Dead in the Water (DeSantos Book 1)

by A. R. Case

  “When was the last time you saw him?”

  “What’s this about?”

  Katz piped in, “We’d like an answer. When did you see him last?”

  Tony wanted to shift in his chair, but fought the urge. They were acting like he was guilty of something. “I saw him at Doc’s last month, probably...” he looked at the calendar on his desk. Damn. It was still on July. He flipped it a page forward. “August 27th. Lisa wanted us to get together for oysters.”

  He had the credit card bill to prove it because Chris had bailed at the last minute and Lisa and Rich didn’t look like they could afford the meal. It was no big to him. He lived frugally. His only real expense was his bike and the annual trip to Daytona in March which wasn’t always a money loss. It was a really slow time for installations so it was a perfect time to load up the truck and take off.

  “That was the last time you saw him?”

  Tony nodded his head, waiting for the zinger.

  “What were you doing the last two days?”

  “Let me guess, does this have something to do with the body you just found, or correction, the body Jonathan found?”

  Katz had the grace to look uncomfortable, Bowers leaned forward like a shark sniffing for blood.

  Tony smiled. “I worked here Wednesday from eight-thirty in the morning until about seven, then went to Annette’s for dinner. After that, Chris called me and wanted to go over a design for an account, so he and I were here until about ten. Then I went home and slept. I got here yesterday at nine, took off for an install on Pacific, that lasted until seven, I was at the Irish Pub eating dinner when I got the call for this.”

  “What about Tuesday evening?”

  “Install at Caesar’s Pier, until about eleven. Bastards kept my crew overtime.”

  “Let me read this back to you. Tuesday you were at Caesar’s Pier until eleven, who was with you until you left?”

  “Two crew and the guard from the mall that walked us out. There were at least two other night guards there that saw us leave.”

  “And Wednesday, who was here in the morning?”

  “Margaret, our office manager, she gets in at eight. Most of the crew rolls in around nine.”

  “Your brother?”

  “I think it was around nine or nine thirty, no, wait, later.” Tony snapped his fingers. “He met with our accountant Wednesday morning, in her office.”

  “Wednesday night you had dinner at the Irish Pub.”

  “That was tonight, Wednesday was Annette’s. I have the receipts with me for both.”

  Katz corrected his notes. Fucking cops writing it down right as he said it and still got it wrong, Tony thought. No wonder his dad and uncle always complained about their shit. The police officer re-read the notes. “Your brother, where was he Wednesday night?”

  “Here.”

  “Alone?”

  “I was here from eight until eleven with him.”

  “Just you two?”

  Tony smiled despite the fact he felt like ripping this idiot’s head off. “The first night guard comes in at five. He’s here until one. Our night shift comes in at eight, does a perimeter check, gets the dog out, and works until five or a bit later, depending on who it is.”

  “You have guards all night?”

  “We had trouble a year or so back with break-ins. Some of the sign material, mainly the wiring, gets stolen for copper recycling. We also have camera surveillance covering the front lot, building interior, and entrances. It’s backed up to a server where data is saved.”

  “How long do you keep the files?”

  Tony shrugged. “Dunno. Foo should be able to tell you.”

  “Foo?”

  “Nick Kim. Comes in around ten, leaves whenever. Does our install programming, network, server… that shit. You still haven’t said why you’re asking me all this.”

  Katz and Bowers shared a look. Bowers shrugged, “Sounds pretty solid to me.” Katz turned to address Tony.

  “Were you friends with Rick?”

  He had figured out a bit before this what was going on, but needed them to say. Since they used the past tense, his guess pretty much nailed it. “Were? Or Are?”

  Bowers coughed.

  Katz corrected himself. “Are you friends with Rich Giofreida?”

  “No. Not friends, not enemies, just know the guy because of Lisa.” He wasn’t going to volunteer the fact that he’d warned Lisa that Rick was a low-life druggie, or he was moving product for some dealers. Nor was he going to tell them that he suspected Rick worked for a gang or the mob because he noticed Rick didn’t drive the same car all the time, or that electronics would mysteriously come and go out of Rick’s possession. Nope. Let them figure all of that out themselves.

  “Did you get along with him?”

  This was going to get sticky. During the meal at Doc’s they were cordial enough, but two weeks earlier, Chris and Rick had gotten into it outside the Irish Pub. When Tony stepped in to keep his brother from getting out of hand, Rick had pulled a knife on them. Since Tony thought that was unfair, he’d kicked Rick’s ass. There were probably some threats that went along with it. Those same threats were probably recorded by witnesses, and by the cops that had shown up. “We got into an argument outside the Irish Pub in early August. There’s a record of the altercation probably filed with ACPD.”

  Katz’s eyebrow rose. “Care to elaborate?”

  “Sure. Rick pulled a knife on my brother. I kicked it out of his hand and beat the shit out of him. He got four stitches in his eyebrow, several bruises, but nothing broken. And, he didn’t press charges. I paid the hospital bill and the fine for disorderly conduct.”

  “Were charges filed against Rick for the knife?”

  Tony shook his head. “Nope. It was done.”

  Katz asked, “as in..?”

  “Done, as in no hard feelings. You know, no harm, no foul.”

  “Did your brother think it was done?”

  No. Chris didn’t think it was done. He still complained about Rick a lot. He hated him. He hated the fact that Lisa, who was like a sister to them, was still with the guy. Lisa swore that Rick was turning over a new leaf and that he loved her. But there was no way in hell Rick would ever be good enough for her in Chris’s opinion. Heck Tony wasn’t even good enough to be in the family sometimes, but at least Chris didn’t complain about him as much. “You’d have to ask him, or his lawyer. Because he’s not going to just answer your questions without a lawyer at his side. He’s by the book like that.”

  “Why is that, if you don’t mind my asking?” Bowers asked.

  Fuck this. They wanted to dig, he’d give them plenty to look at. “Because my father tried to get Chris involved in his business.”

  “And what business is that, Mr. DeSantos?”

  He glared at them for a few seconds before answering.

  Ricky Giofreida wasn’t a good-looking corpse. Daniel Mills wasn’t a great judge of male beauty, but taking a look at the stunner in the hallway waiting to identify the body, Ricky had been a lucky man, and love must make you blind because he didn’t seem like the kind of guy that should be with a knockout like her. Lisa DeSantos was accompanied by a very big, very tattooed man, who was probably her brother. They both shared the same dark eyes, skin tone and there was a similarity in the nose. Daniel would bet his FBI badge they were related. The man sort of hovered over her, without touching. That was a sure sign they were family. Too bad they made this trip for nothing. He’d already ID’d the body.

  The poor bastard on the metal table, covered in bruises, ocean salt and not much else was, in true past tense, his best informant. Ricky had been working his way out of a mess and part of the deal to get out was helping Daniel nail Conrad Whitehead.

  Whitehead owned several businesses in the Atlantic City area, including four car dea
lerships, six furniture stores, a funeral parlor, two strip clubs, and seven restaurants. Just the combination alone screamed dirty money to Daniel, but he knew there had to be hard proof. Ricky had been his ticket to get proof. In fact, his proof should be on Ricky right now. Ricky liked to collect unusual decorations for a chain that was welded on his wrist. He called them lucky and would swap them out when they weren’t lucky anymore. The one that was Daniel’s lucky charm was empty. He’d bought Ricky a skull that hid a thumb drive with a special program to assist in copying contents from Whitehead’s computer for analysis. But the drive portion was missing.

  Looking at the bruises and slit throat, Daniel guessed that Conrad knew Ricky was spying on him. The big questions were, how much had he spilled before dying, and where was the flash drive?

  He exited the morgue with the detective in charge of the case, a real bloodhound named Katz. Daniel already figured he would end up hating the creep. Katz stopped short, which forced Daniel to side step around him to avoid collision. As soon as he did, Lisa gasped.

  Katz spoke first. “Anthony DeSantos. You didn’t get a good enough look last night?”

  The sign company owner, or half owner. And by last name, Daniel was correct with his first assessment.

  “Where’s your brother today, Tony?” Katz continued.

  “On the phone with his lawyer. Mr. Carrillo will get you a detailed account of Chris’s activities by Tuesday, and probably a cease and desist order to stop you from harassing him.” Tony’s tone was mild enough, but there was just enough growl in it to cue Daniel in on the fact that Tony didn’t like Katz too much either.

  “Dan, did you come here for Ricky?” Lisa asked.

  She knew him as Dan Williams, not his real name. Ricky didn’t want anything touching her. He’d said it was because of her that he was trying to get out. Daniel thought it was one of the smartest things his informant had ever said. The missing thumb drive was probably a blessing, because if it hadn’t been found, Lisa would have been Whitehead’s next stop.

  He stepped forward to set some things straight, but first needed to test the waters a bit. “Daniel.” He held out a hand to Tony.

  “Anthony DeSantos, Lisa’s cousin.”

  Damn. Must be a strong bloodline then. “I knew Ricky. Was trying to help him get his shit straightened out.” At least that’s one way to put it.

  “Bastard needed straightening out.” DeSantos volunteered then quickly added, “Sorry Lisa. I know I shouldn’t call him that.”

  She teared up. It was hell watching such a beautiful girl waste tears on someone who, while his heart may have been in the right place, was, yes, a bastard. In Mills’ book, it was simply for starting anything with someone before he’d gotten his shit taken care of.

  “You don’t have to go in. It was him.” Daniel told her.

  “I want to be sure.” Lisa said. “I just want…”

  “I’ll go back in with you if you want.” He looked up at her cousin to see if this would be an encroachment on his territory. DeSantos actually looked a little relieved that Daniel offered. Let him think he was being altruistic. It was half right. He liked Lisa, and from the way Ricky had gushed on and on about her, he was practically in love with her himself. So yes, he didn’t want her to face this by herself. But more so, he needed to be in person so Katz didn’t blow his cover at the wrong time. They hadn’t had a chance to go over this in the briefing before he ID’d the body. He highly doubted Katz gave a rat’s ass if he compromised a federal investigation as long as his own record kept going up.

  They crowded into the cold chamber, Daniel luckily didn’t have to talk around Katz as the exchange about Chris DeSantos had effectively shut the detective up for now. He’d watch him to be sure.

  “Before we go through all this, did he have any birthmarks, tattoos?”

  Lisa spoke. “He has a tattoo of a dragon on his,” she felt down her own leg then said, “left calf, and another smaller tattoo of a tree frog here.” She pointed to her lower back. “He has a full sleeve on his right arm, mostly a skeleton riding a motorcycle and flames. And on his left he has more flames and a graveyard with his mother’s name, a friend, Bobby, and words.”

  “What words?” Katz asked.

  “Carpe Noctem.” She answered. “There’s also a really bad eagle on his right shoulder that he’s talking about getting covered up.

  That was Ricky. Daniel didn’t know about the frog and the dragon, but the rest he’d seen and used for identification. The eagle especially, it deserved to be on TV it was so bad. His lower arms had trailed in the mud, discoloring the skin, which made the tattoos there a bit harder to make out. They’d taken a finger from each hand too.

  “We’ll show her the shoulder then.” Katz said, donning rubber gloves. The junior examiner was already gloved and reached across to roll back the sheet to expose Ricky’s right arm.

  Lisa interrupted, “He also has a charm bracelet welded on his left arm. It should still be with…” She gestured at the sheet. “I gave him a unicorn last week.”

  The ME lifted the sheet closer to him, adjusting things so Lisa could see the charm bracelet. It jingled slightly from all the charms on it.

  Lisa looked at it for a moment then broke. She reached out to touch the body. Daniel and Tony intercepted her. Daniel with, “They still haven’t finished collecting evidence.” And Anthony with, “Lisa don’t.”

  Anthony glared at Daniel. “You’re a cop.”

  Lisa had buried her face into her cousin’s chest, but looked up and back at Daniel when he said that. “What?”

  He’d been so focused on not letting Katz out him he’d done it himself. Fuck. “FBI. It’s an ongoing investigation. Rick was trying to get his life straight so he contacted our department.”

  DeSantos made a noise in his throat. Then spoke to Lisa softly, “I guess Chris and I owe you an apology. He was a good guy.”

  She sniffed, but straightened herself up. “I’d like to see his face if it’s okay.”

  “Christ.” Daniel swore. “You probably shouldn’t.”

  Katz glared at him.

  Fine, if that was what got everyone’s jollies off. Daniel stepped back. He nodded at DeSantos. “You may want to keep holding her up.”

  The examiner added, “He was in the water for approximately a day. There is discoloration and bloating that will make the features distorted. He was beaten before his body was in the water so there are contusions and cuts as well. The bones of his cheeks and nose were broken.” He waited to make sure she understood that this wasn’t going to be pretty.

  “I’ve got you.” DeSantos said, wrapping an arm around her and gently holding her closest hand in his. She swallowed and nodded to the examiner.

  He carefully rolled the sheet down to about Ricky’s chin. He didn’t go lower to show the ear to ear gash.

  Lisa lifted a hand and dropped it back down, remembering the warning about the investigation. Her chin quivered, but she clenched her jaw tight. Tough lady. She stared for a full minute. Then she let out a shaky breath. “Thank you.” She said to the examiner. She leaned against Anthony tilting her head onto his shoulder. “Let them know if they need a second ID, it’s him.” She whispered.

  Anthony DeSantos kissed her head and whispered back. “I got this for you okay.” Then he addressed the men in the room. “Is there a couch or something I can take her to? Away from here?” He motioned with a shoulder to the door.

  “There’s a break room down the hall, third door on the right. It has chairs and a vending machine with juice and soda.” The ME said.

  “I can take her there.” Daniel offered.

  DeSantos glared at him. “I’ll take her but I’ll be back to talk to you. Lisa, you gonna be okay for ten?”

  She nodded. “Maybe… Yeah.”

  He led her down the hall and returned to meet Daniel and Kat
z in the hall. “We done?” He asked Katz.

  “When I get the information on your brother’s whereabouts, yes.” They glared at each other for a moment then Katz took off.

  “Why is he so keen on your brother?”

  Anthony looked at Daniel. “There’s about three hours where my brother leaves work and comes back on Tuesday. It’s enough time, Katz thinks, to grab Ricky, beat the shit out of him, strip him and dump him next to the warehouse. But just thinking about his face in there, that took longer than three hours.”

  “And you were there when they found the body.”

  He frowned. “I was. I also have receipts, show up on a few security feeds and have waitresses that can vouch for almost every hour of my day. Chris wasn’t as visible. So because of that three hours, he’s being fucked over.”

  Daniel frowned. “Yeah, my guess is they had him a day or more. Lisa already told the patrolmen who spoke with her earlier he’d been missing since Tuesday afternoon. They had a date for dinner at her place that night. He didn’t show.”

  “Yeah, she told me in the car on the way here that she didn’t know if she should hope he was dead or if he was just screwing up again.” DeSantos rubbed his face then looked Daniel in the eyes. “So what was he into that the Feds got involved, and a better question, should I be worried about Lisa?”

  Right then, Daniel decided he liked Anthony DeSantos. “He was my contact. We were supposed to meet Wednesday night.” He paused, looking DeSantos up and down. There was a file on him and Christopher DeSantos from just over twenty years ago, linking their family to a one percenter club and organized crime in the area, but there was an earnestness about him that didn’t jibe well with the jaded people Daniel dealt with on a regular basis. There was an almost hero complex working under that rough exterior that Daniel understood. “He was supposed to deliver a flash drive to me with information.” He tipped his head back to the room. “It wasn’t with the body, or at the scene. If they found it, Lisa is okay. If they didn’t…” Mills handed him a card with his phone number on it.