Part 9 (1/2)
It was 6:37 when she parked in front of Denny's house. It was a basic little one-story house, a far cry from the Osborne residence they had just left. As they walked up to the porch, Avery saw a dead plant sitting next to the door on the front porch. The vinyl siding was starting to peel and grow mildew.
She rang the doorbell twice, having to push hard for it to work. Within seconds, a young man of about twenty-five or so answered the door. He was slightly overweight and had a scrubby few days' growth of beard.
He also appeared to be drunk. It was apparent in the way he wobbled on his feet, the blinking gaze to his eyes, and the unapologetic way in which he looked Avery up and down like a slab of meat.
”Hey there, Officers,” he said. ”Oops, no...Detectives, right?”
”That's right,” Avery said. ”Detectives Black and Ramirez. And you're Denny c.o.x, yes?”
”That's me,” he said. ”I was wondering how long it would take before you guys started questioning me. I figured I had until tomorrow at least. If I'd known you were coming so soon, I would have stopped at two beers. Maybe.”
”And how did you know we were coming?” Avery asked.
”I saw the news about Sarah. It was on the local news at five o'clock.”
s.h.i.+t, Avery thought. This could potentially get out of hand a lot faster than O'Malley thought.
”You dated her for a while, right?” Ramirez asked.
”That I did,” c.o.x said. His words were slurred and he seemed to be finding far too much amus.e.m.e.nt in the situation.
”And why did you break up?” Avery asked.
c.o.x looked at them for a moment with his drunken stare. It was clear to Avery that she and Ramirez were not going to be invited in-and it would be the second time in two days. When she thought of how things had gone with Adam Wentz, she heard a small alarm sound in her head; she was going to have to keep an eye on Ramirez if c.o.x got out of hand.
Sadly, though, it was also clear to her that in his current state, Denny c.o.x was not going to be of much help.
”She was too young,” Denny answered. ”Only four years younger than me, but when I started working on the force she got all possessive. She was always griping that I didn't spend enough time with her. Plus, a cop dating a young girl...there's too much ribbing and jokes from the guys. It got old.”
”And did you see her much after that?” Avery asked.
”Once. She got stoned off of her a.s.s and called me up. I brought her over here and we had s.e.x.”
”You said she was stoned...do you know what she was on?”
”c.o.ke, probably. She was sneaky about it, but she liked her cocaine.” He snickered here and added: ”But Mommy, Daddy, and Big Ol' Uncle Ron had no idea.”
”You know for a fact she did drugs?” Avery asked.
”Yes. And she was d.a.m.ned good at hiding it. She drank here and there, too. But her big draws were cocaine and ecstasy.”
”And as someone joining the force, you were okay with this?”
”It wasn't my business, you know? She and I had fun together...and during that last little while, I think it was mostly because of the drugs. So I let her have her fun. I was her boyfriend, not her father.”
”Do you know who her dealer was?”
c.o.x chuckled and shook his head. ”No. She kept that hush-hush-especially when I started talking about joining the force. But really, I think she was mostly concerned about her family finding out-especially her s.h.i.+thead political weasel of an uncle.”
”Mr. c.o.x,” Avery said, quickly trying to swerve the attention away from c.o.x's obvious disdain for the Osborne family, ”what can you tell me about the two marks on your record that involve fire?”
”What marks? You mean that bulls.h.i.+t from high school about the dugouts? Yeah, that was dumb. A mistake I made to p.i.s.s off the boyfriend of a girl I liked. Some stupid jock. I was fifteen. You think that makes me a candidate for murdering someone?”
It occurred to Avery that she had not seen the news reports. How much did the media know? If they weren't reporting anything about the way the people were being killed, she certainly didn't want to tip her hand to the likes of a man like Denny c.o.x. She figured if he had heard that little tidbit, he would have said something about it by now.
”No, it does not,” Avery said. ”But as a former cop, you know we have to speak to everyone connected to Sarah. You said it yourself...you knew it was just a matter of time before someone came to ask you some questions.”
”There's also the matter of your father's shed burning down,” Ramirez said. ”And then the thing with the prost.i.tute. You don't really have a very clean record.”
c.o.x leaned against the doorframe and again looked Avery up and down. ”You know...I know who you are, Detective Black. Avery. Most men were all p.i.s.sy when you came on board in Boston. But I didn't see the big deal. Nice to look at...awesome record.”
His eyes leered just a little too long. To get his attention, she moved her hand to her hip to reveal the Mace and the Glock holstered there.
”That's neither here nor there, Mr. c.o.x. We just wanted to ask you about-”
”Sarah, I know,” he interrupted. ”Yeah, I bet O'Malley and his boys are about to s.h.i.+t themselves over this. Niece of a councilman. I also saw where there's some disagreements over what district gets this high-profile case. I bet you two are working hard to get this one wrapped up, huh?”
”We are,” Ramirez said, stepping forward. ”So if you could please stop undressing my partner with your eyes and answer some f.u.c.king questions, that would be helpful.”
”Settle down now,” c.o.x said. ”What the h.e.l.l are you? A knight in s.h.i.+ning armor or something?” He then leaned in and, in a hushed whisper, added: ”You tapping that, my man?”
Ramirez moved too fast for Avery to stop him. He took one huge step forward and threw a right-handed punch at c.o.x.
c.o.x moved with surprising speed as well. He not only dodged the punch but caught Ramirez's arm and twisted it and pushed it hard against the doorframe. Ramirez instantly went for his sidearm but Avery stepped in to save a terrible situation from becoming even worse.
She shoved Ramirez back hard, causing c.o.x to release his arm. c.o.x then came at her, bringing his right hand back. Maybe it was because he was drunk, or maybe it was just because he was not taking the news of the death of an ex-girlfriend well, but he was apparently not taking the repercussions of his actions into account.
Avery attacked faster, though. She jabbed out a hard right hand, palm out and fingers curled. She struck him twice in rapid succession in the ribs. c.o.x dropped to his knee, gasping for breath. Ramirez stepped up again, going for his cuffs.
”No,” Avery said, wheeling on him. She pushed him back a step and spoke as quietly as she could, not wanting c.o.x to overhear it and report the conversation at the station-where he would clearly be within an hour.
”What the-?” Ramirez began.
”That's twice in the past two days,” she said. ”You can't go after someone just because they speak to me in a degrading way or look at me a certain way. You're smarter than that. And quite frankly, it's p.i.s.sing me off. While we're on the clock, I'm your partner...not your f.u.c.king babysitter.”
Ramirez scowled at her but said nothing. In fact, he gave a quick nod of the head and went back to the car without a word. Avery took a deep calming breath and then turned back to c.o.x.
”That was pretty stupid,” she said.
”Yeah,” he grunted, now on his hands and knees.
”You know what comes next. You either get up and come calmly with me or I'm going to cuff you right here. I might just be mad enough to pull your shoulder back a little too hard. You know that cracking noise you sometimes hear when you bring a perp's arms behind their back a little too fast?”
c.o.x spit at her feet as he slowly started to get to his own. ”I'd like to see you try it, b.i.t.c.h.”
She smiled, clenched her fist, and showed him.