The Fighter's Block

by Hadley Quinn

  Jack might have been surprised to see her there before him, but he was betting that she hadn’t even left. She hadn’t moved after she stood, so he joined the two ladies where they were now both standing.

  “Please tell me you have something,” Dani said.

  He didn’t want to disappoint her, but he honestly replied, “Nothing solid.”

  “But you have my sworn statement, and statements from the guys at the gym about Quincy’s gun and the fact that Van doesn’t have one. Why isn’t that enough?”

  “I can’t file a motion just yet.”

  “They mentioned a bail hearing.”

  “I honestly can’t tell you where we stand right now, but I have a few more questions for Van. Maybe in the next—” he glanced at his watch “—six hours I can come up with something that will make a difference.”

  “I want to see him.”

  “I’m sorry, Dani, but I can’t make that happen. Seeing you has nothing to do with his case, and right now they’re only allowing his lawyer. It’s the way it goes.”

  She nodded, even though she felt a tear slide down her cheek.

  “Can you do something for me though?” he asked.

  She nodded again. “Anything.”

  “Go home, get some rest.”

  “Anything but that. I want to help, Jack. Give me something to do.”

  He knew that would be her answer so he didn’t bother arguing with her. However, he did say, “Van would like to hear that you’re at home, Dani. I think it would make him feel much better to know that you weren’t still sitting here in the precinct.”

  She knew he was right, so she nodded her head. “Okay, but only if you give me something I can do. Honestly Jack, I need to help with something.”

  “My investigators are taking care of everything right now. There’s really nothing you can do except answer some questions when I need answers. And,” he decided to add, “I’m sure I might need some answers when I’m chatting with my client. I’ll see what I can do about allowing a phone call, okay?”

  She was grateful for that little bit of hope. She did go home after that, and when she walked through her door, she stopped dead in her tracks. She’d forgotten Jack’s earlier warning that her home would not be as tidy as it normally was, but seeing cupboards and drawers opened, pillows on the floor, pictures removed from the walls and her bedding and closet torn apart…it was upsetting.

  Her phone rang with a call from an unfamiliar number, and the state of her home became a lost thought.

  “Van?” she exclaimed.

  “Yeah baby, it’s me. Man, it is so good to hear your voice.” She was already crying and she automatically wiped away the evidence. But Van could hear her sniffle and he said, “Dani, it’s gonna be okay. I promise.”

  “How can you promise me that?” she asked weakly. She wanted to believe it, but there was too much to worry about.

  “Because I didn’t do this. I’ve had a shitty life and now I finally have you and I’m really happy. God is not gonna let me down. I have faith, Dani. You need to, also.”

  She nodded, even though she knew he couldn’t see her. But her heart broke, hearing him talk like that. Was it really going to come down to faith? Faith was what he would rely on because he felt he couldn’t depend on anything else?

  “Dani, I only have a minute to talk, but promise me you’ll be careful, okay? I don’t really know who to trust right now.”

  “I will,” she finally said. “I love you, Van. I’m so sorry this is happening.”

  “I know, beautiful. Me too.”

  “No, this is my fault. This is happening because of me. I wish I’d never met Brian, never brought any of that into our lives—”

  “I have no regrets because I have you. We’re gonna get through this, okay, and the plus side to it all is that we don’t have to deal with him anymore. I don’t know what happened to him and I don’t care, but you don’t have to worry about him, D.”

  “But I do worry about who would do this to you. This is nothing small, Van. Whatever happens, there will still be the effects of that…”

  “One day at a time first. I just want you to be okay, and I don’t want you to worry about me. I’m fine. I can take care of myself, remember?”

  She smiled, but it barely made her feel any better. Just picturing what he’d have to “take care of” if he ever went to prison made her cry again.

  “Dani, I want you to just lay low, okay? I don’t want you trying to figure things out on your own or anything. That’s what Jack is for. He’s got people looking into everything that he can right now. If you start poking around, talking to people… I just don’t want anything to look bad in court, okay? I want to do this by the book; I want to follow everything that Jack says, all right? Please stay out of it.”

  “Okay,” she barely whispered.

  “Just do what he says, okay? If he asks you questions, answer them truthfully no matter what. And if he tells you to go home and rest—”

  “Van, I get it. Do everything Jack says. Listen to Jack. Follow Jack’s command. Jump when Jack says jump.”

  “Dani…”

  “I’m sorry, I’m just… I’m scared, Van.”

  “I know you are. But things are going to work out. I want you to keep busy with your normal things, okay?” Dani heard voices in the background, so she wasn’t surprised when he said, “I gotta go for now. But my bail hearing has been bumped to ten o’clock tomorrow morning. I’ll see you then, okay? Bye, Dani. I love you so much.”

  “I love you too, Van. With all my heart.”

  She held the phone to her ear until she knew he’d hung up, and then she dropped onto the couch and bawled.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Cole Nicholson set his binoculars on the passenger’s seat and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. Jack wanted him to prove Van innocent, but it was going to be a long shot if not impossible. Van was definitely an interesting guy, and whether Cole believed he was innocent or not didn’t matter. He was being paid to find something that could set Van free.

  He picked up his digital recorder and spoke into it, documenting his sightings as he watched Donny Kemp, Van’s father, at work in Benny’s Automotive. It was his first day on the job. The guy knew his son had been arrested on the same day he himself had been released. From what Cole had discovered, Donny’s reaction had been one of indifference. Van had been arrested at one in the afternoon; his dad released six hours before that. The police had enough evidence to arrest Van at ten that morning, but they waited. It really makes a report look nice when you can add the suspect was leaving town at time of arrest.

  “Donny Kemp appears to have defensive wounds on his forearms,” Cole stated into the recorder as he watched the man remove his coveralls. He peered into the binoculars a few seconds longer and added, “They could be from working in an engine, but he’s also got some sort of scratch or gouge on his neck… His right elbow is bruised and swollen… He seems to walk with a slight limp. My guess is he got into it with someone recently.”

  He watched for a little bit longer and then made a phone call before his assumptions got out of hand. “Yeah Drake, it’s Cole. Listen, did Donny Kemp get into any fights before his release?” He listened for a few seconds as he rubbed the stubble on his chin and then nodded. “Got it. Who was it with?”

  He wrote down information as Drake spoke, and then he hung up the phone.

  “Donny Kemp and George Canton had a little dispute in the yard the day before Kemp’s release,” he spoke into his recorder. “The guards didn’t think it got out of hand and Donny came out of it with a few minor injuries. I’m not quite sure the defensive wounds on Donny Kemp are the result of a scuffle that lasted only a few seconds.”

  Cole returned the binoculars to his eyes and observed a few minutes longer. It looked like Donny was done for the day, so Cole waited until he started walking home before he got out and followed him. Donny walked seven blocks, stopping nowhere, and arrived
at the dumpy apartment complex that Cole had staked out the night before.

  The investigator leaned against the building across the street and pulled out his phone. “Your turn.” He waited until Sam pulled up ten minutes later to take over, and then Cole walked the seven blocks back to his car.

  His next stop was Andy Thompson’s. The guy was keeping a low profile after being questioned by the police. His brother was now dead so perhaps he was in mourning, but Cole got the feeling they weren’t on the best terms to begin with.

  Again there was no answer at Andy’s apartment and Cole knew he couldn’t wait any longer. Sometimes you get more out of someone when they aren’t around to talk to you. He was glad the hallways were empty, even though he had to cut out of his lock-picking one quick time. But it took longer than he expected, and when he was finally inside, he raised his eyebrows at the three extra locks that were available from the inside.

  “Can you say ‘paranoid’?” he said to himself. He glanced at his watch first and then went to work. He planned on staying for as long as he needed to, which meant that he would still be in the apartment when or if Andy returned. Some risks needed to be taken, and this time was no exception.

  There was no computer in the apartment and Cole had to assume the guy had a laptop and kept it with him at all times. He was a veterinarian assistant for Christ’s sake, but Andy had a history with technology that suggested he probably led two different lives.

  By eight o’clock Cole had gathered a few things that interested him, logged them into his recorder and took pictures. The only thing he needed to do now was wait for Andy to—

  “Show time,” he whispered to himself as the first lock clicked on the door. Cole slipped past the kitchen to a hall closet and stood behind the door. Once Andy was in the apartment, Cole could only see him through the crack of the door when he was near the kitchen. He listened to the sounds—keys into a drawer, jacket hung over a chair, a lamp switched on, and possibly a briefcase was set on the floor. There were no messages to listen to on the answering machine since Andy had already disconnected it. It was silent after that—no television, no kitchen sounds, no trip to the bathroom, not even a peep—and Cole’s patience wore out after almost an hour.

  There was only the lamp on by the couch when he peeked out of the closet, but he couldn’t see Andy right away. Finally an arm moved and Cole spotted what had to be him sitting in a chair in the corner. It was the chair that partially faced the window, but at the same time viewed the rest of the living room easily. Cole knew that because he’d sat there earlier—it was part of his process. He knew that Andy couldn’t see him midway down the hall, peeking out from the tiny storage room.

  Cole spotted a briefcase by the chair, almost like Andy had to keep it close to him. Seeing that made him realize that there was no way he was going to get a hold of it without Andy knowing.

  He sighed to himself and stepped into the hallway. The light from the lamp barely shone on Andy’s arm; Cole couldn’t be sure where the guy’s eyes were facing. All he knew was that Andy would make a run for it if he heard a single sound he didn’t like.

  Cole flattened himself against the wall, inching along it, watching Andy without blinking. If Andy made a move he would be ready too, but it turned out he didn’t need to, and Cole made it to the bathroom door undetected.

  Creaky door or no creaky door, he had to determine. It was open only a few inches, but he wasn’t about to risk it. He continued to watch Andy for another ten minutes until thankfully he reached down to bring the briefcase to his lap. Cole took the opportunity to grab the bathroom door and quickly move it open as the latches clicked open on the briefcase. It was loud enough to cover the groan of the door hinges.

  Cole listened from the darkened bathroom as Andy removed things from the briefcase, and when he clicked it shut, the bathroom door was placed back to where it was. He waited for another hour until Andy’s laptop was returned to the briefcase and a trip to the john was finally due. When the door opened and the light switched on, Cole waited three seconds from behind the door and then clocked Andy hard enough it knocked him out cold. He hadn’t even seen his intruder, whom then drugged him to keep him out of his way and headed straight for the briefcase.

  “Of course,” Cole muttered, looking over the case that was number locked and also secured with a little padlock. He made a phone call as he journeyed back to the bathroom to search Andy’s pockets for the key. “Yeah, not sure if I’m gonna get into the computer tonight,” he said, finding the key in the pocket of the guy’s pants. “And the guy practically handcuffs himself to his briefcase. I think your suspicions are right on.”

  “Just do what you can.”

  He hung up the phone and went to work. It took almost twenty minutes, but he got the stupid briefcase open. He checked on the unconscious body in the bathroom once more, knowing he’d be out for at least another hour, and then he returned to his work.

  At first he went straight to the video files and couldn’t find what he was looking for. Cole triple-checked to make sure, but it was nowhere to be found. He came across some other interesting things though, but he didn’t have time to deal with those, so after copying them onto his portable drive, he checked one more thing.

  “Shit,” he murmured, realizing that Andy had backed up everything on his computer—the last time even being that very afternoon. He clicked through the laptop to figure out what his backup device was, and then searched the apartment again. He hadn’t come across it the first time, which led him to believe it was kept somewhere else. Even if the guy had dumped evidence from his laptop, he could still have it stored in another place.

  He was frustrated when he still couldn’t find it a half hour later. Would Andy have hidden it at work somewhere? Cole supposed that was his next option, and glancing at his watch, realized the timing couldn’t have been better.

  He cleaned up his trail and locked the briefcase up how he found it. The video camera that’d been used had been hidden in Andy’s bedroom closet. Cole dumped everything from it before Andy came home. Now he had to find the backup, just in case.

  Cole checked on Andy in the bathroom one more time. He put the key back in his pocket, and moved the body just slightly to suggest a story. When Andy woke up, he wouldn’t know the truth.

  ***

  “The video still hasn’t been mentioned,” Jack told Van that evening.

  “Maybe the police haven’t seen it?”

  “Most likely. The original has been removed from Andy Thompson’s apartment, and we’re looking for any backup copies as we speak. But we need to focus on other things right now. Tomorrow is your bail hearing and…”

  “And you don’t think I’ll make bail.”

  With a sigh Jack said, “It doesn’t look like it at this point.”

  “Dani’s gonna flip.”

  “I already told her,” Jack admitted. “I’m sorry, but it just seemed like the right thing to do.”

  Van barely nodded. “Yeah. How’d she take it?”

  “She cried.”

  Van nodded again, but it made him want to cry. After everything they’d been through and the hits just kept on coming. “Are they ever gonna let me see her? What about tomorrow? What’s tomorrow gonna be like?”

  “She’ll be in the room, but she won’t be allowed to come close to you. I’m sorry.”

  “Why do I already feel like I’ve been convicted? Jesus Jack, it’s been two days and I already feel like I’m in prison.”

  “It won’t come to that, Van. If we go to trial we’ll prove your innocence. You’ll still have to go through this nightmare, but in the end it will just be a tiny blip on the timeline and you can go on with your life. You and Dani really should consider starting over somewhere. I know you’ve considered it because of your dad, but I think you should make it happen. When this is all over, you two deserve to start fresh.”

  “All that’s gonna come out in the trial too, isn’t it? My dad’s release and why we we
re looking to move. My past, his conviction…”

  “His case has nothing to do with this case, so I won’t allow it. But the prosecution will make it look like you were planning to leave town for other reasons. We have the truth on our side, so I want you to focus on that. But Van, I feel like we can get this dismissed before it gets to that point. Keep your head up.”

  Van sat in silence, unsure of what else to say. He thought he’d be home with Dani by now, not talking about bail hearings and trials.

  “Van, let’s talk about the night you first met Dani.”

  Van eyed him carefully but replied, “What about it?”

  “You said Dani had been struck in the face by Brian. Did you see it happen?”

  “No, she just had a mark on her face, and when I asked her what happened, she tried to keep it from me. But then that fucker came from the parking lot, and things progressed from there.”

  “Did he threaten you in any way?”

  Van barely shrugged. “Uh, nothing more than just telling me to get away from his girl. But the way he was talking to her…there was no way I was going to let her go home with him. He put his hands on me three times before I finally did something about it, so yeah I guess he was trying to threaten me.”

  “You broke his hand.”

  “I politely asked him which hand he wanted me to break.”

  “But you broke it.”

  “Yes.”

  “But it wasn’t self-defense. You planned to break it, even after you had him restrained on the ground?”

  Van shrugged again. “If I hadn’t, he wouldn’t have taken me seriously.”

  “How many guys do you know that could do that? Break someone’s hand.”

  “Could, or would?”

  It was Jack’s turn to shrug. “Both.”

  “If a guy was capable of doing what I did and he saw what Brian was doing to Dani, he would have done the same thing. He wants to hit a girl with that hand, you break it. Simple message.”