Stone Investigations (Stone Series Book 4) by Bob Blanton (open ebook txt) 📗

that Matthew opened in front of them.  Thelawyer and Frankie had just been seated in an interview room.

“So what’s this about?” the lawyer asked Frankie.

“They said it’s something about Evelyn Frye.  She diedyesterday.”

“Do you know anything about it?”

“Only what I heard on the news.”

“Good.  Now, remember that the police can lie to you, sodon’t react to anything they say.  They’ll try to trip you up.  Don’t answer anyof their questions unless I tell you to.”

“Got it.”

“You sure there’s nothing you should tell me?”

“Nope, I have no clue about what happened to her.”

“Okay.”  The lawyer got up and knocked on the door.  DetectiveVaughn and another detective came in.

“Hello, Mr. Sutton.  Tell me, where does the name Malcom comein?”

“It’s a nickname,” Frankie blurted out.  His lawyer pattedhim on the leg to remind him not to answer any questions.

“I have advised my client not to answer any questions withoutmy explicit okay.  Now can you tell us why we’re here?”

“We’d like to get some more information about hisrelationship with Ms. Frye.  I’m sure you’re aware that she died yesterday.”

“I saw it on the news,” Frankie said.  “It sucks, she was anice lady.”

“Do you know how she died?” Vaughn asked.

“Not sure, the news said she died in the bathroom at work. They said the cause of death had not been disclosed.”

“Would you be surprised to learn that she died of anoverdose?”

Frankie made a good effort at looking shocked.  His lawyerplaced a hand on his arm to keep him from answering.

“My client would have no way to confirm that.”

“We found a bunch of Oxycontin pills on her, would thatsurprise you?”

Frankie shook his head.

“Is that head shake saying you’re not surprised?”

“NO!  It’s saying I can’t believe it.”

“She had twenty pills in a bottle at home, would thatsurprise you?”

Frankie just looked at the detective.

“What would you say if I told you that we found a piece offoil in her trash with traces of Fentanyl and your fingerprints on it?”

“I’d say you were lying,” Frankie said as the lawyer squeezedhis arm again.

“Are you sure?  Would you be willing to give us fingerprintsfor elimination purposes?”

Frankie started to say yes but his lawyer stopped him.

“My client doesn’t wish to submit to any further invasion ofhis privacy by the police department.  If you want his fingerprints, you’llneed a warrant.”

“What are you afraid of?  He says his prints won’t be on the foil.”

“I never gave her anything in a foil package.  We weren’tsharing leftovers or nothing like that.  Why would I?”

“Detective Vaughn, please quit trying to bait my client.  Hehas no knowledge concerning Ms. Frye’s death.  He is a student at Mesa College andworks at Target to support himself.  Your persistence in trying to connect himto some kind of drug deals is becoming tiresome and we will add this to ourcomplaint with the courts.”

“You’re free to do so.  We’re just trying to figure out whokilled Ms. Frye.”

“Killed her.  I thought you said she died of an overdose.”

“Yes, but we’re operating under the assumption that she wasintentionally given pills that would cause an overdose.”

“That’s sick, who would do that?” Frankie shouted.

“You tell me.”

“Unless you have some real questions, we’ll be leaving now.”

◆ ◆ ◆

“Wow,” Emily said.  “Do you think they have his prints on thefoil?”

“No.  They’d have gotten a warrant if anyone’s prints were onit besides hers.  And when I watched the kid drop the packages on the cars,they were in a small baggie that he dropped the foil package out of.  He nevertouched the package itself and I’m sure that Frankie was wearing gloves when heput it together.”

“You didn’t tell me that!”

“I can’t remember everything.”

“Why not, you have an eidetic memory.”

“That means I remember things when I try to recall them, butit doesn’t mean I’ll recall something when we’re talking.  It’s complicated.”

“Okay, let’s list what we know.  But first, what’s DetectiveVaughn doing?”

Matthew opened his portal again and watched as DetectiveVaughn walked into the incident room.

“What did the kid say?” one of the other detectives asked.

“Not much.  Swears he doesn’t know anything.  The lawyerdidn’t let him answer much.  What did you think, Ron?”  Detective Vaughn askedthe detective who had attended the interview with him.

“I don’t know.  I don’t make him for intentionally trying tokill her.  But I think he knows more than he’s saying.”

“Okay, I want officers to canvas the area around herapartment and place of work.  Find out if anything unusual happened.  UseFrankie’s driver’s license photo to see if anyone has seen him around.”

Matthew closed his portal.  “They don’t know anything.”

“Okay, now what do we know?  First on Frankie.”

“He was selling drugs, I saw him pulling the drugs and moneyout of his apartment and handing them off to Dante.”

“Anything else?”

“He’s a college student and works at Target.”

“And?”

“He’s out of the loop now.  He told Malcom II, that’s Dante Cruz,that he wouldn’t be seeing him anymore.”

“Okay, so what do we know about this Cruz guy?”

“He works for an accounting firm downtown, drives a nicethree series BMW.”

“Does that make sense?”

“Not really. He’s just an entry-level guy, not a CPA.”

“Okay, what else?”

“He’s obviously a distributor.  I saw him collecting a lot ofmoney last weekend.  He’s still in his apartment, but I bet he goes out andcollects more this morning.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I saw him handing the drugs off to his little buddy thismorning.”

“AND?!”

“Oh, ‘we’ haven’t gone over this yet.  He gives the kid thedrugs.  They’re in little black boxes.  The kid also gets a list.  He goes tothe North Clairemont Library and puts the drugs on the bookshelves based on thelist.  He sticks them to the bottom of one of the lower shelves.  I assume thebuyers know where their package is supposed to be and come in later in the dayto collect it.  I saw him do it this morning, it made me miss group class.”

“How does he know he’s got the money first?” Emily asked.

“I think they operate on the honor system.  It seems weird,but the dealers are making a lot of money, so I guess they wouldn’t want tojeopardize that by trying to steal from him, much less take the risk therewould be a