by Deanna King
“We’ve been roaming the Fifth Ward, have to keep up my image, Va’to.” Rick let out a low gangster laugh, and then, just as Lucky took a drink of his tepid coffee, Sparky grabbed her crotch, pretended to hock up a loogie, and in a gruff voice said, “Me too.”
Lucky spewed his coffee everywhere, and it even shot out of his big nose.
“What the hey!” Jack spurted out as he saw Sparky jump out of the way of the spray of coffee, and Rick doubled over in laughter. Lucky was coughing, and his face had turned a nice shade of pink. Spewing coffee out of his mouth was one thing, but out of his nose, in front of a woman, that embarrassed the piss right outta him.
“Damnit, Sparky, I wasn’t expecting you to do that, grab your, uh, what you did. Hell, warn a guy not to be taking a drink before you pull a stunt like that.”
Lucky wiped his face and then began mopping up the coffee he spewed on the corner of his desk, and all over his paperwork. “Shitfire, I’ll hafta redo this freaking paperwork.”
“Hey, Lucky, I’m sorry,” she said and giggled, “here, I’ll help if you want me to.”
“Don’t worry about it, Sparky, he doesn’t even let me near the paperwork, and I’m his dang partner. He’s almost too anal about it.”
Rick had a huge grin on his face. His partner made him laugh and Katherine Sparks put all his other partners to shame, she was a powerhouse, dedicated detective.
“Jack, we’ll keep you posted if anything vital comes up, and Lucky, I’m sorry I made you spew coffee on your paperwork, but hell, I’ve already warned you guys that there’s no telling what I might say or do at any given moment.” Sparky patted Lucky on the back. “See ya later, dude,” she said in the gruff voice, her eyes full of mischievousness, and focused on Lucky.
Lucky opened his mouth but thought better then shut it.
. . .
Jack handed the warrant for Max Renner over to Sargent Zach Pappert, affectionately known around the squad room as “Pappy.”
“Pappy, this is a big man, an ex-biker gang member from up Chicago way. He has no clue anyone is coming, and the odds are that any number of his biker friends are out there too. They work on their cars and bikes out there from time to time, and I can’t say one way or another who you’d be up against if they are all there.”
“Don’t sweat that, Jack, we’ll be prepared. You say this guy lives in Waller, Texas? Who wants to live in BFE, there’s nothing there?”
“Same thing I said when we were out there questioning the dude,” Lucky interjected.
Jack explained that Jenna Berrie lived there with him and they had one neighbor.
“I’m positive she’ll be right behind you when you haul him in. It would be in her best interest if she chose to come here on her own. The woman has been lying to us, and I’d like to question her again.”
“Thanks for the heads-up, Jack. We’ll go out to BFE, Waller, in about thirty minutes. I’ll get DePaul, Felix, Tenney, and Knots. When your big dude sees my bigger dudes, he will brown his tighty-whities. I don’t think he’ll resist too much. Those guys eat bikers for breakfast.”
“They are the American dream team…add in Gordo, and they can almost be the defensive line by themselves.”
“Not an ounce of fat, only muscle and brawn, grit and power.”
“Makes me wish I was a younger man, you know? Makes me a little envious,” Jack replied with a grin.
Pappy agreed. “Yep, to be young again would be wonderful, but not dumb again. You want me to text you or what when he’s in custody at the station?”
“Text me, then put him in a room and let him sweat it out. Tell Captain Yao that you put him in an interview room, that way someone can check on him every so often until we get back to the station.”
“What about the woman? If she follows, where do you want her?”
Lucky spoke up, “Put her scrawny ass in an interview room too, that will scare the truth outta her.”
“Roger that. Pappy, put her in an interview room so she can sweat it out same as him.”
“Okay, will do.” He gave them both a salute wave and headed out to gather his team.
“I like ole Pappy and his team, Jack, they’re the good guys.
There was no denying that, and Jack for one was glad those monsters were on their side.
. . .
Mava had unwittingly told Jack all he needed to know.
“She told me that he has a late lunch meeting at two-thirty. I wanted to know where in the heck he would get a decent lunch at two-thirty, the lunch run was over at least by one, and most decent places were gearing up for the evening meal crowds.”
“Where’s he headed then for this lunch meeting?”
“Quattros over off Lamar Street, you know the place?”
“I know the area, never eaten there though. Isn’t there a parking garage across the street and several parking lots behind that area on the corner of Dallas and Austin Streets?”
“Yeah, and we’ll hit the parking garage. It’s one thirty now, let’s head over that way, grab the digital camera with the zoom. We can stop and grab drive-thru somewhere, then find a place to sit and stake him out.”
“Good idea, my stomach thinks my back has caved in, I’m starved.”
“Dawson, man, you’re always hungry. Stop at the vending machine, grab some chips and a candy bar or two, we might be tailing him for a while. I’ll grab a couple of bottles of water.”
They drove through a Jack in the Box, and Lucky hooted. “I can’t believe you picked Jack in the Box, Jack.”
“Shut up, I like their sourdough jack and the curly fries, what do you want, bottomless pit?”
Fueled by fast food as they drove, Jack pulled the unmarked car into the parking garage across the street from Quattros. He drove around until he found a parking space on the fourth level.
“This’ll work. We can go over to the edge, there.” Jack pointed. “And unless he is looking right at us, he won’t see us. We can use these square pillars to stand behind, and we’ll be less visible to onlookers that may be looking up. Besides, who looks up these days, everyone has their eyes glued to their phones even while they’re walking.”
“Good point, Jack, everyone does have their head in their phones these days.”
Jack grabbed the camera and his soft drink, took off his suit coat, and opened the car door. It was hot, hell, it was Texas. Both men rolled up their shirtsleeves, then walked to the end of the parking level, and Jack peered over.
“Lucky, let’s move over to the left more, better view of the front doors that lead to the restaurant.”
“It’s ten after two, Jack, he should be showing up pretty soon. One thing I’ve learned about the judge, he’s very punctual, or habitually early.”
Jack pulled the camera up to his face and focused the lens, and then zoomed in on the front door.
“This camera has a helluva zoom, it’ll pick up a blackhead on his nose.”
“Jack, there he is.” Lucky gestured with his head. Sure enough, there was Judge Troy Wolff, walking alone up the sidewalk.
“I wonder who he’s meeting. I wish I had coerced that outta Mava.” Jack snapped a few photos of him walking up and into the door of Quattros, alone.
“It’s funny, now that we know what he has hidden in his past, you wonder what he’s still up to, you know?” Lucky said in a half whisper.
Jack’s gut clenched. “That’s it, partner.”
“What’s it?” Lucky shot Jack a sideways glance.
“If he was into that stuff back then, you know…dominants and submissives, with bondage and all that S&
M shit…what’s to say he isn’t into that sort of sex now?”
“Now, at his age, Jack, and his station in life, with a wife and grown kids, I think he even has a grandkid or two. Not to mention he’s a judicial figure, shit, he hands out sentencing. As it is right now, knowing what I know, I can’t stand the thought of him handing anyone a life sentence, with or without the possibility of parole, not even a sentence of ninety days in county. It makes me sick.”
“I know, it makes my skin crawl too. We’ve had to have him sign off on warrants, to search and seize and to arrest the very kind of person I feel he is—lowlife.”
“You see anyone familiar at all, someone, he’d be meeting with?” Lucky’s eyes scanned the area.
“Nope, not a soul, not many pedestrians out right now either, and no one’s gone into Quattros in the last half hour.” His eyes were trained on the front door.
“Two-thirty on the button, bet whoever he’s meeting is already in there. Maybe we’ll see them leave together.”
“Okay, now we wait, and uh, sweat.” Jack let out a huge sigh.
. . .
Over an hour and a half later, their shirts were stuck to their skin with perspiration. Lucky had gone back to the unmarked car and retrieved the two bottles of water, a bit tepid, but at least the water was “wet.”
“Cripes, Jack, it’s exactly four. When he gets home, he’ll be ready to eat dinner, dang, this is the longest lunch meeting I’ve ever staked out.” Lucky stood up straight and stretched his back, popping his neck from side to side to work out the kinks in both his back and neck from standing and peering over the concrete wall of the parking garage.
“Must be either very important business or whoever he met with, they’re sharing some brewskis and shooting the damn bull. You know, no one has walked in or out of the doors to Quattros for over forty minutes.” Jack zoomed in on the front door again. “Maybe his meeting wasn’t business at all.”
“How do you mean?”
“Quattros is located in a hotel, maybe he went to a room, and you know…” Jack trailed off, his thoughts headed in another direction.
An “aha” moment hit Lucky.
“Yeah, maybe he’s meeting someone in the hotel, not in the restaurant. Maybe he has stepped it up from the no-tell-motel to a bit posher place to have his tête-à-têtes, you think?” Disapproval dripped off each word Lucky said.
“He’s been in there long enough to meet someone, eat and leave, but who knows, and if he walks out alone, we’ll never know.”
“Unless…naw, never mind,” Lucky didn’t complete his thought.
“You mean, see who’s signed in, rented a room, or eaten lunch?”
“That’s what I was thinking, but this isn’t like that place off Southwest Freeway, that All Occasions Motel, wasn’t that the name?”
Jack pressed his lips together to keep from laughing, and he emitted a slight soft snort. “I was thinking about the proprietor at All Occasions, that Tully Cranston fell. If the judge was to show up there, the old man would put up a sign that said ‘Judge Wolff stayed here,’ he would love the publicity.”
“Yeah, what is gonna happen when this all comes out? What kind of publicity will he get then? I’m betting it did happen in a room at that ratty hotel.”
“I’m sure you’re right, Luck. The old man, Tully, said he didn’t know how far back his records went. He has them stored in his son’s barn, about fifteen years’ worth. He informed me that he wasn’t a neat freak or organized, and after seeing his front desk and the paperwork there, I can attest to that. Besides, he said the rats in his son’s barn had destroyed a bunch of it. If we have to, we can go get them for someone to go over.”
Lucky gave an involuntary shiver. “Rats and barns, uh-uh, Jack, not me. Besides, who would have used their real name?”
A big laugh escaped Jack, and in the parking garage it reverberated, and he took a step back so he wouldn’t be seen hanging over the edge.
“Lucky, you’d lose your lunch if you had to see paperwork so mistreated, as anal as you are about ours. Hey, look, there’s the judge, he’s on the move.”
Lucky peered over and saw him as Jack clicked a few shots. The judge was alone, his suit coat draped across his arm, his tie was off, and stuffed into a pocket.
“His tie and coat are both off, must have been one helluva lunch, what do you think, Jack?” Lucky’s lipped curled up on one side in a sneer, he had no respect left for the man called Judge Troy Wolff.
“Let’s head out, I know what car he drives.” He snapped the cover back on the zoom lens and headed toward the car. Without a word Lucky followed.
An hour later Jack’s phone chirped as a text came in. Opening his message, it was from Pappy: Secured Max Renner in interview room 5. You were right, Berrie woman followed, put her in interview room 2. Yao knows. Pappy.
“Pappy has Max Renner, and Jenna Berrie did follow.” He gave Lucky a sideways glance as he drove.
“You think we have what we need and can go back to the station?” Lucky turned to look at Jack, who was wearing a smile on his tired face.
“I think we do.”
It had taken them thirty minutes to get through the traffic that had bottlenecked on Interstate 10 toward the Loop. They had followed the judge on his route home, and at first Jack had been disappointed that they had nothing to show for their afternoon, that was, until the judge made a pit stop. Camera at the ready, they had taken the appropriate pictures as the judge sat and ate at, of all places, the same Antone’s he and Lucky stopped at when there were in this area. This was a sure sign to both of them that he didn’t have “lunch” at Quattros, it was a different kind of lunch meeting altogether.
Jack shot several pictures of him sitting alone, eating a sub, a bag of chips, and drinking a soda. The best part was watching him drink that soda without a straw, and the pictures proving it was the judge. Jack zoomed in on him when he took a drink and set the plastic glass back on the table. Then he widened the frame to capture the entire table. Not only would his fingerprints be on that plastic cup, but his DNA too…perfect. With the zoom lens, Jack saw who was working the counter and he busted a gut.
“Call Antone’s number, partner, ask for Viola, she’s working the counter. Tell her that we are on a secret mission, and we will be stopping by to get some food. Tell her Jack said not to clean off any tables until we get there.”
Could they get any luckier…Viola…she was an aspiring “detective” who dreamed of being an FBI agent, like the ones on the series The Blacklist. There was one major problem though. Viola was over sixty. She turned out to be the break they needed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Max Renner sat in interview room number five. He was not a happy camper, and that in itself was the understatement of understatements.
“He wasn’t a very cheerful person when Pappy brought him in,” Yao told them as they sat watching the monitors for both interview rooms five and two. “We calmed him down so we were able to uncuff him.”
“Did he say anything or lawyer up?” Jack studied Max Renner on the monitor. He was a big man, or he appeared to be bigger in the small interview room.
“Naw, he has no clue as to why he’s here and has nothing to say. It’s what they all say, right?” The captain always found that comical, but true.
“Yep, I didn’t do it, don’t know who did, and I didn’t see anything. Standard pat answers.” Jack pointed to Jenna Berrie sitting in interview room two. “What about her?”
“All she wanted to know was if she was under arrest. We told her no, you came to the station on your own. She wanted to be in the same room as the Renner fella. Pappy told her that that was the standard
protocol and not to argue with him.”
Yao nodded to the screen that showed Max Renner, who was now standing and stretching his big treelike neck, and then he walked over to the door and put his ear to it.
“What’s he think he’s gonna hear, Christmas bells or the sound of chains coming for him like Bob Marley in the Christmas Carol, his past is coming back to haunt him?” Lucky let out a ghoulish laugh, causing both Jack and the captain to snicker.
“Okay, Jack, go in there and get him to tell you something. Even if you don’t get him to talk, we have his prints, and we have two stories, albeit from a dead girl and a demented cop. But if you have to, hell, lie to the son of a bitch, he doesn’t have to know what we have or don’t have. Do whatever you have to do, break the biker bastard.”
“I’ll do my best, Captain. Come on, partner.”
“I’m right behind ya, let’s go get this pond scum.” Lucky scooted his chair back and was on Jack’s heels.
The latch to the door of interview room five slid open, and Max saw the doorknob twist. Jack West entered first, and his partner was right behind him.
