As she stepped on to the concrete, she sank down on to her knees.
‘She OK?’
‘Be careful, she might be faking it.’
‘Dude, you’ve got an overactive imagination.’
‘You read that bitch’s file? She’s snuffed more people than Bin Laden.’
Forty-five
‘This is bullshit. I didn’t take any kid!’
‘Then what were you doing there, Cody?’
Frisk was facing Cody Parker and his court-appointed attorney, a Hispanic woman in her late twenties, across a table in an interrogation room on the third floor of Federal Plaza.
‘I told you. I got a phone call.’
‘That’s very convenient. From who?’
‘I don’t know. They said they knew who killed Gray Stokes and that if I wanted to know I should meet them at that address.’
‘They didn’t give you a name? You didn’t recognize the voice?’
‘Nope. Look, if I kidnapped this kid then where’s the money, huh? Or did you plant it in my truck?’
‘Why don’t you tell us where it is.’
‘Someone set me up.’
Frisk rocked back in his seat, stretched out his arms and yawned. ‘Go on, then, I’m prepared to explore alternative scenarios.’
‘It was that company. They were looking to get back at me.’
Frisk laughed. Unprofessional, but he couldn’t help it. ‘They arranged a kidnapping of the child of one of their employees in order to exact some kind of revenge against you personally? OK, it’s certainly an interesting hypothesis. But it still doesn’t speak to motive. Why you?’
‘What do you mean, “why me”? I’ve been taking them on. And why aren’t you out there trying to catch whoever killed my mom?’
‘Because we don’t have any evidence that she died from anything other than natural causes. But it does bring us neatly to another event. Digging up Eleanor Van Straten’s corpse. That what you mean by “taking them on”?’
Cody glanced up at the ceiling. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Except we’ve found particles of soil on your boots which match the soil from Mrs Van Straten’s grave.’
Cody’s jaw tightened. He gave his attorney the briefest of looks. ‘OK, so that was me.’
‘Finally,’ Frisk said. ‘And who was with you?’
‘I was alone.’
‘Moving a body, even a little old lady, is a two-man job. Minimum.’
‘I told you. I was alone.’
‘So this friend of yours, he the one who blew up the car, get rid of any forensics?’
‘You got me blowing shit up to get rid of forensics and sitting across the street from that boy?’
‘Well, you have to concede you were there. I mean, no one teleported you or anything.’
‘I was there. And I told you why. Check the phone records at the house if you don’t believe me.’
‘We already did.’
‘And?’
‘You received a call when you said you did.’
‘Then I’m telling the truth.’
‘Records don’t say anything about what was being said. And as for telling the truth, how many times were you questioned about Mrs Van Straten?’
‘Don’t rightly remember.’
‘Three times. And three times you denied having any involvement. So allow me some scepticism when it comes to your record on honesty.’
Cody stretched his arms towards the ceiling. ‘So what happens now?’
‘You’re arraigned. You wait to go to trial. You’ll have plenty of time to think about whether or not you want to plead guilty.’
‘You can’t put this on me. Or anyone in the movement.’
‘That so?’ Frisk said, getting up from his seat and crossing to a plastic storage box in the corner of the room. He removed the lid and pulled out a clear plastic evidence bag. Inside there was a photo album with a red spine and a plain grey cover. He brought it back to the table. ‘Go ahead.’
Cody opened the bag like something might leap out from the album’s pages and bite him. ‘This is mine. So what?’
‘Oh, we know it’s yours. It’s got your prints all over it.’
‘So why are you asking me then?’
‘Because it was with Josh Hulme when he was found. Someone dropped it at the exchange point. And it has your prints all over it as well as those of Josh Hulme.’
‘I had a bunch of shit taken in a robbery,’ Cody said flatly.
‘You report it?’
‘No,’ Cody answered, shaking his head.
‘Josh Hulme told us that this album was in the room where he was kept after he was abducted.’
Frisk reached over and opened the album to a random page. The eyes were big, brown and familiar to Frisk and Cody. So was the red raw flesh on top of the dog’s skull.
The door opened and a uniformed officer walked in. He bent down next to Frisk, lowered his voice. ‘There’s a Ryan Lock demanding to speak to you.’
Frisk got up. He picked up the album and held it up to Cody’s face. ‘Pretty sick thing to expose a child to, wouldn’t you agree, Mr Parker?’
Forty-six
‘You want me to one-eighty this investigation on the word of a teenage hooker you found in a strip club? Which, incidentally, you entered carrying a firearm. You keep going the way you are, Lock, and we’re gonna have to get some new felonies on the books just to keep up.’
‘But you’ll look into it?’
Lock had known Frisk would be a hard sell. Hell, he wasn’t even sure that Carrie believed him. But here he was in Frisk’s office asking the man for a favour.
‘For what it’s worth,’ Frisk said.
‘All I’m asking you to do is keep an open mind.’
‘This wouldn’t have anything to do with Brand replacing you as Meditech’s head of security, would it?’
‘I’m convalescing.’
‘Most people do that at home in bed with a nice bowl of chicken soup.’
Lock smiled. ‘I didn’t say I was any good at it.’
Frisk opened the bottom drawer of his desk and dug out a plastic Tupperware container. ‘The wife makes me lunch. You know, try to ensure I eat my greens.’ He took the top off and held it up for Lock to inspect. ‘I mean, seriously, would you eat this shit?’
Lock waved it away.
‘You’ve had a boner for Brand since the first time I met you,’ Frisk continued.
‘He’s had a boner for me.’
‘Volunteering to testify against one of your own guys? Wouldn’t that usually get you fragged in the military?’
‘Not where I served. Not if someone had crossed the line.’
‘Oh yeah, I forgot you served with the Limeys. That why you and Brand don’t get along?’
‘Head over to Scotland. Try calling them Limeys and see what happens. I served in the same branch of the military as my father. I served his memory. Took a lot of shit from both sides for being a mutt while I was doing it. But I’ve never felt the need to wrap myself in any flag in order to prove my patriotism.’
‘Nice speech,’ Frisk said, putting the lid back on his lunch box. ‘Look, I have a perp.’
‘Who didn’t do it.’
‘There’s evidence you’re not aware of.’
‘Such as?’
Frisk stood up. ‘Who the hell are you anyway, Lock? Just some hired hand.’
‘This case is bullshit, and you know it.’
‘I know I’ve got a guy who’s now admitted to digging up Eleanor Van Straten’s body, and who was at the handover. All you’ve got is the fact that one of your co-workers was schtupping Richard Hulme’s nanny.’
‘Who had to have been involved in the kidnapping.’
‘A few months earlier she’d been giving out handjobs in the back of a strip club, so how do you know she wasn’t dropping her panties for more than one guy?’