Music City Mayhem
Page 13
A few more shots rang out and I noticed one went through the garage door across the street. “We can’t wait,” I replied. “Someone in the neighborhood’s going to get shot.”
I looked around at the house and noticed that the shooter seemed to be looking at us from its front picture window. That wall was at the same level as the lawn, not raised up on a crawlspace like some of the other houses around. He seemed to have multiple weapons at his disposal, making returning fire difficult, but the gunfire was only coming from the one spot, meaning he was most likely alone.
“I have an idea,” I said. “Remember what we did in Red Rock Heights?”
“Yeah, that may work,” Jimmy answered. “I’ll see if I can draw his fire towards that pickup to our left.”
“What are you doing?” Jimenez asked with understandable concern.
“Do you have a second gun?”
Jimenez shook his head and I handed him mine.
“While you fire at the shooter, Jimmy’s going to make a dash for that truck over there.” I pointed to the red pickup two houses down. “You keep the guy busy for a few seconds and stay behind the car while I move it into position.”
“Into position?”
“You’ll see.” I looked at Jimmy and made sure he was ready. A nod said he was. “Go!”
Jimenez began shooting at the window while Jimmy ran to the truck and I climbed into the driver’s seat. The car was still running and I backed it up at an angle so I was facing the house. Jimenez followed my instruction and stayed behind the vehicle while it was in motion, still firing. He stopped to reload and I waited.
“You ready?” I yelled to the kid.
“Yes, sir!”
I looked over at Jimmy and nodded, then he began shooting at the house from his angle. I put the car in drive, crouched down as far as I could and punched it, steering directly to the house’s front window. My body went flying forward into the steering wheel and dash when I hit the house but I managed to keep the gas pedal down until I was well inside. The gunfire stopped.
Jimmy and Jimenez ran up to the car to make sure I was okay, then helped me climb out of the brand new police car, now beat all to hell.
“You okay?” Jimenez asked me and I nodded that I was.
Jimmy walked around the car toward the now bashed in living room window. “Looks like Layton won’t be singing any more Johnny Cash.”
As that sank in, Jimenez began looking dejected.
“What is it, kid?” I asked. “Still hungry?”
“They’re never gonna let me drive a new squad car again.”
Chapter 24
“Bobbie and June are in separate interrogation rooms,” Ronin told us when he popped his head into our makeshift office. “It wasn’t easy to find them. Your friend wasn’t exactly forthcoming in our phone call.”
“Sorry about that,” I replied. “I told her it was dangerous to have their location known. I guess I should have called Bonnie myself.”
“Probably. Anyway they’re here and waiting. I was thinking I should do the interrogation myself.”
“Mike, why don’t you have Officer Jimenez do it? You can put the two women together and you and I can back him up in the room.”
“Why Jimenez?”
“He’s been outstanding working with us and it would be great for him to have this experience.”
He didn’t answer right away. After some thought, he said, “Sure, why not? You can prep him while we get the ladies together and I’ll come get you when we’re ready.” Ronin left abruptly.
“Well, then, Grasshopper,” Jimmy said in a mocking Kung Fu master voice. “Battles are waged on the earth and in the heavens, within the mind and within the soul. This battle has been won.”
“What?” Jimenez looked very confused.
After a moment, Jimmy laughed profusely and I couldn’t help but follow.
“You never saw Kung Fu?” Jimmy asked.
“Yeah, but it’s pretty lame. Everyone uses Taekwondo, especially on MMA.”
“No,” I corrected. “He means Kung Fu the TV series. David Carradine?” The kid’s blank look meant that the joke was on Jimmy. “Never mind. Are you ready to run the interrogation?”
“I’ve sat in on them a couple of times,” he replied. “I’m not sure I can run one.”
Jimmy chuckled and said, “Relax, it’s only asking questions and keeping your emotions in check. There are different strategies in these things, like making sure you get the perp angry. Angry people tend to forget their own plans, or at least make mistakes, contradictions in their stories.”
“In this case,” I added, “we’ll have someone working for us in there — Bobbie. I think she’s the real victim here. That’s why I wanted her in the room, and also why this is a perfect interrogation to get your feet wet.”
“Are you sure?” the kid asked. “I don’t want to mess up the case.”
“You haven’t messed it up yet, and I’ll be there with you.”
“And Ronin. He makes me nervous.”
“You’ll need to get over it, Ricky,” Jimmy answered. “Let me tell you about my first interrogation with this guy. We had a drug dealer, dead to rights, and Pat here, tells me to do the interview. ‘No problem,’ I said and went in there all full of myself. I asked the guy the first question, something like, ‘I see you’ve been dealing all over the city.’ ‘Lawyer,’ he said. It was the only word he said and I was done.” He swiped his hands together, up and down. “Just like that, my first interrogation was a failure.”
“That makes me feel much better,” Jimenez said sarcastically.
“He just means that it takes experience to get good at it. I knew that guy wasn’t going to give us anything, so I made sure I gave Jimmy the experience.”
“I get it,” Jimenez said. “I’ll do it if you can talk Detective Ronin into watching from the viewing room.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Ricky’s phone rang. He glanced up with a look of asking permission and I nodded.
“Hola, mama. Si.” A muffled female voice emanated from his phone. “No tuvo fiebre esta mañana … si … Si sigue subiendo llévalo al doctor Gómez … Okay, bye.“
His look said something was wrong and I asked about it.
“My mother has my son, he’s two and running a fever. His mother and I are divorced — she couldn’t take the worry of being married to a policeman — but she’s away on business. Hopefully everything will be okay.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I replied. “Do you need to go? It’s okay, we can do the interview.”
“No, there’s nothing to do right now. She’ll let me know if his temperature keeps going up.”
“Okay, then,” Jimmy said. “Do you know how you’re going to do the interrogation?”
“I have a pretty good idea.”
“Just remember that they don’t know about Layton being dead. Use him as leverage.”
“Will do.”
Ronin popped his head back in and asked if we were ready. I said we were and we gathered the paperwork we needed. As we followed him toward the interview room, I took the detective aside and asked him not to join us in the room.
“Why? What’s wrong?” he asked as quietly as I was speaking.
“Nothing’s wrong. You make the kid nervous, that’s all. Since this is his first interrogation and he feels comfortable with me, I thought you wouldn’t mind watching with Jimmy.”
He didn’t answer but when we got to Interview Room 2, he stood aside to let Jimenez and me in. “It’s all yours, Officer,” he said. “Let Pat know if you get stuck.”
“Will do, Detective Ronin. Thanks.”
Ronin closed the door after us and we sat down across from Bobbie and June, who were wearing their usual fashion-conscious apparel. June was dressed in a black top with various slits showing skin, and those tight black denim slacks with sequins I had seen her in before. Bobbie was wearing an olive green sweater over a tan blouse with faded a
nd torn blue jeans.
The room was typical of a police interview room, stark and gloomy, with no decor on the walls, a long see-through mirror behind us, a simple metal table bolted to the floor and four dining-room-style chairs. There were shackle loops in the middle of the table but no one was cuffed.
“Pat, what’s going on?” Bobbie asked. “Why are we here?”
Before I could answer, Ricky took out a photo of Layton and set it on the table facing June. “This is Martin Layton. Do either of you recognize him?”
“I’ve never seen him before,” Bobbie answered. “Who is he?”
“Miss Thompson?” the kid asked.
June shook her head.
“This is the guy who hit your cab and ran off. You sure you haven’t seen him before? Any reason he would purposely hit you?”
“How do you know it was on purpose?” June replied. “Maybe he was a drunk driver and didn’t want to get arrested.”
“Because we have him in custody, that’s why.”
June’s face went pale.
Bobbie noticed her expression and said, “Babe, what’s wrong?”
Ricky pulled back the photo and replaced it with a stack of papers. “Miss Thompson, these are your bank statements for the last six months. These …” He paused to point to yellow highlighted figures. “… These are payments you’ve been making to Mr. Layton. Fifteen thousand dollars in total.”
“What?” Bobbie asked, standing up. “What did you do?”
June hesitated and said, “There’s some kind of mistake.”
“No mistake, Miss Thompson. These figures corroborate Mr. Layton’s statement. You hired him to hit your cab.” Ricky’s voice became more forceful when he continued, “My question is, why? You were in the cab at the time. Was that Layton’s mistake? Were you trying to off Bobbie and Layton didn’t know you were there?”
Bobbie repeated, “June, what did you do?”
I pounced on the confusion. “C’mon, June. We have everything we need to convict you of attempted murder-for-hire and conspiracy. You might as well spill it. What was the plan?”
June broke down and began crying. “I wasn’t trying to murder Bobbie.” She looked at Bobbie and said, “Really, Bobbie, I wasn’t.”
“Why, then?” Bobbie asked, now also in tears.
“It was just … the media … our plans … Nothing was going right.”
“So? Why did you hire that man?”
“We needed sympathy. A hit-and-run puts us in the news. ‘Country duo overcomes tragedy.’ We needed a break and I decided to give us one. Then the gangs and our new agent … it was the perfect time.”
“But, the accident,” Bobbie said, sitting down. “The cab driver, he was hurt pretty bad. How could you do that to him?”
“That wasn’t the plan. Marty was supposed to make it a minor accident and take off. I was going to fake being badly hurt for the news. No one was supposed to be hurt at all.”
“Well, I was!” Bobbie lifted her collar revealing a cut on her neck and shoulder lined with stitches. “This is never going away.” She turned to Ricky and said, “May I go?”
Jimenez nodded, adding, “We’ll let you know if you’re needed in court.”
“Anything you need,” she said with stifled anger. “Anything!” She sent daggers with one last look at June and left the room, slamming the door.
“Write your side of the story,” Ricky said, once emotions settled down a bit. He slid over a white pad of lined paper and a pen. “Make sure you say you weren’t hiring Layton to murder anyone. The D.A. might be persuaded to be lenient when she files the charges.”
He looked up at me and I nodded approvingly. This rookie had done very well indeed.
After June was taken and booked, Jimmy and I met with Ronin and Ricky in the detective’s office.
“Very well done, gentlemen.” Ronin seemed genuinely happy.
“Your rookie gets the credit here,” I replied. “I knew he could handle himself.”
Ronin smiled and added, “Miss Thompson may not be very happy when she hears that her co-conspirator is deceased and couldn’t have told us anything.”
Ricky couldn’t contain a big smile. “That was Mr. Ruger’s idea. But I watch ‘NCIS.’ That’s the way they would have done it.”
Jimmy laughed loudly. “Those shows are good for something, then.”
Chapter 25
“The kid did okay,” Jimmy said while we watched the sun sink behind the horizon from our boondocking site. Guy was seemingly in dog nirvana, running all around the field, stopping at every gopher and ground squirrel hole he could sniff.
“Yes, better than I expected,” I agreed. “I knew it was an easier interrogation but still, he was excellent.”
“He deserves to be a detective.”
“Yes, indeed. That reminds me …” I pulled out my phone and checked for signal bars. Three bars gave me their approval to make a call. I brought up Gretchen’s contact page and pressed on the green call icon.
“Hey, Pat! Nice to hear from you. Great job on the Marchetti case. We gathered several of the family and their minions and all are awaiting trial. Probably thirty arrests.”
“Thanks. How’s Bonnie doing? I haven’t heard from her.”
“She didn’t tell you?”
I thought about what she might be talking about and didn’t come up with anything. “No. Tell me what?”
“Bonnie is sponsoring Andilee Marchetti in turning state’s evidence. Miss Marchetti will testify against her family, then she and Bonnie will be going into witness protection together. They must have bonded during the ordeal.”
“Wow. I’m happy for Andilee. She might just be able to turn her life around.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Hey, Gretch, did you get my email?”
“I sure did. You really think this kid can make it here?”
I chuckled. “It’s pretty simple, really. He’s diligent. He’s bilingual. He has leadership qualities …”
“He’s a rookie …”
“I was a rookie once, y’know. So were you. Put him in your advance training program and I’ll bet you dollars to donuts he passes near the top of the class.”
“Are you the dollars or the donuts?”
“I’m the dollars; you’re the donuts,” I replied with another chuckle. “He does have a kid but his ex-wife seems capable of taking care of him and his mother is part of a good family support system.”
“Okay, okay, stop selling him. I’m on board.”
“Thanks, Gretch. I think the Bureau is getting a good one here.”
“Sounds like it. Where are you off to next?”
“I’m not saying — off the grid, remember?”
“I remember,” she said, laughing. “I was just curious. Maybe I could come visit.”
“Now, that sounds like a good idea. I’ll let you know when I get somewhere nice, somewhere I’ll be staying put for awhile.”
“Talk to you soon, then!”
She hung up and I slowly did as well. It was quite an intriguing thought, having Gretchen visit me.
“So? What was that all about?”
“Oh, I sent Gretchen a referral letter, email, really, about taking Ricky on as an agent-in-training.”
“That’s great!” He turned back to the sunset.
“I’ve been thinking about putting Guy through some obedience and protection training. I’m not getting any younger.”
“You never know. Maybe that would be just what you need out here on the road.”
“True. The dog boarder said he was one of the best-behaved dogs they’ve had in a while, so I think he’ll be excellent in training.”
“I agree. You’re lucky to have found him.”
“To be honest, he found me.”
After a couple of minutes, Jimmy sighed and said, “I’ll be heading back tomorrow. I can’t wait to see Erin and the kids.”
“I assumed that would be soon. What do you thin
k of this lifestyle? Pretty cool, isn’t it?”
“I have to admit, it doesn’t suck.”
“Why don’t you think about doing it, too? There are full-timers with kids, lots of ‘em. They homeschool, and the kids have experiences you and I never had.”
“I don’t know. It seems like the social aspect of actually attending school would outweigh any benefit from traveling around the country.”
“Well, don’t discard it out of hand. Talk to Erin about it. You might be surprised.”
“I’ll do that if you promise to get a new motorhome. This thing is ready to break down on you at any time.”
“Okay, maybe I will.”
“Where you headed to next?”
“Funny, Gretchen just asked me that and I hadn’t really thought about it yet.” I finished the last couple of ounces of my beer and grabbed another bottle out of the cooler sitting nearby. “I’ve always wanted to see the Pacific Ocean.”
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The Pat Ruger Mystery Series, in order:
Pat Ruger: For Hire
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Pat Ruger: Caribbean Shuffle
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Pat Ruger: Native Species
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Pat Ruger: Children’s Reprise
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Pat Ruger: Seattle Reign
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Pat Ruger: Oblivion Highway
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