“I have news. I don’t know if you’ll consider it good or bad.”
“Stan lawyer up?”
“No, but he won’t talk to us. He wants to talk to you and only you.”
“You’re serious?”
“As a heart attack. We’re waiting for you.”
CHAPTER 33
The request knocked Lainie back on her heels. For a second, she thought her answer should be no—she didn’t want to look at Stan much less talk to him. But the overwhelming need to find out what had happened to Evie prompted her to say yes. Lainie prepared herself to talk to Stan like she would for any criminal she arrested.
Shea met her in the homicide office. Ben Isaacs’s presence with him took her by surprise.
“Our agencies are working together on this,” he said.
“I hope that means more resources.”
“We have carte blanche right now. At the heart of our investigation is the need to find Efren. You need to find your sister—our interests have merged. I hope you can get Stan to come clean on both subjects.”
“I’ll do my best. How is your head?” His bandage ran from his left eyebrow back toward his ear.
“It’s healing.”
Shea handed her a thumb drive and an inventory list of all the evidence they found in Stan’s car, diverting her attention from Ben.
“Here’s what you need to review before talking to Moffit. The trunk of his car was filled with—” Shea paused, rubbed his chin. “Well, you’ll see. You know how to interview a bad guy, Lainie. I know you’re good at it. But this is a relative. Are you sure you’re up to this?”
“I want to know what he has to say. Do I wish he was talking to you or the Feds? Yeah. But since he won’t, I’ll do my best.”
He nodded and then he and Ben left her alone to read the arrest report and review the evidence recovered from Stan’s vehicle. She sat in front of a computer, inserted the thumb drive, and pulled up the file. There was also a report from the forensic accountant who had reviewed the paperwork found in the safe at the car wash.
She remembered thinking while she was at the car wash that it was a setup, that Stan could not be that stupid. Now, she began to rethink that assessment. Stan could simply be a consummate actor. Maybe trying to be more sister and less cop interfered with Lainie’s instincts. In Stan’s car they found a 9mm handgun that had been recently fired. It was the same caliber that likely killed Abbott. They’d found more financial paperwork, and the coup de grâce was that they’d also found a gun, wallet, and badge belonging to Efren Gomez.
Still, it was hard to fathom that this man who had been part of her family for over eight years was a cold-blooded killer as well as a stone-cold criminal.
Then it hit her like a bolt of lightning. Stan was always an opportunist, a follower, never the leader. Was that dynamic working here?
We’ll see.She rolled her shoulders to release some tension and fought the headache that threatened. She also prayed for wisdom and clarity. Way more was going on here than what she was reading.
The more she read, the more she wondered what she’d hear from Stan. He’d never had her as conned as he had the rest of her family. In Hawaii she almost came right out and accused him of hurting Evie.
In truth, she just wanted to get this over with.I pray that this isn’t just a game or a stall tactic.Lainie turned when the door opened.
Mike walked in. Lainie stood and gave him a hug.
“They got a lot of stuff on him.” He nodded to the file she had opened. “I talked to Bryce. He’s got the 9mm in the lab for ballistics testing.”
“Still, it’s baffling. Stan as a crime boss was not a square I would have picked on my bingo card.”
Mike shrugged. “Are you ready to talk to him?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Mike patted her shoulder. “You’ll do fine.”
She grabbed her notebook, and together they walked downstairs. Stan was in the same booking interview room she’d sat in with Bucshon not too many days ago. It seemed like a lifetime ago, and Lainie felt ten years older with all that had happened in the intervening days. But she was fundamentally the same person, the same driven investigator who wanted to work in homicide one day. She owed it to Evie and to Efren to do her best.
