by Mike Faricy
Both officers settled into the front seat, and the one who cuffed me said, “Care to explain what, exactly, you were doing here.”
“I’m looking for a kid I found living rough. He’d been staying at my place for a couple of nights, and then he just up and disappeared yesterday. I wanted to find him and tell him he could continue to stay at my place.”
“And he goes to school here?”
“Yeah, in fact, this is where I met him. I’m a volunteer with the detention group that meets here on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. He was going to try to spend the night in the school, and I’ve got a guest room, so I offered it to him.”
“What’s the boy’s name?”
“Taylor.”
“Does he happen to have a last name?”
“He does, but I never asked what it was. I just wanted him to feel safe in my house.”
“And why wouldn’t he feel safe?”
“Oh wait, I know where you’re going with this. No, that’s not the deal. I’m not into young boys or young girls for that matter.”
“You had a gun in your glove compartment,” the cop who’d been standing off to the side said.
“Yeah, I’m a private investigator, licensed to carry.”
“I didn’t find your license in the glove compartment, and it’s not in your wallet, Mr. Haskell.”
“Yeah, it’s, umm, probably at my office. I’ve been meaning to put it in my glove compartment. I guess it slipped my mind.”
A car full of boys drove past. All of them were laughing and giving me the finger.
“Looks like you had a bit of a disagreement recently. I’m guessing maybe this morning. You want to tell us about it?” the guy in the passenger seat asked.
“Nothing to tell, really. I just slipped on the stairs. Looks a lot worse than it is.”
They both nodded in a way that suggested my excuse just confirmed any suspicions they may have had.
“You could call my pal with the department, Lieutenant Aaron LaZelle. He’ll vouch for me. I just had dinner with him last week. I know most of the people in his division. I’ve worked with a number of them.”
“Yeah, he’s a little busy right now. There’s been a shooting. We’re going to take you downtown, Mr. Haskell and get all this sorted out.”
“Oh, come on, fellas. You don't have to do that. I’m sure if you gave Aaron a call, he’d vouch for me. It would only take a minute and save you a lot of trouble. If he’s busy, just about any of the detectives would tell you I’m good.”
The guy behind the wheel looked at his partner and nodded. The partner pulled out a cellphone and pushed a button. “Yeah, sorry to bother you,” he said. “We’ve got someone out here at Central High School. His name is Devlin Haskell. He’s a P.I. No. We got a call from someone at the school. He was parked in the parking lot checking out kids with a pair of binoculars. Told us you could vouch for him. Mmm-hmm. Yeah, we can do that. Okay, thanks, appreciate the help.”
“Did he vouch for me?”
“Actually no, that was Detective Sergeant Norris Manning. He suggested it would be a good idea if we brought you in.”
“Manning? That guy hates me. Can’t you talk to Lieutenant LaZelle? I’m telling you, we’re good friends. We’ve known one another for years. We used to play hockey together.”
“We already told you, LaZelle is busy. I’m sure once he’s back at the station, he can put in a good word, and you’ll be free to go. Until then, Mr. Hassle, you’ll be a guest of the city,” he said.
The cop behind the wheel turned on the ignition, and we headed out of the parking lot.
Chapter 33
I waited another three hours in the holding cell. Some guy was passed out on the concrete floor, snoring. Two individuals kept arguing back and forth about which one was supposed to ‘deal with’ whoever was in a back room. Another guy kept giving me the eye. I think he was looking for something I had that he might want. Apparently, he decided I really didn’t have anything worth taking. Finally, a cop walked over to the cell and called my name, “Hassle, Devlin Hassle?”
Why bother to make a correction? I stood and walked over toward him. “Yeah, that’s me,” I said through the bars.
“Okay, the L.T. wants you up in homicide. If you’ll turn around, I’ll cuff you.”
“What? Cuff me? You gotta be kidding.”
“Well, while you take your time to determine whether or not I’m kidding, I can attend to the thousand other things I have to do and come back tomorrow morning. So, if you want to go up there, you better turn around. Either that or you can choose to spend time with your new friends down here. Don’t matter much to me. It’s your choice.”
I immediately saw his point and turned around. He cuffed my hands behind my back and called to another guard who came over and unlocked the door. As I stepped out, the guy who’d been giving me the eye stood and hurried over.
“Hey, I want whatever this dumb ass is getting.”
“Then you’ll have to wait your turn,” the guard said and led me away.
We took the elevator up three or four floors and then walked down a hall. The guard wore an ID around his neck. He held the card in front of the reader, and the door lock buzzed. He pushed the door open, grabbed my arm, and led me into the homicide section.
I’d worked in one capacity or another with just about everyone in the room. As we headed toward Aaron’s office, I heard a couple of laughs. Someone shouted, “It’s about time,” and a couple guys started clapping.
We stopped at Aaron’s door, and the guard knocked on the doorframe. Aaron was on a phone call. He waved his hand, indicating we should enter, and then moved his hand back and forth, signaling to take the handcuffs off. Once the guard did that, Aaron placed his hand over the receiver and said, “Thanks, Tony.”
“You bet, L.T., good luck,” Tony said and left.
Aaron pointed to a chair in front of his desk. I sat down and waited until he finished his phone call.
“Thanks for getting me out of that holding cell,” I said once he hung up.
“What the hell were you doing? Looking at underage girls through a pair of binoculars? And what the hell happened to your nose?”
I went on to tell him about the demure little girl in a thong who knocked the hell out me at Tubby Gustafson’s, then brought him up to date on Taylor disappearing.
“And so I thought maybe he went to school. That’s where he was getting fed. I think it was probably about the only stable place in his life. Well, until he moved in with me.”
“Yeah, and after three days, he fled that scene. I have to give him some credit for being smart.”
“Very funny, not. I was just trying to help the kid. When I met him, he was hiding in the school, so he’d have a safe place to sleep. All he had were the clothes on his back. Apparently, the boys were teasing him. All the girls were either afraid of him or didn’t want to be seen with him. I just felt sorry for the kid. He’s a nice guy, Aaron. A really nice guy.”
“No idea where he went?”
I shook my head and said, “None whatsoever.”
“Well, it happens, Dev. If you had a full name, we could check him out. Unfortunately, we’ll add him to the list of kids that are cast adrift.”
“He’s really talented. We were going to try to get him into an artistic boarding school on a scholarship. I just can’t figure out where he went or why.”
“To be honest, Dev, that’s not so unusual.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. Driving around last night, seeing all the kids at eleven or twelve at night walking the streets. More than a few of them were pushing strollers. The deck is stacked against them, and they don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.”
Aaron nodded and said, “Where did you leave your car?”
“In the parking lot over at the high school. Hopefully, it’s still in one piece.”
“Well, you haven’t been charged, so let’s go down, grab your possessions, and I’ll give you a li
ft over to the school.”
“Oh, you don’t have to—”
“You got a better idea?”
“Well, now that you mention it, no, not really.”
“Yeah, so let’s go.”
“You know, Aaron. None of this would have happened if your Detective Manning had vouched for me.”
“Manning? What’s he got to do with anything?”
“Those two guys that arrested me, I told them to check with you. They called. Apparently, Manning answered, and well, the rest is history. Just letting you know. Not only did he waste the two officers’ time, but also the guys who processed me in, not to mention the guy who brought me up here. Now you’ve been kind enough to offer me a ride. You start counting the time involved, all so Manning could play his little dirty trick on me. I’m telling you, Aaron, that Manning hates my guts.”
“Maybe you should work a little harder at being nice to him.” It took a good twenty minutes, but I finally got my cellphone, wallet, car keys, and my gun and sticky holster back.
On the way to the high school, I said, “So, did I hear correctly, you were involved in a shooting this afternoon?”
“No, who told you that?”
“I thought I heard something about you and a shooting.”
“Another bank robbery by those two clowns, whoever in the hell they are.”
“Are these the two idiots robbing banks, but they never get very much money?”
“Yeah, they’re still out there. We can’t seem to get a handle on them. For the first time, one of them fired his weapon today. Fortunately, he fired into the ceiling and not at someone.”
“How much money did they get?”
“That’s to be determined, probably not more than a grand, maybe fifteen hundred at the most.”
“Split between two guys?”
“Yeah. Once they’re caught, and they will be sooner or later, but once they’re caught, they’re going to end up doing seven to ten years. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Aaron pulled into the high school parking lot and headed for the only car at the far end, my Police Interceptor.
“I can’t believe you’re still driving that thing,” he said, pulling alongside.
“I like it.”
“It can’t possibly work for anything undercover.”
“Yeah, there is that.” As he put his car in park, I noticed someone had spray-painted the word ‘OINK’ in red along the side of my car. “Oh, will you look at that. This just caps off the worst day I’ve had in a long time, a really long time.”
“Welcome to the club, Dev. Get out and make sure it starts before I take off.”
“Thanks for the ride, Aaron. I owe you big time.”
“Yeah, you do. Now, get out. I gotta get back to work.”
I climbed out, gave him a wave, then pressed the fob. The locks popped up, and I climbed in behind the wheel. I placed the key in the ignition, fired up the engine, and gave Aaron a thumbs-up.
He nodded and sped out of the parking lot.
Chapter 34
My cellphone rang as I watched Aaron’s car speed off. “Hey, Annette.”
“Well, you’re finally answering. Didn’t you get any of my messages?”
“I haven’t had a chance to check. I just got my phone back.”
“Just got it back?” she said. “Did you lose it?”
“Let just say it’s been a pretty lousy day.”
“Well, I might be able to make it a little bit better.”
“Oh?”
“Maybe join us down here at Inkredible. Taylor’s here. He’s got some interesting news, and oh, by the way, Dennis liked all his sketches, and he’s going to buy the whole batch.”
“You’re kidding. Are you down there now?”
“Yeah, we’re in Dennis’ office. Hurry up and get down here.”
“I’m on my way,” I said and sped out of the parking lot. I made it down to Inkredible in record time, parked right in front, and hurried inside.
The blue-haired woman from the other day was applying ink to a guy’s shoulder. She stared at me for a long moment then said, “They’re in his office. You can go on back.” I hurried through the beaded curtain and down the hall to Dennis’ office.
Taylor’s sheets of images, there were ten of them, were all pinned on the bulletin board. Taylor and Annette were sitting in two leather chairs in front of Dennis’s desk. Taylor had a big grin on his face. Dennis was seated at his desk. He had his business checkbook out and was in the process of signing a check made out in the amount of nine hundred dollars. I did some quick math in my head, and that figured out to fifteen bucks per image.
Dennis looked up as I stepped in the door. “Oh, my God. What the hell happened to you?” he said.
That caused Taylor and Annette to turn around in their chairs and stare.
“Oh, Dev,” Annette said.
Taylor just sat there wide-eyed, too shocked to say anything.
“Yeah, it’s been kind of a crazy day,” I said.
“Can I get you an ice pack or something?” Dennis asked.
“No, thanks. I’m okay. It looks a lot worse than it is. Nine hundred bucks, congratulations, Taylor. That’s fantastic.”
Taylor just nodded and continued to stare, wide-eyed.
“Here, grab a seat, Dev,” Dennis said. He picked up two stacks of files from the leather couch, set them on top of two other stacks, and indicated that I should sit down.
“Dev, what the hell happened?” Annette asked.
“Relax, I’m fine. We can get into it later. So, Dennis, you liked the tattoo images Taylor did?”
“I love them. This will be huge. I can’t tell you how many people we have stopping in on a regular basis to see what’s new. Taylor’s promised to keep these exclusive to Inkredible and work up another batch over the next few weeks.”
Dennis rolled his desk chair across the floor to a water cooler. He filled a paper cup with water and rolled back to his desk. He pulled open a desk drawer, took out a bottle of ibuprofen, shook out two tablets and handed them to me.
“Thanks, Dennis, but really I’m okay.”
“Yeah, sure. Take them anyway. It will make all of us feel better.”
Annette chuckled, Taylor smiled, and a good deal of stress seemed to leave the room.
Once I downed the tablets, Dennis said, “Okay, now level with us. How many guys were there?”
I shook my head and said, “I went to Tubby Gustafson’s and—”
“Oh, no,” Annette said. “His gangsters did that?”
“Not exactly.” I went on to tell them about Tubby and the demure woman who kicked the crap out of me.
“At least your nose looks halfway decent,” Dennis said. “Well, I mean except for being black and blue and all swollen. Be interesting to see how bad it looks once the swelling goes down.”
“Yeah, I appreciate your concern, Dennis.”
“I’m sorry I made you so worried about me,” Taylor said. “My uncle never seemed to care, and I figured you would just be the same. I, I’m not used to anyone caring.”
“Yeah, I was really worried about you,” I said.
“We both were,” Annette added.
“I didn’t mean to cause you any problems, honest.”
“Why did you run off?” I asked.
“Well, you were telling me about having to deal with Mr. Gustafson and how mean he was, and I was afraid, if he found out you were letting me stay with you, it would just get you in deeper trouble.”
“Tubby Gustafson? Look, I agree he’s an awful person. But he wouldn’t care. Believe me, Tubby only cares about himself.”
“Well, yeah, that’s just it.”
“Dev doesn’t know, Taylor,” Annette said.
“Know what?” I asked.
“Go ahead and tell him. It’s okay,” Annette said.
“Tell me what?” I looked at Annette and then Dennis. Taylor was staring at the floor.
“Well, umm,
see, Eli Cummings, the guy you’ve been looking for, he’s, umm, he’s my uncle. That’s who I’ve been living with, well, for as long as I can remember.”
“And by the way, he’s gained one hell of a lot of artistic experience,” Dennis said. He picked up his pen, wrote Taylor Cummings on the Pay to the order of line on the check, then made a show of tearing it out of the checkbook and waving it back and forth a few times before handing it to Taylor.
Taylor took the check and said, “Thank you.” He turned toward me, handed me the check, and said, “Here, Dev. I really owe you.”
“No way, pal. You earned it fair and square. It’s yours to keep. I might suggest we put it in your bank account, you know, for safe-keeping.”
“I don’t have a bank account.”
“Well then it’s time we opened one up for you, but the money is all yours. You more than earned it.”
Taylor grinned, nodded, folded the check in half, and put it in his pocket.
“Taylor, I meant what I told you,” Dennis said. “I’d like to see more work from you. Say, in a month, if you could come up with maybe thirty more designs, that would be really great.”
“Yeah, I can do that.”
“Good, I’ll be looking forward to it. Dev, Annette, I’d love to chat, but I’ve got an appointment coming in shortly. Thanks for coming down and bringing Taylor. And Taylor, you listen to these two. They only want what’s best for you, and you can’t do any better than that.”
Taylor nodded, and we all stood. Annette and Taylor headed out of the office. Dennis grabbed my arm just as I started to leave. “Dev, that kid is really talented, and it sounds like he’s been handed a shit life so far. You hang in there for him. He needs you more than either of you know.”
“Thanks, Dennis, not to worry, and thanks for giving him the win. Never enough of that in life.”
“Well, he’s been a win for me, too. I’ll make that money back within the week once I get those images out there, and after that, it’s all pure profit. Now get the hell out,” he said and grinned.
“Boys,” Annette said out on the sidewalk, “I think Taylor’s first sale, a major one at that, calls for a celebration. Dinner at my house tonight. Show up around 6:00, if that works.”
