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“That’s not what I asked.”
“Ramon Valle.” Sulky, she sounds put off by my question.
“Where were you when this occurred?”
“I’m sorry, Miss Ibarra. I was told you were discreet and didn’t ask for information, that this was an easy money exchange. Maybe I should’ve just called the officer that made the arrest.” Karen begins to stand, and in an act of pure clumsiness, knocks over the water bottle. It soaks my paperwork and dribbles across and down onto my pants, but I remain calm. Too calm. “Oh shit! I’m—”
“Please sit down and collect yourself.” Leaning over, I grab a few tissues and mop up the spill, then a couple more because it spread, before tossing all of it in the trash. A trash can that I hold up so she can also dump her used Kleenex.
“Thanks.” Both are thrown in the bin, and I hold back the urge to Lysol the area. “Barging in and disrupting your day was never my plan. I’m just desperate to find him.”
Taking a deep breath, I let it out slowly.
Also chuck the coffee in the bin, which makes her flinch.
There are two possible reasons why Karen made this visit, and I doubt it’s pure love for Ramon Valle. Either she knows about my connections to the De Leons and wants to exploit that for gain I’m not aware of, or she wants to fuck mine or Ivan’s family over.
The one common denominator in both is someone opened their mouth.
As a mistake? No clue.
As a favor to a worried friend? Maybe.
The problem will be in finding out the who, when, and why.
And I plan to do so.
“I know. I’m not upset, sweetie.” Opening my laptop, I tap on the dictation app and give her a reassuring smile. “Now who is the officer you spoke of? I’ll need his information to help you find Ramon and why he’s not showing up in the system.”
“Of course!” Karen quickly digs into her small purse, digging through before producing a small white card. This she lays on the desk and slides it across, careful to avoid the damp areas. “This is what he gave me. Asked me to call him if I had any questions.”
Detective Jaime Uriel
Miami Police Department
Cell: 305-123-5847
“He was the arresting officer?”
“Yes.”
“A detective?”
“Yes. That’s him.”
“I see.”
“You think it’s weird that an off-duty detective broke up a simple bar fight and then made the arrest.”
“Yes and no. Being off duty doesn’t mean they can’t make an arrest or detain until another officer comes along. My problem is with him getting personal on this arrest. There’s no large crime here, no reason for you to call him.” While the dictation app continues to record what we’re talking about, I pull Jaime Uriel’s information through my phone. With a couple of clicks, his picture is on my screen. His bio is short, which doesn’t give me much to go on.
I have his rank, years on the force, age, email, and phone number—different than the one on the card.
Next, I open the daily arrest report and check for any new inmates and scroll down the list. Anita already did this, but it never hurts to check twice, and still no Ramon Valle. Not in any of the jails.
“What county was this in again? Dade?”
“Yes.”
