14th Deadly Sin

CHAPTER 83

JUDGE QUIRK CLOSED the door to his chambers. He picked the Bible up from his desk and went to the seating area where several people were assembled: Yuki Castellano, Leonard Parisi, Warren Jacobi, and a jittery young man in jeans and a hoodie who sat in a side chair, jouncing his feet.

The judge settled into a wing chair beside the witness and said, “Please tell us your name, young man.”

“Arturo Mendez.”

“Place your hand on this Bible, Mr. Mendez. Now, I need you to swear before me and everyone here that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God.”

“I do. I swear.”

Judge Quirk said to him, “The nice lady sitting behind you, that’s Ms. Pearson, and she’s going to record what we all say. Ms. Castellano is going to ask you questions, and then Mr. Parisi, the district attorney, may have some questions.

“Mr. Parisi is the one who authorized an order of protection for you. The gray-haired man sitting next to Mr. Parisi is Chief of Police Jacobi. His interest is also in getting to the truth, Mr. Mendez. But only the truth. Not what you think. Not what you were told. Not what you think we want to hear. Just what you saw and heard. Any questions so far?”

“No, sir. I used to watch Law & Order.”

“Fine,” said the judge. “But that’s a TV show, and this is real. If you lie, that’s perjury, and that means jail time. Understand?”

“Yes, Your Honor. I get it.”

“Ms. Castellano, your witness.”

Yuki sat across from Arturo Mendez. She said, “Arturo, when did I meet you?”

“Yesterday.”

“And how did I come to meet you?”

“You got my name from Aaron-Rey’s mom. She has my number ’cause I was friends with A-Rey.”

“That’s right,” said Yuki. “And did I meet you on the corner of Turk and Dodge within view of the three-story house where the drug dealers were killed?”

“That’s right.”

“And do you know who shot the drug dealers inside that drug house?”

“Yes, ma’am. Because I was there and I watched it happen,” said Arturo Mendez.

“Were you under any drug influence when you witnessed the shooting?” Yuki asked.

“Nah. I never got a chance to score.”

“Are you straight now?”

“Yes, ma’am. I ain’t no junkie, anyway. I can pee in a cup if you want.”

“Not now, Arturo. Can you please tell us the events that took place in the crack house when the dealers were killed?”

Arturo Mendez told the story exactly as he had told it to Yuki the day before. He’d been in the house when three men wearing SFPD Windbreakers came in and ordered the dope dealers to “grab the wall.”

Mendez was hiding, but he watched those men frisk the dealers and take their money and guns and drugs. Then they turned the dealers back around. That was when he heard one of the “cops” make a comment: “Put yourself in my shoes.”

Arturo Mendez told the people in the judge’s office that that was the man who shot all three of the drug dealers, after which “the whole crew of guys wearing the Windbreakers left by the stairs.”

Mendez said further that he waited until they were gone, then was making to leave when Aaron-Rey Kordell came up the stairs, excited because he’d found a gun in the stairwell.

Mendez said A-Rey hadn’t seen the shootings and that he, Mendez, had told A-Rey to run.

Yuki said, “Can you describe the shooters?”

“Yes, sorta. They was wearing masks.”

“What kind of masks?”

“Rubberlike, the kind that almost look like real faces, and like I said, they wore the blue SFPD Windbreakers and caps, you know. And cop shoes.”

“Anything else you think we should know, Mr. Mendez?”

“One of those men, he had a tattoo on his neck, right about here.” Mendez indicated a spot under his left ear, just above the collar line. Yuki saw Parisi’s eyes widen.

“Could you identify that tattoo?” Yuki asked.

Tears spontaneously sprang from Mendez’s eyes.

He said, “You gotta move me to another state, no lie. When I was coming into the building just now, I think I see that cop with a tattoo on his neck. He mighta seen me, too.”