14th Deadly Sin

CHAPTER 34

YUKI ENTERED THE paneled and richly furnished conference room at Moorehouse and Rogers, Attorneys-at-Law.

Six of the firm’s lawyers sat around the large mahogany table, and so did the first of the two narcotics cops she had come to depose.

Inspector William Brand was stout and muscular and had a two-day-old beard. She knew from watching him on video that he had the initials WB tattooed on the side of his neck, as if they’d been burned there with a branding iron.

He smiled at her when she came into the room. Like What’s up, honey?

This was the problem with being small. And, OK, cute.

The pricey lawyers hired by the City of San Francisco introduced themselves, and hands were shaken all around. Someone offered her coffee while another pulled out a chair.

So far, all of this fit her expectations, right down to the oil paintings of the founding partners on the wall.

What she wasn’t prepared for was the knock on the door, for one of the lawyers to open it, and for Len Parisi to walk in. The floor shook a little when he crossed it, and not just because he weighed almost three hundred pounds.

Len Parisi was like a force of nature.

She’d thought he would present himself in court at the most effective moment, but clearly, her case and his hinged entirely on Whitney and Brand’s interrogation of Aaron-Rey Kordell.

She and Parisi exchanged the briefest of pleasantries, and when that was over, Yuki asked for the video to roll.

Then she said to Inspector Brand, “I’ve seen the footage of your interview of Aaron-Rey Kordell. I just need some background. What did you think his motive was to shoot those three crack dealers?”

“Motive?” said Brand. His eyebrows shot up and he pushed back a bit from the table. “It was a holdup. He wanted the money. Or the drugs. Or both.”

“And what did he have on him when he was arrested?”

“The patrolmen who nabbed him just found the gun,” said Whitney. “He either passed off the loot or it was taken offa him.”

“Kordell confirmed that?” Yuki asked.

“He denied everything,” Brand said. “And as the victims were dead, we didn’t have anything else to go on.”

“I see,” said Yuki. “So when Aaron-Rey confessed, it was open and shut.”

“We earned our pay,” said Brand. “He denied everything until he couldn’t deny it anymore. Then he spilled. Said he found the gun. He shot the dealers. He ran.”

“And you believed him?” Yuki said. “He was fifteen. He had a below-normal IQ. He had no record.”

“He said he was eighteen, and he was bright enough to put bullets into three scumbags,” said Brand. “You have to commend him for that. Too bad the kid got killed. He did a public-service triple homicide.”

“Were Mr. Kordell’s hands and clothing tested for gunshot residue?”

“No. We had him in the box right after his arrest for carrying the weapon. We thought he would confess pronto. But it took longer and the gunshot residue just slipped our minds.”

Yuki said, “But there’s no doubt in your mind to this day that Aaron-Rey Kordell did those shootings?”

“None,” said Brand. “I have not a doubt in the world.”