IT WAS LATE AFTERNOON BY the time they reached the hospital.
They found Shauna Arthur sitting outside a cubicle in the recovery room, leafing through a magazine. “Hey,” she said, greeting them. “Your boy’s awake.”
Vikki and Joe peered through the glass window into Declan Rooney’s room. The head of the bed was raised, and Rooney’s head lolled back against a pillow.
The patient’s head was swathed in bandages, and his jaw had a gruesome-looking metal appliance affixed to it. One eye was blackened, the other was only visible through a tiny slit cut in a thick gauze pad. “Looks like he got run over by a train,” Vikki said cheerfully.
“Or sideswiped by a walker,” Joe agreed. He turned to his partner. “Thanks again, Shauna. We’ll take it from here.”
Rooney’s head moved slightly, and when they opened the door his groan was audible through the layers of bandages.
“Hey, Rooney,” Joe said. He held out a box of chocolate-covered caramels he’d picked up in the hospital gift shop. “Brought you a little get-well present.”
The patient’s lips moved and his response was vehement. “Fuck you.”
“Oh good,” Vikki said, pulling up a vinyl-covered chair and seating herself. “He’s conscious and talking.” She opened the box of candy and popped one into her mouth. “Since he won’t be able to chew for a while, I’m sure he won’t mind sharing.”
Joe set the caramels on the nightstand, and then he took his phone from his pocket, swiped it over to record, and set it beside the candy. “Since you’re awake, we thought you might like to answer some questions.”
Rooney turned his head to face a wall with a bland framed pastel print of flowers in a pink vase. “Go away.”
“Now, don’t be like that,” Joe said. “You know, if you cooperate, I can talk to the district attorney about maybe getting your sentence reduced. You’re facing kidnapping and assault charges here, as well as breaking and entering, and theft by taking. Not to mention possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. And then there are the old fraud charges dating back to five years ago.”
Vikki leaned closer to the bed. “Joe! Don’t forget that little incident down in Immokalee.”
DeCurtis smacked his forehead. “Oh yeah. I should catch you up on that. The cops down there found a body way out in the swamp. Somebody shot a guy and then set the car on fire. The corpse was in pretty bad shape by the time they found it, but fortunately they were able to lift your late buddy Chuck’s fingerprint and identify him that way.”
Rooney’s shoulders lifted in a barely perceptible shrug. “Too bad.”
“Yeah, it was too bad,” Joe said. “He’d only been out of prison, what? A day or so?”
“Don’t know,” Rooney said. It sounded like he had a mouth full of marbles.
“We think you do know,” Vikki said. “After Joe mentioned that you and Chuck liked to gamble at Indian casinos, the sheriff down there told us there happens to be a Seminole casino right there in Immokalee. They checked the casino’s security cameras, and sure enough, they’ve got you and Chuck, on camera, at adjoining slot machines.”
“You know what else?” Joe asked. “They’ve even got security cameras out in the parking lot there. Because sometimes, unsavory criminals like you take advantage of gamblers who’ve been playing poker and slots and drinking cheap booze for hours and hours. Anyway, it’s a good thing, because the cameras show you getting into a vehicle and driving away with Chuck. And that’s the last time anyone saw the poor dumb bastard.”
Vikki crossed her legs and looked around the hospital room. “You know I think the jails and hospitals down here in Florida are probably way nicer than the ones in New York City, don’t you? I’ve heard some bad stuff happens at Rikers Island.”
“Probably so,” Joe said. “Although I myself hate New York like the plague.”
“New York?” Rooney shook his head slightly, looking confused.
“Yeah. That’s where your girlfriend Tanya was living with her little girl, Maya. The same little girl you tried to snatch this morning,” Joe said. “And don’t try to tell us you haven’t been to New York, or that you haven’t seen Tanya, because we have video of that, too.”
“No way,” Rooney said. His words seemed to run together. “Neverbeenthere.”
“Way,” Vikki assured him. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’ll jog your memory. This was back in late February. You visited Tanya in her town house. She seemed pretty surprised to see you, but you told her you’d tracked her down through her agent. Any of this ringing a bell with you?”
Rooney was silent.
“I’ll bet it was a shock, seeing her after what, five years?” Joe said. “But the biggest shock must have been seeing that little girl, Maya. I’m guessing you didn’t even know Tanya was knocked up when you and Chuck left her behind at the motel. Right? What happened? Did she call you that night and tell you we were arresting her and looking for you two?”
Rooney reached out his hand, groping for the foam cup of water sitting on the nightstand. Vikki handed him the cup. “I love these bendy straws they give you in the hospital, don’t you, Rooney? I hope they give you a nice supply of them when they transfer you over to the jail.”
“Did the doctors tell you how long your jaw will be wired up like that, Rooney?” Joe asked. “I bet it’s gonna hurt like hell, riding in the back seat of a squad car all the way to New York. Those cruisers aren’t exactly built for a smooth ride.”
“I didn’t do anything in New York,” Rooney said, suddenly animated. “I went to see Tanya, that’s all. You can ask the kid. I didn’t kill Tanya.”
“Okay,” Vikki said. “Let’s change the subject for a minute. Why’d you kidnap Maya? A guy like you doesn’t seem like daddy material to me.”
“I’m tired.” Rooney closed his eyes, but Vikki snapped her fingers under his nose.
“You can sleep when you’re dead, Rooney. Tell us why you took Maya.”
His eyelids fluttered open. “After I saw Tanya, I was still in New York. I had … business. I saw in the paper that Tanya was dead. And that guy, Wingfield, was offering a reward for the kid’s return. Ten thousand dollars. I thought maybe I could help.”
“In other words, you wanted to cash in. So you tried to call Wingfield? We saw his number in your phone,” Vikki said.
“I left a message, but he never called back. I was kinda between business opportunities, which was why I hunted up Tanya. But she swore she didn’t know where the merch was. Anyway, I came back down here to look for it.”
“You mean, you came up here to look for your loot. After Immokalee, where you killed Chuck. Did you get him to tell you where he hid the stuff? Is that why you broke into my room?” Vikki asked.
Rooney, feigning exhaustion, closed his eyes again. “My head hurts. You people need to go.”
“Let’s talk for a little while longer,” Joe said. “Why grab Maya?”
“Mistake,” Rooney murmured. “I saw her, looking for that cat, and I remembered the reward, and Wingfield. I still had his number in my phone. I figured I’d do a good deed. Reunite the kid with her father.”
“You thought you’d snatch the kid and hold her for ransom. You knew Wingfield wasn’t Maya’s father. Tanya as much as told you so, although you had to have realized it the first time you set eyes on her,” Vikki said.
Rooney snapped back to attention. “That kid could be anybody’s. Tanya? She was always working an angle. She found a rich guy and told him he was the baby daddy. That’s on her, not me.”
“Get real,” Joe guffawed. “Any idiot can tell that kid has your exact same eyes. She’s yours, all right. So, did you get Chuck to tell you where he hid all your loot before you killed him?”
“I need you people to go away,” Rooney said. “I think I got a concussion. I need some pain meds.”
“Later,” Vikki said. “Tell us what Chuck told you about the loot from your gold-and-silver-buying scam.”
Rooney looked offended. “Hey, man! We bought that stuff fair and square. All those people? They came to us. We didn’t have to twist anybody’s arm.”
“If everything was on the up-and-up, why’d you run?” Joe asked. “Why leave Tanya behind, holding the bag?”
Rooney probed his jaw with his hand. “Jesus. It’s like they wired my face together with coat hangers. I’m probably gonna be scarred for life now.”
“Don’t try and change the subject,” Joe said. “You ripped off those old people. You bought a thirty-thousand-dollar antique watch from Trudi Maples for three thousand dollars and told her that’s all the gold was worth, but you damn sure knew its true value. You, Chuck, and Tanya operated your con for a good two weeks before we shut you down. We searched your room, after we arrested Tanya, but came up with nothing. Which was why the DA eventually let her walk. You and your pal Chuck were in the wind, but the loot—you didn’t have the loot. Right?”
There was an extended quiet in the room. Vikki helped herself to another caramel and chewed loudly. “Damn, these are good. You might as well tell us the truth, Rooney. You’re looking at a long stretch of prison time. Help us out, fill in the details, and Joe here will try to help you out. Maybe he can even talk the cops in New York into believing you didn’t kill your baby mama.”
“I never touched Tanya,” Rooney repeated. “And you can’t prove I did.”
“Tell us what happened. Five years ago, after we arrested Tanya,” Joe repeated.
“That crazy old bastard Chuck! We never should’ve hooked up with him. That was all Tanya. I think she had, like, daddy issues. We were doing good with the gold and silver thing. Making some solid buys. I wanted to move on to the next town. You know, before things got complicated here in Treasure Island. Tanya, she wanted to stay.”
“You were already thinking of dumping her, right?” Vikki asked.
“It crossed my mind,” he admitted. “I don’t know why I always manage to get mixed up with chicks who are batshit crazy. That night, me and Chuck wanted to go to the dog track. Tanya was being a whiny pain in the ass, so we left her at the motel. I won a couple quinellas and a perfecta. A real winning streak. But Tanya kept calling and texting, so I just turned my phone off. Who needs that shit when you’re winning? Am I right?”
Vikki rolled her eyes. “Totally.”
“Chuck said he knew some girls who worked at a strip club over near MacDill. That’s the air force base. He wanted to have some drinks and get laid, and I thought, okay, whatever. But that’s when I turned my phone on and saw the text from Tanya. So we headed back over to the beach, to check things out. But the motel parking lot was crawling with cops. I said we should stop, but Chuck insisted we should go on back to Tampa.”
“As if,” Vikki said. “I’m sure you were super worried about Tanya.”
“I knew Tanya could handle things.”
“But the loot was back at the Surf, right?” Joe put in.
“The plan was we’d go back over there to the motel after things quieted down, and we’d get the stuff and blow town.”
“But even the best-laid plans, right?” Vikki said.
“Huh? Anyway, we went back over to the club, and Chuck got shitfaced, and when he got like that, he turned mean. Like, crazy mean. We were on the way out of the club with the girls, and the bouncer said something to Chuck, and the next thing I know, that crazy bastard pulled a knife on the bouncer. The dude was half his age and twice his size! Then the cops came and things were getting real. I managed to slip away in the confusion.”
“Lucky you,” Joe said. “So, Tanya’s in jail in St. Pete, Chuck’s in jail in Tampa, and you’re footloose and fancy-free. But you still don’t know where the loot was hidden. Am I right?”
Rooney rubbed his jaw again. “I don’t have to talk to you people. I’m in pain here.” He reached for a cord tethered to the side of his bed and made a show of pushing the call button. In another minute, the door opened and a nurse popped his head in.
“Everything okay in here?”
“No,” Rooney said. “Isn’t it time for my pain meds yet?”
The nurse looked at the chart clipped to the wall near the door. “Not quite yet.”
“How about something for my anxiety?” Rooney whined. “I feel like my blood pressure’s about to shoot through the roof here.”
“I’ll talk to the doctor when he makes rounds,” the nurse said.
“Never mind,” Vikki Hill said. “We’re leaving now.” She stood up and helped herself to another piece of candy. “But we’ll be back.”