Perilous Curves Collection (BBW Romance) (16 page)

Hicks relented. "Fine, let's do the girl first."

Davies dug into his pocket and pulled out a quarter.

"Oh, come on..." He looked ready to remind Davies who was senior on the team, even if he had to do it in front of a bunch of civilians.

When Davies tossed the coin, Hicks' face purpled but he blurted out "Tails" at the last second.

Davies smiled. "Heads."

Shooting a hard look at his partner, Hicks pulled a chair in front of the TV for Claire to sit in and then he and Davies headed into room A. I stood next to Craig, both of us leaning on a window sill as a few of the squad's other detectives trickled into the cubicle.

Leaning across Claire, the only female cop in the small space turned the volume up. Hicks was talking to Sammy, telling him to just run through how he had found the phone and why he took it.

"This is just petty theft, kid," Hicks assured him. "No pressure, just tell your story."

I pulled a pad of paper out of my bag. If the kid didn't crack, I would need to tell Malkin every detail I could remember for when he questioned Sammy at Alex's trial. Sammy would trip up somewhere between what he said today and what he would say at trial -- at least he would if he was the killer.

"Start with where you found it," Davies prodded.

Sammy kept his head in his hands, looking down at the table. "In the house, like I said."

Davies knocked on the table then motioned for Sammy to make eye contact when the kid finally looked up. "Where in the house?"

Sammy started to shrug. Hicks interrupted him. "Someplace you weren't supposed to be in the house?"

Silence, and then he nodded. "Viv's room."

Claire stiffened at the response. I scrawled a question on my pad.
Does Vivian let Sammy into her room?
Given Vivian's attitude towards the boy, I doubted he'd been allowed into her inner sanctum in recent memory.

Davies confirmed my suspicion a second later. "Was Miss Epps in the room with you?"

Sammy shook his head.

"That a no?" Davies asked.

"No. I went down the hall to use the toilet and her door was open."

"Okay," Hicks smiled and patted Sammy's arm. "When was this?"

Someone knocked on the interview door. Davies got up and cracked the door open. When he sat back down, he had about a dozen pages of paper in his hand. I assumed the papers were filled with Sammy's arrest record.

Reading the rap sheet, Davies repeated his partner's question. "Come on, when was it?"

Hicks helped the kid out. "Before Alex got arrested Sunday night, right?"

"Yeah, Sunday." Sammy absently scratched at his arms.

I made a note and showed it to Craig.

If he found Ray's phone Sunday, why did he buy the pre-paid Saturday?

Davies pulled out his cell phone, poked at the screen and a few seconds later my phone buzzed with a text message.

Truck pic

I dug through my bag and pulled out a copy of the photo from the liquor store. As I started to hand it off to one of the detectives standing in the viewing cubicle, Claire snatched it away.

I took another screenshot out from the liquor store, the one with the best view of the car and showed it to Claire. "Is this his uncle's car?"

Hands shaking as she handed the first photo over to the cop, Claire shrugged and turned back to the screen. I shot a look at Craig, who gave me a faint nod. He could feel it, too. The tide was slowly starting to turn. Davies was doing his job and doubt had crept into Claire's posture.

In the interrogation room, Davies got up and answered the door again, this time tossing the photo onto the table.

Sammy glanced at the picture and then stared at the wall.

Davies sat back down, leaving the photo on the table. "So, tell me again, where you found the phone?"

Sammy's scratching intensified. "In Viv's room."

Davies circled something on the sheet of papers. "When you found the phone Saturday, were you using?"

Sammy shook his head.

Hicks shifted in his seat and then rapped his knuckles on the table. "Sunday, kid. Were you using anything when you found the phone on Sunday?"

"Right...Sunday. No." Sammy glanced back down at the picture, one hand reaching for it before he suddenly crammed both hands in his lap.

"Using Friday?" Davies asked. When Sammy shook his head again, Davies tossed the stack of papers onto the table. He pointed at several spots on the top sheet. "Pot, paraphernalia, residue...you really expect me to believe you went three days without using?"

Sammy buried his face in his hands.

Davies got up, walked around the table and leaned over the kid. He inhaled deeply and spit the air out in a rough cough. He lifted one of Sammy's hands and rubbed at the finger tips. "Fuck, are you going to lie and say you haven't been on the pipe today?"

Hicks rubbed at his face and picked up the photo and rap sheet. "This is starting to look bad, kid. Why'd you take the phone?"

Sammy clutched his stomach. "I wanted some pics off it."

Hicks raised his phone towards the camera. One of the detectives ran over to Hicks' desk and grabbed the evidence bag with Ray's phone in it.

Waiting for the cop to deliver the phone to the interrogation room, I risked a look in Claire's direction. She was gripping the edge of the desk, her mouth pressed into a hard line. Her breathing was too shallow to see even a faint rise of her chest.

Worried the woman was going to pass out, I elbowed Craig and nodded in Claire's direction. He moved closer and casually dropped his hand onto the back of the chair.

With Ray's phone in hand, Hicks turned it on and went to the last message sent. "These pics?" he asked.

Sammy nodded and buried his cheek against his shoulder.

"Must burn your ass she's running with Serrano's kid?"

Claire began to shake her head back and forth.

"Just because his old man's got money...Alex is a phony piece of shit." Anger coated Sammy's voice when he answered. "Working for his dad..."

"Taking a job he don't need and other people could use," Hicks agreed. "Where you working, Sammy?"

The boy answered with a head shake.

No where.

Davies circled a few more lines on the rap sheet and pushed it back to Hicks.

"Says here you're a copper merchant."

Sammy poked a finger against the table top. "That's not right."

Huddled close to the TV screen, I tossed an inquiring glance at Craig.

"Stripping wires from abandoned buildings for metal recycling," he whispered. "Kid probably got caught trespassing with tools before."

Still taking notes, I nodded as Davies gave Sammy a verbal poke.

"You just got lucky, no charges the first time and a youthful offender deal the second...."

Hicks looked at his partner. "Lots of copper in Serrano's building."

Sammy started to shift in his seat, his hands restless on the table. "You got it wrong--"

"You have the phone," Davies accused.

"I found it, I told you!"

"We'll see." Davies pulled out the picture of the white truck. "Get you in a line-up, see what he says."

Hicks nodded and pulled out his phone. He punched a number in and the pocket of the cop who had taken the picture into the interview room started to vibrate. He pulled his phone out, gave a clipped "Yeah?"

On screen, Hicks talked into his phone. "Mr. Phelps, this is Detective Hicks again."

"Hello, Detective Hicks."

Listening to the fake exchange, my heart began to beat faster. Both Hicks and Davies were like hunting dogs at last, the scent of blood in their nostrils as they circled Sammy.

"I was wondering if you could come down to the station today, see if you recognize anyone in a line-up."

"Sure, anything to help the police out, Detective Hicks." The cop pocketed the phone again.

In the interview room, Sammy rose to his feet.

Hicks' hand bobbed over the table. "Sit down, son."

"I ain't under arrest, you said so. I don't have to wait around no more."

"But you took the phone," Davies said, standing.

"Doesn't mean I killed Ray!"

"No, but you stole his phone. We could arrest you right now, you don't want to cooperate," Davies threatened.

Hicks seemed to go soft on the boy. "Sammy, we arrest you now, I don't know how you're ever going to clear your name. You have this one chance to tell your story before this guy comes in and identifies you, before we get a warrant for your DNA and match it up with what we already found on Ray's jacket."

Sinking back into his chair, Sammy hid his face behind his hands and moaned.

"You know the difference between manslaughter and murder?" Hicks asked, reaching across the table to rest his hand on Sammy's shoulder.

At "murder," Sammy moaned again, the sound breaking halfway into a keening noise.

"It's the difference between having a life after jail and spending life in jail, son. That's what it is." Hicks got up, went around to Sammy's side of the table and knelt next to the young man. "And I know you didn't go into that building intending to kill Ray Epps."

A sob broke from Claire Epps. The female detective in the screening area pushed Craig to the side and wrapped an arm around the woman's shoulder while Hicks sank another hook into Sammy. I had to admit that, once he had the right suspect in the interrogation room, Hicks had some skills I hadn't expected. No wonder failing to get a confession from Alex had chafed his ass.

"I know you didn't mean to because it made you sick afterwards. That's your vomit on the jacket, isn't it?"

Sammy's head moved, bobbing in a half nod. Davies pulled out a large legal pad and started writing on it while Hicks rubbed Sammy's back.

"You thought the building was empty, knew Serrano didn't have any security on the site and that there would be stuff you could take -- wiring, maybe even tools."

Another nod from Sammy and Claire Epps doubled over in her chair, her arms around her stomach as she listened to Hicks walk Sammy through the murder.

"He tried to do good by that boy, tried to find him work..." Spasms shuddered through her.

On screen, Hicks kept talking the boy closer to prison. "You didn't even know it was Ray that came back, could have been someone else looking to boost the wiring."

"I didn't know, I didn't," Sammy sobbed. "I was afraid it might be a burglar..."

"So you grabbed the axe..."

"No...no," Claire moaned.

I retreated to the window sill as the female detective tried to console Ray's wife. The woman's pain was palpable. Her whole body shook with it. Her hands crawled up to her face, pulled at her hair.

Feeling like I had somehow inflicted this on Claire, like I had all but driven the woman to the station house and sat her down in the chair to listen to Sammy's confession, I left the screening area. It was as good as over. Davies was writing out the confession. In a few seconds Sammy would sign it, admitting to what he thought was manslaughter but was really felony murder. The prosecutor wouldn't need to prove that Sammy had known it was Ray or that he had intended to kill anyone. Corbin would just have to show the felony and that Ray had died in the course of it.

I walked down the hall, the sound of Claire's cries following me. I opened the door to the second interview room where Vivian still waited staring up angrily at the camera.

"He's confessed," I said.

Air rushed from Vivian in one shuddering breath. She closed her eyes and tears started rolling down her cheeks. "What about Alex?"

"Working on it." I pulled my cell phone out and texted Malkin. When I was done, I put the phone away and held my hand out to Vivian. "Right now, there's someone else who needs you."

Vivian shook her head. "Momma...she thought--"

"Doesn't matter what she thought," I said, my mind instantly going to how my hurt feelings over Dante had kept me away from my own mother for so long. I leaned toward Vivian, keeping my hand out until the girl accepted it.

I guided her to the cubicle and motioned for the cops to clear out. Claire was still curled over herself, sobbing violently. Vivian put a hand to the back of Claire's neck -- something familiar and comforting in the girl's touch or her heat calmed the woman. Claire looked up, her face swollen and wet. She opened her mouth as if she was going to speak, but nothing came out.

Vivian leaned down, wrapping her arms around her mother's shoulders. Claire broke all over again, this time ragged words issuing between the heaving pain.

"I'm so sorry, baby girl."

I left the women alone in the cube. My phone vibrated with a new text as I joined Craig in the hall outside the squad room. I read the message from Alex's new attorney. "Malkin's talking to the prosecutor."

"Man, I wasn't sure Hicks was going to let the kid get interrogated." Craig shook his head, smiling. "How'd you get Davies to force it?"