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“I hate to be the voice of reason in all of this,” I said. “But what about our killer? We still have a murder to solve. That guy could’ve miscalculated and killed an innocent bystander. And so could the bozo doing the drive-by. Tonight could’ve been a bloodbath.”
“To me,” Jack said, “the fact that it wasn’t a bloodbath is going to make it a whole lot easier to identify our killer. That’s not a skill set your average farmer doing target practice is going to have. My gut says we’re looking for military training.”
“Hey, sheriff?” Denaro called out. “I got a couple of guys here I think you’re going to want to talk to.”
Jack passed Cole the black box and the evidence bags we’d collected from the apartment and said, “Let’s get everything logged and taken in, and let’s get started on the warrants. Use Judge Stapleton. He hates corrupt attorneys in his courtroom.”
“We’re on it,” Martinez said.
Alex Denaro was an interesting character. He was likeable, but there was something about him I didn’t trust. Maybe it was because he had that slick salesman look about him. Or maybe it was because I knew about his ties to the mob. But there was something inside me that warned not to take everything he said at face value.
“How’s it going?” Jack asked Denaro.
Denaro shrugged. “You know how these things go. I figure it’s going okay for the kind of night it’s been. We’re all in one piece and Joey Wizard is taking good care of me.”
“Joey Wizard?” I asked.
“It’s not his last name. Everyone just calls him that cause he’s a real wizard in the insurance business. Isn’t that right, Joey?” Denaro called out.
Joey Wizard gave a thumbs-up, but didn’t look up from his clipboard.
“Good guy, Joey Wizard,” Denaro said.
“Looks like it,” Jack said. “You wanted us to talk to someone?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Denaro said, leading us to a round corner booth. “Over here. These are a couple of my valet boys. Darnell and J.D. They were out parking cars when all the shooting started. They’re good boys.”
Denaro nodded matter-of-factly and slapped one of them on the shoulder with encouragement. “I’ll be back in a second.”
“Thanks for sticking around,” Jack said. “I’m Sheriff Lawson. This is Dr. Graves. What’s going on?”
“It’s Bobby,” one of the guys said. “He’s gone missing.”
“What’s your name?” Jack asked.
“Oh, umm…I’m Darnell,” he said. “Darnell Watkins.”
Darnell reminded me of a greyhound—tall and lean with a long nose and oversized ears. His hair was long enough to help cover his ears, and his facial features were an interesting mix of Asian and African American. There was a smattering of freckles across his nose. He was young, early twenties at the most.
“Okay,” Jack said. “Who’s Bobby?”
“Oh, umm…he’s the other valet,” Darnell said. “Bobby Pickering.”
“What do you mean he’s missing?” Jack asked.
Darnell looked at J.D. and then back at us. “Friday nights are pretty crazy, you know? We usually have four valets but Steven called in sick tonight. I don’t think he was sick though. He and I worked last night’s shift together and he was talking about how he had this big fight with his girlfriend because he was spending all his time working instead of with her. He’s trying to save up for an engagement ring, but she don’t know that. I’m thinking he called in sick to take his lady out.”
“Focus, Darnell,” J.D said. “They don’t care about all that.”
“Right, sorry,” Darnell said.
“No problem,” Jack said.
“Anyway,” Darnell said. “Cars were stacking up and we were all hustling back and forth. We park all the cars at the new garage behind the courthouse. They let us use it on the weekends. All of a sudden, we heard all the gunfire and things were crazy there for a while. It was nuts and there was all this screaming and sirens, but then all the people started wanting their cars when the police were done, so Mr. Denaro told us to get back to work and let’s get everyone out of here. He even offered us overtime. He’s a pretty cool boss.”
“Good grief, Darnell,” J.D. said, shaking his head. “Get to the point. I want to go home too. It’s after midnight.”
J.D. looked to be a few years older than Darnell. His face had a nice tan considering it was February, and his dark-blond hair was well cut and styled with product on top. He was nice looking with a good build and soft gray eyes.
