Page 42 of Stand By You
“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 McGintybecause 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.
