Chapter 13
Thirteen
Luca sipped from the paper cup of coffee and stared through the one-way glass into the interrogation room the morning after the gala.
He wasn’t supposed to be here, technically.
But after Detective Martinelli had explained to Deputy Marshal Butler his connection with the syndicate investigation, he’d been allowed to stay.
It didn’t seem that Ethan even really believed their theory that the city was being controlled by some kind of shadowy syndicate.
Or at least, he might not be ready to believe it.
On the other side of the glass, Detective Martinelli stood by the wall with his arms folded across his chest. Deputy Marshal Butler sat at the table, the cartel muscle that Luca had tackled across from him.
Ethan tapped his first two fingers on the table. Beating out a steady rhythm that might drive some people crazy.
Luca had withstood a whole lot worse than incessant tapping. Going through Army boot camp and then Delta Force training on top of that had pitted him against the worst things his trainers could come up with. Then he’d gone out in the field and met the real nightmares.
The cartel guy at the interrogation room table seemed a whole lot more bothered by Butler’s tapping. Shifting in his seat, darting glances at the two men. Gearing up to start talking—which was probably the marshal’s intention.
None of them said anything.
The door to the interrogation room opened, and a uniformed sergeant stuck his head in. He handed Detective Martinelli a file folder.
“Thank you, Sarge.”
The door shut and Martinelli opened the file.
“Hector Carlos Ramirez. Twenty-seven years old, two counts of accessory to armed robbery. Four years in prison in San Diego before you were kicked back across the border. Now we find you here in Renegade, Colorado.” Martinelli paused.
“What was the reason for your visit to the US this time?”
The guy sounded like he was auditioning for a job at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Hector muttered something in Spanish.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that,” Martinelli said. “Is there something you’d like to tell us?”
So far, the guy had waived his right to an attorney. Probably a good idea, as the court would assign him someone for free. Who knew what kind of lawyer would show up to represent him?
Luca had his own lawyer on retainer even though he had no reason to require representation. Definitely not a risk he was willing to take.
Hector just stared at the two cops.
Luca’s coffee cup flexed in his hand, spilling a little of the hot drink on his skin. He winced. They might be closer than ever to real answers on the investigation, but if this guy didn’t start talking, they would only have as much as they had yesterday. Not a whole lot.
Despite the doctor’s insistence that someone must have given Ralph Rousseau the overdose of the drug that stopped his heart, there had been nothing on surveillance when they’d gone over the footage.
Kira had watched the hallway and told them it was all normal, just medical staff doing their jobs—nothing and no one out of the ordinary.
Now someone was going to have to tell Destiny that her husband was dead. Kira would probably want to be there. They might even be doing that now. Sure, he could text her, but it was also in the early hours of the morning, and she might be trying to get some sleep.
Ethan shifted and placed an evidence bag with the suspect’s phone in it on the table. “This is an interesting device, Mr. Ramirez. How did you come by it?”
Hector said, “That’s not mine.”
“Sure. That’s why you were talking on it when you were detained.”
“That guy isn’t even a cop. I can’t be arrested by a guy who isn’t even a cop.” Hector’s expression turned deadly. “You can’t pin this on me.”
Ethan shrugged. “Pin what on you?”
Luca wasn’t a huge fan of the back-and-forth that went into interrogations.
Or the subtext. He was much more into getting to the point—not allowing Hector to imply that Luca had planted the phone on him.
Though, his preferred tactics meant he’d probably already have the suspect up against the wall and he’d be punching him to get answers.
So maybe Luca should leave the interrogation business to the police.
Ethan pointed to the phone. “You were overheard talking on this. We know what you were saying, and we have the number of the person you were talking to. What you don’t know is that your friend, the one you left a message for, is in our custody.
After the two of you followed Dr. Torres out of that restaurant earlier in the day, you ran off and your friend was arrested. ”
Ethan set a photo on the table.
“Never seen him before in my life.”
None of them were going to buy that.
Ethan said, “You were talking to him on the phone, leaving him a message. Now both of you will be charged with the aggravated assault of Dr. Torres and the murder of Ralph Rousseau.” Ethan didn’t even wait for him to respond to that.
“Unless you can tell me what business your cartel has with two men in Renegade.”
A tendon in Hector’s jaw flexed. He didn’t like that at all. “You can’t pin this on me. I don’t even know that Rousseau guy.”
“Tell us what we want to know before your friend does. Otherwise, we’ll persuade him to talk first, and when he’s done, you’ll be the one who goes down for all of it.”
“Did I kill someone?” The man shrugged. “Or was I in a cell at the time? Pretty good alibi, right?”
He wasn’t wrong, considering the murder had happened after the man was detained by Luca at the gala. The cops had taken him to the station before Rousseau died.
Martinelli came over to the table and pulled out the other chair to sit. “Who did the job at the hospital? Unless you want to go down for Rousseau’s death.”
“Guy like you,” Ethan said, “I figure you do as you’re told and you either get paid well or you get unpleasant consequences because you failed. Maybe it’s time you’re the boss of your own life for once. Give us what we want.”
Luca didn’t like the idea of any lowlife making a deal, but it was how the cops often chose to flip someone lower in the ranks in order to work their way up the chain and eventually get the boss in custody.
Cutting off the head of the snake. That would get all the other parts of their operation to scatter with no leader.
Was that going to be the case with the Shadow Syndicate?
He would love to find the person at the top of the food chain, take them down, and see the whole thing dismantled.
But if the syndicate was making deals with the cartel to kill the competition, then they were strengthening their operation.
Luca was going to find it a whole lot less vulnerable to being broken apart.
“What do you say?” Butler shrugged. “I don’t really care if you go to federal prison for the rest of your life, but you might want to think about making a deal. Otherwise, you take the fall when someone else does exactly that.”
“I don’t talk.”
Ethan opened the file folder in front of him and pulled out a photo of Francisco. He set the image in front of the man.
Hector leaned forward and spat on the picture. He said the word traitor in Spanish. One of the few words Luca understood. But even if he hadn’t known what the word meant, he would understand the gist of how Hector felt about his former boss.
“Talk to me about this guy.” Ethan wasn’t about to admit they had Francisco under their protection, was he?
Before Luca could wonder what else was about to happen, Ethan motioned to the picture. “You don’t like him, so help me find him. Nobody just disappears. Tell me what you know so that I can pick him up.”
Hector muttered something in Spanish.
Martinelli ignored it. “Tell us what you wanted with Dr. Torres.”
“Prescription.” Hector smirked. “I have a bad back.”
Ethan shook his head. “It’s time to start talking, Hector.
You aren’t doing yourself any favors pretending to be stupid when we all know you’re up to your neck in this.
” The marshal sat back in his chair. “Or I continue to have the techs go through your phone, and we dig out everything it can tell us about who you work for. Maybe your buddy Pablo will make a deal, and I’ll get what I need from him. ”
Hector stared at the two cops across the table. “Lawyer.”
Ethan said, “What was that?”
“I want a lawyer now.” Hector folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not saying anything else.”
In the viewing room, Luca rolled his eyes and tossed the paper cup into the trash. He left the room, went into the hallway, and checked his phone.
Mike stepped out of the interrogation room. “Anything?”
Luca conveyed the contents of the message. “Hammer said Jenkins is being transferred back to jail so he can recuperate in their medical wing and the hospital can have their bed back.”
Mike nodded. “The attacker, Stuart Parker, is in solitary. He’ll go before Mullinax again tomorrow, and the judge won’t go easy on him.”
Ethan eased up to their huddle. “No one wants Jenkins to skate out from under justice, so you don’t have to worry that the corrections officers will allow anything else to happen to him.
One of the guys who works at the prison?
His dad was forced off his land. It wasn’t Jenkins that did it, but none of them have any sympathy for a guy who did that to so many people. ”
Luca reached over his shoulder and squeezed the back of his neck, trying to ease some of the tension of this long day. “So what do we do with Hector now?”
Ethan said, “That’s up to whatever his lawyer convinces him is the wisest choice.”
“I’m more inclined to cut him loose and follow him. See where he goes and who he talks to.” Martinelli glanced between them. “We might get way more from doing that than whatever it is he gives us once a deal has been signed.”
Luca didn’t like that idea. “Just let him go? Put him back on the streets?”