He jumped and was at the door about the same time I was. He opened it for me.
I turned to the captain, “Please tel
l Rachael hello for me, Captain.
As the captain said, “I will, thank you,” I turned to Gage.
“Don’t worry, son, you’ll be able to sit on that chewed ass one day.” I patted his face in sympathy and shook my head as I walked out the door.
As I got more away from the office, I could still hear Captain Smith yelling at him. Everyone in the station was just staring at the office door and a lot of them were looking at me as I crutched my way out. To lighten the mood in the station, I changed my voice to Elmer Fudd. “He was a bbbaaadddd wabbit.” They all started laughing, but then heard the captain yelling again and tried to switch to internal laughter.
The group waiting for me and I had a great laugh on the drive home when I told them about what happened in the captain's office. After we dropped off Sam’s father and his lawyer, it was only Mac and Toni left. “Would you mind dropping me off at Annabel’s, please?” I asked.
“She said she would wait for you at your house,” Mac said.
“Thank goodness. Man, this woman seems too good to be true sometimes,” I said.
“Nah, it just seems like a perfect match to me,” Toni said from the back seat.
I nodded my head as my phone was ringing, I didn’t recognize the number, but I took the call anyway. When I was done with the call, I hung up and said, “Huh.” Mac looked at me with curiosity. “It was Hector Matias thanking me for not saying anything and saying that he owed me one.”
“Interesting, sounds like he is trying to let you know he can pay attention if he needs to,” Mac said.
They dropped me off at my house and I thanked them for everything and sent them on their way.
In the house, Annabel was waiting for me at the table with the cake we didn’t get to eat at dinner. She has stuck a candle in it and lit it when I walked in. “Here’s to your prison break.”
I laughed and we sat and ate and I filled her in on the rest of the night. “That poor guy, you think he will have a job in the morning?”
“Sure, the captain is a hard ass, but Gage is a good cop. He’s just not crazy about a private detective holding something back that he know will help him. Most cops don’t like us private guys, since we have a few less laws we have to go by.”
We were about half way through the cake when Annabel asked, “So are you ready for your conjugal?”
“Well sure, if you are ready to give me a sponge bath,” I said.
She gave me a big smile and we headed off to the back of the house and spent the night having a blast playing doctor.
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Other work by Paul Matos, Jr.
‘On the Streets for’ series:
On the Streets for AlisonAvailable now
On the Streets for Coleman Available now
On the Streets for Victor (Coming Soon)
On the Streets for Maxwell (Coming Soon)
Blayze Parrish (Coming Soon)
On the Streets for Alison Page 17