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)
Mo wondered who’d called Hawk in.
His guess was Lucas.
But it also could have been Lawson.
He’d never know because he’d never ask, and it didn’t matter anyway.
It was just a game that needed to be played to put a sick man down.
“By the time we hit that club, Hawk, all the patrons were gone so we couldn’t question them. And none of the employees are reporting the incident where your man Axl forcibly locked down the suspect and took him up to the office,” Lawson noted.
“That was because Axl and Jaylen asked him up to the office and he came of his own free will,” Hawk replied.
“And again, he says otherwise,” Lucas pointed out.
“And again, with what Jorge told me was in his house, I’m not surprised,” Hawk fired back. “Are you? You got him on intent. You got him on stalking. You got him on malice aforethought, times two.” He jerked his head toward Mo, indicating the death threat. “And the Feds got him on using the United States postal service to deliver a threat. Three counts. You call in the Feds?”
“Yeah,” Lucas said.
“Now you’re tellin’ me this guy who had that shit in his house is gonna roll into a court of law, whine about Smithie and my boys forcibly capturing and detaining him when the man doesn’t have a mark on him, have pictures shown of that basement, his journals passed around to a jury, those letters read, and he’s gonna get off?” Hawk asked.
Axl had a talent at that, a capture with no marks.
Downright skilled.
Mo did not smile.
But he wanted to.
“We’re tellin’ you, if we don’t hand everything to the DA with all of it tied up tight, he’s gonna find a crack to slip through so maybe you can back off and let us do our job,” Lawson replied.
“And I’ll repeat, I’m good to go down to the station, but I told you what I saw, where I saw it, what I did, what I reported to Hawk, which by the way, turned out to be correct, and that I was on Lottie,” Mo butted in.
“And Lottie…?” Lucas pressed.
“Was in the dressing room, then in my truck, then in bed asleep and she doesn’t know dick,” Mo told him. “The only letter she saw was the first, everyone’s call considering the escalation of menacing language.”
“She might hear it if this goes to trial,” Lawson said carefully.
“I don’t know why, since she doesn’t know dick, so there’d be no reason to call her as a witness. She doesn’t even know what this guy looks like,” Mo bit off.
“We’re gonna have to talk to her,” Lucas said even more carefully.
“You’re gonna have to wait,” Mo clipped.
Lucas nodded.
“So are we done?” Mo asked.
“We’re done, but we’ll need you to come in as soon as you can to make this official,” Lawson told him.
“And with this whackjob makin’ false statements, what’s my girl up against?” Mo demanded to know.
“Hawk’s right,” Lucas answered Mo. “We got him on intent to do grievous bodily harm, stalking, malice aforethought and the Feds got a case. He typed out the letters, but handwrote the addresses, which might have been ballsy, but mostly it was stupid. Threats delivered, an employer took action to see his employees were safe. In these situations, bringing in security details is not unheard of. Even hired security using force when a threat has been identified isn’t unheard of and that won’t be a problem. The search of his home possibly against his will…”
Lucas let that trail, but he wasn’t done.
“If the judge can get past that and what was in his house is admissible, though, he’s fucked. Our search had a warrant. The judge just factors that, we’ll be fine. As for bail, the letters alone will give any judge pause. The rest, the DA will drive hard to either have bail set out of his price range or hold him until trial since he’s clearly not all there, so not only a likely flight risk, but just a risk. She’s good. But we’ll stay on this and if it comes to a point we’re concerned, we’ll be makin’ a lot of calls, so she’s covered.”
That was what he wanted to hear.
Mo got up.
“Morrison, I’ll tell her myself when I see her again, but if you can get it in, apologize to Lottie for me. Yeah?” Lawson asked.
Game over.
Mo lifted his chin.
Eddie started to make short work of getting Lawson and Lucas out of there, but Mo didn’t hang around to watch.
He took the stairs three at a time and went to Lottie’s bedroom.
Lottie was curled up in a ball, her head in her mom’s lap, her mother stroking her hair.
Jet, on her other side with Lottie’s feet in her lap, caught sight of him and gave him a small smile.