by Jessie G
Juan stopped shoveling food in his mouth long enough to chime in. “Wouldn’t be too hard to convince him that it was part of the game.”
“Yeah, but if Ferris was always strung out, how could Terence trust him not to slip up and give them away?” Davin asked.
Sully had an answer for that too. “By making sure his cronies kept him at bay. Ferris was attacking other dealers because Durango wouldn’t sell to him. If a dealer is refusing your money, if one of the betters is refusing to do more than nod his head at you, it’s a sure bet whoever Terence had watching his back wasn’t letting Ferris get too close.”
“Why do you like Ferris so much?” Juan asked Sully as he went for another plate.
“It’s not that I like him for the partner, exactly, I just think he’s got more of a connection to Terence than we see.” Sully pushed the food around his plate as he tried to explain it. “I can’t come up with logical theories like you, Dav, but I really believe we’ll find some link.”
“Let’s say you’re right. Is it possible Terence had more than one partner?” Alaric asked.
“You mean could he have had a dedicated drug trafficker and then found two other men he trusted enough to partner with for his other illegal activities?” Though Alaric threw the question out there in support of Sully’s theory, Sully himself didn’t sound convinced.
“But it could make sense,” Juan offered hesitantly. “You said the vic at the bodega robbery told you the second guy never got close enough to be seen, and only spoke to rush Ferris along. Keep him on track, get the money, let him have his fun, then they walk away and split the profit. Ferris takes all the risk, Terence—or whoever—assumes none.”
“Terence would look for people he could control. People desperate for the same things he was, who were willing to blindly follow his lead. Terence needed money, but he didn’t want to work, and stealing is easier. Ferris didn’t need convincing because he was also looking for an easy pay day to cover his own habit. Being the lookout is enough for half the cut and, if things went south, Terence was far enough back to slip out and leave Ferris on the hook.”
“That’s fine for the petty shit, but Terence would need someone more experienced and more reliable to play the big game.” Davin rose, snagging Alaric’s plate as well as his own for a refill. “Which means the guy we’re looking for was already playing his own. We know the Bennetts were paying off those who demanded money for silence, so we can follow Terence’s progression. If we can find a similar path in our current suspects, we may have K.”
That had Sully glaring at Alaric. “Were you really paying off the people Terence hurt?”
Davin turned to intervene, but Alaric was already answering, “When the first one came knocking, I called the cops myself. She wouldn’t talk to them and left. The second one went to Dad. He did the same thing, got the same response, but that guy walked straight to the press. Unfortunately for him, there was no case pending and the paper wasn’t interested in a slander piece. After that, it was just easier to write a check to get them out the door. They never asked for much and none of them wanted to go to a hospital or talk to the police. It was either payment or press.”
“But if the paper didn’t want to run the first story, why bother to pay?” Sully asked.
“If one person comes in with an uncorroborated story, you can dismiss it. If ten people come in with the same story, you take notice. Eventually, the papers would have taken notice.” Alaric frowned and looked over at him. “We probably should have let them.”
“Hey,” Davin whispered, coming back to his side. “Don’t even go there.”
“The truth is important to closing this case, even when it doesn’t show us in the best light. We have to own our mistakes before we can fix them.”
“I agree that the truth is important.” Davin sat and pulled his chair closer. “But carrying around some misplaced guilt over what Terence did, over what Dante didn’t do, is counterproductive. Isn’t that what we agreed?”
“Yes, we did, and no, I’m not carrying it around. I’m just explaining so your partner understands.” Alaric leaned in until their shoulders were touching and gave him a reassuring smile before returning his gaze to Sully. “Word spread quickly that we were paying, and that made it even harder to tell who might be for real. By then, I suspected Terence of sending some of his crowd to line his pockets, but I couldn’t prove it. Finally, after about a year of fighting over it, I wrote the last check, told the guy to pass the word that the well was dry, and we never got another visit.”
“Wow.” Eyes wide and dazed, Sully sat back in his chair and stared at Alaric. “That’s a lot to process but suddenly I’m in agreement with Davin. Ferris isn’t the guy we’re after.” Shaking himself, Sully looked over and asked, “How many more interviews do we have left?
Davin checked his list and groaned. “Six. On the upside, I received visual confirmations on two of the suspects and Billy Cray got himself locked up last night on battery charges. I’d go at them hard, but I don’t want them to bolt before we have something to rattle them with.”
“No luck on the plea for someone to come forward?” Alaric asked.
“The lines lit up for hours after the press conference and not much since.” Davin thought about Hector and wished more people would reach out, whether it was about this case or not. “Unfortunately, the ones who think they recognize Terence can’t tell us anything specific about his partner. Some think he’s light haired, others dark. Some think he’s got brown eyes, others blue. They were drugged, they were scared, they blacked out. All can agree they met Terence in a bar, that they got drunker than normal, and he put them in a cab. Everything after that is a blur.”
“Okay, then let’s go through the data again.” Juan set aside his plate and started pulling up the data streams, showing the areas they were able to cross-reference.
“How are you doing this?” Sully walked over to the wall and starting poking at the words. “Juan?”
“I’m not allowed to divulge trade secrets,” Juan declared with a haughty tilt of his head and a smirk for Alaric. “Now pay attention. We cross-referenced all the names, dates, and entries in both diaries with phone logs on the burners against unsolved cases and new information coming in on the hotline.”
“Fine.” Hands in his pockets, Sully came back and tried to look over Juan’s shoulder, only to find himself blocked again. “What was on the flash drives?”
“Three of them contained pictures, the fourth was a ledger.”
“A ledger of the funds he was skimming off the company,” Alaric clarified.
Juan stopped tapping and looked at Davin. “We need another reference point.”
“Let’s input the data on the crimes committed by the three musketeers and see if they hit any entries in the diary.” As the data streamed, Juan and Alaric clearly knew what they were looking at, but Davin couldn’t keep up. “Can I get some print-outs and a highlighter?”
“A highlighter?” Juan looked at him like he’d sprung a second head. “Seriously?”
“Call me old school, but I need to touch and manipulate. Start printing and while you’re at it, check to see if any of these guys had a hack’s license.”
“Both Billy Cray and Pat Jameson,” Juan confirmed. “We already pulled that.”
“Then let’s focus on them. Remember, these are partners of convenience who showed Terence they had an affinity for what he needed from them. Authenticity would prevent unnecessary screw ups.” Davin found the printer tucked into the wall and glared at Juan until it started spitting out information.
A quick trip to Juan’s secretary netted him a pencil and a highlighter, and that made it easier for him to see what they were seeing, and possibly pick up things they might not. “Other than eight years ago, have these guys worked together as a group again? And are there significant periods when the attacks go dormant and does the timeframe coincide with any of their prison stints?”
“Wait, we have that
one too.” Juan tapped, Sully tried to see what he was doing, and Alaric watched with a smile. “Once when Pat Jameson was in and once when Billy Cray was.”
“Only once each?” That had Davin looking up. “That doesn’t make sense. If either of them were K and he was that important to the partnership, then the attacks should have stopped each time they got arrested.”
Juan shrugged. “I can only tell you what the data tells us.”
“Your prisons are overcrowded. Is it possible one or both didn’t do their full time?” Alaric asked.
“Sure, it happens all the time, but it would be in their record.”
Alaric considered that and asked, “When wouldn’t it be?”
“When someone tampered with the records.” Davin doubted it even as he said it. Instead of feeling right, it felt like they were just throwing shit at the wall to see what stuck. “Now we’re adding evidence tampering?”
“It couldn’t have been Terence, directly,” Sully argued. “But what if one of his targets was a cop and that’s what he blackmailed them to do?”
“Anything’s possible, but I’m worried we’re just piling stuff on with nothing to back it up.” Davin shuffled through his papers until he found an entry from the diary. “He was documenting the assaults. Why that and nothing else—if there even is anything else?”
“Because he only felt guilty about the assaults. You haven’t read the second diary.” Juan put in. “And both diaries confirm he was doing something to get money. He talks about needing to supplement his stipend and finding an easy way to do it. Those entries are all from before he started skimming from the company though.”
Frustration and the image of Bethany’s tear-streaked face battered him. “I’m sorry, I just don’t see Terence as this mastermind. One hand in the drug trade, one in armed robberies, one in sexual assaults and still another in blackmail. Can you see your brother juggling all those balls?”
“Can I see it? No.” Alaric didn’t even hesitate. “Not even a little bit. He was smart, he was a great actor, but he was also desperate, greedy, and reactionary. A mastermind, to use your word, would need to be calm, cool and collected, and he would only have to be smart enough to get the right people to work for and be loyal to him. I don’t see Terence in that role.”
“Yeah, me either. Elias said something in interrogation about Terence having big plans, but a criminal mastermind?” Davin was with Alaric on this. “No.”
Alaric’s phone beeped and he frowned as he read the message. “I need to return this call. Dav, there’s a gym on the third floor if you want to run it off. My stuff’s in locker thirteen.”
With that and a chaste kiss, Alaric was gone, and Juan asked, “Run it off?’
“When our boy runs, the answers miraculously come to him,” Sully said proudly.
“Oh, well, then by all means, please go run it off.” Juan actually made a shooing motion with his hand, which had Sully cracking up and Davin glaring at them. “We’ll keep working on this and be ready when you get back.”
“Yeah, fine, and while you’re at it, see if you can link Terence to a cop.”
“I thought you thought it was a long shot?”
He did. But he also thought they needed to keep everything on the list, no matter how far-fetched, until it could either be proved or disproved. “I think we never knew Terence at all.”
Chapter Forty
Davin
He left them to it and, with a little direction from Marguerite, found the gym on the third floor. After changing into workout gear, Davin picked a treadmill near the windows, nodded at the two women on side by side ellipticals and set his preferences. Then, with his eyes on the view, he hit that first step and let his mind go.
It was easy to focus on the image Terence portrayed—party boy, prankster with a mean streak, attention-seeking son. Dante and Claire had written him off, so the only one who stood up to him was Alaric and that burned. Big brother to the rescue, he’d mock, playing hero to the family mistake and his cock sucking whore. Davin didn’t mind the insult, but Bethany cried every time he called her a mistake and that was all Terence was looking for—a reaction.
Upon reflection, there was never a time when Terence looked like an addict. Instead, Terence was the picture of a Florida golden boy, tall and tan with a full head of sun-kissed hair and an athlete’s body. He couldn’t think of one instance when Terence didn’t look anything but impeccably dressed, well groomed, even attractive. Until he opened his mouth and caused a scene, he looked like every other guy in the yacht club.
But if he wasn’t the addict he pretended to be, how had he built up Durango’s business? Was he connecting him to his rich acquaintances? As the known family fuckup, it would be common knowledge that if you wanted to score, Terence had the connection. The yacht club sect liked their recreational drugs just as much as anyone, maybe more, and they had the cash to pay for the good stuff. Didn’t have to like the guy to buy from his dealer and it made sense that Terence would take a kickback on those referrals.
Big plans. Elias’s words came back to him. What plans? With all the pots he was dipping in to, he could have been raking in hundreds of thousands if not a million or more every year. If he wasn’t spending it on drugs and booze and whatever else, then what was the money for?
Florida was known for its beautiful beaches as much as its ties to South American drug cartels. Could he have aspired to get in on that game? Through Durango, Terri had the in, always knew the trade routes—that was Luis’s impression of what was going on. What if he had it backward? What if Terence was facilitating the trade routes and Durango had the in because of their association? If you’re setting a guy up to be the go-to guy for your rich clients, you’re going to want to guarantee that he’s got the best product. Only way to guarantee that is to be the guy controlling the supply.
Rich guy from a prominent Miami family offering to smooth the way might be the right hook, reputation and money might seal the deal. Durango and Terence may have started out as buyer and client, but they saw a business opportunity, a role that needed filling. The problem was only one of them had the name and the status to get in on the ground floor. The cartels don’t have to trust Terence because if he fucks up, they’ll kill him—or blackmail his family for money. He learns everything he can, makes connections, builds his coffers, and convinces them he can take on more and more responsibility until he’s the guy everyone needs to know to get their supply.
But if he was sitting on top, the man with the big plans, why would he risk it all with the assaults? All it would take was for one victim to identify him and it would all go up in smoke. Yet Davin knew better than anyone that a true sexual predator wouldn’t be able to resist. That, more than drugs or booze, was the real addiction that had to be fed no matter the risk and if he followed that logic, then the secondary diary became even more relevant.
Being a big wig in the Miami drug trade was his job, a passion he transformed into an income. Preying on the vulnerable and the sexual high he got from violating them was an addiction that had to be satisfied, but it sickened Terence because he couldn’t resist its allure the way he had drugs and booze.
The only comparison Davin had was when a case got its hooks into him. Once the target was identified, he was relentless until they were caught. The rush of adrenaline was nothing more than a power trip that would push him beyond human limits. Food and sleep were forgotten until he had his prey. But instead of feeling victorious, the crash would be devastating.
Davin would sleep for days, shower a hundred times, and run until his legs gave out before he felt even remotely human again. Terence separated himself with a guilt-ridden memoir that was really a cry for help. Where are you now, big brother? Why haven’t you stopped me?
Even he expected Alaric to slay his dragons.
With all he’d gotten away with, Terence couldn’t have factored in a man like Elias. Maybe he also joined the dating site to hunt up his targets—define a search and get
back a list of potentials, just like Elias had. In their own way, they had targeted each other, only Elias wasn’t waiting for a partner, so he got the jump.
Davin had the full picture of Terence now, and that made it easier to imagine his partners. If they found Durango, they’d find a man much like Luis, educated and aspiring, not your corner pill pusher. Controlled, with his ambitions and loyalty aligned. Someone totally trusted never to fuck up. In Ferris, he found the perfect patsy. If things got too hot, Ferris would fall on the sword, and he’s not going to snitch because his good friend Terri’s gonna make sure he’s got a steady supply in prison.
Two partners—one totally reliable and the other totally dependent—which made both totally trustworthy. The third would be different. Some of the entries referred to K as his soulmate. He’d be a lover who was also a sexual predator that needed the hunt as much if not more than Terence. What would he look like? Would he be impressed by Terence’s name or his success? Davin didn’t think so. No, this guy had to be the opposite, someone not impressed or adoring, someone who saw past the mask and exploited the vulnerability. Someone Terence could respect and fear in a way that fed a sexual need.
The right lover would strip away all the bravado and leave him vulnerable, then exploit that vulnerability because he knew fear would be the ultimate aphrodisiac. Like him, Terence wanted the freedom to shed all the responsibility he carried. Unlike Alaric, the partner wasn’t cherishing that gift. He was twisting it into something darker.
Terence was the smooth one, which made him the right one to lure in the mark. The partner wouldn’t have that refinement. Women and men would find him too dangerous, maybe unattractive, because the monster in him was too close to the surface, but that was just what it took for Terence to fall in love.
And if they were in love, then the pictures weren’t just for blackmail, they were cherished memories. Look at what we did together.
