by Linda Verji
True to his pushy personality, Michael kicked off the interrogation. “August told me you’ve been looking for me. What did you want to talk to me about?”
Shane said, “I’m sure you’re aware by now that York Emerson’s death was ruled as a murder not a suicide.”
“What!” Michael exclaimed.
The man should’ve taken some lessons from his secretary because he was really, really awful at faking surprise. His eyes widened, but they widened too slowly. When he tried to grimace, his lips turned up instead of down making it seem like he wanted to smile. Frankly, it was weird.
“York was murdered?” Michael turned his gaze to his secretary. “How did I not know this?”
“My mistake, sir. I’m sorry, sir,” August apologized expressionlessly. “I just didn’t want to bother you when you were at such an important summit.”
“The summit was important but this was more important,” Michael scolded but anyone with eyes could see that he was putting on a show. Forcing his wrinkled features into a mask of concern, he turned back to the detectives. “Do you know who did it? Have you found them?”
“No,” Lucas said. “That’s why we needed to see you.”
“Me? Why would you need to see me?” Michael pressed a palm to his chest. “I wasn’t even in the area.”
“Really?” Lucas watched the man. “You weren’t in the area?”
“You say it like you think I was.” Without waiting for Lucas’s response, Walcott turned to one of his lawyers. “Where was I on that day?”
“You were at your club,” the lawyer helpfully said.
Michael turned back to Lucas. “Yes, I was at my club.”
“What club is this?” Shane asked.
“Chancery Valley Society,” the lawyer answered instead.
Lucas and Shane traded looks. They’d heard some dodgy things about that men’s-only club. There were rumors of sex-parties, illegal gambling, secret meetings between criminals… Nothing had ever been established yet, but Lucas knew that Vice were keeping an eye on CVS.
The lawyer went on, “If you talk to the employees there, they’ll confirm that the chairman was there during York Emerson’s death.”
Lucas’s eyebrows rose. “Are you saying that they’ll lie for you?”
“What does that mean?” Michael immediately stiffened.
“We know that you own the club,” Shane said.
“So what?” Anger flashed in Michael’s eyes. “Are you saying that I’m lying?”
“Yes,” Lucas said simply.
“We have proof.” Shane opened the envelope he was carrying and pulled out a few pictures. They were the still images they’d plucked from the surveillance camera that was opposite Walcott Tower’s main gate. He explained, “These show that you came into Walcott Towers just a few minutes before York’s body was discovered, and you left afterwards.”
Michael, his lawyers and August leaned forward in an almost synchronized movement to see the photos. Eyes widened, a few lips parted but for the most part Lucas could see their brains working, trying to find a good explanation for the damning photos.
“You can’t prove that that’s the chairman,” one of the lawyers piped up.
“But we can certainly prove that it’s his car,” Lucas retorted.
The lawyer started, “But-”
“Shut up,” Michael cut in curtly. “I can talk for myself.”
The lawyer tried again. “Sir, I wouldn’t advise-”
“Shut your trap.” Michael’s voice was like a whip rounding his lawyers into silence. They all shut up. Michael turned to Lucas. “I wasn’t in the car.”
Lucas’s eyebrows shot up. “Really?”
“Really.” Michael bared his tiny teeth in a smile. “My car was stolen that night.”
This time Lucas’s ‘really’ was even more disbelieving.
“Really,” Michael insisted. Arranging his features into what was probably supposed to be a mask of sadness but just made him look like he wanted to poop, he said, “While I was at the club, my car was stolen at the parking lot.”
“Really?” Shane’s tone held as much incredulity as the look Lucas shot the man. “Did you file a police report?”
“Not really.” Michael shrugged. “I thought of doing it but in the morning when I looked in our driveway at home, I saw the car. I didn’t see the point of reporting it after that.”
Lucas guffawed. “So you’re claiming that someone stole your car then brought it back?”
“Yes.” Michael didn’t even blink.
Maybe a rookie would’ve believed the pile of bullshit this man was trying to feed them. Lucas didn’t, and from the looks of it, neither did Shane. The two detectives had both been in this business long enough to know when someone was trying to pull wool over their eyes. Fortunately, they had more proof.
Shane pulled another picture from the envelope. “Then how do you explain this?”
Everyone leaned forward. As expected, shock rippled in the room.
However, Michael took it better than expected. He stared at the picture for a while then asked, “Is that Snipes?”
“Yes, that’s your driver, Elvis Snipes,” Shane confirmed. The picture came from traffic cam footage and showed the car moving in the direction of Walcott Towers just minutes to York Emerson’s death. “How do you explain the fact that a car you claim was stolen is being driven by your driver?”
“Well, that’s easy to explain.” Michael sat back in the couch with a smirk. “Snipes must’ve been the one who stole the car.”
“Your driver stole your car?” Lucas couldn’t believe the crap this man was spouting and expecting them to swallow.
“It’s the only explanation that makes sense.” Speaking in a slow tone as if he was talking to elementary school children, Michael explained, “I was at the club. Everyone there will confirm it. So obviously I wasn’t in the car. If you check your pictures, you’ll see that you can’t see me.”
That was true. But they knew the reason they couldn’t see Walcott was because the back of the car was separated from the front by dark glass. He was in there, he just couldn’t be seen. Unfortunately, there was no way of proving what they knew to be true.
“Snipes stole my car?” Michael kissed his teeth and shook his head disapprovingly. “You just don’t know who you can trust these days.”
His disappointment would have sold better if he bothered to hide the amusement in his beady eyes. Lucas wanted to smack the smirk off the man’s face but thankfully his good sense held him back.
“Let’s move on then.” Shane changed the direction of the interview. “How do you know Teddy Bryk?”
“Who’s Teddy Bryk?” Michael asked but his question was for August.
“He’s the one who came to you for money,” August said.
“Oh!” Michael smacked his forehead with his palm as if the name had just come to him. “That Teddy Bryk.”
Already impatient with the man’s whole telenovela, Lucas cut right to the chase. “Why did you pay him off?”
“Pay him off?” Michael tried to wince but failed. “That’s a harsh way to put it.”
“But still accurate.”
“No. Not all.” Michael explained, “I wasn’t paying him off. What would I need to pay him off for?”
Oh, I don’t know, Lucas thought to himself. To keep him quiet about what happened to York and the part he played in the death.
“The man is a friend, albeit distant friend. He was having a hard time.” Michael shrugged. “I felt bad for the guy, so I helped him out a bit.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.” Michael smirked. “It may come as a surprise to you but I’m a very generous man.”
After that neat evasion of their questions, it was obvious that the interview was for all intents and purposes over. Basically, Michael had just wasted their time by showing up.
“Does he really think that we bought all that?” Shane asked when th
ey were back at their desks.
“I don’t think so.” Lucas said thoughtfully. “But he’s certainly made our work easier.”
“How do you figure?”
“All we have to do is prove that he’s lying either about the driver or his relationship with Teddy and we’ll have a reason to bring him in for a real interrogation.” Lucas grinned. Oh, he couldn’t wait to really grill the man.
* * *
I’M DONE FOR the day. Are you coming? Jasmine’s text later the same day sent Lucas vaulting out of his seat. After all the soul-searching he’d done the whole day, one would expect that he’d be more reluctant or at least try to act reluctant to see her, but he couldn’t. These days he was one big hulk of contradictions.
“I’m off,” he called out to Shane as he grabbed his sports-jacket from the back of his seat.
Shane looked up from the Rubik’s cube he was messing with in surprise. “You’re leaving?”
“Yup!”
“Already?”
“Yup.” Lucas shrugged on his jacket then straightened it over his upper body. “It’s past six.”
“You never gave a damn about time before.” Shane cocked his head to study him. “In fact, if I remember clearly, we once had to carry you out of here because you’d spent a whole week in the station without once going home.”
“What can I say?” Lucas shrugged. “People change.”
“People change? Huh!” Shane guffawed. “More like people get changed.”
Lucas didn’t even want to know what his partner meant by that last statement. With another shrug and a flash of a salute, he started towards the door. However, a few steps later, he realized that he wasn’t alone.
Lucas gave his partner a sideways glance. “You’re signing out too?”
“No. Not really.” Shane matched his strides and watched him with eyes that twinkled with amusement. “I just wanna take another look at you. Make sure that this guy who’s pussy-whipped is my partner, Mr. No-Woman-Can-Take-Me-Down, and not some clone.”
“I’m not pussy-whipped,” Lucas denied as he headed to the elevator.
“Sure you’re not,” Shane retorted sarcastically. When the elevator doors opened, he followed Lucas in. As the doors closed, he said, “I heard a weird rumor about you the other day.”
“Not interested,” Lucas retorted.
Shane wasn’t having it. He gleefully continued, “I heard from a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend-”
“You don’t have that many friends.”
“Yes, I do,” Shane insisted. “I wish you knew how popular I was. I’m kind of a celebrity.”
Lucas snorted. “Maybe in your dreams.”
Shane shot him a baleful look before continuing, “Anyway one of those friends is friends with Officer Kent. And he says that the reason I can’t find you whenever I drop by your place these days is because you’re spending all your time at a certain Miss Jasmine’s house.”
Lucas wasn’t even surprised that the rumor was out there. Police precincts were often worse than sorority houses when it came to gossip. Still, he wasn’t ready to confess his sins yet, so he hedged, “I just want to know who those friends are.”
“And I just want to know if the rumors are true.” Shane waggled his eyebrows. “Are you and the lovely Miss Jasmine back at it again?”
Thankfully, the elevators doors opened right then. Lucas strode out of the elevator without answering his partner’s question. One would think that Shane would figure out that that meant that Lucas didn’t want to answer the questions, but one would be wrong. The man wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box.
“C’mon,” he hounded Lucas as they walked past the elevators to the lobby. “Just answer and I’ll stop asking questions.”
“Don’t you have better things to do with your time than stick your nose in my life?”
“No, not really.” Shane smiled widely. “I’m having a dry spell right now so I’ve decided to live vicariously through you.”
“Choose someone else to live vicariously through.”
“C’mon, Gallo.”
“Go away,” Lucas retorted.
“Hey, West.” Officer Hudson, who was manning the front desk called out, cutting short their conversation. “I’ve been trying to get you on your line. Someone’s calling for you.” She waved the phone receiver.
“Me?” Shane strode to the counter. “Who is it?”
Lucas planned to ditch his partner while he was distracted. In fact, he even started to walk towards the exit. However, the moment he heard the officer say, “He says his name is Teddy Bryk.”, he turned back and followed Shane to the counter.
“Teddy Bryk?” Shane sent Lucas a questioning look before he turned to Hudson. “Can I pick it in there?” He pointed to the room behind the counter.
“Sure.” Hill opened the door that led behind the counter for them.
Another officer, Officer Champ was in the backroom. He greeted the two detectives before surrendering his seat to Shane. Officer Hudson transferred the call.
Shane put the call on speaker before answering, “This is Detective Shane West speaking.”
“This is really Detective West, right? The one I talked to the other day, right? With the other detective.” Teddy’s voice echoed. For some reason, he sounded shaky, maybe even panicked as he asked, “You’re not punking me, right?”
“No, I’m not punking you. I’m Detective West,” Shane answered calmly. “What can I help you with?”
“Can you help me? Can you really help me?”
“Tell me what you need me to do,” Shane answered calmly, “and I’ll see how I can help.”
“You’re not tricking me or anything, right?” Teddy sucked in a deep breath then added, “If I tell you everything I know about York’s murder, you won’t spin it around on me, right?”
The two detectives traded wide-eyed looks, but Shane’s voice remained surprisingly calm as he reassured, “No, I won’t trick you or try to spin it. Why don’t you tell me what you know then we can find out how to help you.”
Meanwhile, Lucas mimed for Officer Champ to start tracing the call.
“No. No. No. I don’t have to tell you,” Teddy said in a rush. “I can show you. I’ve got video and everything. They thought I destroyed it but I didn’t. I couldn’t. If I’ve got video they can’t make me say that it’s me, right? They can’t make me take the blame, right?”
“No, they can’t.” Shane didn’t ask who ‘they’ were because judging by the panic in Teddy’s voice it would send him into another tailspin. Instead he asked, “Why don’t you tell me where you are and I’ll come to you so we can talk in person?”
Even as Shane asked for Teddy’s location, the tracer had already picked him up. Lucas peered at the screen to find that it was a payphone miles away. Lucas quickly jotted down a note to Officer Champ ordering him to ping cops in the area to pick Teddy up. Officer Champ rushed out of the room to make the call.
“No, no. You can’t come here.” Teddy’s voice lowered into a whisper. “I think they’re watching me.”
“Okay then why don’t you come to me,” Shane suggested. “Let’s meet.”
“Okay. Okay,” Teddy surrendered. “Let’s meet at Gradena Park at seven. Make sure they don’t follow you. Don’t be late.”
He hung up abruptly. As soon as he did, Shane turned to Lucas. “Did you get his location?”
Lucas nodded. “Got it.”
Unfortunately, by the time the cops got to the payphone, Teddy was already gone. When they sent uniforms to the home address he’d given them, they found that it was indeed his place but he wasn’t living there anymore. He’d sublet it a couple of months ago for extra cash.
“We can’t wait to find him,” Lucas said to Shane. “You go meet him at Gradena. See if he turns up. I’ll stay here and see if we can find his real address.”
Shane immediately left with a couple of cops. Lucas meanwhile worked the phones, calling anyone who might kn
ow Teddy so they could find out where he was currently staying. At around six forty-five they got a viable lead. The address was close to the precinct. Lucas immediately jumped into a car with two uniformed officers.
Teddy had really come down in the world. Derelict was an understatement if used to describe the neighborhood Lucas and his fellow offices ended up in. The building they parked in front of was so beaten down by the endless seasons that it seemed to be sagging. Several broken windows lined its dirty, grimy walls. Once or twice a head poked out of the windows to see who was outside but on sighting the cops, the heads immediately disappeared.
“Think he’s in there?” Officer Yale asked as they exited the car.
“Let’s hope so.” Lucas led the way into the building.
Just as Lucas and the officers entered the building, a kid who looked no more than nineteen stopped them in the lobby. “Hey, who you looking for?”
Lucas looked the kid up and down. Despite his age, the kid already had several tattoos running up his neck. Lucas bet that if they stripped out the flannel shirt, white t-shirt and sagging khaki pants that the kid was wearing, there’d be more tattoos underneath. But what caught Lucas’s attention was the kid’s red eyes and the overpowering marijuana smell that hung like a cloud around him. Usually kids like these were terrified of cops. This one didn’t even have an ounce of fear in his eyes. Maybe he was too high to be scared.
Lucas asked, “And you are?”
“Fidel Ruiz.” The kid waved his hand around showing off the letter-tattoos on his fingers. “I manage this place.”
Lucas’s eyebrows rose. “You’re the building manager?”
“Yup.” Fidel nodded. “Who you looking for?”
“Teddy Bryk.”
“Fourth floor,” the kid said confidently. “Number Nine.”
“Thanks.” Lucas gestured for the officers to follow him as he started towards the stairs.