| |
Ryan entered the Huckleberry Police Station and was handed a sheet of papers.
“What’s this?” he asked Officer Blane.
“The information on the two men Deputy Speaks brought in.” He was grinning like he’d collared a serial killer.
“That was fast.”
“When we put in the name of the owner on the vehicle registration, it popped up Toby Brown. The photo matched. The information in the system said he had priors with Doobie Smith. Put his name in, and boom, there was the other guy. Pulled up their priors.”
“Who is in the interview room?” Ryan glanced through the list of priors.
“Doobie. He seemed like the slowest of the two.” Blane winked and walked back to his desk.
Ryan shook his head. The young man had a lot to learn about police work, but he’d pulled together the paperwork Ryan needed for his questioning.
He entered the interview room. Doobie was sitting in the chair, his arms to his sides, his gaze on a spot on the ceiling. Speaks stood inside the door watching him.
“I want a lawyer,” Doobie said when Ryan sat in the chair across from him.
“Deputy Speaks would you bring a phone in here so Mr. Smith can make a phone call?” Ryan watched the scrawny, dirty man in front of him.
“How did you know my name?”
“Toby told me. He said you were the one with the idea to torch the diner last night.” Ryan had to get the man talking before Speaks came back with a phone. He knew the deputy would take his time, but he didn’t know how gullible Smith was going to be.
“That was his idea. I wanted to go in and take that box from them.”
“What box?” Ryan asked.
His small dilated eyes bounced around in his eyes sockets. “The box. The one the old broad talked about.”
“What was in the box? Money? Jewelry?” Ryan’s mind went to the man’s unkempt hair and the thought when he shook, fleas could fly out.
Smith shook his head, but not vigorously. “Naw. Something the boss wanted destroyed.”
“Boss? Toby said he was the boss.” Ryan didn’t mind using misinformation to make a killer or thief talk.
The man laughed, showing nasty brown teeth. He not only didn’t take baths, it appeared he didn’t take care of his teeth either. But then, he’d been living in a car.
“Toby ain’t no boss. He bosses me around, but he don’t call the shots. Mr. Barsotti does.” As if saying the name jogged his memory, the man’s face paled and his eyes searched the room. “You ain’t going to tell anyone I said that, are you?”
“It’s just between you and me. Why did the boss want the box?” Ryan could be this man’s friend until he got the information he needed.
“Don’t know. He just said, get the box and destroy it.” He grinned. “We didn’t get it, but we destroyed it.”
“You set a business on fire. That’s arson.”
“We didn’t kill no one. We seen them leave the building. All three of ’em.”
A shiver raced up Ryan’s spine. Shandra had just stepped out of the building they’d set on fire. He was surprised they hadn’t noticed her Jeep drive by them this morning.
“Why were you still watching Ruthie Kerby this morning if you destroyed the box?”
The man clamped his mouth shut.
What made watching Ruthie more of a threat to him than torching the restaurant? This man had given him good evidence, but he had a feeling he wasn’t the one who they’d get to turn on Barsotti. He didn’t know the reason behind any of the things he did. They needed evidence to prove Barsotti was behind the hitman after Narvel and the one who killed Kerby.
“Did you and Toby go to the wedding on Saturday and kill a man?” Ryan studied Doobie closely.
“We didn’t kill no one. We was following the old broad. We were told her daughter was getting married and to see if the father showed up.” Doobie sat up. “We didn’t know it was him when we first seen him. He was in a car with a younger woman when they came to the wedding. She stopped a short ways up the driveway to the wedding. Then she took off again. Later we heard the father of the bride was killed. We didn’t do it.”
Ryan now knew how Donald had arrived at the wedding. Which meant he had to have contacted Chea to know about the wedding and to take him there. Why had she left that out?
Speaks entered at that moment with a phone. He plugged it into a jack in the wall.
“Take the phone away and escort Mr. Doobie to a cell. He’s under arrest for arson.”
“Hey, you said— ”
“I said I wouldn’t mention what you said to Mr. Barsotti, I didn’t say I wouldn’t arrest you.” Ryan waved for Speaks to take the man away. He checked the recording device that had been sitting on the table. It had recorded the whole session.
Blane popped his head in the door. “Ready for the next one?”
“Yes.” Scanning Toby Brown’s priors, Ryan knew this man wouldn’t be as easy to trick into spilling information.
The door opened and Blane escorted the taller, broader shouldered man into the room. He had a short, military haircut. His clothes were also reminiscent of military clothes. Drab green pants, black T-shirt, even military boots. This was the brains and the brawn of the two.
“Mr. Brown, have a seat.” Ryan motioned to the seat across the table from him.
“I want a lawyer.” The man’s tone was as clipped and demanding as any drill sergeant Ryan had in the military.
“Officer Blane, would you please bring a phone in for Mr. Brown to call his lawyer?”
Blane grinned and stepped out of the room.
“Mr. Brown, I’ll be recording this conversation.” Ryan clicked the button on the recording machine.
The man crossed his arms and glared.
“Your partner, Doobie, said it was your idea to torch the diner last night.” Ryan saw the man’s jaw twitch.
“He also said you were both working for a Mr. Vince Barsotti.”
A fist hit the table. “That little snitch! I knew I shouldn’t have brought him along.”
“What exactly did Mr. Barsotti tell you to do?”
Silence. The man had crossed his arms again.
“Why did you kill Donald Kerby?”
“I didn’t kill anyone.” The man remained with crossed arms and his dark eyes glared.
“But you were sent here to see if Donald Kerby showed up to his daughter’s wedding. And he ended up dead. I don’t find that a coincidence.” Ryan spread the list of Toby’s priors across the table. “You have a long list of arson, assaults, and your wanted for questioning in connection with a homicide or two in Seattle. I could put in a good word for you if you come clean about killed Kerby.”
“I didn’t kill no one.”
“You didn’t see him, walk up behind him, and slug him in the side of the head with a branch or a wooden post?” Ryan didn’t like giving away the weapon but he had to see this man’s reaction.
“I only saw the man when he arrived with the woman.”
“Then how do you know he was the man you were looking for?” Ryan had caught him.
Brown swore under his breath. “I followed him through the trees. He went in the house. Then came out again, avoiding the people waiting in the barn.”
“You followed him behind the barn and killed him.”
“No. The bride came running out of the house. I ducked back around the side and waited. When I was going to follow, another woman came running toward the house, then a big black man, another woman...” he narrowed his eyes. “And you. There were too many people wandering around, looking for the bride. I left.”
“Did you see anything when you left?” As much as he didn’t want to believe the man, he did.
“Nothing. But before we got back to town a car sped by us.”
“What kind?”
“Your average four door sedan.”
“The color?”
“Cream or gold. Couldn’t tell it was covered in dust.”
Blane entered with the phone.
“Put Mr. Brown in a cell and book him on arson.” Ryan stood and walked out of the room. While Vince Barsotti was trying to cover his tracks from a hit gone wrong twenty some years ago, he didn’t think the man or his goons had anything to do with Donald Kerby’s murder. Which meant it was someone local.