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“Yeah,” Danni agreed. “But why is he being protected by the DA’s office?”
“This investigation has too many questions and not enough answers,” Matt said.
Marrs looked toward the sergeant’s office again, and his paranoia raised the hair on the back of Danni’s neck.
“There were two people Fox wanted to talk to,” he said in a whisper. “We discussed it with him. He’d planned on getting to them but never did. Maybe we should start there.”
Danni looked at the names. She knew both the men and didn’t care for either Derek Ellis or Ira HoffmanJr.
Derek Ellis was a name every cop had heard. Ellis hated police long before it was fashionable. Unfortunately, it was a tragedy that pushed him to hate police. His eighteen-year-old brother had been killed in a traffic accident. Only it was not as simple as that. Doug Ellis was waiting for the bus at a marked stop at Pine and First Street, downtown. Meanwhile, a few miles away, a vehicle pursuit of a stolen car had begun. The driver of the stolen car led police on a high-speed chase in and around LaRosa, before finally losing control where Pine met First. The car careened across the intersection and destroyed the bus stop, killing Doug Ellis instantly.
Derek blamed the police. “They never should have chased the car,” he said over and over. “It was just a car.”
Frank Grace had been driving the lead pursuing police vehicle. Derek and his family sued LaRosa PD in general and Frank Grace specifically. The judge threw out the suit against her dad, since he’d not violated any policy in the pursuit, but he let the suit against the city proceed. Eventually the Ellises lost in a jury trial. The stolen vehicle had been taken in a carjacking, and the owner murdered. The jury saw a need for the chase and ultimately blamed the driver of the stolen car for Doug’s death, not Frank or LaRosa PD.
Danni remembered how bad her father felt about the incident. While he believed the pursuit was needed, he tried to apologize, but Derek never could forgive or forget. The hate simply festered over the years. Danni could remember being at home when Ellis led a group of protesters to the house to confront her dad. Strange how she’d forgotten that episode. Her father went out and talked with the crowd, though they hadn’t come to listen but to scream and intimidate. Still, her dad tried, and he eventually defused the situation. Her father had a way with people.
Danni didn’t know much about HoffmanJr. other than he didn’t like the police. Even before the riots he published many anti-police editorials. Her father had submitted several well-thought-out opinion pieces to the Tribune to counter Hoffman and was rejected. Joel Marris, on the other hand, tended to publish what her dad submitted. Danni had heard others say HoffmanJr. believed the police were responsible for crime. Danni couldn’t understand how anyone could believe such a thing.
The little Danni did know about HoffmanJr. was what she’d read; he was rich because of his dad and he lived in a gated community with an armed guard at the gate. She doubted he lived there because of the police.
“Hoffman and Ellis were both tight with Thomas Johnston,” Marrs said. “Fox spent hours reviewing footage of the riots and saw them together, as if planning.”
“I wonder if Jareb Moore was in any of the riot footage,” Danni asked, mostly to herself.
Matt turned toward her. “Good question. Ask old Foxy, if you still communicate with him.”
Danni shrugged, embarrassed when she felt herself flush and at a loss for why. “I, uh, we do talk. I will ask when I get the chance.” And maybe a good reason to call him, which, she couldn’t deny, she really wanted to do.
