Chapter 35 – Evidence

William

When I arrived at work this morning, I went straight to Mia. I was determined to break the man we had in our custody.

I had barely made it five feet towards Mia’s office when she walked out of it with a yellow file in her hand. She quickly made her way to me and handed me the file. She knew me too well.

"What do we know?" I asked, eager to get this ball rolling.

"Mick Langley, member of the Diamond Crew for a short two years. He has a younger brother, who is currently in jail for assault. If it comes to it, you could always use it as leverage,” she suggested.

Reading through the rest of the details as I walked to my destination, I tried my best to memorize them all: the names of his family members, where he grew up, and his criminal record. I would need it all to make even a single crack into this case.

I stopped in front of the interrogation room and took a deep breath. I needed to get the information out of him. I couldn’t have it any other way. This concerned the safety of many students in our city, and most of all, but as selfish as it may sound, I was more preoccupied with the effect it had on Harmoni’s safety. I had just gotten her in my life, I couldn’t lose her. I straightened my clothes and got my head straight before exhaling loudly.

"Hi Mick," I greeted, slowly walking into the room. I took a seat in front of him, pulling out his file and setting it on the metal table. I took a nonchalant stance first to evaluate his personality and cooperation level.

Mick didn't bother looking at me, he leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his hands. I guess we were near a big round zero when it came to collaboration.

“So Mick, tell me a little about that crew you’ve been hanging around,” I started. My question was once again met with silence, which only irritated me further. This man would talk.

“Okay, then how about you tell me why you tried to take the girl?” I questioned. Nothing.

Having had enough of these games, I slammed my hand hard on the desk as I stood up. He must not have expected this as he jolted in surprise. He recovered quickly, but I could see a hint of unease when I roughly pushed the table closer to him, caging him between the table and the chair he sat on. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since I was seething with anger.

"Why would you protect the people that threw you under the bus without a single thought?" I asked back, raising my eyebrows and eyeing him like he was an absolute moron for doing that. The hint of unease I had seen morphed into one of anger with just that sentence. Good. It meant I had hit a nerve.

"They left you there to take the fall for everything. You are looking at assault, attempted kidnapping, and I'm sure we could link you to the shooting which happened at the school the other day. That means you'll be charged for a triple homicide in addition to all of this,” I pushed further.

I added the last part for effect. I didn't even know if he had been involved in that part at all. "They let you take the blame for everything that ~they~ did. You'll be going to prison for the rest of your life!" I exclaimed, hoping to ramp him up enough for him to turn on his crew.

I paused, letting everything I had said sink in.

"I can help you. You can help yourself shave a few years off your sentence, maybe even be allowed parole, but I can’t help you if you’re on a suicide mission, because this is what it is. How long do you think you’ll last in a prison full of other gang members with no one to side with you?" I explained honestly.

"What's the point?" he sighed, letting his head fall onto his hands. My voice softened as I took in the man in front of me. He had made bad choices, really bad ones, but I doubted he was a bad person. Peer pressure and survival instinct could do quite a number on you.

"For one, you’ll live longer. How about you could get out of jail around the same time as your younger brother? Your protection would go a long way in your neighborhood.” Unfortunately, this statement wasn't a lie. The neighborhood they came from in New York was one of the most dangerous in the city. The crime rate there was off the chart, which went hand in hand with the number of homicides happening there. Just last week, I had heard of a young boy, not older than fifteen, who was brutally murdered in the street.

My last comment seemed to tilt the scale in his head. His eyes looked down at the table before he let out a long exhale while running his hand through his gelled hair.

“If I talk they’ll kill me,” he said with a sigh. “What good am I to my brother if I am dead?”

“I’ve already talked to the attorney general's office; they are willing to place you in protective custody until the day you testify, and should that day be further than your brother’s release from prison, I have arranged for him to join you,” I explained.

It had been an excruciatingly long debate this morning, but seeing as this case was getting a lot of attention not only from our city but from the entire country, the mayor was determined to close it as soon as possible. This meant providing all the necessary resources and deals we might need.

He pinched the bridge of his nose before asking, "What do you want to know?".

"Smart choice,” I praised before starting my line of question. "Well, for one, who is Caprica?" Perhaps we would finally get some answers regarding this very secretive and mysterious person.

"That asshole! Honestly, I wouldn't know what to tell you. We don't know anything about him other than the fact that his crew has been ruining our business for the past years. We've tried everything to get rid of him but nothing works,” he explained, as smoke came out of his ears. Clearly, this person triggered many emotions within him. “He's been taking down crew after crew in New York. At first, we thought it was an amazing gift because they were wiping out our competitors, but we soon got word that we would be next.”

"So it's a man?" I asked, having picked up on the way he referred to Caprica.

"Well, actually, I have no idea. We always refer to them as the devil's crew. I haven't even thought about it before.”

"How did you get your information about the kid?" I asked curiously as my brows raised in question.

Mick let out a long breath as his slender fingers intertwined with his hair, pulling at a few strands. I could understand the difficulty in revealing secrets from people you had sworn to protect and die for, even if it was the best thing for him to do at the moment.

“One of our members managed to turn someone within the devil’s crew; we got our information from her. The problem is we only had a single meeting with her before she was outed as a maul and killed. The only information we got was that Caprica had a kid in this school and that it was the only weakness we would ever find on him,” he explained. So far we hadn’t been very far from the truth; our speculations were spot on.

“So why the sudden change for girls?” I asked, seriously worried.

“One of our guys thought that the kid might have been a girl. We had all assumed it was a boy, but since we were getting nowhere with them, our leader decided to try our luck with the girls,” he offered, seeming genuinely exhausted from the interrogation, but I wasn’t done with him just yet.

“Why did you go for the Pearson girl?” I asked, letting the anger seep into my voice. Although he was currently helping us, I hadn’t forgotten that he had taken part in the attempted kidnapping of my girl.

"Look man, we weren't even planning to take this brunette; we were going to go get the redhead, but it’s like this bitch just came to us. We thought it would be easy,” he sighed, frowning. Harmoni was anything but an easy target.

What he had revealed had reassured my doubts. Harmoni had been a victim of opportunity; she hadn’t been specifically targeted.

"Watch your mouth. That 'bitch' is my girl," I threatened lowly. I didn't care who he was or where we were. I wouldn't let anyone talk that way about Harmoni.

"No wonder she could pack a punch,” I heard him mumble to himself.

With everything he had just revealed to us, we would be able to arrest the entire crew. His testimony should be enough to put them all away for years, if not life. The only thing we were now missing was a location.

“Where are they?” I asked, ready to end these shenanigans.

Mickey gulped visibly. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like his answer.

“I have no idea, only a handful of people know the locations most of us are transported in windowless vans. I had no idea where we were, and with me being taken, they definitely moved. Paranoia is like second nature for us, so we move often but rarely to the same place.”

I slammed my hand against the table, frustrated and angry with the lack of action I could take.

Mickey jumped in his chair at my sudden movement but didn’t say anything, as I made my way out of the interrogation room.

What in the world were we going to do now?