“You gotta promise me, Steve; don’t use my name. I’m begging you. My parents—they’ll throw me out. I couldn’t face them.”
***
At the end of his shift, Steve knocked on Luca’s office door. The detective was reading a report and peered over his reading glasses.
“Hey, Stevie, how’s it going?”
“Good, got a minute?”
Luca looked at his wristwatch and frowned.
“Shit, Debra’s—”
“It’s important, Luc—the Wyatt case.”
Luca snapped off his glasses, motioning to a chair that Steve took after closing the door.
“What do you have?”
“Well, I don’t want to beat around the bush, so I’ll give it to you straight. A girl I’ve been seeing, and we obviously got to keep that buttoned up, she thinks she saw something that might help with a suspect.”
“No worries, bring her in and—”
“Well here’s the thing . . .”
Luca settled back into his chair as Steve laid out the situation.
“Look, I’m not gonna lecture you, but geez, the kid’s only nineteen.” He shook his head as Steve hung his. “All right, let’s get moving. I don’t have to tell you the pressure we’re under.”
***
Vinny called me as soon as he heard the news.
“Pete, I can’t believe what happened to Billy.”
“Yeah. How’s it going?”
“How’s it going? I mean, holy shit, Pete, Billy was murdered, for God’s sake!”
I didn’t know what to say other than, “So what?”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
The words just tumbled out of my mouth. “The prick deserved it.”
“Geez, we were friends our whole life. What’s wrong with you?”
I didn’t really feel bad about it. “Well, maybe he shouldn’t be going around with other guy’s girls.”
“What’re you talking about?”
Why couldn’t my brother see how bad Billy was? I mean, he was always making people miserable the entire time I knew him. What was Vinny, blind? “Fuck it. Look, he was a piece of shit, a fucking bully, and he got what he had coming, is what I’m saying.”
“You know what, man? You’re fucking crazy.” Vinny slammed the phone down on me. He spent the rest of the two days he had in Texas doing his thing without checking on me. I kinda enjoyed not being babied.
***
After meeting with Steve and his young lover, the detectives huddled in Luca’s office as the station emptied out. Luca told his partner about the new source, and Cremora shook his head.
“Stevie’s taking some big-ass risks here. This shit leaks, and it’s not only his wife he’s gotta worry about; Gesso will be forced to suspend him.”
“Yeah, I promised him I’d keep it under wraps, so let’s try and keep it there.”
Cremora threw up a hand and nodded.
Luca flipped open a file. “This kid, she corroborated the car color to be in the red family. So, let’s rule out brown for the moment. Best of all, she said it had a big grill. I showed her some pictures. She thinks it’s a Chrysler. Why don’t you put in a request for a DMV report? It may give us something to run with.”
“Let’s hope so.”
“Kid also said it was a male, just like the neighbor said. I don’t know about you, but Wyatt’s girlfriend didn’t leave me warm and fuzzy.”
“Yeah, that whole story about being out and going to pick him up for the gym.”
“If she was, she didn’t call him before coming over. There’s no record of a call going to the house that morning.”
“You run their cell phones?”
“Not back yet.”
“So, we know Wyatt was or seemed to be alone when someone driving a red Chrysler and, in a hurry, pulled up to his house. This someone had a bar, stick, or bat, according to Stevie’s squeeze. Wyatt either knew this person or for some reason let him in. Maybe an argument broke out, and bam, he gets whacked in the skull.”
Cremora rubbed his forehead. “Could’ve been a revenge type thing. He was a bully. That’d give us motive.”
“Neighbor did say he and the girl were always fighting.”
“We need to dig deep, Luc, see if he ever got physical with her. Maybe he hit her or did something to enrage her. She’s got no history of any violence, so she’d have to have been pushed over the edge.”
“Yeah, but nine times out of ten it happens right then and there. I don’t know, to me this seems like it could’ve been premeditated.”
“Wyatt was out back, smoking and having a beer sometime that night.”
“If someone was there, they weren’t drinking with him. The one can was his, but the other was old, according to the yeast sample test.”
“How about the smokes?”
“The cigarettes were his brand. We got his DNA off most of the butts except one, a menthol, Newport. No DNA, but there were trace latent prints on the butt. I’ve got the lab doing their best, but there just doesn’t seem to be enough of a print.”
Cremora crept to the edge of his chair. “Newport’s a chic brand, no? Think the girlfriend smokes?”
“Mary? Don’t think so. We were with her for a while the other day, and interviewing is when they all seem to want to puff their brains out.”
“I’ll check it out.”
“You know, maybe there were two of them?”
“Huh?”
“Could be two people involved. The guy driving the car, and a neighbor saw someone cutting through the yards.”
“I don’t know. Both girls who saw the car pull up said only one person was in the car.”
“Maybe he dropped him off on the street behind and was waiting out front.”
Cremora shook his head. “Usually, the getaway car is hidden on the block behind.”
“I know, I know, just brainstorming.”
“You mean brain drizzling.”
“I gotta get moving, or Deb’s gonna throw me out before I move back in.”
***
When Vinny walked in the door, Peter was doing exercises with his therapist in the living room. As he said his hellos, the phone rang, and Vinny took the call in the kitchen.
“Hey, Vinny, it’s Tony.”
“Hi Tony, how are you doing?”
“Good, man, how’s Petey?”
“Okay. He’s doing PT right now, but making progress.”
“Good, good. I tried calling him like five times but never got through. Left a bunch of messages, but—”
“Yeah, I got them and told him, but he’s pretty forgetful these days.”
“He still pissed about Mary?”
“What?”
“You know, when we went out for my brother’s birthday, out of nowhere he got all pissed off and made me take him home. I didn’t know what was going on, and he wouldn’t tell me. But when I got back to the bar, I found out he heard about Mary getting married and all, and that was what set him off.”
“Oh, uh, well, he’s, he’s doing okay, pretty good. Look, I gotta run. Can I have him call you back?”
***
Just after the therapist left, Vinny came into the living room where I had already palmed the remote. As I flicked through channels, Vinny approached.
“That was Tony, again, said you never called him back.”
“Oh, guess I forgot.”
“Said that night he was here you guys went out.”
“Yeah.”
“Anything happen?”
“What do you mean?”
“He said you heard about Mary and Billy and freaked out.”
“So? What did you expect me to do? Dance? Get ’em a fucking engagement gift?”
Vinny snatched the remote out of my hand and shut the television just when The Price is Right was coming on.
“We gotta talk.”
“But my show’s—”
“What happened that night?”
/> “Uh, what night? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Not good enough. When you heard about Mary.” Vinny lowered his voice a notch. “It’s okay, you should be mad, but what happened?”
I turned my attention to the ceiling. “We were at the bar, and I was having a good time, then this bitchy bar girl blabbed her mouth off about Mary and that fuckhead Billy.”
“Okay, so you were pissed. Then what?”
Pissed? That’s the understatement of the year. “I donno. I wanted to get out of there, so we left.”
“Tony brought you home? Straight home?”
I kinda remembered the ride home, and I nodded.
“Then what?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? You came home and that was it?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“You think so? What did you do when you got home?”
I couldn’t really remember even walking in the house. “I don’t remember.”
Vinny crouched in front of me and softened his voice. “Did you go anywhere? Do anything?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Petey, you gotta be straight with me, man. I’m here to help you.”
“I told you, I don’t remember. What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is, that’s the night poor Billy got murdered.”
I was really getting sick of hearing about Wyatt. “Poor Billy, my ass! Now leave me alone.”
***
That night, still at work and preoccupied with the day’s developments, Vinny picked up the phone.
“Mary? It’s Vinny. I know it’s late, but do you have a minute?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“How you doing and all?”
“I miss him terribly.”
“I know, me too. Look, I know you have a lot on your plate, but I’m really worried about Pete.”
“What’s going on?” Mary asked.
“I don’t know. He seems down, depressed and stuff. I know he found out about you and Billy getting married and—”
“Yeah, but you know what? He seemed cool with it. He called me when he found out that night, but he was, like, not mad or anything. I was kind of surprised, but happy that he seemed to be finally moving on.”
“What do you mean? He called you the night Billy got killed? What did he say?”
“Yeah, that night. It seems like yesterday.” Mary paused. “Anyway, he just asked if it was true what he’d heard. I told him yes, and he was quiet. I expected an outburst, but he kept it together. He just asked me if that was it. I told him I was sorry if I hurt his feelings, but he cut me off and said, like, well I hope you’re happy.”
“Has he been calling you?”
“He left a message the day after Billy was, you know, uh—”
“You call him back?”
“No, too upset, anyway, I figured he just wanted to offer condolences.”
***
When Vinny pulled into the driveway after work, he remembered that when he returned from Texas, the car was closer to the garage than where he normally parked. At the time, he didn’t give it much thought, but now it added to the whispering in his head. Vinny sat in the car for a few minutes before gingerly stepping through the front door.
Peter was snoring on the couch as cartoons played on the television. Vinny tiptoed over to the sofa and grabbed his brother’s cane. Then he took the cane into the laundry room, looked it over closely, and then washed it down with bleach. He examined it again, washed it with soap and water and leaned it back against the couch.
Chapter 13
Luca punched the keypad, and the door buzzed open. The detective sipped his morning java as the door clicked shut behind him. Running late, he breezed past dispatch as a new girl, who Luca thought was hot, called out, “Detective, someone from DMV dropped off a report for you. I put it on your desk.”
Luca flashed his best smile. “Thanks.”
Cremora was at his desk chomping on a bagel when Luca asked, “You go through the DMV report?”
“Toilet paper, Luc. Seems red Chryslers are pretty popular in Jersey.”
Luca thumbed the five-inch stack centered on his desk.
“Shit. Why don’t we have ’em run it against the database of assault convictions?”
“Made the call while you were still getting your beauty sleep.”
“Look at that, a good cop, and funny too.”
“They promised it quick. Told Carey the info was needed for a grand jury.”
Luca rolled his eyes.
“You never know. Hey, I forgot to tell you that Mary Rourke doesn’t smoke, never has.”
“It was a long shot.”
“Yeah, and to boot, the cell phone logs confirmed her version of the morning she found Wyatt.”
Luca couldn’t help but think the news about Mary lined up with one of three things every case he’d been on had—information that seemed like it would be a key to solving the case slams right into a stone wall.
The detectives were about to call it a day when the fax machine hummed, spitting out a cover page from the DMV and a page that Cremora scooped out of the tray. Luca’s partner put the still-warm page of detail on Luca’s desk.
“That’s it? Thirty, thirty-five names?”
“Guess so. Cover page said only one page attached. I’ll call to verify.”
“Okay, I gotta run. I’m getting together with Deb.”
Luca grabbed his jacket and nearly ran into a uniformed officer in the hallway.
“Uh, sorry, Detective. Sarge said to let you know we got a hit on a Wyatt credit card.”
“Where?”
The young cop pointed to a piece of paper. “This morning, Keyport 7-Eleven by Route 36, near the intersection with 35.”
Luca grabbed the sheet from the officer and thanked him. The detective pulled his cell phone out and stared at it. He quickly dismissed the thought Debra would understand that something had come up. Luca then pondered going to the 7-Eleven in the morning before punching in her number.
The parking lot was busy with a stream of hopefuls buying tickets to a heavily promoted Powerball jackpot, interspersed with commuters picking up essentials, and night carousers grabbing their six-packs of beer.
Luca slid up to the counter, caught the eye of the fellow pumping out lottery tickets and flashed his badge. The kid nodded, jabbered something in Pakistani to a woman ringing up cigarettes, and told Luca they’d get the manager.
A balding, heavyset man with a stained shirt appeared and waved Luca over to a glass cubicle. The detective stepped into the small area and was hit with the pungent smells of the food laid out on the man’s desk. The guy, Tarif Sahib, who turned out to be the owner, pushed his dinner to the side.
“What’s wrong, Officer?”
Luca scanned the six screens displaying feeds from security cameras and said, “A credit card used this morning is connected to an ongoing investigation. We’d like to see any video footage you have during that time period.”
“Of course. No problem. No problem at all.”
Luca showed the Visa printout to Sahib. Sahib swept his hand toward the monitors. “We’ve got many cameras. The whole place is covered. I even have one the workers don’t know about.”
“How long do you keep the tapes?”
Sahib smiled, revealing a mouthful of gold fillings.
“No, no tapes. We use DVDs, and we keep them one month.” He stepped to the side and opened a drawer lined with DVDs.
“Don’t write over any of those until we have a chance to see if we’ll need anything further.”
“Okay.” Frowning, he shut the drawer. “You want to see the counter feeds?”
“Let’s start there. The printout gives us a transaction time of 10:07 this morning.”
Sahib loaded the DVD and hit the fast-forward button. Images blurred by as the time stamp morphed from six in the morning into the ninth hour of the day.
Luca spoke as it passe
d the half hour. “Okay, slow it down to real time.”
The detective leaned in, staring at the herky-jerky images of the morning’s patrons. As the time stamp crossed ten, Luca asked him to slow it down, and he inched closer to the screen.
A lull in the flow of customers from 10:02 to 10:05 was broken by a young man buying what looked to be Red Bull. As he left the counter, a man in a baseball cap and tee shirt, whose head was down, sidled up to the counter with what looked like two six-packs of beer. Luca noted a large blotch on the man’s forearm, pegging it as a tattoo. The clerk turned around, grabbed two cartons of Newport cigarettes and set them next to the man’s beer. The customer then handed off what must have been the credit card in question. Luca checked the time stamp, and sure enough, it had moved to 10:07 as the clerk swiped it. The customer pocketed the credit card, stacked the six-packs and piled the cigarette cartons on top. He slid the goods off the counter onto his hip and walked away, head down, through the exit.
Luca watched it three more times but couldn’t make any determinations other than it was a male about six feet tall. He moved on to the parking-lot footage, but nothing seemed to tie the credit card user to a specific car.
Luca ran the counter footage again before deciding to confiscate all the footage inside and outside the store from nine to eleven. He hoped the guys down at the lab could manipulate the images and give him something to work with.
Chapter 14
There were thirty-four people convicted of assault who had red Chryslers in Monmouth County. Luca cautioned his partner to pursue the angle with restraint as it was limited to Monmouth County and precluded someone borrowing a car.
The detectives discussed the list and eliminated any of the targets who had just one assault and those records that were over seven years old. They also excluded the six women in the report, narrowing the focus to the seven men with multiple arrest records. Then Luca asked Gesso to dispatch officers to visit the reduced list of suspects.
Gesso’s men quickly boiled the list down to three, as one suspect had been in the hospital and another in a locked-down drug rehab at the time of the crime. A third man, suffering from late-stage cancer, was also discounted.
Gesso dropped in to see Luca about the remaining suspects and handed over three files.
“Luc, we hit ’em all and—”
Luca Mystery Series Box Set Page 9
