Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 83167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
“The suspect reports, when he was approached, he tried to leave and wasn’t allowed. Were you a witness to that?” Lucas asked.
“I was on Lottie in the dressing room. So no.”
“You just tagged him as a person of interest and then you took care of Lottie,” Lawson said.
Mo nodded.
“You need to make a statement on the record of that and the King Soopers sighting,” Lucas remarked. “You sure it was him at the store?”
“A hundred percent, honestly, no. But gut, the second I saw him in the club, I’d bet all I had on the fact it was him checkin’ out cucumbers.”
Lawson and Lucas looked at each other.
“Receipt,” Lawson muttered.
“Noted,” Lucas muttered back.
That meant they’d search through the guy’s stuff and try to find a receipt to place him at the store, verifying Mo’s statement so Mo didn’t have to be a hundred percent on placing him there.
And Mo hoped that guy bought something and kept the receipt.
“I’ll go on the record about it,” Mo added. “When I clocked him at the club, he wasn’t watching Lottie. He had eyes on me.”
“He threatened your life in the last letter,” Lucas noted.
Mo felt the men behind him shift and wondered if they knew that part.
“Yup.”
“And you didn’t want the police called in?”
“Smithie’s call. Letters addressed to him.”
Neither Lucas nor Lawson looked happy about that.
“But you were directly threatened,” Lawson reminded him.
“I look like a guy who can’t take care of myself?” Mo asked.
“No,” Lawson replied. “The man states his wallet was forcibly taken from him in Smithie’s office and he was detained against his will.”
Well, hell.
No, this wasn’t gonna go easy.
“I was on Lottie,” he reiterated.
“You don’t know about that?” Lucas asked, watching him closely.
He did.
“I was on Lottie.”
“You don’t know about that,” Lucas repeated, not in question form this time, but it was still a question.
“Asked and answered,” Lee declared. “Move on, Slim.”
“Lee, let them do their jobs,” Hank said quietly.
Hank, also a cop, knew the game and he knew it had to be played.
Lee just wanted them out of the house so it could quiet down for Lottie.
There was a knock on the door.
Seemed things weren’t going to quiet down for Lottie.
Fuck.
“On it,” Hector said, and he moved.
“I’m sorry, but it wasn’t actually answered, Lee,” Lawson pointed out.
“Tagged the guy. Waited until the lights went down seein’ as I figured he knew me, and that I might know about him, I didn’t want to tweak him by talking into my radio,” Mo put in and Lawson and Lucas’s attention came back to him. “The lights went down after Lottie’s set. I informed the team. Axl stated he was on him. I got Lottie to the dressing room, she locked herself in. I called it into Hawk. I told him the level of my certainty this was our guy, which was high. Hawk made the call.”
“And that call was?” Lawson asked.
“I told you that call, Mitch,” Hawk said, striding toward them in front of Hector. “Now, Mo doesn’t need an attorney, but I’m fuckin’ gonna get him one just to fuck your day up if this shit goes on longer.”
Hawk knew the game.
It just got under his skin when his men were forced to play it.
“Smithie, nor you, nor any member of your team, nor any employee of the club can detain a man, Hawk,” Lawson retorted.
“Yes we can as hired security for that club,” Hawk returned.
Lawson knew that to be true, so he let it go and switched subjects. “He reports his wallet was forcibly removed from his person.”
“I’m not surprised he’s offering false testimony, Mitch, considering what was found in his house,” Hawk clipped. “But at the time, when we shared our concerns, he shared he had nothing to hide, was happy for us to enter his house and do a search, something we did. He thought we were bluffing, didn’t understand the scope of our security remit with Smithie or thought this right here would get what was in his house made inadmissible after what he’ll claim is an illegal search. Now he’s falsifying his story, deciding this will be his defense when his shit got hot.”
Mo remained silent.
The shifting behind him ceased.
“But we got witnesses to the effect of our story,” Hawk carried on. “And he’s got a basement fitted with soundproofing and other things I don’t need to describe since you saw it. He got agitated during the time he chose not to leave Smithie’s office, probably cottoning onto the fact we weren’t bluffing. He was cocky at first, and if you read his letters, you’ll get why. He thought he was on his way, his confidence growing.”
They definitely knew that last.
“So we did detain him,” Hawk went on. “Just not forcibly. But we were adamant about it once Jorge found what was in his house and I called you. I made that order. So that’s on me. But Mo wasn’t around for any of that. So how about Mo comes down to make a statement when his woman isn’t upstairs, workin’ off a week’s worth of tension caused by the likes of this man having her in his sights and we move on from here.”