I woke feeling refreshed on Thursday morning but shook my head as I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but wounds healed and bruises faded over time. During my lunch break, I planned to call an alarm company to have a system installed. My home would be a mini Fort Knox, and soon enough, the Vasquez brothers would join their sister and Hal Morton behind bars. Life would continue, and we would move on to the next case.
I gave Bandit a thorough scratch behind his ears as he ate, then I put him outside to do his business while I showered and got ready for work.
An hour later, I placed my hand on the palm reader as I checked through to the homicide unit at our precinct. Henry, carrying a folder, met up with me as I walked the hallway toward the bull pen.
“It’s crazy in there, Jesse. Just giving you a heads-up.”
I frowned. “Crazy how? Were the Vasquez brothers found?”
“Nope, but something very interesting came over the wire this morning.”
I folded my arms over my chest as I leaned against the wall. “Go on.”
“That list Maria Vasquez gave you and Frank yesterday went out to every law enforcement agency in the Midwest just in case the Vasquez boys decided to run.”
“Uh-huh, and then what?”
“There was a hit just outside Poplar Bluff, Missouri. A local man walking his dog this morning smelled a rancid odor coming from the woods about a mile from his house. I guess he let the dog lead the way, thinking it could be a dead deer or something of that nature. Curiosity, if nothing else, I imagine. The man stumbled upon a Honda Odyssey with two dead men inside, hidden deep in the brush. The local forensic team printed the bodies on-site and got a hit. They were Norman Flek, aka Nubby, and Lonny Mares, both names on Maria’s list. The Honda was reported stolen right here in Chicago last Sunday night.”
“Wow, I have to process that and figure out how everything ties together.”
“Yep, Lutz said that’s our job for today. The rest of the team is working on the other names to see if they all connect somehow.” Henry tipped his head toward the bull pen. “Frank is already here and digging in.”
“Where were you going?”
“To give Lutz the files on both men. They had extensive criminal records, mainly here in the Chicagoland area.”
“Okay, I’ll see where Frank is with everything.”
I walked into the bull pen and saw Frank at his desk. Paperwork and empty cardboard coffee cups surrounded his laptop.
“Jeez, what time did you get here?”
He looked at me then at the clock. “Sevenish.”
“Why?”
“Lutz called and said to get a head start on the men found in the woods. They’re tied to the Tina Morton murder case, but we don’t know how.”
“And nobody thought to call me?”
He shrugged. “Take it up with Lutz. He said to let you get some rest.”
“Humph. I guess he meant well. So what do we know about these guys in Missouri?”
Frank picked up the receiver. “I may as well put Attorney Bell’s name on speed dial. The information we need has to come from Maria herself since nobody else in the family is talking, and as long as we have to interview her one more time, she better tell us what she knows about every name on that list.”
A half hour later, Maria’s attorney arrived, and we passed Lutz’s office on our way downstairs.
“Hang on a sec, Frank.” I knocked on the commander’s door, and he said to come in.
“Boss, what are we going to do with Hal?”
Bob looked at the clock and rubbed his forehead. “We have to cut him loose for now. Maybe we can get Maria to turn on him if we can’t track down the brothers. He may not have stabbed Tina to death, but he knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it. That much I’m sure of.”
I slapped the doorframe before continuing on. “Okay, we’re headed there now to see how she knows those dead men in Missouri and why they were in that area.”
Lutz opened his top desk drawer and pulled out Hal’s folder then handed it to me. “Have Bill Rebach sign Hal’s release forms and then bring them back here.”
“Sure thing.”
Downstairs, Frank and I again took seats opposite Maria Vasquez.
“This is getting tiresome, Maria. You’re playing a dangerous game that you won’t win.”
Attorney Bell interrupted. “You’re supposed to be speaking through me.”
“Okay, buddy, tell your client we want to know how she’s acquainted with each name she gave us. If we have to come down here one more time, the deal is off the table, and we’ll go with Hal’s testimony that she orchestrated the murder of his wife with the help of her brothers.”
Maria yelled out, surprising us all. “I don’t know anybody by their full names. Keeping real names secret was a deliberate act to protect identities. What I gave you is what I know.”
Frank leaned toward her. “Who are Nubby and Lon?”
“They’re hired helpers.”
“To do what?”
“Whatever my family needs. Lawn maintenance, handyman services, that sort of thing. They’re harmless.”
I smiled before correcting her. “Were.”
Bell frowned at me. “Clarify that please, Detective McCord.”
“They were both found dead in Missouri this morning, and my question is, why were they in a stolen van and shot in the back of the heads, execution style, if they were such harmless men?”
She curled her hands into fists and slammed them against the table. “I don’t know.”
With my index finger, I jabbed the list of names. “Who on this list do Mauricio and Antonio hang out with?”
Her face reddened, and her eyes bulged as she turned to her attorney. He nodded for her to continue.
“My brothers are close to Conway and Cruz. I don’t know their first names or where they live, so don’t bother asking. Find them and you may get the answers you want.”
“Are they local to the area?” Frank asked.
She rolled her eyes then pressed her head between her hands. “Like I said before, I don’t know shit other than partial names. Now, may I go back to my cell?”
I laughed. “Sure, you may as well get comfortable there since finding the people on your so-called list could take a hell of a long time.”
Frank and I left the interrogation room and returned to the bull pen, where we began the tedious job of looking through criminal records for people with the last names Conway and Cruz. We would start locally and hope for a hit on the right men. If Chicago didn’t pan out, we’d have to expand our search.
I called out to Henry, whose desk was three away from my own. “Johnson.”
“Yep?”
“Who’s following up on Norman Flek and Lonny Mares?”
“Potter and I are. Lutz has the hard copies of their police records. Their crimes go back twenty years or more. It seems like the Vasquez family only works with criminals, including their own sons, and it makes me wonder why.”
I rubbed my chin while I thought. “Okay, we know that van was stolen right from Chicago, so we’ll consider that their starting point. They didn’t shoot themselves in the heads and dump the Odyssey.”
Frank chimed in. “So somebody was with them that wanted them out of the way. Lon and Nubby were disposable. Call the Poplar Bluff coroner and get their TOD. Then find out if anyone reported a stolen vehicle in a twenty-mile radius of that area and within an hour of their deaths. Somebody drove away from that scene, and we need to know who it was and where they’re going. They probably took the plates with them and put them on the next car. Have Tech check into reports of plates stolen off of vehicles right here in Chicago.”
Henry wrote that down. “Sure thing, and I’ll keep you updated.”
I let out a long groan and looked at Frank. “Ready to spend the day with our asses planted on these god-awful uncomfortable chairs?”
“Yep, if it’s going to get us the answers we need. If we find out who Conway and Cruz are, we may locate the Vasquez brothers too.”