The Fighter's Block (36 page)

“May I speak to you for a moment?” she asked the captain. He motioned to a seat across from him so she sat. “I would like to see my husband. I don’t care if it’s five minutes or five seconds, but I want to see him.”

John
Verhei
took a slow, silent breath of air and placed his hands on the desk in front of him. “It’s not a matter of giving you want
you
want, Mrs. Kemp. My job is to protect the people in my jurisdiction from danger, and this is just the
way it goes
.”

“He’s my
husband
, not just some stranger,” she growled. “And he didn’t do what you’ve accused him of! He was with me all night! I’ve been asked that question ten times, and I’ve answered it ten times! If the crime happened at two a.m., you can’t possibly accuse my husband!
He was with me
!” she emphasized again.

“Ma’am, I don’t care if you swear to me until you
’
r
e
blue in the face. There are procedures that we follow here, and right now your husband has been
accused of
murder. We don’t allow
alleged
murderers to
have any privileges while they are in our custody.”

“If you say that again I will sue you for slander. You cannot call him that!”

“I said ‘alleged,’
which is perfectly within my legal right. And for the record, he’s been here for a night, Mrs. Kemp. That’s hardly injustice. The evidence
spoke
, a judge agreed, and the arrest warrant
was
issued. Now we have the authority to keep him here until
his bail hearing
, and just because you don’t agree with that, doesn’t give you the right to pitch a fit every hour. I suggest you go home until your lawyer speaks to you.”

Dani
studied him for several seconds
and for some reason that made him feel uneasy. It was like she was looking right into him, reading his mind. She did look a bit devastated, but at the same time, her smirk suggested that she knew more than she did. At last she said, “And this has nothing to do with
Donny
Kemp, right?
Just because his dad was convicted of a crime, you’re going to look at Van that way, too? Divide and conquer, right? Keep us apart because we’re each other’s alibis, hoping you can get something from it?
”

His heart skipped a pace but he chose not to respond when he said, “You may leave now.”

She did leave, but not because he told her to. She left before she climbed across the desk and slapped that stupid smile off his face. She returned to Jaime, who had been standing up trying to monitor the situation from across the room. Jaime followed her sister back to the bench and sat down with her, only for Dani to jump up and exclaim, “Jack!”

Jack might have been surprised to see her there before him, but he was betting that she hadn’t even left. She hadn’t moved after she stood, so he joined the two ladies where they were now both standing.

“Please tell me you have something,” Dani said.

He didn’t want to disappoint her, but he honestly replied, “Nothing solid.”

“But you have my sworn statement, and statements from the guys at the gym about
Quincy’s
gun
and the fact that Van doesn’t use one
. Why isn’t that enough?”

“I can’t file a motion just yet.”

“They said his bail hearing is today.”

“I
honestly can’t tell you where we stand right now
, but
I have a few more questions for Van. Maybe in the next—” he glanced at his watch “—six hours I can come up with something
that will make a difference
.”

“I want to see him.”

“I’m sorry, Dani, but I can’t make that happen. Seeing you has nothing to do with his case, and right now they’re only allowing his lawyer. It’s the way it goes.”

She nodded, even though she felt a tear slide down her cheek.

“Can you do something for me though?”
he asked.

She nodded again. “Anything.”

“Go home, get some rest.”

“Anything but that. I want to help, Jack. Give me something to do.”

He knew that would be her answer so he didn’t bother arguing with her. However, he did say, “Van would like to hear that you’re at home, Dani. I think it would make him feel much better to know that you weren’t still sitting here in the precinct.”

She knew he was right, so she nodded her head. “Okay, but only if you give me something I can do. Honestly Jack, I need to help with something.”

“My investigators are taking care of everything right now. There’s really nothing you can do except answer some questions when I need answers. And,” he decided to add. “I’m sure I might need some answers when I’m chatting with my client.
I’ll see what I can do about allowing a phone call, okay?
”

She was grateful for that little bit of hope. She did go home after that, and when she walked through her door,
she stopped dead in her tracks. She’d forgotten Jack’s earlier warning that her home would not be as tidy as it normally was, but seeing cupboards and drawers opened, pillows on the floor,
pictures removed from the walls
and her bedding and closet torn
apart…it
was upsetting.

H
er phone rang with a call from
an unfamiliar number
, and the state of her home became a lost thought
.

“Van?” she exclaimed.

“Yeah baby, it’s me. Man
,
it is so good to hear your voice.” She was already crying and she automatically wiped away the evidence. But Van could hear her sniffle and he said, “Dani, it’s gonna be okay. I promise.”

“How can you promise me that?” she asked weakly. She wanted to believe it, but there was too much to worry about.

“Because I didn’t
do this. I’ve had a shitty life
and now I finally have you and I’m really happy. God is not
gonna
let me down. I have faith, Dani. You need to
,
also.”

She nodded
,
even though she knew he couldn’t see
her. But her heart broke, hearing him talk like that. Was it really going to come down to faith? Faith was what he would rely on because he felt he couldn’t depend on
anything
else?

“Dani,
I only have a minute to talk, but
promise me you’ll be careful, okay? I don’t really know who to trust right now.”

“I will,” she finally said. “I love you, Van. I’m so sorry this is happening.”

“I know, Dani, me too.”

“No,
this is my fault. This is happening because of me. I wish I’d never met Brian, never brought any of that into our lives—”

“I have no regrets
because I have
you
. We’re
gonna
get through this, okay, and the plus side to it all is that we don’t have to deal with him anymore. I don’t know what happened to him and I don’t care, but you don’t have to worry about him, D.”

“But I do worry about who would do this to you. This is nothing small, Van. Whatever happens, there will still be the effects of that…”

“One day at a time first. I just want you to be okay, and I don’t want you to worry about me. I’m fine. I can take care of myself, remember?”

He chuckled
and she smiled, but it barely made her feel any better. Just picturing what he’d have to “take care of” if he ever went to prison made her cry again.

“Dani, I want you to just
lay
low, okay? I don’t want you trying to figure things out on your own or anything. That’s what Jack is for. He’s got people looking into everything that
he
can right now. If you start poking around, talking to people… I just don’t want anything to look bad in court, okay? I want to do this by the book; I want to follow everything that Jack says, all right?”

“Okay,” she barely whispered.

“Just do what he says, okay? If he asks you qu
estions, answer them truthfully
no matter what. And if he tells you to go home and rest—”

“Van, I get it. Do everything Jack says. Listen to Jack. Follow Jack’s command. Jump when Jack says jump.”

“Dani…”

“I’m sorry, I’m just…
I’m scared, Van.”

“I know you are. But things are going to work out
. I want you to keep busy with your normal things, okay?” Dani heard voices in the background, so she wasn’t surprised when he said, “I gotta go for now. But my bail hearing has been bumped to ten o’clock tomorrow morning. I’ll see you then, okay? Bye, Dani. I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Van. With all my heart.”

She held the phone to her ear until she knew he’d hung up, and then she dropped into the couch and bawled.

Chapter Twenty

Cole
Nicholson
set his binoculars on
the passenger’s seat and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. Jack wanted him to prove
Van
innocent, but
it was going to be a long shot
if not impossible. Van was definitely an interesting guy
, and whether
Cole
believed he was innocent or not didn’t matter. He
was being paid
to find something that could set him free.

He picked up his digi
tal recorder and spoke into it, documenting his sightings as he watched Donny Kemp
, Van’s father,
at
work
in
Benny’s Automotive.
It was his first day on the job.
The guy knew his son had been arrested on the same day he himself had been
released
. From what
Cole
had discovered, Donny’s reaction had been one of indifference. Van had been a
rrested at one in the afternoon;
his dad
released
six hours before that. The police had enough evidence to arrest Van at ten that morning, but they waited. It really makes a repo
rt look nice when you can add
t
he suspect was
leaving town at time of arrest
.

“Donny Kemp appears to have defensive wounds on his forearms,”
Cole
stated into the recorder
as he watched the man remove his coveralls
. He peered into the binoculars a few seconds longer and added, “They could be
from working in an engine, but he’s also got some sort of scratch or gouge on his neck… His right elbow is bruised and swollen… He seems to walk with a slight limp. My guess is he got into it with someone recently.”

He watched for a little bit longer and then made a phone call before his assumptions got out of hand. “Yeah Drake, it’s Cole. Listen, did Donny Kemp get into any fights before his release?” He listened for a few seconds and then nodded. “Got it. Who was it with?”

He wrote down information as Drake spoke, and then he hung up the phone.

“Donny Kemp and
George
Canton had a little dispute in the yard the day before Kemp’s release,” he spoke into his recorder. “The guards
didn’t think it got out of hand
and
Donny came out of it with a few minor injuries. I’m not quite sure the defensive wounds on Donny Kemp are the result of a scuffle that lasted only a few seconds.”

Cole
returned the binoculars to his eyes and observed a few minutes longer. It looked like
Donny
was done for the day, so he waited until he started walking home before he got out and followed him. Donny walked seven blocks, stopping nowhere, and
arrived
at the
dumpy
apartment complex that
Cole
had staked out the night before.

The investigator
leaned against the build
i
ng across the street and pulled o
ut his phone. “It’s Cole. Your
turn.” He waited until Sam
pulled up to take over ten minutes later, and then
Cole
walked the seven blocks back to his car.

His next stop was Andy Thompson’s. The guy
was keeping a low profile
after being questioned by the police
. His brother was now dead so perhaps he was in mourning, but
Cole
got the feeling they weren’t on the best terms to begin with.

Again there was no answer at Andy’s apartment and
Cole
knew he couldn’t wait any longer. Sometimes you get more out of someone when they
aren’t
around to talk to you. He was glad the hallways were empty, even though he had to cut out of his lock-picking one quick time. But it took longer than he expected, and when he was finally inside, he raised his eyebrows at the three extra locks that were available from the inside.