Chapter 12 #2
“Sure,” Wizard said. “He hired us to do odd jobs.”
“Like what?” Kohl asked.
“Run errands,” Slick said. “We’re bike messengers, so adding on a little job here and there on the side isn’t a problem.”
“What if I tell you I don’t believe that is what you were doing for the man,” Simons said. “What if I tell you I think you are lying through your teeth. What did the man hire you to do?”
The two looked at one another for a few moments, making funny faces and tilting their heads, before they looked back at him.
“Okay. Okay,” Wizard said. “He hired us to pick up this kid at the zoo. You know, the one that Amber Alert is about. We’re your guys of interest.”
Simons nodded. “Now we’re getting somewhere. And why did he hire you to pick up the kid?”
“Because he’s into child recovery, rescuing kids in danger from abusive parents,” Slick said.
Simons glanced at Kohl then back at them. “Was the kid you took with an abusive parent?”
“Yea, man. His old man was the worst kind.” Slick leaned across the table. “Withholding his insulin. It’s a wonder the kid didn’t die from it.”
“Right on,” Wizard chimed in, banging his fist on the table. “We know about dead beat dads. We both had one. But this man is the worst doing that to his kid.”
“His insulin? Are you telling us that Travis McGinty is a diabetic?” Kohl said.
“Yea,” they said in unison.
“That’s what Carlton told us, dude. Hand to God!” Wizard held up his hand for emphasis.
“We weren’t told that bit of information from the family,” Simons said.
“Don’t worry, we took care of him, Carlton gave us a patch to put on the kid to help regulate his insulin,” Slick said, nodding and smiling.
“A patch? Tell me about that,” Simons said.
“Pretty simple, just open the packet and slap it on the skin, you know, like a band aid,” Slick said. “Insulin goes in, kid’s okay, capeesh?”
“I know how it works,” Simons said. “So, you placed this patch on the kid and then what happened?”
“He went to sleep, pretty quick,” Wizard described. “I was worried because he slept and slept the whole time we were with him, but Carlton told us that was what would happen and not to worry about it.”
Simons nodded and turned to his partner. “I think it’s time to wake up Nick and Jillian. Check with her to see if Travis is a diabetic, we’ll need to get his medical records and have them come to the station.”
“Will do,” Kohl said, standing. “Can I bring either one of you something to drink?”
“We’re good,” Slick said.
“Speak for yourself,” Wizard said. “I could go for a Sundrop.”
“I’ll see if we have one in the machine,” Kohl said and left the room.
“Let’s go over this again so I have the facts straight. When did you first meet Carlton Delvecchio?”
The two traded glances and then Wizard said, “Go ahead.”
Slick scratched his head. “I guess about three weeks or so ago. We were getting food one evening at the food trucks when he came over and got in line behind us and started talking to us.”
“We ended up finding a nearby table and sitting with him while we all ate,” Wizard said. “Great conversationalist. Doesn’t use fancy words.”
“Before we left, he asked us if we wanted to make some fast cash doing odd jobs for his business,” Slick said. “I’m always looking to make a little extra money especially to buy primo THC because it calms the nerves so much faster.”
“So, you both agreed to work for him? Did he tell you what he did for a living?” Simons asked.
“Sure,” Wizard said. “He told us he was a private investigator and how from time to time he took on cases doing child recovery. You know. Getting kids away from abusive parents. And he had one he needed help with, and would we be interested?”
Wizard shifted in his chair and grinned. “I wasn’t about to say yes so I asked a few questions, and he told us more and I agreed. But do you know something? The day after we took the kid, I began to regret saying yes.”
“Why?” Simons asked, unease beginning a slow journey up his spine.
“Because the kid didn’t wake up.” Wizard leaned forward, looking all serious.
“Have you ever heard of an insulin patch that makes someone sleep and sleep and sleep? I hadn’t before.
I began to worry we had killed him.” He shook all over like he’d had a cold chill. “I still don’t know that we didn’t.”
“He was fine,” Slick argued. “You saw that. The kid was fine when we left.”
Simons thought for a moment to frame his next question. “Let me get this straight,” he said slowly. “A private investigator named Carlton Delvecchio hired you to take Travis McGinty because he was supposedly being abused by his father? Medically abused?”
“Yes,” Slick and Wizard replied at once.
“How many times do we have to tell you this?” Slick added. “Dude, I’m getting hungry.”
Simons ignored him. “And where exactly did you take him?”
“A house,” Slick said.
“In a pretty ritzy neighborhood,” Wizard said.
“Yea. It was high scaled compared to what we grew up in,” Slick said.
“What was the address?” Simons asked.
“25 Washington Park,” Slick said. “But I doubt the kid is still there.”
“Why do you say that?” Simons said.
“Cause the house was up for sale,” Slick explained. “We used the drop box code to get the key to the place.”
Simons jotted this on the legal pad then looked up at them. “Who was the realtor?”
“I dunno,” Slick said. “I didn’t pay attention to that. Did you, Wiz?”
“Nope. I was too busy carrying the kid into the house.”
Simons took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You were told the child had diabetes and that his father wouldn’t give him his insulin. You were to remedy this by putting a patch on the child when you found him. It immediately made him fall asleep and stay asleep for hours.”
“Yes,” they said in unison again.
“Approximately how long were you with the child?” Simons asked them.
“From the time we left the zoo until mid-morning the following day,” Wizard said. “That’s when Carlton arrived and took over.”
Simons nodded. “And after you left the kid, what did you do?”
“We went home, and I crashed for a few hours. I had to be at work that afternoon,” Wizard said. “When I got off we both got haircuts and bought these new messenger outfits. Pretty don’t you agree?”
“Narley,” Slick said.
“Gentlemen,” Simons said. “Let’s stay focused. What else did you do?”
“We went to work the next day but saw the amber alert so we ditched our shifts and hid out so no one could find us,” Slick said. “We didn’t know if we’d be arrested. But after talking it over, we decided to talk to Carlton, but he wasn’t in when we got to his office.”
“Yea, so we smoked a little weed last night to calm our nerves and went back this evening to catch him before he left for the night,” Wizard said. “But we found him lying on the floor, bleeding out from the gunshot wound to the chest.”
“Yea,” Slick said. “It was horrible seeing him lying there.”
“Sounds like you watch a lot of police procedurals on TV,” Simons said.
“Old Starsky and Hutch reruns are my favorite,” Wizard said.
“I like Dragnet,” Slick said.
Simons shook his head, not believing these two even knew about those shows.
Slick snapped his fingers. “Hey, dude, do you know who done it?”
“Not yet.” Simons frowned. “Did Delvecchio ever say who he was working for?”
They looked at one another again as if trying to come up with the answer then they shook their heads.
“But you’d think it was his mother,” Slick said. “Wouldn’t you? If the PI was working for someone to take the kid away from the creep of a dad who wouldn’t even give him his medicine.”
“When I got to thinking about this kid, having his dad, and here we were taking him away from him,” Wizard said.
“Even a bad dad…it made me question, was what Carlton said true. Had we done right? Then there was that alert. We were only trying to be helpful. Honest. We didn’t think we were doing anything wrong. ”
Simons nodded. “We’ll get this sorted out. Carlton paid you to do this job I suppose?”
“Hell, yea,” Slick said. “We got $1500 each. More money than we could make riding our bikes in a week.”
“Had you worked for him before?” Simons asked.
“No, first job,” Wizard said. “But he talked like he was going to have us do more for him.”
The door opened and Kohl returned. He carried two legal pads and pens as well as a twenty-ounce bottle of Sundrop. He gave it to Wizard and laid the pads and pens on the table, and beckoned Simons into a corner.
“I spoke with Travis’ nanny,” he whispered. “She confirmed that he isn’t diabetic and has never taken insulin. She gave me his pediatrician’s number, and I’ll call him in a few hours when his office opens to have his medical records sent over as confirmation.”
Simons nodded. “That patch couldn’t have held insulin,” he murmured. “Given insult to a non-diabetic could be dangerous.” When Kohl’s eyes narrowed, Simons added,” My sister is a nurse.”
“So, the patch was some kind of long-active sedative?” Kohl guessed. “Something to keep Travis knocked out?”
“Probably,” Simons agreed. “Those two are damn lucky whatever that patch was didn’t kill Travis. Did Jillian say anything else?”
“Yeah,” Kohl said. “Jillian wants to talk to these two. She’s having Nick bring her down right now.”
Simons shook his head. “They’ve already told me everything, what more does she think she will get out of them?”
Kohl shrugged. “She’s Travis’ nanny. Maybe she’s thought of something else.”
“Okay,” Simons said. “Tell her she can come.” He turned back to his suspects.
“All I need from you is a detailed statement of how things went down. From the time you met Carlton, how he approached you to do the job, your instructions, the events at the zoo, where you took Travis afterward and left him with Carlton. What you did afterward until you found Carlton’s body at his office.
Then sign and date it. Do you both believe you can write that up for me?
Then we are going to keep you here for your protection.
If Delvecchio was murdered for what he knew, then that doesn’t mean that you couldn’t be next. ”
“Really?” Slick said.
“Yes,” Simons said, and he pushed a legal pad and pen toward them.
“It’s clear your actions were based upon being misled by Delvecchio.
And as well-meaning as you were in what you did, the district attorney may wish to question you, and he may decide to press charges.
That is his right. But until then we’ll keep you safe. ”
Slick picked up the pen and began furiously scrawling across the page.
Wizard picked up his pen, then looked at them. “Dude, I’m starving,” he complained. “Can we get something to eat?”
Simons bit back a smile. “I think someone brought in chicken and biscuits this morning.”
“That will do,” Wizard said, and began to write.