Building Ties (Military Romantic Suspense) (SEAL Team Heartbreakers Book 4) (27 page)

“Good.”

His dark eyes, so much like his mother’s turned to Tess. “What was it you wanted to ask me, Ms. Kelly?”

“First, is it okay with you if I tape this interview?” she asked, producing a small digital recorder from her pocket. “They wouldn’t allow me to bring in my notebook and pen.”

Clarence laid a hand on Daniel’s arm. “If they subpoenaed you, you’d have to hand over the interview, Tess. I won’t allow Daniel to answer any questions detrimental to his defense.”

“I don’t intend to ask any that would be.” At his nod, and Daniel’s, she started the recorder. “I’d like to hear from you directly what happened the night of the robbery.”

Daniel’s gaze swung to Clarence and, at his nod, took a deep breath. “The same thing that happens every night I work. I rotate around the store doing what needs done. That night I worked in the dairy department stocking the refrigeration unit. When I was done in dairy, I bagged some groceries, cleaned the conveyor belts on the checkout lanes, and did some sweeping. When my shift was over at eleven, I walked home. I was almost there when a police car came screaming around the corner, pulled over, and two cops jumped out of the car with their guns drawn. They screamed at me to get on the ground, so I did. I kept asking them what was happening, but neither of them would tell me.”

“How long does it take for you to walk home from the store?”

“Twenty or twenty-five minutes. I guess it was more like twenty minutes that night.”

“Did you see anyone along the way you recognized?”

“No. It’s eleven-thirty at night. People don’t walk around that late in our neighborhood. My mom works the late shift for a cleaning company, and she can’t pick me up because she doesn’t get off until midnight.”

In the last two days, Tess had walked the distance from the store. Brett, after enlisting Bowie and Doc’s help, had accompanied her. All three men had been in hypervigilant SEAL mode the entire time. She’d stopped at several neighborhood houses, spoken to rough-looking young men, their bodies marked by tattoos. Since she’d had three obviously armed men with her, none of them had attempted any aggression or intimidation. All of them knew Daniel, and none of them had seen him that night. And if they had, the district attorney wouldn’t have thought them credible anyway.

Everyone on Daniel’s street had seen the arrest. From the moment the lights of the police car had flashed, the neighbors had been glued to their windows. All of them were adamant Daniel was innocent.

“Did you happen to notice the time, Daniel?” Tess asked.

“No, but it would be on the cops’ dashcam. I usually get home a few minutes before eleven each night.”

Tess exchanged a look with Clarence. His assessment of the time was what several witnesses had told her. If it took him twenty minutes to walk home every night, then he wouldn’t have had time to leave work, come back, rob the store, wash off the tattoo, stow the cash, gun, and mask, and make it home in the same length of time—unless he’d run like the wind. Or had an accomplice who’d given him a ride and dropped him close to his house. She’d asked about a car but no one had seen him get out of one. And there’d never been any mention of a partner in the crime. And how the hell had the cops gotten there so quickly?

“What kind of relationship do you have with your boss, Mr. Gordon?”

Daniel was silent for a moment. “Well, I always thought it was okay. He’s not exactly the touchy-feely pat you on the back for a good job kind of dude. Sometimes he can be short when he tells me to do things. Like he’s pissed off about something. But he’s like that sometimes with everyone who works for him.”

Tess bit her lip. “Do you know any of Mr. Gordon’s family?”

“No. I’ve seen his wife a time or two when she’s stopped by to speak to him.” Daniel leaned forward to rest his arms on the table, an awkward position when his wrists were bound to the ring. “I don’t know why Mr. Gordon thinks it was me who held up the store that night. I’ve never done anything to him to piss him off enough for him to do it out of spite. He must really believe it was me. But it wasn’t. I swear it wasn’t.”

His earnest confusion was plain to read. Tess thought for a moment. If she brought up Gordon’s nephew by name, and Daniel mentioned it to his brother… “Have the police asked you about your brother and the gang?”

“They did when they first brought me in. They offered me a deal if I’d tell them things about Miguel and the others. I kept thinking, why would I take a deal for something I didn’t do?” For the first time anger seamed his lips together in a taut line and his nostrils flared. “I wouldn’t do it. I asked for a lawyer, then he tried to get me to talk to them. And every time I told him I was innocent, he just kept saying, give them what they want, and they’ll let you go.”

Tess said, “They couldn’t just let you go if you were being arrested for armed robbery, Daniel.”

He shrugged. “That’s what the lawyer said they’d do.” His dark eyes settled on her face. “I know you met my brother. I know what you think you see when you look at Miguel. But he’s more than the tattooed gangbanger you think he is. He’s done a lot to keep the others off my back, to keep me and Mom safe.”

“I know he loves you and your mother very much. But I also know he probably lives his life by different rules than most of us. I don’t hold you responsible or look in judgment on you because of your brother’s lifestyle. You have no control over the decisions other people make about their lives. Only the ones you make yourself.”

She was repeating the words Brett had said to her only a couple of days before when discussing Brian Gooding and her suspicions. If she felt torn about what might become of a man she didn’t even know, she could only guess how Daniel must feel. “Who was your other lawyer?”

“I have that information, Tess,” Clarence said. “But he can’t talk to you about anything. Attorney-client privilege extends beyond my replacing him.”

“I’d still like his name.”

Clarence glanced in Daniel’s direction.

“His name was Eli Carter. He was court appointed.”

Tess nodded. “Do you have any tattoos?”

“No. Mom went off on me about them. She said Miguel had enough ink on his body for the both of us.”

From what Tess had seen she had to agree. And the area between Daniel’s wrist and elbow, the place Rosalie said she’d seen a tattoo, was free of any images.

For fifteen minutes she guided Daniel through questions about school, and his interests. “What is it you hope to study in college?”

“I want to be a doctor. But that won’t happen if I have a felony conviction.”

“Mr. Niles is really good at his job. I can’t see him allowing that to happen.”

Daniel’s gaze rested on his handcuffs. “Ms. Kelly, they’re not interested in looking anywhere else, they think they have their guy. And I won’t give them anything on my brother, and that pisses them off. They won’t care if they convict me, even if I’m innocent. They just think they’re getting another gangbanger off the street. That’s the way things work in my neighborhood.”

The sad acceptance in his eyes tugged at Tess’s sympathies, no matter how objective she tried to be. “We’ll see, Daniel. Mr. Niles has investigators out looking for other evidence. Something may pop up.”

He jerked his head in Clarence’s direction. “Do you have investigators looking for the real guy?”

“Yes, I have an investigator looking at the evidence against you.”

Hope flared in his face, his eyes. “Good. I’m glad. They have to find something to prove it wasn’t me.”

Tess scooped up the recorder and stood to leave. “I appreciate you seeing me, Daniel.”

“Thanks for coming and getting me off the floor for a little while.”

“Keep studying.”

“I don’t have anything else to do.”

Clarence knocked on the door and the guard opened it. Tess stepped outside the room and took a deep breath. It seemed they’d been in the small space for days when it had only been an hour.

They waited until the guards had freed Daniel from the metal ring and walked him down the hall.

“What were you looking for, Tess?”

“I know you probably have some of this information, but I’ll share it anyway. One witness saw a tattoo on the inside of the holdup man’s arm between the guy’s wrist and elbow.”

“It could have been a temp and removed after the robbery.”

“There would have been residue, and he’d have had to go somewhere to wash it away. They don’t come off easily. There would have been a red area where he’d had to scrub. And doesn’t it seem he accomplished a lot in twenty minutes?”

“Yeah. Is that it?”

“Ronald Gordon has a nephew with a drug problem. A nephew who’s been arrested in the past for breaking and entering. And who has a history of violence. His name is Jay Gordon. It’s Gordon’s sister’s boy. She had him when she was a teenager and has raised him by herself. He may either be a member of Miguel’s gang or may buy his drugs from them. In any case, Gordon got this look of rage on his face when I mentioned Miguel. I think he holds Miguel Delgado responsible for his nephew’s drug problem. And I believe he named Daniel as the suspect on purpose to both protect his nephew, who I believe may have held up the store, and to get even.”

“Holy hell!”

“I couldn’t ask Daniel if he knew Jay. And I can’t ask Miguel either. Miguel might kill him before he can be arrested. But if I were you, I’d find out if Jay has a tattoo and try and light a fire under the DA’s office to pick him up for questioning before he gets rid of the money, the gun and the mask. If he hasn’t already. And before Miguel goes after him.”

“The DA’s office has to know Gordon has a nephew with a record.”

“Yes, since they’re the ones who probably prosecuted him in the past. But they think they have leverage against Miguel as long as no one else is brought in as a suspect in the robbery. As a last resort you can let them know I have all this information, and that I’m digging into this story. It might move things along. Every day they don’t pick Jay up is a day he’s in danger and another day Daniel remains stagnating in here.”

“So you believe he’s innocent, too?”

After a calming breath, she said, “I hope he is, since I’ve just given you information that might free him.”

“You may be burning some bridges here if I mention your name to the DA’s office. The lawyers who work there tend to have long memories when someone throws a poison pen and disrupts their bargaining strategies.”

“If you find evidence that they are purposely stonewalling to gain leverage against Miguel, I’d like to know. It would make my story even bigger. Besides, if Daniel’s innocent, what they’re doing is wrong, you know it as well as I do.”

“You know this take-no-prisoners attitude might cause you some problems.”

“Says the man whose defends some pretty shady characters.”

Clarence shrugged. “Everyone is entitled to a good defense. Besides, my clients always pay their bill.”

He grinned and Tess couldn’t tell if he was serious or not.

“What do you need in return for all this?” he asked.

“Just let me know ahead of the other media outlets when he’s cleared and released. I already have a partial story ready, I just need an ending.” She glanced down the hall, eager to leave.

Clarence motioned for her to precede him. “With no weapon, no money recovered, one eye witness identifying a masked hold-up guy—this won’t stand up in court. I can get him off, Tess. Just not in time for him to keep his scholarship.”

“I know, and I’m sure the DA does, too. I don’t know how in good conscience they’re keeping him in here.”

“The lines get blurred when they’re after a bigger fish. And Miguel is a piranha.”

That was a fitting description of Miguel. She just hoped he didn’t devour Jay Gordon before he could be arrested.

‡

B
rett lifted the
bottle of water to his lips and took a large swallow. His gaze stayed on Tess as she played with A.J. several yards away. The afternoon sun struck her hair and turned the dark strands to copper, her skin glowed smooth and pale, though her cheeks had taken on a light pink tinge.

God, she was beautiful. It was probably a good thing they were hanging out in Hawk’s back yard right now, because every time he looked at her he wanted to go caveman and carry her off to a bedroom, lock the door, and make love until he was too exhausted to move. But it went deeper than that. She fed something in him no other woman had ever touched. He thought of her every day. Wanted to hear her voice every morning.

What would he do if she took the Washington job? How would they survive the move from one coast to the other? They’d only get to see each other when they were both free. Which would be pretty much never. He cut the thoughts off. He’d deal with that part if and when he had to.

Tess stretched to the right and caught the Nerf ball A.J. threw, more a wild, out-of-control swing than a toss. The kid was going to have a powerful throwing arm if he ever learned some control. She pitched the ball underhand back to him and A.J. laughed when it bounced off his chest and landed at his feet.

“Did A.J. go with you to pick up Tess?”