Emiliano exhaled a heavy breath. ‘I’ll be goddamned.’ The skeptical stare morphed again, this time into a thoughtful one. ‘And the fact that two detectives from the LAPD Ultra Violent Crimes Unit are telling me this, clearly means three things. One – his death wasn’t accidental. Two – he probably died in some horrific and quite violent way. And three – I made the POI list, right?’
Garcia gave him a sideways nod. ‘You’ve got two out of three there.’
A half-frown from Emiliano.
‘You’re not a person-of-interest in the investigation,’ Hunter informed him.
‘Oh-kay, so why on earth are you telling me this?’ He lifted both hands at the two detectives. ‘Because I don’t want to sound insensitive here, but seriously, I couldn’t give a fuck about that asshole. And I’m sure that he deserved everything he got.’
‘We’re telling you this because we need your help,’ Hunter clarified.
‘My help?’ Emiliano laughed. ‘How?’
‘Information.’
The bouncing stare came back. ‘Information? Are you two kidding? Shaun Daniels was only with my mother for two yearsand that was what… eight, nine years ago? I haven’t seen him since. And even during those two awful years, I would’ve moved heaven and earth to avoid that man. We didn’t have a relationship. I hated the fucker.’
‘We understand that,’ Hunter said.
‘Do you?’ Emiliano countered. ‘Because it really doesn’t seem like you do.’ He sat forward on his chair. ‘Look, I knew nothing about that man back then and I know even less now. I didn’t even know if he was still in LA, or not. How do you expect me to help you? I have no information on him, whatsoever.’
‘The info we need…’ Garcia, this time. ‘…isn’t exactly about him… it’s about you.’
‘Me? I thought you said I wasn’t a POI.’
‘You’re not.’ Garcia took a breathing pause. ‘What we really need to know is – what sort of violence did Shaun Daniels use against you and your mother?’
Emiliano looked at Hunter and Garcia as if he hadn’t understood the question. ‘What sort of violence? The violent kind. What other sort is there?’
‘Sorry.’ Garcia accepted the criticism, lifting his hands in surrender. ‘Bad phrasing on my part. Let me be a little more specific and all you’ve got to do is say “yes” or “no”, OK?’
Emiliano still looked like he was having trouble understanding exactly what to do, but Garcia knew that he would get it.
‘Did Shaun Daniels ever use enough violence against either you or your mother to… maybe break a bone?’
The officer seemed to chew on that question for a couple of seconds. ‘Yes,’ he finally confirmed, his tone acquiring a somewhat angry edge to it. ‘More than once.’ He showed the two detectives his left hand. ‘He broke two of my fingers when he slammed a door on my hand for no reason. He fractured one of my mom’s ribs with a single punch because she refused to get him a beer from the fridge. And he fractured my left eye socket with an elbowslam.’ He angled his head so that both detectives could see the dip in the outer edge of his left eye. ‘The man was a fucking animal.’
Neither Hunter nor Garcia needed to note that down. They could both remember that broken fingers and fractured ribs were some of the injuries that Shaun Daniels had suffered during his torture phase, together with a fractured left eye orbit.
‘And you’ve always lived here in LA?’ Hunter asked.
‘That’s right. We used to live in Boyle Heights. After my mom finally got away from that monster, we stayed in BH for another year – different apartment, though – before moving to Gardena. My mom now lives in San Jose with her new partner, but this guy is different – kind, respectful… he’s nothing like Shaun was.’
‘I’m glad to hear that,’ Hunter commented, and paused, knowing that his next question would sound strange, but it would also be the ultimate confirmation.
‘And can you remember if he ever did anything that resulted in either you or your mother being cold? I mean… too cold?’
Emiliano’s eyes widened at Hunter, as he held his breath for a confused moment. ‘How could you possibly know something like that? Not even my mother knows about that night.’
And there it was – a confirmation even without a proper reply. Hunter was just about to thank Emiliano and end their conversation right there and then, but curiosity got the better of Garcia.
‘What did he do?’ he asked. ‘I mean – this is LA. Even on a bad winter night, temperatures don’t even get as low as forty degrees.’
Emiliano looked away for a beat. When he looked back at the two detectives, the focus in his eyes was undeniable – like a heavyweight champ’s during a face-off just before the fight.
‘For some extra cash,’ he explained, ‘two to three nights a week, Shaun drove a van for a food delivery company… a refrigerated van. One night, something happened. His shift got canceled, or something… I can’t remember, but he came back home a lot earlier than he was supposed to. Mom was working atthe diner that night, which so happened to be a very warm night. I thought that I’d be home alone, so me and a friend grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge and we’re just chilling in the living room, smoking some pot, when Shaun came in through the door. He was already angry because he didn’t get his night’s pay. When he saw that we had grabbed a couple of his beers, he went ballistic. My friend bailed and I got taken for a ride in the back of the refrigerated van.’
‘That’s fucked up right there,’ Garcia commented.
