Page 14 of Unhallowed Murder
“Even Flores’ own people thought he killed her. I can’t wait to ask him face to face and see if he lies or tells the truth when he says he didn’t. But if he didn’t, we need to figure out who had motive.” Ronnie considered all the ways she could convince him to admit to the rape again. They had him talking about it on audio, but a good lawyer might be able to suppress the recording. They needed a confessionafterhe’d been booked and officially Mirandized.
“I’m going to change into a suit but keep my hair down. I want Flores to see me as the bitch who broke his nose, and I look different with my hair in a bun. If I pull it into a ponytail, I want you to come storming into the room demanding you get a turn with him. I’ll tell you he’s my witness and the Feds will have to get in line.”
“And when I leave, you’re going to point out he’ll be better off in the Tennessee prison system than the Federal one?”
“No, I’ll talk about how convenient it’d be for him to serve his time in the county jail.”
“Could work. If I take the bribery charge and you get him on rape… two crimes, two trials, but he doesn’t need to know that just yet.”
“I need to talk to our gang unit about Tigre. Detective Carter says a rumor’s floated about him pulling the strings from behind the scenes, but no one could ever verify.”
“Same here. We show Flores as the head, with notes about Tigre in the background and Ramirez rapidlyclimbing.” He sighed. “Tigre was invited to Jiminy’s Christmas party, to his big Fourth of July party, and was on the boat trip last month. We tried hard to get ears onto that boat, but couldn’t.”
“You want to go with me to talk to our gang unit?”
“Works for me. It never hurts for us to all get in the same room and brainstorm.”
Only if everyone was sharing, but so far, Graham seemed to be.
* * * *
Ronnie started with Tigre, so Flores could stew alone in an interrogation room a little longer. Her cat coiled inside her, ready to spring. A human calling himself a tiger bugged both of them.
She tossed a picture on the table of Tigre and Jiminy on his dock, drinking beer and fishing. Graham was helping in ways she hadn’t expected.
“You seem to be in tight with the local cartel connection.”
“Jiminy? Nah. He’s good people. No one gonna put the cartel in tiny little Chattanooga. Did you break my boy’s nose?”
“He says he’s fine. Seems to be able to breathe okay. We offered him some ice and he turned it down.” Dumbass was trying to be all macho, but in this room, every word was designed to bring Lieutenant Woods’ opponent to a planned outcome — a confession.
“You told Calacas to shut Wendy up?”
“Who’s Wendy?”
“You knew they’d follow the breadcrumbs back to Spyder, right? You needed her to change her story.” Ronnie sat back. “Or did you mean for him to silence her forever, and he decided to try it his way?”
“I had no idea what the boys were up to. Calacas asked me to help him work out amisunderstandingbetween him and Spyder. I ain’t know what the boys were up to — I was just there to help them figure things out without killin’ each other.”
Ronnie leaned forward. “So, you’re just an old man who don’t play the game anymore? Offering advice when asked?”
“Yeah.”
She sat back again and looked him over. He’d stayed out of prison his entire life, despite being a very bad man. They weren’t going to get a confession from him, and she probably wasn’t going to trick him into saying something incriminating. Still, she’d try to put him at ease and see what happened.
“You didn’t have to worry about texts and email back in the day, did you? Were pay phones a dime or a quarter when you started?”
He considered the question before answering, careful he didn’t say anything she could use against him or his people. “Dimes at first, then quarters. Can’t even find the damned things no more.”
“None of your kids went into the life, but now you have two grandsons in it. That your choice?”
“Dumb fucks. They think college is too much trouble. Too much work. My kids all went away to college, somewhere I could be sure there wasn’t a gang to join.”
“And how do you feel about the kids in it now? Spyder was eleven when he joined in Nashville, and was suspected of killing at least two people before he was finally put away for possession with intent to distribute.”
He shrugged. “I can’t say how they run things in Nashville.”
“So, you don’t let eleven-year-olds hang out with the big boys here?”
