Chapter Twenty #4
It was like they thought I was some big badass. They had no idea I was simply the leader of the klutz brigade, father of six, and husband of a SWAT commander. Yeah, okay, maybe that last part made me somewhat dangerous but certainly not the rest of it.
I waited until the officer left before glancing around the room. When I saw the camera in the corner, I smiled and nodded my head. There was a little solid red light, telling me that I was being recorded.
The door opened, and a man in a dark blue suit walked in. He sat down in the chair across from me and opened up the file in his hand. He looked it over for a few minutes before glancing up at me.
“My name is Detective Mike Sparks. Want to tell me what your name is?”
I just smiled.
“You know this will go a lot easier for you if you cooperate with us.”
I tilted my head, keeping the smile on my face as I stared at him.
The detective sighed heavily as he glanced back down at the file in front of him. “You are facing a lot of charges here. I'm sure, if you cooperate, I can talk to the judge and get your sentence reduced.”
I smirked as I leaned forward, resting my arms on the table. “Being nice to me isn't going to make me stop from filing a case against your precinct for abuse of power and assault.”
The detective's eyes darted to my face.
“Oh, no.” I gently touched my swollen eye. “Your officer didn't do this. That idiot running the drug house did.” I pointed to my lip and then gestured toward my ribcage as best as I could considering I was handcuffed to the table. “Your officer did this.”
“So, you admit you were at the drug house and know who was running it?”
I rolled my eyes. “That's what you got out of what I just said?”
“Considering all the charges you are facing, I doubt a judge would believe the word of a criminal over that of a decorated officer of the law.”
I couldn't help but laugh at that sentence. “You have no idea who I am.” And I couldn't wait until he found out. “I can assure you I am not a criminal.”
“You were arrested inside of a known drug house. How does that not make you a criminal?”
I shook my head, unwilling to delve further into why I had been there. According to the DEA agent I had been working with, that information was need-to-know, and until I got the okay to say anything, this guy didn't need to know.
“Look…” the detective said as he got up and walked over to the corner of the room. He switched the camera off before coming back to sit down. “Just answer a few questions for me, and I'll see what I can do with the judge. Maybe we can get you released today. Wouldn't you like that?”
“Oh, I will be released today. I can guarantee that.” Vinnie wouldn't let me down, and now that he knew where I was, I had no doubt that everyone else would soon know as well. “The question you need to ask is, how much do you like your job?”
The detective's eyebrows lifted. “My job?”
“It's against the law to hold someone under a false arrest.”
“According to my investigation, you've been seen coming and going from this drug house several times over the last ten days, so I don't see how it could be considered a false arrest.”
“A, I'm not buying or selling drugs. B, I am not doing drugs.
C, there were no drugs found on me. And D, coming and going from a building does not mean that I was committing a crime.
It simply means I was coming and going. Now, if your investigation had turned up any hint that I had committed a crime, then we'd have something to talk about, but I can guarantee you that it has not.”
“What were you doing there then?”
“I needed to borrow a cup of sugar.” Probably not my best answer, but this guy was starting to get on my nerves.
“My records indicate that you live in a month-to-month rental a couple of blocks over. That seems like a long way to go to get a cup of sugar.”
“No one else was home.”
“Look, Mister...”
I rolled my eyes. “Lany.”
The detective quickly wrote that down in his files. “Very good, Mr. Lany—”
“Just Lany.”
“Okay then, Lany, can you tell me what you were doing in that drug house?”
“Nope.” I was under sworn secrecy from the DEA. Without their permission, I couldn't discuss it with anyone. Well, Sal, but he didn't count. I discussed everything with him.
Well, almost everything.
“What can you tell me about Viggo?”
I frowned. “Who?”
“The guy running that drug house.”
I started to shake my head. “No, that's not—” I snapped my mouth closed when I realized what I was about to reveal. I didn't have a clue who Viggo Marcus was. The guy I had dealt with was named Alex SeRoy.
“So, if it's not Viggo Marcus running the drug house, who is?”
I shrugged but kept my mouth shut.
“Lany, we've already gotten this far. It would be much better for you if you answered the rest of my questions.”
“Nope.”
The detective sighed and leaned back in his chair. “You are a young guy. You have your whole life ahead of you. Do you really want to do time?”
“Oh, I am not going to do time.” At least not behind bars. I might be doing time in a hermetically sealed bubble inside of my estate, but not here.
“That is not how the law works, Lany. If you commit a crime, you go to jail.”
“But I didn't commit a crime,” I insisted.
“Your definition of a crime and the law's definition of a crime are two vastly different things, and since you broke the law, you will be going to jail. The only remaining question is, for how long? You can determine that by answering my questions.”
I shook my head and then smirked when the door opened and my Uncle Jerry walked into the room. “Oh, look, my get-out-of-jail-free card is here.”
“Sir, this is a restricted area.” The detective jumped to his feet and started toward Uncle Jerry. “You need to—”
Jerry flipped out his badge and ID. “Police Commissioner Jerome Harris. Is there a reason you are holding my nephew?”
“Your nephew?”
“Yes, my nephew,” Jerry snapped. “Lany Delvecchio, the spouse of Lieutenant Salvador Delvecchio of SWAT Team One.”
Detective Sparks paled as he turned to look at me.
I waved.
This was fun.
Chapter Four
Salvador
My four-hour flight seemed to take forever, even if it only lasted three and a half hours. By the time the airplane landed, I was ready to take the head off of the next person that looked at me sideways. The moment the stewardess said we could disembark, I grabbed my bag and headed for the exit.
I had my phone out, and I was dialing Lyn before I even got to the concourse. “Lyn, it’s Sal. My plane just landed. Have you found Lany?”
“No, but he found Vinnie.”
I swallowed tightly. “So, he's alive?”
My biggest fear was that, one of these days, Lany would pay for one of his little stunts with his life and I wouldn't be there to stop it.
“He is,” Lyn replied. “Jerry is going to get him right now.”
“Where is he?”
“He's at the East County Precinct. I didn't find him in my search because he refused to give them his real name, so they were waiting on his fingerprints to come back to ID him.
When he got his one phone call, he called Vinnie.
He said his name was Harris, and he was a distant relative of Isabella's, a friend to her two daughters.”
Technically, that was true.
“I guess Vinnie called Jerry.”
“I know Jerry was looking for him, too,” I said. “I don't really care who found him. I'm just glad he was found.”
“Me, too, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned with why he was all the way over on the east side. The bust was done by the city police on the west side. Lany never even should have been over there.”
I clenched my jaw. “Okay, you have me concerned now, too. Thanks for that.”
Lyn chuckled. “Sorry.”
“I need to grab my bags and then get a taxi. Do you know if Jerry has Lany yet?”
“I do not.”
“Okay, then I’m going to head toward the East County Precinct. If you learn anything, let me know.”
“Will do.”
After Lyn hung up, I did exactly what I said I was going to do. Once I was in the taxi, I dialed the house and told Marcus and Dmitri to get their asses to the East County Precinct, and then I called Jerry.
“You found Lany?”
“Vinnie called me,” Jerry replied. “I'm on my way there now.”
“I'll meet you there.”
“You're back in town already?” Jerry asked.
“Just leaving the airport now.” Seriously, Jerry should have expected this. “I got on a plane as soon as Clarke told me that Lany was missing.”
“I was going to call you. I just didn't have the chance yet. I've been too busy looking for Junior.”
“How did this happen, Jerry? Lyn says Lany never even should have been taken to this precinct.”
“I don't know, but I have to tread carefully here. This is a county precinct, not a city one. I have no jurisdiction there. If I can't bluff my way through this, they could keep Junior until he goes before a judge and makes bail.”
I growled at that comment. No one was keeping my baby.
“Don't kill anyone!” Jerry shouted.
“I'm not making any promises.” If this was a simple mistake, then fine. If not, if someone was fucking with Lany, I was going to skin them alive. We'd been through too much over the years. It was time for Lady Luck to be nice to us.
“Have you spoken with the investigator on this case?” I asked. “Is he after Lany specifically or anyone that was in that house?”
“I haven't reached him yet, but from what Clarke said when I questioned him, the orders were to arrest everyone and let the investigators weed them out.”
“So, it could be wrong place, wrong time?”
I could hope anyway.
“In a drug house, Sal?”
“I can't think of any reason why Lany would be in a drug house, but he's been missing for ten days so...”
“He was missing for ten days?” Jerry asked.
“He was.”
“How did I not know about this?”
“You are not alone in wondering that. No one told me either. Apparently, Lany called to check in with Marcus and me every day. I had no idea he had been missing until I talked to Clarke, who had talked to Marcus. Lany said he was on some sort of mission, but he didn't give any details.”
“Oh god.”