Chapter Twelve #2
Wes nodded then turned back to the room.
“Anyway, I decided I needed to get out of the apartment for a while. I took a walk and ended up at Rami and Raj’s convenience store.
I’d only gone in to say hello but I ended up staying for a few hours to help them do inventory and unpack some goods for the store…
food, wine, chips, whatever. They get a delivery once a week.
As I was finishing up, I walked out of the backroom with Raj and saw that man talking to Rami.
” He pointed at the police sketch. “He had his back to me so I couldn’t be sure who he was until he walked out of the store and crossed the street. ”
Cassidy held up his hand, interrupting. “I should say here that Mr. Chaudry pointed to the police sketch of the homicide suspect my partner and I have had circulating.” Cassidy nodded to Wes. “Mr. Chaudry, please continue.”
“Okay. The man turned in profile after crossing the street and that’s when I recognized him.
He got into the back seat of a car parked at the curb.
The two men I saw assaulting Father Gilmartin the other night were in the front seat.
I yelled at them and when the big guy turned and recognized me, he held up a gun.
That’s when I realized my mistake and started running. ”
“And they chased ya all the way to the urgent care buildin’ where we found ya?” I asked. When he nodded, I had to quell the urge to reach for him in the crowded room. It must have been absolutely bloody terrifying.
“Yes, I called you while I was running up the stairs.”
“Mr. Chaudry,” Cassidy said. “Did the men say anything to you?”
Wes shook his head. “Not to me but while I was hiding from them up on the roof, I heard them talking to each other.”
“What did they say?” Mike asked.
“They were looking for me. I got the impression that they weren’t very educated,” Wes said.
“What made you draw that conclusion?” Mike asked.
“One of them ordered the other one to look behind the air conditioning unit where I was hiding and the other one said, ‘You ain’t the boss o’me.’ The one who said it had a deep, gruff voice. I’m not sure which one said it because I couldn’t see them.”
Cassidy and Mike nodded. “Did anyone else see this guy?” He pointed to the police sketch then looked out at the room.
“I saw him,” Rex said. “I had all three men lined up through the scope of my rifle while I was in the helicopter. It’s like Mr. Chaudry said. He looks just like the sketch.”
“I saw them too,” I said. “I had binoculars.”
“I was getting into my rappelling harness, so I didn’t get a look at them except from a distance,” Mickey said.
“That’s okay,” Cassidy replied. “Mike and I will have Agent Good and Agent Monroe sit with a sketch artist and see if we can get a decent likeness.”
I nodded and so did Rex.
Candy glanced over at Cassidy and Mike. “Any other questions?”
Cassidy looked at me. “You rappelled from the chopper to the roof?”
I nodded. “Me and Mickey. Rex stayed in the helo and flew back with Agent Clifford who was flying it.”
“And the men had already fled off the roof by the time you arrived?” Mike asked.
I nodded. “They no doubt identified the chopper as an FBI airship because they ran as we approached,” I added.
“There were police sirens approaching the building by the time we disconnected our harnesses on the roof,” Mickey said. “Chances are they realized we’d called for LAPD backup and didn’t wait to find out.”
“No, they wouldn’t,” Cassidy said, reaching for his mobile.
“If no one else has anything to add, I’ll end this recording.
” When everyone shrugged and shook their heads, he hit the end button and tucked the phone back inside his jacket.
Turning to Mike, he said, “I think we can clear Mr. Chaudry as a suspect in the case.”
Mike nodded.
“Can you tell us about your case, Cassidy?” Candy asked.
“Civilian,” said Mike, nodding at Wes.
Candy looked between Wes and me, then held up a hand. “Give me a minute.”
As he got up to leave, there was a knock at the door. Candy opened it and the office receptionist held out four large pizza boxes with a big, brown paper bag balanced on top.
“Someone order pizza?” she asked as she walked into the room.
“Thanks, Ruby,” Candy said, relieving her of her burden and setting the boxes down on the table.
“I’ll get plates and napkins,” Nash said, heading for the door.
Everyone started opening pizza boxes and you would have thought the receptionist had thrown food to a pack of starving lions as my brothers attacked the grub like prey.
Nash returned and passed around paper plates, forks, and serviettes but I think it was a wee bit of a moot point by then.
It was disappearing down their gullets too fast to even touch the plates.
We got quiet for a few minutes as everyone tucked in.
I suspected Wes was being polite, not wanting to ask for a second piece of pizza when he’d cleaned his plate.
So I snagged a couple more of the meat lovers and filled his plate a second time.
He had to be starving if he’d spent the day unpacking and stacking boxes before running from half-crazed lunatics who wanted to kill him.
“Thanks, Patsy,” he said, looking and sounding embarrassed as he picked up a piece and bit into it.
A few minutes later, Candy came back in and waved a piece of paper at Wes. “Standard government crap. Nothing that is said in here is to be repeated outside this room. Sign here and initial each page, please.”
When that was done, he attacked his plate someone had saved for him and glanced over at Cassidy. “Is there something you can tell us about your case?”
“Some,” Cassidy said, sitting back in his chair as he wiped his mouth with a serviette.
“First of all, the murder that this man is suspected of committing, is not our case,” he said, eyeballing the picture taped to the whiteboard.
“That case has been assigned to a detective from a different division, but Mike and I are convinced that it ties in with one of our cases.”
“What can ya tell us, Cass?” I asked, eager to learn anything about the gobshites who’d nearly killed Wes. The two men exchanged a glance, and I didn’t miss the subtle nod Mike gave his partner.
“About two weeks ago, we were called down to the diamond mart in downtown L.A. to investigate a burglary which had occurred in one of the many jewelry stores there,” Cassidy said.
“That’s the wholesale district, right?” Napoleon asked. He was fingering the gold box chain around his neck as he often did. He’d worn a small, gold cross on the chain as long as I’d known him, even in the Middle East, right alongside his dog tags.
“Yes, at Sixth and Hill,” Mike replied. “The owner called us out to the store on a Saturday which Cassidy and I both found odd because the man is a Hasidic Jew.”
“Orthodox Jews—and Hasidic—are orthodox. They don’t work on Saturday, their Sabbath,” Cassidy clarified.
“He stated that some diamonds had disappeared from the store safe and that only he and his father-in-law had the combination,” Mike said.
“It sounds like he was pointin’ the finger at his father-in-law,” Rex drawled.
“That’s what it sounds like to us too,” Cassidy said. “As it turns out, a murder occurred right around the time those jewels disappeared.”
I sat up straight. “Ya said yer burglary case was tied in with a murder case in another division,” I said. “Was the store owner killed?”
Mike and Cassidy both nodded. “Suffice it to say, there were two partners in the business, but to answer your question, yes, one of the partners was the victim of a homicide. He was stabbed multiple times and his body was left in an alley in Hollywood, not far from Blessed Sacrament, Father Gilmartin’s church,” Mike supplied.
“Whoa,” I said, looking over at Wes who stared back with wide eyes. We both knew they had to be talking about the names they’d questioned Wes about the other night. I glanced back at Cassidy. “Do ya think Marigold Bishop witnessed the murder?”
“It’s quite possible,” Mike replied.
“So that guy killed someone and then sent a couple of guys to assault the priest to send a message to wee Marigold Bishop?” I asked.
Both detectives nodded. “We think it’s very possible that she witnessed the murder and told her mother, possibly other people which is why those two thugs were sent to threaten the girl’s mother through Father Gilmartin,” Cassidy said.
“Okay, I know some of this, but the rest of my team is somewhat lost,” Candy said. “Would you fill everyone in on what happened with the little girl, the threat made to the priest, and whatever else transpired?”
“I’ll tell it,” I said, sitting forward.
“Go ahead, Patsy,” Cassidy replied.
I started at the beginning, telling them everything that had gone on from the night Wes and I had witnessed the assault on Father Gilmartin, to the way Wes’ car had been broken into and about his missing wallet and driver’s license.
“Wes is staying with me to recover from the gunshot since I don’t feel it’s safe for him to go back to his car. ”
When I was finished, Cassidy and Mike were frowning at me.
“You should have told us about Mr. Chaudry’s missing driver’s license and his car, Patsy,” Mike said. “The thugs who chased him today might be the same people who broke into his car and took his license. He might have been targeted the whole time.”
I felt horrible. “I should have but we—” I looked at Wes who was watching me sheepishly. He turned back to the detectives.
“I asked Patsy not to tell the police about anyone tampering with my car. I didn’t want the police involved because I was afraid of losing the job I finally landed.
” I sighed. “I’m a mathematician as I told you before, Detective Ryan.
I just got a job at Caltech and they haven’t finished running a background check on me yet.
I was afraid if I reported someone breaking into my car, the police might recognize me as the same man who was shot in Rami and Raj’s store the night Patsy and I met. ”
Wes reached up and ran a hand over his sparse hair, flattening it out, and my heart broke for him as he continued talking.
“I ran away from the convenience store while Patsy had his back turned the night of the armed robbery, because I knew if he called an ambulance for the gunshot wound, the paramedics would call the police who’d have to file a report.
I was afraid that I’d lose the job and because I was desperate, I involved Patsy in the lie when he came looking for me the morning after the robbery.
When we went back to my car to gather some of my belongings, Patsy covered for me.
I begged him not to tell the police about my car or the missing license which was in my wallet in the glove compartment.
It was my fault the break-in wasn’t reported, not Patsy’s. ”
He looked down at his lap where he was twisting his hands. I reached over and gently squeezed his thigh. “It’s goin’ to be okay, mo mhuirnín.”
“You should have come to me right away,” Candy said gruffly.
Guilt washed over and through me. He’d always been more of a mate and mentor than a boss to me.
I should have trusted him with the whole story but at the same time, I’d wanted to protect the quiet, gentle bear of a man seated beside me.
He was a bloody mathematician, for Christ’s sake, not some criminal.
“I know, boss.”
“And you should have told us too,” Mike said. He exchanged a look with Cassidy before turning back to us. “But we understand why you didn’t.”
“We’ll need a statement about the break-in from both of you and as long as you’re cooperative, the things you tell us won’t end up in a police report,” Cassidy said.
His slight smile made me let out a relieved sigh.
“We need to know where that car is parked so that we can have it fingerprinted. We might be able to figure out who those men were who chased you, Mr. Chaudry. Do you understand?”
“Yes, of course. I’ll cooperate any way I can.
” He looked at Candy and then around the room at my brothers.
“I’m so sorry that all of you had to go to so much trouble on my behalf, but most of all, I’m sorry to you, Patsy.
” When his eyes filled with tears, I reached for his hand and squeezed it hard, not caring what the others thought.
“It’s okay. I’m not in any trouble.” I glanced at Candy whose expression had softened a bit. He was still angry, but at least I knew he wasn’t going to do something terrible like suspend me.
“We’ll talk about this privately, Good,” he said, glancing around the room. “Okay, you can all go…everyone but Monroe, Clifford, Good, and Way. You all have reports to write. Good, you and Monroe need to get with Cassidy and Mike’s sketch artist as soon as humanly possible.”
“We’ll set up something for tomorrow morning,” Mike said.
“Okay,” Candy said, pounding the table. “Everyone else is dismissed.”
As the others stood up, I noticed how sad Wes looked. “It’s goin’ to be okay. We’ll work all this out.” When he nodded, I said, “I’m goin’ to be a wee while. I can have someone drop ya off home.”
“Would it be okay if I hung out here to wait for you?” he asked.
“I have a report to write,” I said, “but ya can wait if ya want.”
He smiled at me. “Yes, thank you, Patsy.”
I was thinking everyone in the vicinity could surely hear the way my heart fluttered as I slowly smiled back.