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He cleaned himself up and then listened to two more hour long videos.
He fell asleep to the sound of her low whispers and images of her hands touching him, instead of the cards, danced across his mind. And for the first time since his kidnapping, Luke slept soundly and without any nightmares.
***
On Monday morning, Caden called to let Luke know the sketch rendered by the sketch artist hadn’t gotten them any leads. Luke had sat with the guy for over four hours last week, but he wasn’t surprised at the lack of results. Mikey was great at his job, but even he couldn’t draw what Luke didn’t remember.
Luke sat at his dining room table nursing his second cup of coffee that had turned cold as he stared at his phone screen. He’d taken a picture of the sketch before leaving his session with Mikey, for what reason, at the time, he wasn’t sure. But now, he had an idea. The informant Luke had been worried about while being held captive, Ricky Bellario, hadn’t been seen or heard from since everything had gone down. Luke knew Ricky hadn’t been arrested along with his cousin, and since his identity had been kept a secret provided he gave Luke what he needed to bring the gang down, no one was actually looking for him. That was about to change.
There were only a few places Ricky liked to hang out, but being the coward that he was, Luke suspected he wouldn’t be at any of them. No, the grown ass man of twenty four years who hadn’t worked a day in his life, and mooched off his mother, aunt, and grandmother, would likely be hiding out in his grandmother’s basement. And that was exactly where Luke drove.
The house was an old cottage style single story home built in the early part of the last century. The roof looked like it needed to be changed, the siding needed new paint, and the rickety old front steps were probably original to the house. Luke knocked on the door and waited, knowing the grandmother took her time coming to the door.
“Can I help you?” She asked, cracking the door open just enough to peek outside.
Luke flashed his badge. “I’m looking for Ricky Bellario.”
She gave a simple nod and closed the door, but didn’t lock it. Luke waited, his patience waning as the minutes passed by. He was tempted to knock on the door again when out of the corner of his eye he caught something flash by and go over the side fence. Luke muttered a curse under his breath and took off after it, clearing the fence like he’d been practicing that move for the last two weeks. He hadn’t been, but his adrenaline kicked in, and nothing was going to stop Luke from catching that bastard now. He chased him through two more backyards before catching up to Ricky just before he darted across a four lane road with nonstop traffic.
“Get off me, Man,” Ricky whined when Luke apprehended him, dropping him to the ground and wringing his hands behind his back. “You can’t do this. I’m not under arrest, Fool.”
“Do you wanna be?” Luke ground out. “Because I can make that happen. One word to my Captain and you’ll join your cousin in lock up. No problem.”
Ricky froze, then shook his head. “Come on, it’s not like that. We’re friends.”
“Really? I always thought friends don’t leave friends behind,” Luke said, pulling Ricky up to his feet. “Or does that only apply to driving drunk?”
When Ricky didn’t answer, Luke turned him until they were facing each other. “Now, are you going to talk to me, or do I need to slap some cuffs on you and take you into police custody? Because we both know you deserve it.”
Ricky looked around as if he was worried someone would see them talking. “Not here, Man. Let’s go back to my grandma’s and we can -”
“Nope. I gave you that chance. Now, we talk here. Right. Here. You left me to die, Ricky.”
Ricky dropped his gaze to the ground. “I didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t do anything. My cousin - he would’ve killed me if I’d double crossed him.”
“And what do you think he’ll do now when he learns you’ve been double-crossing him this whole time? What? You think working with me, snitching on his friends - you think that’ll go over well just because you were willing to turn a blind eye to him killing me?”
Ricky looked like he was about ready to cry. “Come on, Man. I gave you everything I could. It’s not my fault they got you.”
“Isn’t it? You set me up that night, Ricky. And don’t think I don’t have proof. Like I said, one word to my captain, and you spend the rest of your miserable, pathetic life behind bars. Or, we can play this a different way.”
“Anything,” Ricky said. His whiny tone reminded Luke of a spoiled teenage girl begging her father to use the car on a weeknight rather than a grown man who was in serious trouble with the law. “I’ll do anything, just don’t send me to the slammer, and for the love of God, don’t tell my cousin that I’ve been talking to you.”
Luke pulled out his cell phone and brought up the photo of the sketch Mikey had done. “Look at this. Do you recognize him?”
Ricky stared at the screen for several long minutes. “No. I don’t think so. Why? Who is he?”
Luke huffed out a breath. “If I knew that, I wouldn’t be asking you.” Though he wasn’t surprised that Ricky didn’t recognize the guy. The sketch was vague and made days after Luke had seen him from several yards away. The lighting had been shitty in that place and he’d just been beaten to within an inch of his life. Luke sent Ricky the photo in a text message. “I need you to find out who that is,” he said when Ricky’s phone buzzed in his pocket.
“And then what?” Ricky asked.
“I’ll be the judge of that. And if I see you again, you better not run or I will have you arrested. Got it?”
Ricky swallowed so hard his Adam's apple bobbed. “Yeah, yeah. Got it.”
He left Ricky standing on the sidewalk as he walked back to his car.
Luke was sweaty, tired, and pissed off. He’d spent days looking through endless mugshot photos, but it seemed like that guy wasn’t in the system. And if that was the case, they may never find him.
