“You are stubborn. I’ll give you that.” Lutz shook his head at me.
“Boss, just because my body hurts doesn’t mean my mind isn’t capable of working.”
I sat with the rest of our detectives in the roll call room as we put together a plan of action. After the security company driver positively identified Mauricio from his mug shot, an APB was issued for the Vasquez brothers. The DMV records showed Mauricio owned a 2008 black Chevy Caprice, and a BOLO was put out for the vehicle.
“Now it’s time to put the pressure on Maria. We’ll let her know we have a DNA match and she’s going to take the fall for Tina Morton’s murder if she doesn’t start talking. We need names of every Vasquez relative and known associate of the brothers,” I said.
“I’ll get their faces on every news channel. It’s about the only thing the media is good for these days. Usually, they interfere more than they help,” Lutz said. The commander pointed at Frank and me. “I’ve already contacted Maria Vasquez’s attorney, and he’s on his way. Lay everything on the table and make sure she knows where your injuries came from, McCord. Say that Hal threw her under the bus, and he’ll get immunity for his testimony against her. Neither Maria nor her attorney will know if that’s true or not. Tell her she’ll stand trial alone and get thirty to life unless she coughs up every detail about Tina’s murder and where her brothers are located. I’m sure her attorney will want to make a deal since she has nothing to bargain with.” Lutz jerked his chin toward the door. “Go ahead and do that now.”
I let out an involuntary groan as I stood, then I held up my hand right when Lutz started to protest. “I’m good, Bob, just sore.”
Frank led the way but not to the stairs.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“To the service elevator. As slow as you’re moving, it’ll be time to go home before we get to the interrogation room.”
I snickered as I held my ribs. “You’re a laugh a minute, buddy.”
Frank raised his brows. “Yeah, take a look in the mirror. Now get in the elevator.”
Bill Rebach, the daytime officer in charge of the jail area, had already placed Maria in box three by the time we arrived. With our weapons stowed, we met up with Maria’s attorney in the hallway and entered the interrogation room together. Maria glanced at us with a look of surprise covering her face.
“Get into an accident, Detective McCord?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did, but it was a run-in with your brothers, not another vehicle.”
She suddenly went quiet and stared at her attorney, Jared Bell.
Frank slid out both chairs, and we sat down. Her lawyer took a seat at Maria’s side. “Cat got your tongue, Maria?” Frank asked.
“I’ll talk on her behalf.”
I nodded. “That’s fine. She can listen. She’ll get a reduced sentence, but it’ll only be honored if her information pans out. As of right now, she’s looking at thirty to life.” I locked eyes with Maria. “Hal has given you up and said you orchestrated the murder of his wife and had your brothers carry out the deed. We have DNA proof.”
She pounded the table. “How dare he—”
Attorney Bell snapped his head toward her. “Maria, shut up. I’ll do the talking.”
I smiled and knew we were getting to her. “We want to know who your brothers run with, what members of your family have no problem working outside the law, and where your brothers are hiding out. We have officers watching their apartments and your parents’ home. Neither of your brothers has shown up. We’re thinking you gave them the ‘get out of town’ orders before we picked you up or when you made your call from here yesterday. Am I getting warm?”
Her attorney jotted down notes. “Continue.”
“Family names and known associates right now, or she’ll be charged with the murder of Tina Morton and Hal will be released.” I passed a legal pad across the table. “Start writing, or we’re leaving.”
Attorney Bell nodded at Maria. “Go ahead.”
Fifteen minutes later, with ten names on the pad, Frank and I stood and walked to the door. “We’ll be in touch.”
Frank chuckled as we entered the elevator and rode it to our floor. “Maria is going to go ballistic when she realizes that all of them will be charged with Tina’s murder.”
“Yep, all four of them are looking at a minimum of twenty to life. Now, let’s find those Vasquez brothers.”
We made a stop at Lutz’s office before returning to the bull pen, and I waved the legal pad at the commander. “We have names, Bob.”
Lutz pushed back his chair and rounded the desk. “Good. Let’s sit in the bull pen and go over the list. The news stations will be airing the brothers’ descriptions and mug shots around the clock. The BOLO for the Caprice and the APBs are in place. Now it’s up to us and Patrol to track down those murderers.”
We gathered around the table at the back of our bull pen. Lutz and six homicide detectives with laptops in front of them went over the names Maria provided. How honest she was, we didn’t know. Some names could be fictitious, some could be real, and the most important people could have been left out altogether, but we had to start somewhere. Maria’s parents had been interviewed already and gave us nothing, but since we had no leverage to use against them, they had no reason to talk. With a list of four Vasquez names in other states and another six known associates, we had something to begin with.
“Let’s enter these names into the criminal database first and see where we are with them, then we’ll go from there,” Lutz said.
It was pushing five o’clock by the time we had compiled the information we needed. Out of ten names, six were men with police records, and none of them had the last name Vasquez.
I slapped the table. “Was she playing us?”
Henry pulled up the surname Vasquez in the national database. He nodded. “I bet she was. There are over one hundred thousand men with the last name Vasquez in the United States, and many of them have the same first name.”
Lutz groaned and told me in no uncertain terms to go home. They would work the list on their own for the next hour, then the evening crew would be in at six o’clock. He reminded me that not only was my house still unsecure, but I hadn’t picked up Bandit from the animal hospital either.
“Abrams has a patrol unit stationed in front of your house and one at each end of your block. You’ll have police protection around the clock until the threat to you is over. Nobody will get past those officers. Do what you can to get those cameras set up, and make sure you get an alarm system installed as soon as you can that connects directly with the district police station.”
I knew protesting would fall on deaf ears. When Lutz put his foot down, it generally stayed down. I left our district precinct and headed to the animal hospital. My pup needed to go home, and I couldn’t wait to see him again. As I drove, I called the security company and asked if somebody was still available to show up that day. They agreed to send a crew to my house at six o’clock. With a thanks for their understanding and an apology for the earlier attack on their employees, I hung up and made my final work-related call of the day. I asked Lutz to have Abrams tell his patrol officers that a security installation crew was coming to my house at six o’clock. They needed to be allowed through, and I would do my best to be home before that.
I turned in to the lot at the Hyde Park Animal Hospital, parked and went inside, told the receptionist who I was and my pet’s name, then waited as she made a call. I noticed the longer-than-necessary stare she gave me.
I gently touched my head injury. “I tripped over my feet.”
She nodded as if she accepted that answer. “The vet tech is bringing Bandit out. It’ll be a few minutes.”
I thanked her and took a seat. A program about dog training played on the TV in the corner of the room. Minutes later, I heard the click, click, click of toenails against the tile. Bandit was headed my way under his own power. He squealed and lost traction on the smooth tile as he tried to get to me faster than his feet could manage. I knelt on the floor and scooped him up in my arms. “How ya doing, buddy?”
He answered by covering my face with wet licks.
“Ready to go home, Bandit?”
He let out more squeals and spun in circles as I fastened the leash to his collar.
“Give me just a second here to settle up.”
The vet tech laughed. “Just make sure Bandit drinks plenty of water and stays relatively calm. He was lucky this time. Please check that there aren’t any harmful chemicals or products within his reach too.”
I thanked him and paid the bill, but I wasn’t going to explain that two lowlife criminals had deliberately poisoned Bandit. I was one hundred percent sure the Vasquez brothers were behind everything that had happened to me over the last few days.
Bandit happily trotted to the car and jumped in on the passenger side. Hopefully, within the next few days, the Vasquez name would be just a bad memory. Everyone involved in Tina’s murder, Bandit’s poisoning, and the attacks on the security installers and me would be behind bars where they belonged.
After pulling onto my street, I rolled up to the patrol unit at the next block and stopped. “Hey, Graves. Has a security company come through on their way to my house?”
“Not yet, Detective McCord. They may have entered the block from the other end, though.”
“Sure, no problem. Thanks, and keep up the good work.”
Continuing on, I passed six houses by the time I reached my own. A patrol car sat along the curb on the opposite side of the street, and there was no sign of a security van. I waved to the officers and pulled into my garage with time to get Bandit settled and fed before the installers arrived.
I had mapped out the spots around the house where I wanted the six cameras and motion-sensor lights. Each corner, the side gate, and the sliders would have cameras. The corner cameras would face outward, and the gate and slider cameras would face those points of entry. Every camera and light would be triggered upon movement that was twenty inches above the ground’s surface. I would schedule an alarm system to be installed next week, and that would alert the police station. For now, the cameras and lights would be a good deterrent.
My phone rang at exactly six o’clock. It was Graves calling from the end of the block. “We just let a Windy City Security van through, Detective McCord.”
“Okay, I see them coming. Thanks.” I hung up, made sure Bandit was lying comfortably on the couch, and grabbed the diagram I had plotted. I would walk the perimeter of the house with the installers and show them exactly where I wanted the cameras.