The Fighter's Block (35 page)

With a glower Van said, “Yeah, he’s not my favorite person. But I haven’t seen him since a week after I busted his nose.”

“Yeah, hopefully that’ll work in your favor
,” Jack muttered, jotting something else down.

“Do you know what he did?” Van growled.

“W
e’ll get to that in a minute.
Back to the evidence.
They found shoeprints in the dirt outside
Thompson’s
house; there’s dirt inside the house from the same set of shoes. The shoes were in the bed of your truck.”

“In the
bed
of the truck? Anyone could have put those there!”

“There’s dirt inside the truck that matches the dirt on the shoes. And how do
you
explain the gun under the seat? You keep your truck locked?”

“Of course I do.”

“Where are your spare keys?”

Van paused for a moment but said, “In a drawer in the kitchen.”

“Dani doesn’t have a set?”
he asked.
Van narrowed his eyes at him but Jack held up his hands and said, “Van, I’m not gonna coddle you. Answer the damn question.”

“Yes she has a copy on her keychain.”

“So we look into that first; who could have had access to your keys
, the spare,
or hers
.”

Van took a deep breath.
“What els
e. What other evidence is there?
I mean they honestly can’t charge me with murder just on that, right?
That shit was obviously planted.
”

“Someone
claims they
saw you.”

Van stared at him. “Saw me
where
?”

“Saw you leave the apartment complex that night.”

“That’s
impossible because I never left!
”

“Well apparently this person swore
it was you.”

“Who?” Van growled.

“It’s not relevant until I figure things out
.”

“The fuck it is! I wanna know who’s lying their
fucking
teeth out!”

“
It’s listed as anonymous, so I have no idea. Someone called from the payphone outside your apartment building.
It could have been the real killer, but I’m working on it.
But m
oving on… You’ve been looking for Brian for weeks now. Don’t deny that because I’ve seen proof of it.”

“So? I wanted to know where the little prick was.”

“Sure, that’s fine.
But you also went to
Overlander’s
office fuming about it
,
too. That will be a very credible source to the prosecution.
You were raging mad at Thompson’s former place of employment and apparently they were about to call the police.
Someone saw you coming out of Thompson’s old apartment after you busted his door in.
You threatened him on the street when he was parked outside your building. He allegedly vandalized your truck, right? Jesus, Van. You’ve got a mountain of motive that keeps piling up.”

Van didn’t reply.

“
And
what about you conveniently heading out of town?”

Van studied him for a few seconds until he read between the lines. “You want to know if I killed Brian and then
was gonna head
out of town to make it look like I
couldn’t
have done it? Are you kidding me?”

“I’m just asking the questions, Van. If you can’t answer them without yelling at me, I’m just
gonna
leave. I understand you’re pissed, but help
yourself
here. I gotta ask these questions whether you did it or not.”

“You never even asked me if I did it.”

“Do I need to?”

“Shouldn’t you?”

“I
don’t
believe
you
did it, b
ut if it makes you feel better, did you kill him?”

“No. But I wanted to.”

“Fair enough. Just don’t say that to anyone else.”

“I’ve said it enough.”

“I’m sure you have. I’ve heard you’ve been
pretty irate
several times because of this guy.”

“So? He’s done some horrific things.”

“He raped your wife.”

Van felt his body recoil. “She was my girlfriend at the time, but yeah, same thing. And you know this how?”

“She told me
.”

Van sighed and buried his head into his hands. “He made a video of it.”

“What?”

Van clenched his jaw and repeated, “He made a video of that night. Brian. H
e recorded it. He sent it to me.
”

“Oh Jesus, Van.
”

“It was edited, though. He cut out the part where he threatened her and
made it look like it was consensual.
”

“Where’s the video?”

“I destroyed it.”

“A DVD?”

“Yes. I busted it into a million pieces and threw it in the trash.”

“When was this?”

“Uh, a couple weeks ago.”

“And then you started looking for him. You know how bad that looks? They’ll find th
e video. The recording. They could find out that he sent you a copy.
”

“Can you find it first?”

“Van, I can’t get in that house
right now
. They’re still processing everything.”

“So you didn’t know about it?
It wasn’t added to the evidence against me?
Motive, or whatever?
”

Jack didn’t respond at first, and then he
realized
, “
No because they don’t know yet
…”

“I would check his brother. Andy. He’s kind of the techie geek of the two. Dani says that Brian was always using Andy for different things. He tried to hack into her laptop once.”

“Okay, I’ll start there. But it’s only on
e part of the puzzle, Van. It might not
save you from much. You’ve already been charged on other evidence.”

“I don’t
care; I don’t
want
that
to
get out, Jack. It’s Dani’s life.
”

Jack nodded and rubbed his eyebrows with his fingertips. “I understand.”

They were both silent for a while, Jack thinking about the
anonymous phone call
and Van thinking about Brian.

“Where was he?” Van asked. “Brian. Where’s he been living?”

The lawyer
was a little confused at first, but he could tell that Van really didn’t know.
He placed his
arms on the table
and informed him,
“He lived
two blocks from you, Van.”

That sent Van’s stomach into his gut. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“No, I’m not. He’s lived over on
Denning
for the past five months.
”

Van couldn’t even believe it. Two blocks?
He was speechless. His mind was racing a thousand miles per
second
.
Two blocks
?

“Van, you honestly had no idea?”

“What? No
,
I had no idea! If I had known he was that close I would’ve—”

Jack cut him off with his hand in the air and shook his head. “Don’t go
there. Let’s focus on the facts
.”

“Well here’s a fact. Two blocks away, why would I drive there? I would’ve just walked.”

“
I thought of the same thing
.”

“
Well I didn’t even know where he lived.”

Jack paused briefly. “There was a piece of paper in your truck. With his address on it.”

Van frowned.
“Well
I
didn’t write it.”

“We’ll prove that.
What about Dani? Did she know?”

“What? That he lived just around the corner? Hell no! She would have freaked out!”

“Do you and Brian have any mutual friends?”

Van thought for a second. “No, I don’t believe so.
But back to the gun, Jack.
Can you prove that it’s not
mine? I’m pretty damn sure it’
s Quincy’s.”

“
Have you ever owned a gun?
”

“Hell no. I’ve never even used one, to be honest. Not my thing.”

Jack questioned Van for
another hour
, making phone calls in between to get his defense rolling. By the time Jack left for the night and Van had been returned to his cell, it was midnight.

And he still hadn’t been allowed to see
his wife
.

Chapter Nineteen

“I don’t understand
,” Jaime said, facing her sister.
Dani
looked like she’d been up all night, which she had, but the stress on her face and in her eyes was upsetting. “Why won’t you use Dad’s lawyer? It’s not like you’re the one that’s been arrested. And if Van already has his own lawyer, what does it matter that you talk to another one? Maybe you’d get better advice that way. You know, more help.”

Dani sighed. “Van requested that I not
consult with
Clarence. I don’t know why because I
haven’t been allowed to see
my husband
.
But Jack—Van’s lawyer—told me that Van didn’t trust him.”

“He threatened his investigator, did you hear that?”

Dani sighed again. “Yes, Clarence told me that.”

“So you
did
talk to him?”

“Just for a little bit. Enough to get some legal advice about Van’s situation.”

“And what did he tell you? To sit here until they let you see him?”

The two of them were sitting on a bench at the precinct, and even though Dani had been treated politely by most of the detectives and officers there, she still hadn’t been allowed to see her husband.

“At midnight h
e told me to go home.
They were done searching our apartment.
”

“And I agree with him. What good is it going to do you to sit here all day?
”

“I just want to
see Van. Once I get to see him
I’ll consider going home for a little bit. It’s just hard to think about being comfortable at home when he’s stuck here in a cell, wrongly accused of killing someone.”

Jaime nodded her understanding. It was six in the morning and she was tired, but she needed to be t
here for her sister. “What did D
ad have to say?” she asked, sipping her coffee.

Dani barely scoffed. “You mean after he lit on fire?”

Jaime chuckled. “I’m sure he wasn’t too pleased that you told his lawyer to take a hike?”

“Well they aren’t going to back off, I can tell you that.”

“Mom and Dad?”

Dani nodded. “Apparently Mom was
‘
too distraught
’
to come,” she added, sipping her own container of coffee.

With a smirk Jaime said, “Yeah, I’m sure it wasn’t because she was afraid of being spotted in a police department.”

Dani lightly laughed, and that caused the nearest detective to glance from his desk. It made her feel guilty, like she was having a light moment when her husband was suffering.

She stood
and walked over to him
. “Please let me see Van. I’ve answered your questions, he’s spoken to his lawyer, and I’m about to go crazy.”

Detective
Reyes
put down his pen and said, “If the charges stick, h
is
a
rraignment
is
this afternoon
and then a bail hearing
. You’ll see him then.”

“But why not now? I don’t understand.”

“It’s up to the captain and he says no. I’m sorry.”

“The captain? That guy right there?” she pointed to the office at the back of the room. Before he responded
she
was
already six steps towards Captain
Verhei’s
office
.
Reyes
was right behind her to prevent her from entering the office, but she very loudly resisted, and the captain motioned for him to stop. With hands in the air, Detective
Reyes
left Dani at the doorway and returned to his desk.