Niti on my radio as I drove. “Who’s that?” She asked.
“Ben.” I said. “Are you on two-way?”
“Yeah.” She said. “What the hell’s going on? Did they really find a body in the lake?”
“Affirmative.” I said. “Freddie Divos’ body. Listen, Niti, I need a huge favor. In a minute or two a detective is going to come in there with Freddie’s sister to interview her. Could you put them in John’s office and open the intercom one-way? I’ll be at the side gate- we could listen in. You interested?”
“Ben Perkins, are you really that nosy?” She said. “It’s none of our business and anyway wouldn’t it be illegal?”
“I’m not sure.” I said. “In any case it wouldn’t be right. What do you say?”
“I’ll see what I can do.” She said. “They might notice the light.”
“Put something in front of it.”
“I’ll try.”
“Thanks Niti, over and out.”
“Yeah, whatever.” She said.
I got to the side gatehouse and opened up the intercom line. I listened for a minute, and strained my ears thinking they might’ve been across the room from the box, but when they came in I could hear them perfectly. The first thing I heard was Meredith crying. “I can’t imagine the pain you must be feeling.” Reyes said. There was warmth in her voice that sounded sincere. “Here, take a tissue. I want to help you Miss Divos, I really do. You’ve lost your nephew and your brother, and I’m afraid you’re facing another tragedy. But this one can be prevented. Your son is in danger. I shouldn’t tell you this, but some of my colleagues in law enforcement would like to hurt him. They would like that very much. Now he’s got three murder charges hanging over his head, and they wouldn’t hesitate to use deadly force.”
“Three?” Meredith said. “You think David did this? I… I can’t believe… You’re wrong!” She sobbed. “It’s not true!”
“Miss Divos I want you to take a deep breath. I said he’s facing three murder charges, I never said that he committed the murders. It’s possible that he’s innocent on all counts, but how would we know that if we don’t talk to him? He needs to come forward and proclaim his innocence, and who better to convince him to do that than his mother? You can help us and also help your son at the same time. If David turns himself in, it would go a long way with the District Attorney. They would be much more likely to show leniency.”
“He wouldn’t have hurt his uncle.” She said. “He loved his uncle. They spent a lot of time together when he was growing up. I don’t know what’s going on, but whatever it is, David is just mixed up in it by accident. He wouldn’t hurt anyone! When he was a boy he cried for a week after his cat died… He tried to kill himself when his girlfriend left him a few years ago. He’s… Sensitive.”
“Do you know where he’s hiding?”
“No, of course not. I didn’t even know where he was living before all this happened.”
“You haven’t had any form of contact with him? No letters, emails, texts, phone calls?”
“Texts? No, no I haven’t heard from him.” She said.
“We need your help Miss Divos, The media are going to be very interested in this mess, and I’d like you to use that platform to help your son. I need you to urge him to come out of hiding. Wherever he is, I’m sure he’ll hear your message. Do you think you could do that?”
“You think he’s innocent?” She asked.
“I don’t think I can honestly say that.” Reyes said.
“But it is a possibility.” She said. “You have to admit that there’s a chance that this is just a big mistake.”
“Yes.” Reyes said. “He might be innocent. It’s possible”
“If you think it will help, I’ll ask him to turn himself in.” She said. “But what about my brother?”
“We’re going to do everything we can to find out what happened to him. When was the last time you saw him?”
She said she saw him at Rico’s funeral on Thursday, and then she went on at length about how she didn’t blame the police that had shot Rico, but that it wasn’t really David’s fault either. Reyes kept trying to break in with her next question. Finally she just interrupted her. “Miss Divos, was there anyone at the funeral that you didn’t recognize?”
“You should know who was at the funeral. There were people there with badges taking pictures of everybody. They upset my sister terribly.”
“I’m sorry about that, it’s really a shame, but we can’t take any chances on letting David slip through our fingers again. You’d be surprised how many fugitives we apprehend attending family functions. Was there anyone at the funeral who didn’t seem to fit? It’s going to take us a long time to identify all of Rico’s cousins and friends from the pictures.”
“There were a lot of people I didn’t know.” She said. “All of Rico’s friends were strangers to me, and honestly most of them looked like the kind of people I wouldn’t want to know. There was one person who I wondered about. A white woman. Older than any of Rico’s friends, and definitely not with any of them.”
“And what did she look like?”
“Well, she was in all black, and she wore pants and boots -who wears boots to a funeral? And she had really short hair. Not like a bob or anything, I mean short like a buzz. She looked like she was probably thirty-five or forty. I thought maybe she was one of Rico’s old teachers or councilors from rehab.”
“And did you speak to your brother at all after the service?” Reyes asked.
Before I could hear the answer my walkie-talkie crackled. “Borgano’s on his way up to take a statement from you.” John said. “Just thought I’d let you know.”
“Thanks.” I said. I heard a few words of Meredith recounting her last conversation with her brother, something about bringing him tamales, but then I had to turn it off. I could hear Borgano’s car coming.
Borgano seemed pleased that Freddie had turned up dead. I figured it must’ve confirmed a theory of his. I told him what had happened at the dock and he took a few notes but seemed eager to get the interview over with. He reminded me that withholding information about the whereabouts of a fugitive was a crime, and then he left. I switched the intercom back on but there was nothing coming through. I hailed Niti on my walkie-talkie. “What now?” She asked.
“I missed the end of it, I was talking to the other detective,” I said, “did she say anything interesting after the tamale thing?”
“She mentioned your name if that’s what you want to know.”
“What did she say?” I asked.
“The detective asked if she’d been in contact with you recently, and Miss Divos said you brought her some donuts. Then she went on for ten minutes about how she usually doesn’t eat junk food but that stress makes her crave sugar.” Niti said.
“So that was it?”
“The detective wanted to know if she had asked you to look for her brother, and the Divos woman told her what a nice young man you are, and how you had probably just decided to do it yourself when you saw how upset she was. She thinks you’re a good Christian boy, which in my book makes her pretty unobservant.”
“No one knows me like you do.” I said.
“Don’t forget you owe me now.” She said. “Over and out.”
SEVENTEEN
“We’re responsible for Freddie’s death.” I said to Jessie when I got home. It was three forty five in the morning.
“He’s dead?” She asked rubbing her eyes. I waited until I knew she was going to stay awake, and then I told her the gruesome tale and how I’d gotten a front row seat to Meredith Divos’ police interview. “How the hell are we responsible?” She wanted to know.
“We told Gretchen Salle his name.” I said. “She didn’t know him before that. Meredith said there was a strange woman with short hair at Rico’s funeral. That was the last time anyone saw Freddie alive. It’s gotta be her.”
“A lot of women have short hair.” She said. “It could be a coincidence.
And even if she did go to the funeral, that doesn’t mean she killed Freddie. Assuming he was killed, wouldn’t the obvious suspect be Junior Pierson? Maybe Freddie knew too much about their business. If the police are half smart, that’s probably what they’re thinking.”
“The obvious suspect is David Telano.” I said. “If Gretchen isn’t on their radar screen, they’re probably assuming it’s David. Reyes certainly didn’t seem interested in the woman with short hair.”
“Come on, Gretchen Salle didn’t seem like a killer. A little rude maybe, but not a killer.”
“You don’t think anyone you’ve ever met is capable of murder.” I said. “But look at the sequence of events. We tell Gretchen Freddie’s name. Later that day she shows up at Rico’s funeral, a place she knows Freddie will be, and then two days after that, his body turns up. I’m telling you she did it. I’m like a millimeter away from calling Reyes and spilling my guts.”
“The cops don’t need our help, they’re cops. They know what they’re doing.”
“They probably think I did it.” I said. “Reyes was asking Meredith Divos all about me. It’s a good thing your pap found me in Freddie’s trailer and not Borgano.”
“You find anything while you were in there?”
“Nothing that would help our cause.”
“What about my cause?”
“You mean dope? No.” I said. “And you really should get your priorities straightened out. What the fuck are you thinking about weed for right now? We need to decide what we’re going to do.”
“We don’t do anything.” She said. “When the cops get David’s letter, they’ll see that he didn’t want to kill Freddie -he thought Freddie could get him off. Why would he kill the one guy who could save him?”
“Yeah, or they’ll think David killed him and then sent the letter to try to cover his ass. Jesus, maybe…”
“What?”
“I don’t know Jess. David coulda done it.” I said. “He was in Lakeview. He had reason to do it -call it revenge, or trying to get him to confess or whatever, but he had motive and opportunity.”
“No, no.” She said. “We’re talking about David. He probably doesn’t even know his uncle’s dead yet.”
“Let’s face it Jessie, we’re fucked. We started messing around with this shit and now it’s way out of control. I’m not even sure that we’re on the right side of it anymore.”
“Yeah but David-”
“Fuck David!” I shouted. “We need to save ourselves! We’ve got the cops on one side and the fucking Junior Pierson on the other. You wanna wind up in the lake like Freddie? Or in Jail? You didn’t see it Jessie. I mean this guy was really dead, right there in front of me. Just gone forever.”
“What do you want to do, go to Reyes? Just go admit we helped one of America’s Most Wanted hide two blocks from where he killed that woman?”
“Ha! You do think he killed her. I knew it! I knew you weren’t as sure as you pretended to be!”
“That just came out wrong-”
“No, you said it. I heard it loud and clear.”
“You’re an asshole.” She said getting out of bed. She left the room.
“You can walk away but we’re still fucked.” I said, more to myself than to her. I took off my uniform and got under the covers. The sound of the TV in the living room and thoughts of cops and crooks and journalists and corpses and girlfriends wouldn’t let me sleep.
Right as I started to drift off Jessie woke me, shouting about something on TV. I took a deep breath. “Come look, it’s on the news already. It’s their lead story.” She said. I got out of bed and walked into the living room in time to hear the newswoman say that it appeared that David Telano had struck again.
“Police would not speculate on the motive for the crime, but they did say that this recent death was highly suspicious and was probably connected to the attempted double murder here earlier this month. They have named David Telano as a person of interest in the case.” They showed an old mug shot of him on screen. “If you have any information on the whereabouts of this man, police would like to hear from you. Tips can be made anonymously by calling the number below. Our News Crew Eleven reporter Wes Braskey was on the scene last night, when David Telano’s mother made this statement to reporters.” She was standing in front of the bushes outside the guardhouse, with lights in her face. Underneath her picture it said ‘Meredith Divos -Mother Of Suspected Killer’.
“David didn’t do any of this.” She said. “You people have all jumped to the conclusion that he’s guilty, but if you knew him, if you only knew him, you would know that he couldn’t have done it. He’s just a boy. He… He loved his uncle, they used to go fishing together. I don’t understand why anyone would think he was a bad person. The police killed my nephew, just because they thought he was David. It’s awful I…” She looked off camera and nodded. “David, mijo, if you’re listening to this, turn yourself in. I know you’re innocent, and we can get a lawyer and prove it in court. Just come forward and tell the police the truth. Please, I can’t take any more of this.”
They cut back to the newswoman at her desk. “The mother of alleged murderer David Telano. In other news, could your four-year-old drive a car? We meet one who did, and the parents who’re just glad he’s safe.”
“You said David set up a TV in his room, you think he saw that?” Jessie asked.
“Probably not.” I said. “He’s gotta be sleeping, but even if he did see it, he wouldn’t turn himself in just ‘cause his mom asked him to. He never listened to her before, I don’t know why he’d start now.”
“You should tell him about his uncle.” She said. “He needs to know. It changes everything.”
“Yeah assuming he wasn’t the one that killed him.” I said. “I can’t keep going in and out of the Relna place, every time I go in there I’m putting myself at risk, and we know the cops are doing surveillance in Lakeview.” I shook my head. “No, I’m only going in there to bring him food, and not ‘till next week. All he needs to do is keep hiding, if he told us everything he knows, then the fact that his uncle is dead doesn’t matter. We wait for the detectives to do their job and find out who did this, then he can turn himself in.”
“They think he did it!” She said. “Come on, they’re looking for David, which means they’re wasting their time.”
“They were looking at Freddie’s hotel weren’t they? And his trailer? They must know this shit goes deeper than David.”
“They were probably looking at his hotel because David used to work there, and they thought he’d be stupid enough to show up. Their only lead is David, and when they find him they’ll convict him and give him the death penalty. We’ve gotta get these cops on the right track. We can’t just sit around and wait for them to get it right. They won’t.”
“Okay, what should we do? Should we find Gretchen and tell her we know she killed Freddie?”
“We don’t know that.” She said.
“Yeah, but we could say we do and gauge her reaction.” I pointed out.
“Great idea, if she did it, we’d be next on her hit list, and if she didn’t she’d just laugh.” Jessie said. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I think there is someone who can help us.”
“Oh no-”
“Pap.” She said. “He knows what’s going on and he has experience. He’s on our side. We should tell him about Gretchen and see what he says.”
“Okay,” I said, “but promise me one thing. Promise you’ll let me sleep uninterrupted for the next three hours. After that, we can go through whatever torture you feel is necessary.”
EIGHTEEN
It was John Marchin’s day off as well as Jessie’s and mine, and he leaned against the counter in the kitchen sipping coffee out of one of our Santa-Claus mugs. Jessie told him that we had started looking into a few things for David and that now we were afraid it was out of control. “If you knew where he was or had been hiding him you’d be in real trouble.” He said. “But
just looking into a few things for a friend isn’t serious. Borgano and Reyes already know you’re doing that, I’m sure they didn’t buy that you were looking for Freddie as a favor to his sister. They probably suspect you’ve been in contact with him, and they might even think you know where he is, but I wouldn’t worry. David’s the one who’s really in the soup.”
“David told us that if we could find any evidence at all that someone else was involved, he would turn himself in.” Jessie said. “He’s afraid that if the cops get him now, the investigation would be over.”
“He’s right.” John said. “It would be. Who does David think is behind it?”
“Junior.” I said. “That’s what his uncle told him.”
“Junior’s history is far from spotless, I’ll tell you that.” John took a sip of coffee. “His father used to bail him out all the time, so now that he’s not around Junior might’ve gotten into something he can’t handle. I might be able to help you get something on Junior. It’s possible. But Ben and I have to be careful. He’s a part-owner in the GSA so he’s our boss. Whatever we get, it can’t look like it came from us. If you want my help in this thing, you’ll have to agree that I decide when we come forward, how we come forward, and with what evidence.”
“Of course.” Jessie said.
“Agreed.” I said.
“Alright so let me have it. Give me everything you got.” He said.
We told him about Gretchen Salle and how we thought she’d been at Rico’s funeral, and about how she told us Amanda’s articles were going to expose how Junior had covered up the disappearance of a kid from Extended Families. I told him how David was sure Junior Pierson was selling drugs, about the cash going to local business, and about the guy at Freddie’s hotel, and then I remembered the number. “When I was in Freddie’s trailer, I got a number from his redial.” I said. I went to the bedroom and retrieved the scrap of newspaper with the number on it. “This number belongs to the last person Freddie called.” I handed it to John. “Should we call it?”
John looked at me with concern. “No,” he said, “let’s just find out who it belongs to.” He made a phone call, asking the person on the other end if he would look up a number for him. He read the guy the number, and within a minute was writing down the information. He thanked the person and hung up. “It belongs to a place called National Custom Gunsmith. Address in east Cleveland.”
“I guess Freddie knew he was in danger.” Jessie said.
“Maybe,” John said, “maybe not. We don’t know why he called this place -which is why I’m going to see what I can find out about it. And we’re gonna go over the surveillance footage from the gates the day Becky Pierson was murdered. I mean the whole day, twenty four hours back from the shooting. I backed up all the footage from that day onto disks for the detectives, I have copies at work.”
“What are we looking for?” I asked.
“Gretchen Salle.” He said. “If she thought