“Unfortunately we don’t. Sorry.”
Harvey scribbled down what she was telling them in his notepad and once he was done, he thanked her and said that was all. She got up and headed back to the bar. Harvey blew out his cheeks and tapped the notepad against the table.
“Well that certainly is a turn of events,” Skylar said. “That makes him potentially the last one to see both Nancy and Teresa. I guess it’s time we had another conversation with him.”
Chapter 17
The first sign of trouble was the gate had been left open, and Tyron’s ferocious dogs were nowhere to be seen. Skylar drove the cruiser right up to the main door and put it in park. Both of them were a little nervous about getting out. There was no telling if the dogs were lying underneath one of the boats just waiting to pounce.
“Why does this remind me of the movie Cujo?” Harvey said.
“How about you stay in the car and I’ll go check?”
“Seriously, Reid? You’re not the dog whisperer.”
She pulled her service weapon. “No, but bullets speak volumes.” Harvey rolled his eyes. He wasn’t one for taking orders so he pushed out the other side and came around.
“Mr. O’Brien. Franklin County Sheriff Department,” Harvey called out.
He leaned forward and knocked on the door. As he did, it eased open without any resistance. It was already unlocked. Skylar stepped through the doorway keeping her weapon low. “Tyron? Are you there?”
Inside it was dark. Harvey turned on a flashlight and shone the beam around. They moved in gazing at what was once a successful business, now all that remained were a few tables, computers and a stack of folders. It was messy, disorganized and… Skylar kicked an empty bottle on the floor by accident and it slid across the ground and clattered against a table.
“Hello?” Harvey called out.
They pressed on towards the main office belonging to Tyron. The door was wide open and they could just make out what looked to be someone sitting in a leather chair. Its back was turned to them.
“Tyron?”
Skylar entered and spun the chair around only to find him with his throat slit. Blood soaked the front of his shirt and jeans. By the looks of it he’d been dead for at least an hour. The blood had almost dried in the hot weather.
“Well I guess that rules him out.”
Harvey immediately got on the phone to call for EMT, and to alert the department. Within ten minutes the grounds were lit up with red and blue strobing lights, and medics were carting out his body. Officers went in and out collecting evidence and a small crowd of curious onlookers gathered beyond the gate. As Harvey brought officers up to speed, Skylar was already on the phone to Scot to tell him there might be a delay and to hold off going in. Unfortunately he was already ahead of the game.
“Too late, darlin’, I am holding in my hand the golden ticket. Now let’s see what Willy Wonka has behind those doors.”
In the background she could hear pulsating music, females chuckling and the clinking of glasses. Every few seconds Scot would start laughing. “Okay, okay, ladies there is plenty of me to go around. But the question is, which of you is going to be the lucky lady tonight?”
She groaned and palmed her forehead. She glanced at her watch. They still had time to deal with this and move in. She certainly wasn’t about to lose their window of opportunity. Skylar couldn’t wait to see the look on LaSalle’s face when they breezed past his doormen and threw the brakes on his night.
“Look, just don’t drink too much. Remember what you’re there for.”
“Oh, Skylar. I’ve got this! Trust me.”
She hung up and walked over to Harvey. Reznik and Hanson were on scene and already taking control of the situation while Harvey was taking potshots at Reznik.
“You had one job, and that was to keep your eyes on O’Brien, and you couldn’t even do that?”
Reznik laughed. “You’re a fine one to talk about sloppy police work. I heard about you using some therapist to do work you should have done. That’s a winning idea, right there,” he said before tapping Hanson on the chest. Hanson nodded in agreement. Harvey shot Skylar a glance.
“Listen up, Reznik, you might have just cost someone their life. There’s a big difference.”
“I had to go to a domestic.”
“And you couldn’t get another officer to do it?”
“If I had, perhaps we’d be standing outside the home of a local woman who was getting knocked around.”
“A boyfriend?” Skylar asked.
Reznik’s scowl bounced from Harvey to her. “Ex. He was in town for a couple of days. It doesn’t matter. The point is, my job involves answering police calls not babysitting someone that you think was responsible for a murdered woman.”
“Two women,” Harvey said.
“What?”
“There’s two women dead.”
“Now you’re splitting hairs,” he said before turning and heading over to speak with another officer. Skylar tugged at Harvey’s arm to pull him to one side. He scowled at Hanson before walking a short distance away.
“What are you doing?” Skylark asked.
“What’s it look like?”
“You’re riling him up. We need them onboard for tonight.”
“Yeah, well best of luck with that. We’re going to be up to our elbows with this murder and we need to track down Alvaro. I wouldn’t be surprised if he doubled back and finished off the job he was meant to do in the first place.”
She shook her head. “Not tonight. Scot is already heading for the boat. We have less than two hours before the search.”
“Yeah about that. Look, just tell him to pull out, get the money back and I’ll put it back in the lockup tonight. I have enough crap on my plate. We need to focus on this, Reid.”
She leaned in and stabbed the air with her finger. “No, whoever did this is connected to the two women. They obviously knew about Tyron, sent Alvaro in to kill him, and it went wrong. We released him because neither of them pressed charges and he returned to finish the job. The question is, who is paying Alvaro?”
“Jackson.”
“Possibly, but my money is on LaSalle.”
“So then doesn’t it make sense to go after Alvaro and get him to confess? That way if we do manage to take down LaSalle we have the guy he paid to kill Tyron and the two women,” Harvey said.
“If he’s responsible, Alvaro is going to be long gone. He won’t be in Miami and he sure as hell won’t be in Franklin County unless he’s stupid. We could be chasing our tails for the next month trying to track him down, and even if we found him. You think he’s going to admit to this? We need something concrete — a reason why Alvaro or LaSalle, or one of those VIP members murdered the two women. Now we know from Taylor and Tom Reynolds that money is being exchanged. Now we just need to know what Teresa was going to say.”
“Well if Tyron was telling the truth, we already know. LaSalle is taking money in exchange sex. A new form of prostitution. Blurring the lines between matchmaking and selling sex for money.”
“In which case, we need to move ahead with tonight’s search.”
Harvey put his hand on his hip and tipped his head back and breathed in deeply through his nostrils. He glanced over at Reznik. “Reznik, Hanson, a word in your ear.”
“I think you’ve already said your piece, Baker,” Reznik replied.
“See.” Harvey waved his arm. “See what I’m dealing with?” Harvey said to Skylar. She ran a hand over her face.
“Look, leave them to me. Why don’t you head down to the ME’s office and see what Madden has to say about Tyron and find out if she’s got the autopsy reports on the two women?”
He nodded. “How are you going to get back?”
“I’ll catch a ride with Reznik. Might give me a chance to feel him out. Who knows, maybe I’ll uncover who the department’s rat is,” she said in a joking manner. He must have picked up on it as he didn’t find it amusing. Harvey pur
sed his lips, put a hand on Skylar’s shoulder and patted twice before heading for the cruiser. Skylar turned her attention to the odd couple and strode over.
“You’ll have to forgive Baker, he’s been under a lot of pressure lately.”
“I have serious concerns about his mental state,” Reznik replied.
“That’s fine, he has the same about yours.” He balked, but she continued before he could say anything. “We’re going to need both of you this evening around ten. We're executing a search warrant.”
“For where?”
“That will be discussed when we get closer to the time.”
Hanson furrowed his brow. “Probably best we know now.”
“Good things come to those who wait,” Skylar replied patting Hanson on the arm. “Actually, I was hoping to speak with you, Reznik, for a second.” She motioned away from the other officers.
“What is it?”
“You think I can catch a ride with you?”
He agreed even though he looked reluctant. “Just give me a few minutes to wrap up here and we’ll head out.”
While he went back into the thick of it, Skylar headed over to his cruiser and hopped in. Inside it was a bit of a state. Two empty coffee cups were in the holder, a piece of chewing gum was stuck to the dashboard as if he was going to chew on it later and there were lunch wrappers on the floor. It also smelled a bit funky, like cheap cologne mixed with cigarette smoke and body sweat. It was a stark comparison to Harvey’s crisp, organized and dust-free environment.
She poked around inside. There was some loose change in front of the gear stick, along with an unpaid parking ticket. She chuckled. In the center console area was his vehicle-mounted computer. Long gone were the days of radioing in information. Within seconds officers could learn if a car had been reported stolen, if there were warrants out for a driver and if they had any prior convictions for a similar violation. Instead of having to thumb through code numbers, they could pull up an offense from a menu and get answers. It didn’t end there. There were numerous ways in which the latest technology had become crucial in speeding up the process of fighting crime. She twisted it around and tapped one of the keys to bring up the display. Her eyes shifted to Reznik who was still talking with another officer. She hesitated for a second and then decided to see what he’d logged and the different calls he’d been on, more specifically the last one. A lot could be learned about an officer based on response times, what had been logged and searches made.
She brought up the last call, looked at the address in Carrabelle and scanned through his log which contained the woman’s statement. Her eyes flitted up to make sure he wasn’t coming. It wasn’t that she suspected him of anything, not like Harvey who thought Hanson and Reznik were out to get him, but she was curious about the last call.
“Camila Russo,” she muttered under her breath. Her lips moved ever so slightly as she read through the report, then they widened as she saw the name she’d given of her ex-boyfriend — Alvaro Dias. Skylar looked towards Reznik with a blank expression. Why hadn’t he told them? He glanced over and squinted then patted the officer and started heading her way. She tapped in a few keys to close the software and she shut the laptop. The door opened, and he slipped inside.
“I tell you I don’t miss the old days of walking the streets as a cop.” He motioned to two of the uniformed officers who would be standing there for probably the next hour until they had everything cleared up. A lot of the new officers got the crap jobs, like standing in the rain performing traffic duty when lights at an intersection had stopped working, or having to work overtime because they were the new kid on the block.
Skylar offered back a thin smile as he started up the engine and reversed out. In a casual manner she brought up the topic of the last call.
“So that domestic. Is the woman okay?”
He brought the car around and gave it some gas, tearing up the sand and grit before heading out onto US 98 and heading back to the department.
“She’s going to have one heck of a shiner tomorrow but yeah.”
“So what did the ex have to say?”
“He wasn’t there.”
He reached over and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and pulled one out with his teeth. He tossed the pack down and pressed the cigarette lighter receptacle in and focused on the road ahead.
“So is the first time he’s hit her?”
“Seems so, yeah.”
“Um. What was his name?” she asked looking out the window as if it was just a normal question to ask.
“I’m…” he stuttered for a few seconds and then ignored the question by reaching down and popping out the lighter and sparking up his cigarette. He brought the window down and blew the smoke out. “Damn this humidity!”
She was still waiting for him to answer the question but she could tell he was dodging it. Why? She was beginning to think about what Harvey had said about Jackson having a man on the inside. Was there any validity to that?
“So?” she probed again, seeing if it had just slipped his mind.
“I dunno. We’ll catch up with him.”
He cast a glance at her and went back to smoking.
“Oh you know what. Would you mind swinging by 9th Street, I’ve been looking into this piece of property. You know, to get off the boat.”
His eyes narrowed. “You bought a place?”
“No not yet, but there looks like there is a nice two-bedroom house and I’m kind of getting sick of being on the boat. It’s a little cramped.”
“A 50-foot Catamaran is cramped?”
“It can be when you’ve got a lot of baggage and you can’t store all of it in a locker. It gets too costly.”
“So is Scot thinking of selling it?”
“Why, you thinking of buying?” she asked with a smirk. She knew on his police salary he couldn’t afford to buy and manage a beast like that, not unless he had a serious nest egg stashed away. And quite frankly she had yet to meet anyone who was as tight-fisted or good at saving cash as Scot.
As they got closer to 9th Street, Reznik shifted around in his seat. He appeared to be uncomfortable. Skylar had memorized the address and planned to have him pull up a few homes back from Camila Russo’s place.
“Just over there,” she said motioning to a small white home with a red metal roof.
“Where’s the for sale sign?”
“It’s a private deal.”
“No offense, Reid, but that is a piece of crap.”
“I live a minimalist life.”
The cruiser came to a crawl, gravel crunching below its tires as he veered to the side of the road. Out the corner of her eyes she noted Reznik look ahead past that house to Camila’s place. He was about to say something when she pushed out of the vehicle, then with one arm on the open door, she stooped to speak to him. “You know what I just realized.”
He shook his head.
“A home is only as good as its neighbors and I haven’t had the chance to say hello. How rude.” She slammed the door and started making her way down to Camila’s place. A few seconds and she heard the driver’s door slam.
“Reid. Hey, Reid.”
“This won’t take long, Reznik,” she replied without looking back.
“Reid.”
She stopped walking and turned. Before he could say anything, she scrutinized him then jabbed her finger in his direction. “When were you going to tell us? Huh?”
“I had every intention.”
He exhaled hard. It was dark out and they were off to one side about thirty feet apart. The only lights came from the few homes along the street and a couple of dimly lit light posts.
“Yeah? Because you know how this looks, right? Some people, um, Harvey for instance might actually view this as… well… an attempt to slow down the investigation. Now I have to ask myself why would you want to do that?” She brought up a finger as he was about to speak. “Then it dawned on me. What if there was someone in the department that was leaking
out information to Callum Jackson? You know, to ensure he or his partners had time to cover their tracks, elude arrest and basically avoid being caught in the act. But that’s not your style, is it, Reznik? Tell me, that isn’t you.”
He shook his head and swept back his jacket and rested his hand just above his service weapon.
“You’ve got it all wrong, Reid.”
“Yeah? So you won’t mind if I go and have a little chat with Alvaro’s ex-girlfriend. Cause—”
Before she could spit the words out, a custom lowrider vehicle came around the corner. Its headlights washed over them. Reid put an arm up to block the glare. It looked as if it was about to veer into Camila’s residence but instead the driver hit the gas and floored it heading towards them. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she recognized the driver as Alvaro. Reid pulled her service weapon as the car barreled towards her. She opened fire, squeezing off two rounds through the windshield before Reznik slammed into her knocking her out of the way of the approaching vehicle. They rolled across the gravel and into the ditch as the vehicle swerved and sped off at a high rate of speed.
“Get off me.”
“Okay, okay,” he said taking his time to rise to his feet. In that time it had given Alvaro a chance to get away. She hurried out into the middle of the road but he was already gone.
She tossed up her hand in frustration. “Great, now you just let him escape.”
“I just saved your goddamn life.”
She glared at him. “Is that what you call it?”
“You know what, Reid?” He jabbed his finger at her. “Screw you! You’re just like your paranoid partner. In fact you make one hell of a team. Him with his paranoia and obsessions and you with your lunatic antics.”
She ignored him and immediately hurried over to the cruiser and got on the radio to alert all officers in the vicinity to be on the lookout for an aqua Buick lowrider. It was going to be pretty hard to miss now that it had a shattered windshield.
Chapter 18
“We’ve got an APB out on him at the moment. It’s just a matter of time before they locate him,” Harvey said from outside the changing room. He was leaning against the doorway and speaking through the door. Skylar was getting changed into some fresh clothes as hers were now covered in dirt and grass stains. She finally emerged wearing a black long-sleeved shirt, dark jeans and boots. She scooped up a vest with the word SHERIFF on the back and slapped the Velcro into place. Harvey was already geared up. She brought her leg up and covered up the Glock in her ankle holster. “You know, I had a bad feeling about Reznik for a long time.”
Death Match Page 14
