Daddy's Little Killer

Chapter 32

Chapter 32

 

The tension in Charlie's car was a palpable living thing. I could hear it breathing, feel its pulse throbbing against my flesh. My protégé was one unhappy camper. He'd probably never seen anyone pound a potential witness so hard before. From what I'd heard, Central Division didn't have a whole lot of solved cases let alone interrogations.

"Charlie-"

"Don't."

"I know that was difficult to watch, but Hartley had no intention of telling me the truth tonight. He needed to know how serious this is. He needed a little push to invest in helping us find this guy."

"I get that part, Helen. I do. And as hard as it was to watch you go after that poor guy, I know it had to be done."

"Then what's the problem? Why do I feel this silent rage battering me?"

"You looked like you were enjoying it."

The theory rolled around in my brain hard enough to nearly miss his next accusation.

"And you'll be lucky if he doesn't call the chief to file a complaint that you threatened him."

"I did no such thing."

"Really? You didn't threaten to destroy the life of the only family that poor guy has left?"

It was a thing of beauty. Charlie's righteous indignation pointed out a subtle clue that I hadn't seen. If Gwen was Vinnie Bennett's mother, and our perp was the father, Harlan Hartley wasn't related to the young man at all. Scores of new questions popped into my head.

What would make a friend so deeply invested in a family that wasn't his own lie to the police? For that matter, hadn't Hartley claimed to meet the family only after his fictitious sister died? He sure knew an awful lot about Gwen's reaction to an assault. Did Hartley stand to gain something by keeping the family secret? Was Hartley as close to Datello as Frank had been? 

I had no doubt that there was deep familiarity between the two men. He called him Danny. And that attempt to keep Datello's name out of Gwen's exile was the lamest thing I'd ever heard. Datello paid to have Gwen sent off to some sanctuary for unwed mothers to protect her. 

It opened the door to even more questions. What had forged such friendship and loyalty between amoral scum like Datello and Frank Bennett, who by all accounts had a very rocky start to his relationship with Datello?

"We need to go back, Charlie."

His cell phone rang.

"Haverston." A long pause ensued. "That sounds reasonable. Did he put up much of a fight?" 

I felt the sharp stab of a glare in the darkness.

"Fine. Good. I don't think she'd disapprove. Any word on the Blevins girl yet?"

Breath burned in my lungs. Breathe, Helen. He'll tell me what I won't disapprove of. Be patient.

"All right. I'll let her know." He thrust the phone back into his pocket.

"What happened?"

"Thieg said that there's a convention in the homicide squad room tonight. Lowe, Myre, Rogers, Daltry, they were all up there when he and Adams came on shift. Rather than risk any sort of confrontation between Orion and his former peers, Adams decided to stay at central and keep an eye on him personally."

The interest of Jerry Lowe was understandable. He'd been cut out of the communication loop for the most part. I didn't doubt why Myre, Rogers and Daltry were sniffing around. Lowe wanted to know what we were learning. What I didn't understand was why he didn't simply ask for an update.