14th Deadly Sin

CHAPTER 69

THE FOOTAGE ROLLED and the jurors’ eyes focused on Inspector William Brand’s interrogation of Aaron-Rey.

Brand was on his feet.

He stalked around the narrow confines of the interview room. He made angry gestures with his arms. At some angles you could see the tattoo on his neck, under his left ear, at the collar line. The tattoo was only an inch square and looked like a cow brand of his initials, WB.

Brand said to his suspect, “You signed this waiver, A-Rey, saying you didn’t need a lawyer, so now you have to tell the truth. That’s what it means. And if you keep lying, you are going to drown in your own crap. Understand?”

“I told you the truth,” Aaron-Rey said. He was crying. He put his head down on the table and sobbed into his folded arms.

“You’re a liar, Kordell,” said Brand. “You make me sick. You’re a big man when you have a gun, but look at you now. A lying sack of shit, the worst kind of person, can’t stand up for what he did. And you should get an award for what you did. Taking out those dirtbags. That’s what you did, didn’t you?”

“Nooooo,” said Aaron-Rey.

“You dumb piece of crap,” said Brand. He leaned over and shouted in Aaron-Rey’s face. “I’m trying to help you. Don’t you understand? Tell the goddamned truth and end this. Don’t you want your parents to be proud that you stood up like a man?”

“I didn’t shoot that gun,” Aaron-Rey sobbed.

Yuki forwarded the video again. She said to the jury, “This is hour fifteen and forty-five minutes. Aaron-Rey has had three sodas and a bag of chips. He has waived his rights so that he can go home—that’s his understanding, and he has told the truth. But Inspectors Whitney and Brand aren’t buying it.”

Parisi objected. “Your Honor, the video speaks for itself.”

“I’ll allow it anyway,” said Judge Quirk.

Yuki hit Play. The placement of the individuals in the room was the same. Brand had his hands in his pockets. He was pacing, and his anger was undisguised.

He said, “Last chance I’m giving you to get ahead of this, A-Rey, and then we’re done. You’re going to jail for the rest of your life, or maybe you’ll get the death penalty. Either way, you’re never gonna hug your mama again. Or … you can tell us what happened. You were high. You were confused. You felt threatened. And so you had to defend yourself and shoot those three violent, dangerous men.”

Brand sat down, pulled his chair right up to Aaron-Rey, and put his hand on the back of the boy’s neck.

Brand said, “It’s safe to tell us, A-Rey. It’s now or we’re done. I have a family, and I gotta go home. Tell the truth, or the next time I see you, it will be as a witness at your execution. Your moms and pops will be crying, but I’m gonna be saying to them, ‘I told him to tell the truth, but he told me to piss off.’ Is that how you want this to go?”

Aaron-Rey picked his head up off the table.

“I can go home after?”

“Yes. What did I say? Start talking,” said Brand. “Or I’m walking out of here and going home. Unlike you.”

Aaron-Rey sighed. “Awright. I did it,” he said. “I was scared and so I shot them, awright?”

“Shot who?” said Whitney.

“A. Biggy. Duane. Dubble D.”

Aaron-Rey was crying again.

“Good man,” said Whitney.

He looked at the two-way mirror, gave a thumbs-up. Brand opened the door and uniformed officers came into the room and pulled Aaron-Rey Kordell to his feet.

Whitney and Brand high-fived and low-fived and the video went black.

Yuki submitted the transcript into evidence and returned to the counsel table.

Judge Quirk said, “Ms. Castellano, you have a witness?”

She was getting a jump on Parisi by calling two witnesses who might normally have been called by the defense. In legal terms, they were “adverse witnesses,” and she could deal with them as if she were cross-examining the opposition witnesses.

She hoped she could pull it off.

“Plaintiff calls Inspector Stanley Whitney to the stand.”