“I’m defense attorney Wolf. Before I decide if I’ll take your case, I need your assurance that you’re telling me the truth.”
“Why do I need you? I don’t know nuthin’.” He crossed his tattooed arms.
Wolf didn’t doubt there was little inside that pea brain, but he made a last-ditch attempt. “You need me because you have to convince the police and the DA that you either don’t know anything, as you’ve stated, or if you do, that you’re willing to give evidence against the people involved and we can make a deal. I can do that for you, but only if I think you’re worth my time. Otherwise, you can get a public defender.”
“I said I didn’t know nuthin’.”
“So you did. Now you can tell me the truth. What is the ‘nothing’ you claim not to know about? The drugs? The prostitution? The underage girls? What else was going on inside Halliday’s?”
The man shifted under his relentless stare. “Drugs. I-I don’t touch that shit.”
Wolf believed him. “You’re a beer drinker.”
“Yeah. How’d you know?”
Wolf suppressed a smirk. The rounded gut, pouchy eyes, broken capillaries across his cheekbones and red nose—all telltale signs.
“Just a wild guess.” He hardened his jaw and leaned forward. “Tell me what you knew about the women working there.”
Kemp blinked, his rheumy eyes bulging wide. “Who, the waitresses? I never touched them. If they said I did, they’re lying.”
“Not the waitresses. The women in the rooms upstairs.”
Kemp blinked. “Upstairs? What’re you talking about?”
Either he really didn’t know, or he was that good a liar, and Wolf didn’t believe the man had enough brain power to fool him.
“Listen. I’m not here to play games. If you know about the shit that went down, you’re in a good position to make a deal. If you don’t, even better. But if you’re lying to me and I find out…” Wolf’s smile was anything but humorous. “Trust me. You will regret it.”
Kemp chewed on his lower lip. “An’ you ain’t gonna charge me? I don’t got the cash for no fancy-ass lawyer.”
“If I take your case, it’s because I believe you aren’t a scumbag.” Wolf narrowed his eyes. “Tell me if you knew what was happening inside the bar.”
Kemp’s squinty eyes shifted while sweat broke out over his face. Wolf waited. Finally, Kemp set his clasped hands on the table.
“Okay. So, uh, yeah, I might’ve known they were taking in cocaine. It would always be when the bar was closing. Jimmy would walk in the front door and say, ‘Billy, take off now.’ I’d tell him my shift wasn’t over, but he’d say, ‘You’ll be paid. Now get outta here.’”
Never taking his eyes off Kemp, Wolf wrote every word verbatim. “Go on.”
“The first coupla times I went home, ’cause who don’t wanna get paid and not work, ya know? But then I wanted to see what was happening. So I hung out and watched them. They brought the stuff in after dark, and I heard Jimmy talking about kilos and where he’d need to hide it from the cops in case they ever got caught.”
Excitement built inside him. “Where?”
“I ain’t gonna say nothin’ more unless I know I’m gonna get a deal.”
Maybe not so dumb as he first appeared. “Trust me. You give us good information, you will.”
He chewed his bottom lip. “It’s under the floorboards in the pantry. They bring the stuff in, and Jimmy puts it there. I even seen him takin’ money outta the till to pay the guy.”
Money laundering, drugs, prostitution. The trifecta of crime.
“Okay. Here’s what’s going to happen. I’ll talk to the police, and they’ll talk to the DA. For now? You stay put. They’re going to take you to Central Booking, and then we’ll see what happens.” Kemp opened his mouth to argue. “Listen to me. You’re going to be a witness against some dangerous people. Right now, the best place for you is behind bars, where you’ll be protected. You go out, and it would be very easy for someone to come up from behind and blow your brains out.”
Thinking back to his client in Milan, Wolf struggled not to let the guilt of their murders swallow him up in the darkness again. He might’ve learned to function again, but he’d never gotten over it.
Kemp paled. “I…uh, okay.”
“Good. I’ll talk to the detectives, and we’ll see what they can do for you.”
