Cavanaugh Fortune

by Marie Ferrarella

  “Everybody has to be something,” Valri told the gamer, her eyes never wavering from the screen. A second later, her avatar had managed to blow up two members of Wills’s undead army.

  Clearly unnerved at the loss he hadn’t foreseen, Wills became sloppier as his need to win trumped his skills. Choking when it was crucial not to, Wills proved to be an easy opponent.

  The game was over in less than fifteen minutes with Valri coming out the winner.

  “It’s not fair,” Wills pouted darkly. “You got into my head and messed with it.”

  Setting the controller down on the scarred and dirt-encrusted coffee table in front of her, Valri turned toward the gamer and smiled.

  “Just part of the game, Randy. I did my part,” she said, referring to her win. “Now it’s time for you to live up to yours.”

  He glared at her, nursing his wounds. “What do you want to know?” he asked grudgingly.

  Having held his peace for far longer than he cared to, Alex jumped in with the first question. “For starters, when did you last see Hunter Rogers?”

  Wills looked toward the woman who had beaten him. When she nodded that he should consider her partner’s question as part of the deal, Wills asked him, “You mean The King?”

  Alex in turn looked at Valri, as well. The reference meant nothing to him, but she had used it to gain access into the house, so he was rather unsure of his answer. “Do I?” he asked.

  Valri nodded. “You do. When did you last see The King?” she repeated, her eyes pinning Wills down.

  Another hapless shrug had Wills’s bony shoulders moving up and down almost spasmodically. “I can’t remember.”

  Valri didn’t believe him. She looked at the gamer closely. When she spoke, she sounded as if she was disappointed in him.

  “Randy, you promised me you’d tell the truth. You might not remember to pay your bills on time, but I’m betting that you remember seeing Rogers. I bet that you could probably cite every time you spoke to The King, not to mention every word he ever said to you.”

  In her opinion, the gamer was the ultimate obsessive fan, bordering on being considered a stalker in the making.

  Wills took it as a compliment and preened in response.

  “Maybe,” he allowed loftily. “What’s he saying?” Wills asked, no doubt still a little leery as to why his idol had sent two law enforcement agents to his home. “Is he complaining ’cause I got on his case?” Not waiting for an answer, Wills drew himself up importantly. “I did it for his own good. I told The King not to have anything to do with it. That’s when he threw me out. Didn’t want to hear it.”

  “To do with what?” Alex pressed, annoyed that the gamer was avoiding being pinned down.

  Wills’s head all but swiveled as he looked from the detective to the woman. “What those people wanted him to do. But The King said the money was too good to pass up. I told him he was crazy.” Wills frowned as he relived the incident. “And that’s when he actually threw me out.” The gamer sighed dramatically. “What’s he saying now?” Wills asked again, his eyes shifting back and forth like a table tennis ball during a well-matched tournament.

  “Not much of anything,” Alex answered flippantly, then asked what was really on his mind. “What people are you referring to?”

  But Wills’s attention had gravitated to something the detective had said, refusing to go forward.

  “What’s he talking about?” the gamer asked Valri, jerking his thumb back at the detective who had come in with her. “What does he mean by saying ‘not much of anything’? Is The King sick? Did that lowlife give him something to make him sick?” His voice went up an octave, sounding almost shrill as his panic mounted, growing to near unmanageable proportions.

  Valri glanced at her partner to see if he had any objections, but if he did, he wasn’t mentioning them. The next moment, she braced herself for more drama as she said, “Randy, I’m afraid he’s not sick, he’s dead.”

  Randy stared at her, openmouthed and clearly flirting with shock. “No, he’s not,” he firmly insisted. “He’s just doing this to get even with me for bugging him. Right? Right?” he asked a bit more sharply. At this point, the gamer was pleading. “Tell me he’s just trying to get even with me, Wren. Please.”

  The one thing she believed in above all else was telling the truth.

  “I can’t do that, Randy,” she said kindly. “It’d be a lie. Someone shot Hunter Rogers.”

  At this point, Wills’s emotional gauge was waffling between anger and despair.

  “I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. I told him they were dangerous, that he was getting in over his head. But all he saw were those damn dollar signs dancing in front of his eyes. Now look where that got him,” he declared, then added in disgust, “Dead.”

  “What people?” Valri asked. “What did they want him to do?”

  “They wanted him to come up with some kind of new code to use for a hacking job,” Wills said before he could think better of it. He looked flustered about the information, sparse though it was, that he had just allowed to be said.

  “What kind of a hacking job?” Alex asked. “Did you see any of them, hear any of their names?” he pressed, aware that the chances of that were slim to none. But he had to ask.

  For just a split second, it looked as if the gamer was about to answer Alex’s questions. But then Wills clamped his mouth.

  When he spoke again, it was to tell them that he wasn’t about to say another word—and why.

  “If these people killed The King,” he said mournfully, tearing up as he spoke about his dead idol, “then they’ll be sure to kill me if I say another word.”

  “Randy, you know me. You know I won’t let that happen to you,” Valri promised.

  “How?” Wills asked.

  “We’ll put you in protective custody,” Alex told the shorter man.

  “Protective custody,” Wills echoed disdainfully before shaking his head. “Not good enough,” he said, dismissing the offer. “I want that witness thing. You know what I’m talking about. I get set up somewhere else with a new name, better lifestyle...”

  “Witness protection program?” Alex guessed.

  He was about to say that it would be a different lifestyle, not necessarily an upgrade from the one he had. Alex doubted that the slight man before him would be happy doing anything except living in front of a monitor, looking at a depiction of some fantasy world or other.

  Wills leaped on the term. “Yeah, that’s the one. I want that. And I want something in writing that says you’re not going to find a sneaky way to throw me into jail. That’s another thing I want,” he announced as if this idea had just now occurred to him. “I want immunization.”

  “You mean immunity,” Valri corrected gently.

  “Whatever,” the gamer said.

  Alex frowned at his partner. She was treating this parasite with kid gloves. He supposed he should have been glad she was along. Left on his own, he would have backed the gamer into a corner, used a couple of well-placed verbal threats about what might befall someone who withheld information that would impede a homicide investigation and allowed the man’s imagination to run away with him.

  Still, he was willing to give her way a little while longer before he ironed the wrinkles out of Wills’s shirt—with him in it.

  “Okay, you’ve got it,” Alex told him. “Now talk.”

  “Not so fast.” The gamer held up his hand. “I wasn’t born yesterday. I get to see this in writing, signed by whoever makes the deals in your department, then I’ll tell you what you want to know. Not before,” he added stubbornly, folding his arms before him and projecting an air of a man who knew he had something of importance to trade.

  Alex wasn’t saying a word, but she could guess that what was going through her new partner’s min
d was not a docile agreement to the terms. Brody did not strike her as a man who could be dictated to.

  “Okay, we can make that happen,” Valri told the gamer. “Why don’t you come with us while I get that statement for you from the DA’s office?”

  But Wills shook his head. “Uh-uh. I’m not going anywhere. I leave here, I lose home-field advantage,” he told her. “I know how this works. You bring me back my deal and I’ll sing like a canary.”

  Alex curbed the very strong desire to pick up the slight man and just bodily carry him to his vehicle.

  “We can make that happen,” Valri repeated. Turning toward her partner, she said, “Let’s go.” As she reached the front door, she looked over her shoulder at Wills and told him, “We’ll be back soon.”

  Alex waited until they were on the other side of the front door before saying another word. “Can I ask how we’re going to make that happen so fast?” the detective asked.

  Valri was relieved to have an answer for him. “The chief of Ds’ daughter, Janelle, is an ADA.”

  “Of course she is,” Alex muttered.

  He was aware of the fact that one of the chief’s brothers, Sean, was the head of the day shift in the crime scene investigation unit. He also knew that the former chief of police had been the eldest of the Cavanaughs, Andrew.

  “Tell me,” he asked as they walked to the driveway, where his vehicle was parked, “is there a Cavanaugh for everything?”

  Rather than take offense at the slightly sarcastic edge in his voice, Valri laughed and said, “That depends on what you mean by ‘everything.’”

  He was not about to get into a debate over semantics. As far as he was concerned, she’d just given him his answer.

  “I thought so,” he responded with a sigh. Alex glanced over his shoulder toward the house just before he got into the driver’s seat. “Still think we should just haul him in.”

  “We do and he’ll just clam up and refuse to talk,” she pointed out. Getting in, Valri buckled up and waited for Brody to start the car.

  Alex put the key into the ignition. “Yeah, until I raise my voice, then he’ll trip over his own tongue, talking so fast he’ll practically choke on his words.”

  She had a slightly different take on that. She knew that gamers had an image of being these nerd-like, almost subterranean creatures who never came up for daylight. Hackers, however, had a completely different image. They were the dangerous ones.

  “Not if he’s more afraid of these ‘people,’ whoever they are, than he is of a forceful detective who shouts, but when the chips are down, can’t shoot him. You can’t hurt him. They can.”

  Alex was still unconvinced. “I think that giving that guy a wedgie would have him cringing in fear and spilling the beans.”

  Valri laughed. “My way’s more peaceful,” she told him.

  Alex pretended to evaluate her response. “What fun is that?” he countered.

  “You are pulling my leg, aren’t you?” She was only half kidding when she asked.

  In his company for a limited time, Valri was still trying to figure the man out. She couldn’t tell when he was joking, and when he was serious. She did know, however, that he was less patient than she was, but then, his family didn’t number in the legions. That sort of thing, especially when you’re one of the youngest members, teaches a great deal of patience.

  “Maybe yes, maybe no,” Alex answered. “Tell me, just how well do you know this Cavanaugh ADA?”

  Valri didn’t try to sugarcoat it. “I’ve met her a couple of times at the family parties. But more important than that, she’s a Cavanaugh and unless I’m completely wrong about this, and I’m not,” she told him with a degree of certainty he found impressive, “she wouldn’t undermine an investigation, especially a homicide investigation, unless it is completely baseless, and this isn’t. Randy is dying to talk about the people the victim was doing business with.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Alex challenged.

  “Because in his eyes, this makes him important by proxy. Rogers had made a name for himself in some circles. Randy’s name is mud in any circle. I guarantee that nobody even knows who he is—other than the gamer who was The King’s shadow—so Randy’s trying to get a little of Rogers’s spotlight to rub off on him. The only way he can do that now is to say he knows who The King’s killer is—or are,” she amended in case there was more than one person involved in the actual murder.

  “Doesn’t he know that it’s guilt by association, not glitter by association?” Alex asked.

  If the gamer knew who killed Rogers and wasn’t stepping forward, then he was guilty of impeding an investigation—and that carried a penalty with it.

  Valri read between the lines and understood what her partner was referring to. “Some people grab what they can get.”

  He supposed that she was right.

  On the main thoroughfare through Aurora, he was driving back to the precinct out of habit. But Cavanaugh had said she wanted to get that written statement from the ADA and the ADA was not located in the same building as the police department.

  Glancing to his right, he said to his temporary partner, “So we’re going...?”

  “Straight to the ADA’s office.” Her mouth curved slightly as a piece of an old cartoon movie line suddenly played itself in her head. “‘Second star to the right, straight out ’til morning,’” she added.

  “The ADA doubles as Peter Pan in her spare time?” Alex questioned, raising an eyebrow.

  Just exactly who was this person the chief had shackled him to, temporarily or not? She certainly didn’t come across like any cop he’d ever known.

  “No.” Valri laughed, surprised that he even got the reference. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I was trying to ease your tension.”

  He shot her a look. “And what makes you think I’m tense?”

  She’d seen less rigid posture on a graduating West Point cadet. But rather than point that out, Valri merely said, “Just a hunch. I’m tense so I figured you had to be.”

  “Well, you figured wrong,” he informed her. He wasn’t tense, he was annoyed—big-time—and there was nothing she could do to change that.

  Except to stay put in the squad room the next time he went out in the field.

  Chapter 6

  ADA Janelle Cavanaugh Boone came very close to colliding with her younger cousin as Valri was about to cross the threshold to her office moving at what seemed like top speed.

  Swallowing a startled cry, Janelle managed to catch herself just in time.

  “I got your request,” Janelle said to her cousin, referring to Valri’s cell phone call that had gone to voice mail. “I’ve got no problem with it, but can it wait until morning?”

  Her arms were filled with two files that were overflowing with papers, and a briefcase attached to a strap was hanging off her shoulder right next to her actual shoulder bag. All in all, the chief of detectives’ only daughter looked like the poster child for harried businesswomen everywhere.

  Valri flashed her an apologetic yet amazingly hopeful smile.

  “It really can’t. The witness is extremely skittish and we’re afraid he might just skip town if we can’t come back to him with this deal in writing.”

  She had mentioned a few of the particulars, summarizing the case, when she’d called and left her message on Janelle’s voice mail.

  Valri looked hopefully at her cousin.

  Juggling her files, Janelle seemed to waver, but this matter was important, as well.

  “This witness of yours, is he reliable?”

  Valri almost said that she “thought” so, then decided that a more positive response was necessary. “Yes, in my opinion, he is.”

  Janelle sighed.

  “Come in,” she told the duo, motioning them
into her office with her head.

  Walking in ahead of them, she emptied her arms, dropping the files, her briefcase and her bag onto her desk. A thud confirmed the deposit.

  Janelle opened a drawer and after a minimum of searching, she located a form. Signing it with a flourish, she held out the paper to her cousin.

  “I’m trusting you to fill in the particulars.” Just before she let Valri take the form, she asked, “You’re sure this won’t come back and bite me?”

  Valri held up her right hand as if she were taking an oath. “I give you my word.”

  “Good enough for me,” Janelle pronounced.

  Gathering up the things she had just set on her desk, she glanced over at Alex. Other than nodding at her, he hadn’t said a word.

  “Your partner?” she asked Valri.

  “Temporarily,” Alex emphasized, saying the word half a beat ahead of the ADA’s cousin.

  “Do you have a name, ‘temporary partner’?” Janelle asked, seemingly amused by the thinly veiled protest.

  “Detective Alex Brody,” he told her.

  “Look after my cousin, Detective Alex Brody. The family just found her,” she told the man. “We definitely don’t want to lose her so quickly. We’ve barely gotten acquainted.”

  Alex inclined his head. “I’ll do my best, ma’am.”

  Janelle winced. With a toss of her head, she appeared to dismiss the offense. The smile she offered Brody was warm, confident and utterly reassuring.

  “I’m sure you will, Detective. I’m sure you will.” Her arms tightening around the files she’d just picked up, she made a parting comment to Valri. “Let me know how this all turns out.”

  “Absolutely,” Valri promised. “And thank you,” she called after her cousin, whose pace had picked up. The sound of her high heels clicked rhythmically as she made her way down the hall.

  “We all have to do our part,” she told Valri.

  Janelle was gone before Valri could respond. Turning to Alex, she glanced over the paper that Janelle had just signed, then held it out for Alex to look over, as well. “Looks like we’ve got our bait, Brody. Let’s go.”