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“So Lawry asked for me?” Jameson questioned, changing the subject.
“Yeah, he’s in cell B.” Chuck returned to the booth and hit a button, opening the door into the cell area.
Chapter 4
Lawry was sitting on his cot with his head down and his fingers in his hair.He looked up at Jameson’s approach.“I wasn’t sure you’d show.”
Jameson stopped a foot away from the bars.It was standard to keep distance in case an inmate rushed the bars to pull him forward and cause injury.Jameson didn’t have a weapon on him, it was in his locker upstairs.“Ready to confess, Lawry?I hear confession is good for the soul.”
“I’m sure your closet is as full of skeletons as mine.”
“Hardly, I’m not a murderer.So if you aren’t ready to confess, then why am I here?” Jameson sighed, crossing his arms over his chest.He had better things to do than have Lawry waste his time.
“To talk.We used to be friends.Well, on a friendly basis,” he amended.Jameson would never consider them friends.They had both been detectives and had occasionally spoken to each other, but Jameson would hardly call them friends.
“That was before you tried killing my brother and kidnapping my ex.”
“Would you believe it if I told you it wasn’t personal?It wasn’t.They were a job.Nothing more.They got involved in something they shouldn’t have.”
“It felt personal when you hunted my brother down in the woods like an animal,” Jameson growled.“It felt personal when you stalked a woman down on the streets and ransacked her apartment and tossed her in a basement to rot.”
Lawry sat up on his cot and turned to face him, a cold smile on his face.“Ah, you’re not upset about your brother.It’s that pretty ex of yours that has you all riled up.” Lawry chuckled.
He was, but he wasn’t about to admit it.“You said you wanted to talk.So talk.Tell me who hired you,” Jameson said in a neutral tone.It was the one Morgan had dubbed his ‘cop voice.’ He used it when he tried to remain impartial when listening to whatever a convict or witness was telling him.
Lawry’s smile fell, and he looked serious.“I’m a dead man if I tell you.”
“You’re a dead man if you don’t,” Jameson countered.“This way you at least can go to hell with a clear conscience.”
“When did you turn bloodthirsty?”
“When you turned your back on everything you took an oath to protect.”
“Jameson the righteous.” Lawry chuckled but without humor this time.“Everything is always black and white with you.Right or wrong and no in between.”
“That’s how the law works.Fine, if you won’t tell me who hired you, how about how you got involved?”
“I had debts.They offered a way for me to pay them off.”
“Murdering an innocent man was paying off a debt?”
“Banner was hardly an innocent man.He was more involved with them than I was.I was more of a…” He cocked his head side to side as if searching for the right word.“Clean-up crew.”
“Is anyone else on the force working for them?” He wanted to know how many more dirty cops there were on the force and put a stop to them.
“I don’t know.” Lawry shook his head.“Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
Jameson lifted his foot to approach the bars but stayed himself at the last second.“Dammit, Lawry, give me something.If you’re willing to cooperate, I can talk to the courts, and we can make a deal.Get you protection.” A dirty cop in prison wouldn’t last very long, and Jameson needed Lawry alive to turn in his boss.
Lawry shook his head.“As I said, you can’t protect me from these people.They’ll come for me sooner or later.I won’t live to trial.” There was a resignation in his eyes as if he’d already accepted his death.Well, Jameson wasn’t.
“Then help me stop them.”
“I can’t, but I can tell you this.They’ll never stop until everyone is dead who knows about them.I suggest you walk away from this case before it gets you killed.”
“I’m not walking away from anything.” He had never backed down from a challenge, and he wasn’t going to start now.Especially when that meant Morgan was still in danger.
“Then I’ll see you in hell.”
