Spare Change (Wyattsville #1)(82)

Mahoney thanked Olivia and the boy for their time and left. After that he went door to door asking the neighbors the same sort of questions. Tobias Wassermann, who’d been the first to open the door, said the policeman asked the boy to stop. “That policeman was calling out he just wanted a word with the boy,” Tobias said, “but by then all hell had broke loose, so I doubt Olivia could hear him.”

Mahoney collected nine statements in all; it would have been ten, but Matilda Grimes had her television turned up so loud that she didn’t hear any of the commotion. When he left the apartment building, Mahoney went down to the Wyattsville Police Station and asked to see Sam Cobb.

Sam was sitting in a cell, with a cast that went from ankle to thigh on his right leg and a pair of crutches leaning against the wall. “Can you get me outta here?” he said when he saw Mahoney.

Jack shook his head as if the sight of a fellow officer behind bars was more than he cared to see. “I’ll try,” he said, “but, you sure got yourself in one hell of a mess this time.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

“What on earth were you thinking? Going after some kid who’s probably gonna testify against your daddy? Looks like you’d know better.”

“I wasn’t gonna…”

“It doesn’t matter what you weren’t gonna do! You know what this looks like? Witness intimidation, that’s what!”

“I was just gonna ask…”

“You weren’t assigned to the case so you had no right to ask!” Mahoney growled, “Your daddy’s a suspect in a double murder and you go running down the one and only eye witness—you know what that is? Crazy, that’s what. Downright stupid!”

“If you’ve got nothing but criticism, why’d you come?”

“Because of your mama, that’s why!”

“Oh shit! She knows?”

“Yeah, she knows,” Jack replied, the hard set line of his mouth giving way a bit. “She’s probably the only person on earth who’d go out on a limb to help a bad-tempered pain-in-the-ass like you. She believes in you. She claims this whole affair is your daddy’s doing; says you’re not the type to harm a kid—”

“I’m not,” Sam cut in, “I was just trying to help Pop…”

“Don’t go there! With your daddy the primary suspect in that murder investigation, if you so much as look cross-eyed at Ethan Allen Doyle, there’ll be more trouble than you ever dreamed possible.”

“Somebody’s got to make him tell the truth! Pop wouldn’t—”

“Stay out of it!”

“But…”

“No buts!”

Before leaving the station house, Jack spoke with Pete Harmon, the arresting officer, and he had a long conversation with Sergeant Gomez. He told them of his interviews with the residents at the Wyattsville Arms and his conviction that Sam had no intention of harming the boy. “He’s a good man,” Jack said, “a good man who’s done a dumb thing. He was looking to find out the truth of what happened, that’s all. I know, you know, we all know, he shouldn’t have been there; but there’s not a man on earth who doesn’t do stupid things some time or another.”

Both Pete Harmon and Sergeant Gomez nodded reassuringly; then late in the afternoon Sam Cobb was released with a warning that he was expected to head straight back to the Eastern Shore and never again come within one hundred yards of Ethan Allen Doyle. “Next time,” Gomez said, “we won’t be so lenient.”





Scooter Cobb

I got problems—big problems! That f*cking Mahoney is out to nail me; I know it. He started with that shit about needing shoes, next thing I know he’s claiming the kid told him me and Susanna was having a thing. I should’ve never gotten mixed up with her and her crazy ass husband. I can say that now; but eight months ago, the only thing I could think about was the itch I had morning, noon and night.

Mahoney says the kid told him I killed Benjamin, but it’s probably more of his made-up bullshit. Nobody was there. Nobody. Not the kid, not nobody. You think I’m stupid enough not to know if somebody’s standing there watching?

My boy Sam’s gonna find out what the kid has to say. If it’s a bunch of horseshit about me and Susanna getting it on, I ain’t worried. Shit like that goes on all the time, no big deal. Sam will make sure I know what’s happening; he’s a good boy. Real loyal. Not smart as his brother, but real loyal.

Course, if it turns out the kid really did see something—well then…





When the Time Comes

Because of the cast on Sam’s right leg, he had to leave his car parked in front of the Wyattsville Arms apartment building and hire a yellow taxicab to drive him the full way to the Norfolk Ferry Terminal. The trip was considerably more than he’d figured on and left him with barely enough to purchase a ferry ticket. Inside the terminal he hobbled to a telephone booth and placed a call to his father’s diner. “Pop,” he moaned, “I got a problem.” Sam explained how he’d had his knee broken and was going to require a ride home from the ferry terminal.

“What about the kid?” Scooter asked impatiently.

Misunderstanding the question, Sam answered, “Oh, he’s not hurt.”