Page 95 of Devoted in Death

“On it. I’ll send you a flag when I’ve got him.”

It didn’t take long, and hoping she didn’t screw it up, Eve used the signal to coordinate. Carmichael’s image winked in, as did the big—“Jumbo” wasn’t off—guy next to her.

He wore coveralls on a frame designed for a career as a defensive lineman. His hair, the color of bleached corn, stuck straight up from a wide, square head.

Eve figured he weighed in at an easy two-sixty, and every ounce of him was scared shitless.

“Thank you, Detective. Record on. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve and Banner, Deputy William in interview with... your full name, sir?”

“Um. Ah.”

“Dorran,” Carmichael supplied. “James Beauregard.”

“Have a seat Mr. Dorran.”

“I really gotta look after my ma. My pa’s in trouble.”

“Detective, go... look after Mr. Dorran’s ma.”

“Yes, sir. You’re going to want to cooperate with Lieutenant Dallas, Jimbo. Your ma doesn’t need you in trouble, too.”

She nodded at Eve, and Eve cut her image away.

“Mr. Dorran—”

“Maybe you could call me Jimbo, ’cause nobody calls me ‘mister.’”

“All right, Jimbo. Sit.”

“I don’t know nothing ’bout nothing. Or about nobody neither. My pa said—”

“I’m not talking to your pa.” Voice, eyes, went frigid, and sharp with it. “You are now talking to me. I run the Homicide division for the NYPSD. You know what homicide is, Jimbo?”

“Um, yeah, sort of.”

“It’s murder.”

His eyes wheeled. And, yeah, Eve thought, even holographically, she could smell the guilt pumping off of him.

“I never killed nobody. Pa neither. My uncle Buck said how we didn’t have to say nothing.”

“Your uncle Buck isn’t looking at being charged with accessory to murder, after the fact, obstruction of justice, and a whole fucking slew of other charges I can come up with if you don’t tell me the truth.”

“I never killed nobody. And ladies don’t use bad words like that.”

“Do I look like a lady?”

“You’re a girl.”

“I’m a cop. I’m a murder cop, and I eat assholes like you for breakfast. I’ve got a prosecuting attorney chomping at the bit to have you extradited to New York and tossed in a cage.”

“I didn’t do nothing!”

“Jimbo.” Banner’s voice was cool water from a country stream against Eve’s urban flash. “Now, I expect you didn’t mean to do anything wrong. Didn’t really know you did.”

“I don’t hurt people. You can ask anybody. You from Arkansas, sir?”

“Sure am. Silby’s Pond.”

---