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“Our plans changed, that’s all.” I sit up straight and give him my best no-bullshit lawyer stare. “If you wouldn’t mind, let’s focus on the case, since we don’t have a lot of time.” I begin asking him questions before he has the chance to push the Angelo thing harder, and he reluctantly starts telling me everything he remembers, starting from the moment he pulled up to the Two Lane and ending with when he left.
There’s nothing new. At least his story hasn’t changed, which is a good sign. I wasn’t sure if I could trust him at first, but the more I get involved in this case, the more I’m sure he got caught up in something much bigger than him.
“I wish I had more to say, but that’s all,” he says, looking slightly more defeated. “I have to admit I’m not feeling great about my chances right now.”
“Are you sure you didn’t notice anything off about the motel room? Anything at all, no matter how minor?” I want to push him on the crime scene more but I also can’t lead him into giving me the answer I want. This is being recorded and if I’m going to use it in court, it has to be perfect.
“There were a lot of bodies and there was a lot of blood.” He clears his throat and leans forward. “I told you, I was busy freaking out. I didn’t see much. It’s kind of hard to take things in when there are, like, five corpses staring at you.”
“What about the walls? The carpets? Anything on the tables?”
“Uh, everything was bloody. And…” He trails off, hesitating. “Okay, this could be something. There were bullet holes everywhere, like the place was totally lit up, but there weren’t any shell casings. I remember thinking that as I backed out of there. I didn’t step on a single one. Someone must’ve shot, like, a few dozen times, but there wasn’t a single casing anywhere.”
My heart starts racing. That’s it, right there. I try not to let my excitement show as I nod to myself and takes notes. “Where could the casings have gone? Explain like I don’t know anything about guns.” Which I don’t.
“Well, when bullets fire, the back little part of it gets ejected from the gun. The holes in the walls were pretty big, which means the guns were powerful, which means the bullets were pretty large. A few dozen holes means a few dozen big casings and that many would be impossible to miss. It seems like whoever did that shooting also bent over and picked up the spent casings after it was done.”
I nod to myself and clear my throat. “Okay, that’s good. I’m going to walk through this again. You said there were a lot of holes in the wall?”
“Oh, sure, tons of them.”
“Meaning someone shot a lot of bullets.”
“Right.” He tilts his head. “I mean, there were five dead guys, so—”
“And if there were a lot of bullets, that means there were a lot of bullet casings.”
“True, that’s right.”
“Which means whoever did that crime also spent a lot of time cleaning it up.”
He leans back, his mouth open. “Well, okay, yeah, I hadn’t thought of that. It must’ve taken… I don’t know, it must’ve taken a while to pick each and every one up.”
Adrenaline pumps into my blood. I lean closer to him and lower my voice. “I think whoever did this hit was able to make it disappear. I think they cleaned up their tracks, took their time, really swept the room, before bribing or threatening all the employees at the Two Lane.”
“Motherfuckers,” he whispers back, blinking rapidly. “They know I didn’t do it.”
“I think so.”
“Then that freaking maintenance guy—”
“He lied, Nicolas,” I tell him with a gleam in my eye. I consider showing him the interview Detective Vance did with Wally but decide against it. That’s my smoking gun, the real proof that it wasn’t Nicolas, and if he goes around blabbing to the wrong guys, some jailhouse snitch might ruin this for all of us. “And I think we can prove it, or at least we can cast enough doubt to get you out of here.”
“Holy shit.” Laughter bubbles up from his chest. “I honestly didn’t think this would happen.” He grins huge, and there’s a renewed excitement and hope in his eyes. “No offense or whatever, I just didn’t think it would happen, that’s all.”
I smile at him and nod like I understand. “I’m not promising anything, but there are too many holes in the story. There’s too much uncertainty. No matter how badly the prosecution wants to pin this on you, I don’t think it’ll stick.”
“Fuck.” He sighs and leans his head back. “You know, I really was starting to think I’d never see the outside again.” He sinks down in his chair with a groan. “It’s going to be good to walk around a free man again.”
