Page 38 of So Scared

“He could just be scared,” Derek suggested.

“You don’t sucker punch a cop ‘cause you’re scared,” Travis said.

“I agree with Travis,” Faith said, “but I also agree with Michael. Let’s go talk to this guy and make sure he’s guilty of what we think he’s guilty of before we start reading him his rights.”

“Well, he’s going down for assaulting a peace officer no matter what,” Travis said.

“Fair enough,” Faith said. “Let’s go make sure he’s not a serial killer as well.”

She and Michael walked into the interrogation room. As soon as he saw Turk, he shrank back nervously.

“You can’t keep me here! I got rights! You had no right to arrest me at my place of business and drag me all the way over here without so much as a charge.”

“Well, you punched a cop,” Michael said, “so your goose is cooked no matter what. Why don’t you make it easier on yourself and tell us where you got those rings?”

His face blanched when Michael said that. Faith leaned forward and waited for him to answer. When no answer was forthcoming, Faith said, “I’ll help you out. Three wedding rings, one a size four-and-a-half, one a size five and the third a size eight. The smaller ones are gold with diamond inlay, the larger one is a solid gold band with the inscription E.H.”

“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Julius said, sweating profusely. “I get a lot of rings. I don’t look at all of them to see what’s inscribed on them.”

“You don’t inspect your products before you make an offer to the seller?” Michael asked. “I have a hard time believing that. If I were a pawnbroker, I would want to know that I’m not spending three thousand dollars on a painted nickel ring.”

Julius scoffed. “I never spend more than a thousand on a wedding ring. You can always talk people down to 995.”

“How wonderful!” Faith said, “if that were even remotely the point, I would be overjoyed at that little tidbit.”

Julius licked his lips and looked nervously between the two of them. “Look,” he said, “I already told you that I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Well, let’s back up,” Michael said. “You assaulted a police officer. Why?”

“I …” He tapped his fingers on the table. “Look—”

“We’re looking,” Faith said, “but you’re still not talking.”

“I was nervous, okay? Wouldn’t you be nervous if two cops started busting your chops when you’d done nothing wrong?”

“Honestly?” Faith said, “No. But let’s say I’m the nervous type. I still don’t see myself getting so stupid that I’m going to punch a police officer. Not unless I’m nervous for a very good reason. Why don’t you start telling me what made you so nervous that you assaulted a police officer.”

“Will you stop saying that?” he said, “Look, I …” he ran his hands through his hair. “Look,” he said again.

“I’m going to start getting really irritated if you don’t learn a new word real fast,” Michael said.

Turk growled at Julius, emphasizing Michael’s point.

Julius swallowed. “Loo—Okay, I just … in my line of work, you don’t ask a lot of questions, all right? People come in with stuff all the time, and I can’t do a whole investigation on every single piece of jewelry that comes through my pawn shop, all right. I just have to appraise it, make an offer, and then hold it for thirty days before selling it. I don’t know where those items come from. I don’t know if maybe some of them are obtained through illicit means. I just take the product and make an offer.”

Michael sighed and rubbed his temples. Faith leaned even closer to Julius, who shrank back and licked his lips again. “Mr. Masterson,” she said sweetly, “I don’t care in the slightest about how ethical you are or aren’t as a businessperson. I’m talking about three rings in three different sizes, two with diamond inlay and one with the inscription E.H. Where did you get those rings?”

“I told you; I don’t know.”

“Not good enough. Not even remotely good enough.”

“I told you, all right? People sell me stuff, and I don’t always know—”

“Who, Mr. Masterson? Who sold you the rings?”

“Man, I see hundreds of people every day—”

Turk growled again, silencing him.

---