“Don’t worry,” Davidson adds.
“I have a feeling if you tell her Edgar Soto was murdered, she’ll give you everything she knows.”
“Is she your source?” Davidson asks.
“Give me a break, Scott,” I say. “And if you have a detail on Amanda, you might want to get one on Justine, too.”
“You think she’s that involved that she’s in danger?” Caine asks.
“I don’t think it’s that she’s that involved, just that she hangs with the wrong people, and that might be enough to get her hurt.”
“I’ll get one of our marked units to sit on her house until you all get everything worked out,” Caine says to Hawkins.
“Appreciate that.”
“So you don’t think we look at her as another suspect in the Amanda Meyer case?” Davidson asks.
“My opinion, no, she wasn’t involved in all that. She’s just a girl who wants to have fun.”
Fifty
I feel better since they agreed to provide Justine with a protection detail, so I hold off on giving them Playboy, at least for now. I got an idea for an okeydoke I want to play on him, and these guys’ll just get in the way. I need to get with Luna first. I can trust him to keep things to himself, especially if there’s something in it for him down the road, like a good bust.
“Have to admit, you know a lot more than we do about some of the players in this investigation,” Hawkins says.
“Players? I told you that girl isn’t a player.”
“You said you have a source. Sounds like a good one, too. You gave us a possible good lead with Columbia Village. Does your source know the decedent?”
“I’ve got a hundred good sources. All you guys need to do is talk to Justine Durrell on this one, and take it from there.”
“So tell us about your conversation with Edgar Soto,” Hernandez says out of the blue, and suddenly I’m falling out of love.
“I never said I had a conversation with Edgar Soto. And like I told Davidson, even if I did have a conversation with him, and I’m not saying I did, it’d be privileged information.”
“Enough with this privileged information shit,” Whatshisname says. “This is a fucking murder case.”
“And I’m not trying to hinder that case. If I did talk to him, the only thing we’d talk about is Miriam Gregory, and if he knew where she was.”
“And what makes you think there’s no connection between the two?” Hernandez asks.
“Very well could be, but unless I find Miriam Gregory, I’ll never know. What the fuck’s this about, Davidson?” I ask, because it’s starting to feel like an interrogation.
Davidson doesn’t say anything, like he’s deferring to the big boys or, rather, boy and the woman beside him. They all got their position now, except for Caine. He’s just a guest.
“What if we told you there’s a witness who observed a man in a suit who fits your description. He was with the decedent yesterday,” Hawkins says.
“I’d say there’s a lot of men in a suit who fit my description.”
“I don’t know. You don’t look like the average bear,” Hernandez says.
“This is bullshit, Scott. You know I wanted to talk to him. He was the only lead I had. For that matter, he was the only lead Caine had, and now he’s dead. Does wanting to interview the kid make me a suspect in his murder? This is ridiculous.”
“I’ll give you more of the ridiculous, then,” Hawkins says. “We have a witness who saw you fight with the decedent and then force him into his own car and drive off. Does that ring a bell?”
I belt out my best laugh. It sounds genuine, because I’m genuinely taken by surprise. They won’t know the difference.
“What, another witness? You said the last one saw a man who fits my description. Now you got one who puts me fighting with the kid? You guys are outta your fucking minds if you think I was involved in something like that.”
I look at Davidson again, but he won’t look at me directly. I’m starting to worry about whether I’m going to walk outta here. Fact is, it would look like I was having a little scuffle with the kid, and maybe a concerned mother called 911, maybe even got Soto’s tag number before we drove off. If a unit did respond, then they’d find it easy enough during the course of the preliminary investigation. Someone could’ve provided a good description of me, even put me with my car. Another witness possibility is his weed-dealing partner, Greg. He could’ve seen it go down from the wooded area. Either one of these options would suck.
“Davidson, what’re you thinking, pulling me down for some shit like this? You’re seriously reaching. If you had me for something like that, then all this would’ve played out differently and you know it. I’d have had my door kicked in instead of a former old buddy politely asking me to stop by.”