Chapter Sixteen
Lexi was in her studio using CAD software in creating a design for a boutique desert resort for one of her clients.
She was excited about the opportunity and delivering on the concept as laid out to her.
The fact that she was now in a romantic relationship again to give balance to her life made it all the more fulfilling.
When her cell phone rang, Lexi grabbed it off the desk and smiled as the caller was Cooper. “Hey,” she said in answering.
“Hey. Wanted to let you know that we’ve got the two men who invaded Eleanor’s home in custody and also located her vehicle and other items we believe belong to Eleanor.”
“Really?” Lexi reacted, satisfied. “That’s great to hear—and it’s good that they’re off the streets so Eleanor can feel safe again.”
“Yeah, I concur.” Cooper paused. “I want you to feel safe again, too, Lexi, given that the home invaders—identified as Darren Fonseca and Lonnie Saldana—are likely the same ones who were stalking you.”
Lexi pondered this before remarking, “About that…if these men—or one of them—was in the SUV that I believed may have been following me, why wasn’t I attacked? Or the victim of a home invasion instead of Eleanor?”
Cooper drew a breath. “Could be that you were simply being surveilled and never intended to be someone they came after,” he suggested.
“Eleanor, on the other hand, may have been targeted opportunistically or coincidentally—even before you were followed—which could have happened to anyone who came into view for what most likely were seasoned home invaders.”
“Hmm… I suppose.” That logic notwithstanding, Lexi still couldn’t help but believe that there was a connection between the two incidents. But what? “Why would someone surveil me?”
“That’s what I intend to find out,” Cooper responded matter-of-factly.
“We have reason to believe that it’s directly related to the public corruption probe.
” He paused. “The gun used to shoot Eckhart and Zapponi was found in the possession of one of the home invaders—and has been linked through DNA directly to him. Or, in other words, we all but certainly have the murder suspects in custody. We now need to determine if they were working for someone else and what it all means for you and the case itself.”
Lexi took this all in, feeling both relieved and ill at ease while wondering if she had an unknown enemy out to get her. Or had the threat been contained with the arrest of the two assailants who forced their way into Eleanor’s home?
IN THE INTERROGATION ROOM, Cooper sat beside Hallie and across from Darren Fonseca while staring at him contemplatively. The handcuffed suspect, appearing smug, held his gaze.
This is one time you won’t get the upper hand, Cooper thought, determined to get the full story out.
He took a breath and said, “So, we know that you and Lonnie Saldana targeted Eleanor Palakiko’s residence for a home invasion.
We have a latent print that belongs to you taken from a dresser drawer in the victim’s bedroom—sloppy.
” He watched the suspect leer back at him.
“There’s also your and Saldana’s DNA found on items you took from the victim’s house. ”
Fonseca sat back and said in a cocky tone, “Okay, so we broke into the old woman’s house and stole some things. What’s the big deal?”
“It’s a very big deal,” Hallie begged to differ, giving him the weight of her stare. “You physically attacked her in the process and stole the victim’s white Acura Integra—and are now facing charges of aggravated assault, armed robbery and burglary…”
Cooper jumped in, telling him, “But that’s the least of what you’re looking at.
” He waited a beat, thoughtful about the criminality the suspect was thought to have committed—while thankful that Eleanor had survived her ordeal—before continuing to interrogate the suspect.
“How did you pick that house, in particular, to rob?”
Fonseca hunched a shoulder. “We just passed by the house and decided to go for it,” he asserted.
Cooper leaned forward. “Could it be that you only targeted the victim in the course of following around her next-door neighbor, Lexi De La Garza?”
Fonseca cocked a brow, clearly taken aback by the question. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do,” Cooper countered, an edge to his voice as he sensed that he had struck a nerve with the suspect.
Hallie backed him up on that. “We believe that you basically stalked Ms. De La Garza—who knows what you had planned for her?—and then shifted your attention to Eleanor Palakiko as someone easier to victimize…”
Cooper kept the pressure on, leveling his gaze at Fonseca.
“I’ll try to further refresh your memory…
Ms. De La Garza is an architect, which I suspect you already know.
You’ve likely known ever since you and Saldana murdered and carjacked Horace Eckhart and Neal Zapponi.
” Cooper watched the guilt written all over his face as surely as with an architect’s pen.
“The Korth 2.75-inch Carry Special .357 Magnum revolver and ammo we confiscated from your house not only matched the bullets and their shell casings used to shoot to death Eckhart and Zapponi, but we even have your DNA on the spent shell casings.
So, we know you killed the two men and Saldana, at the very least, is guilty of aiding and abetting in the crimes—if not having directly participated in the shootings.
“The only real question is why did you do it—masking them as straightforward carjackings—and under whose authority?” Cooper’s eyes narrowed at the suspect. “Who hired you to execute a building inspector and contractor?” he asked. “I need a name, and more!”
Fonseca pursed his lips defiantly. “I think this is where I’m supposed to ask for a lawyer.”
Cooper exchanged glances with Hallie. Both knew that this was his right and the request might come.
They had to respect the system, for better or worse.
But they also needed more info from one of the suspects—if not both—to fill in a crucial blank on whoever was behind the cold-blooded murders of Eckhart and Zapponi.
LEXI PHONED ELEANOR with the news of the home invaders’ arrest and that she would soon be reunited with her stolen items, and heard a huge sigh of relief from her neighbor.
“I’m so glad to know they won’t get away with breaking into my home,” Eleanor said happily. She was still in the hospital while getting her high blood pressure under control and further observation.
“Me, too,” Lexi told her, not mentioning that the perpetrators were suspected of committing other violent crimes as well that they would need to be held accountable for.
“Imagine what we will have to talk about at our next support group meeting,” Eleanor said with a laugh. “The lively stories we’ll be able to tell about heroism, including your own, Lexi—and Cooper’s, too.”
Lexi chuckled. “Not sure either of us would qualify as heroes, but you certainly are one in my book, and I’m sure that Cooper would agree.
In any event, I look forward to all of us getting together again at the support group meeting,” she told her, knowing Cooper felt the same way and would undoubtedly have something to say about the entire unsettling scenario—though it was in a different lane from being widowed, as everyone in the group all shared in.
Eleanor promised to return home from the hospital soon as a survivor with even more to live for. Lexi agreed with those sentiments, knowing they both had much more to offer and embrace in their normally convivial environment.
Afterward, Lexi grabbed her laptop and got together her parents, sister and brother for a conference video chat—feeling the need to talk to them—while promising to visit home early in the new year.
She also brought up the new man in her life and how she looked forward to Cooper speaking with them for Christmas and meeting the family in person as soon as possible.
Everyone was amenable to this and excited that she was giving romance a try again, believing that she still had so much left to offer to the right man.
In her mind, Lexi truly believed that Cooper was that person. She just needed to wait until they gave themselves a bit more time to allow everything to fall into place perfectly like the stars aligning.
Her fantasizing was broken when Lexi heard someone enter the studio. She left her desk and stepped out into the foyer. A tall, well-dressed man was standing there, facing in the opposite direction so that she couldn’t see his face.
“Season’s greetings,” she told him to get his attention, while wondering if he might become a future client.
“Same to you, Lexi,” he said, turning her way. “Unfortunately, I’m not here to celebrate the season, per se. I have something else in mind—”
Lexi raised a brow. She recognized the man and was about to ask him what he meant by his cryptic words, when she took note of the firearm he had removed from the pocket of his dark blue wool blazer. He aimed it directly at her, to show that he meant business.
HALLIE SUSPECTED THAT they had probably gotten as much out of Darren Fonseca as they could for the time being. Unfortunately for him, lawyering up wouldn’t save him from having to face justice for a number of serious offenses with very serious consequences.
She hoped they could get more out of his cohort, Lonnie Saldana, as they sat before him in another interrogation room.
Cooper eyed the suspect sharply and said cleverly, “Darren Fonseca was smart enough to look out for number one in spilling the beans about everything you two have been up to. Let’s hope you do the same and make it easier for yourself from this point on.”
Saldana grumbled and muttered, “What do you want?”
Hallie took the cue from Cooper in their planned attack of interrogating the suspect as she said coolly, “You were caught red-handed in possession of the car you stole during a home invasion. So you’re on the hook for car theft—along with armed robbery, burglary and aggravated assault of the victim, Eleanor Palakiko.
And we have your DNA on items—including the stolen Acura Integra—to further make the case.
Not to mention we found illicit drugs and unlawful firearms at your apartment for even more charges… ”
As Saldana made a face and indecipherable sounds, Cooper took over, jutting his chin while stating to the suspect, “We know that you and Fonseca latched on to the home invasion plot after discovering that she was the susceptible next-door neighbor to Lexi De La Garza, whom you were caught following around in your SUV—”
Hallie watched as Saldana’s expression changed from stoic to shock with that revelation. He sputtered tonelessly, “How could you know that?”
She told him, “We have the black Ford Explorer you and Fonseca were driving around in on surveillance video, along with fingerprints and DNA that puts you both inside the SUV.”
“So, what was the stalking of Ms. De La Garza all about?” Cooper pressed the suspect, an edge to his voice.
“Obviously, your intention was not to accost her. That tells me you were simply following orders in surveilling her. Those orders had to come from the same person you were working for in the two deadly carjackings that took the lives of building inspector Horace Eckhart and contractor Neal Zapponi—”
As Saldana’s level of discomfort seemed to rise like the tide with each new disclosure, he offered weakly, “Maybe so…doing what we did…and why—”
Needing more from him, Hallie threw in for additional pressure, “We have the murder weapon—removed from Fonseca’s house—and his full confession.
” She was happy to fib about that if the end could justify the means in spooking Saldana into filling in the blanks as a matter of self-preservation to the extent possible.
“Fonseca says you actually fired the shots that took two lives…and basically took the lead in everything the two of you perpetrated—”
“He’s lying!” Saldana snapped, locking hard eyes with her.
“Is he now?” Hallie held his gaze, not flinching. “So, why don’t you tell us the truth?” And, hopefully, nothing but the truth, she thought.
“All right, I will.” Saldana sucked in a deep, ragged breath. “First of all, Darren shot both Horace Eckhart and Neal Zapponi,” he insisted. “That’s a fact! He wanted to be the one to do it to make sure neither one lived to ever talk about what happened.”
Cooper set his jaw. “We’ll buy that. So, why go after Eckhart, who was being investigated by the FBI for public corruption? And then Zapponi, who was about to reveal what he knew?”
Saldana sighed. “We were paid to kill Eckhart—to keep him silent—and later, Zapponi, for the same reason.”
“By whom?” Hallie demanded. “We need a name!”
“Gilbert Jacquin,” Saldana answered after a long moment.
“Gilbert Jacquin?” Cooper repeated, contemplating the name as if suddenly ringing a bell.
“Yeah—he works for the City of Phoenix as a special projects administrator.” Saldana’s brows knit.
“He had Eckhart in his hip pocket—doing whatever Jacquin asked him to do as a building inspector. But when Eckhart got greedy and threatened to expose Jacquin, he hired us to take him out. When Zapponi got wind of it somehow and brought this to Jacquin’s attention, he paid us to off him, too. ”
That’s sick, Hallie told herself, resenting how little value some people placed on human lives other than their own. “What about Lexi De La Garza?” she asked the suspect.
Cooper followed hotly with, “Why did Gilbert Jacquin pay you to follow her around?”
Saldana rubbed his nose. “He said it was personal. Didn’t ask what he meant by that. Jacquin didn’t pay us to ask too many questions, and he certainly didn’t have many answers. We just followed his orders and went about our business.”
Cooper’s expression hardened. “Your business has become our business. Unfortunately for you and Fonseca, Jacquin has led you down a dark path that you can’t come back from. And if I have anything to do with it—neither will he.”
Hallie was sure he meant this and would want to warn Lexi that she was in imminent danger from someone she might not have expected.