Free Fall

CHAPTER 27

Jennifer Sheridan came out of a door off the back of the entry and saw Mark Thurman on the floor. When she saw Thurman she ran to him, yelling, "What did you do to him?"

Pike said, "Hit him."

We pulled Thurman to his feet and helped him into the living room. He tried to push away from us, but there wasn't a lot of umphf in it. I said, "Take it easy. We've got the gun."

Jennifer gave confused. "What gun?"

Pike showed her Mark's revolver, then stuck it in his belt. "Is anyone else here?"

Jennifer followed us into the living room, hovering around Mark Thurman as we put him into a green Naugahyde Ez-E-Boy. "No. The house belongs to Mark's aunt, and she's away. That's why we're using it."

Pike grunted approval, then pulled the drapes so that no one could see in from the street.

Jennifer Sheridan touched Mark Thurman's face with her fingertips. His face was already starting to puff. "I'd better get some ice."

He tried to push her away. "Goddamn it, why'd you tell them?"

She stepped back. "I didn't."

I said, "I'm a detective, Mark. I did a little detective work and found you." I told him about watching Akeem D'Muere's, and about picking up Dees and following him to Tommy's.

Thurman tried to act like it was no big deal. "So what? That doesn't prove anything." He looked at Jennifer. "Jesus Christ, Jen, this guy is a wanted fugitive."

She said, "No, Mark. He wants to help us. He got into trouble trying to help."

Mark yelled, "Don't tell this guy anything." Panicked. "He's just making guesses. He doesn't know anything." He tried to push up from the chair, but Joe Pike shoved him down.

I said, "I know that the Premier Pawn Shop is owned by Akeem D'Muere. I know that eleven weeks before Charles Lewis Washington died, D'Muere hired a security contractor called Atlas Security to install a hidden surveillance camera at the Premier." When I said it, his face dropped maybe a quarter of an inch. He tried not to show it, but there it was. "The camera was there when you guys pulled the sting. It would've recorded what happened." I felt like Perry Mason, laying out my summation for the court. Did that make Jennifer Delia Street? Was Pike Paul Drake? "Akeem D'Muere has a tape of what happened that night, and because he has the tape he has you."

Jennifer moved behind him and put her hand on his back. "It's killing him."

"For Christ's sake, Jennifer, be quiet." He was looking scared.

Jennifer said, "That's why it went so bad for us. They made him swear to keep quiet and he did, but he just isn't like that."

Mark said, "Eric's taking care of it. Don't admit anything. What if he's wired?"

Jennifer Sheridan pulled at him, trying to make him see, trying to make him come to his senses. "He's not wired and Eric's getting you into trouble." She turned from him and looked at me. "He thinks he's protecting them. He wasn't part of all that. He's not like the others."

"Nothing happened, goddamn it." Thurman pointed at me. "I'm telling you that nothing happened."

"Damn it, Mark," she shouted. "Stop protecting them. Stop lying for them."

I said, "Leave him."

They looked at me as if I'd fired a shot into the floor.

I said, "He doesn't love you, Jennifer. He's willing to take you down with him, just because he isn't strong enough to stand up to the guys he works with."

Mark Thurman boiled up out of the chair like an angry bull and hit me with his shoulder, driving me back across the living room. Jennifer Sheridan shrieked and yelled, "Mark," but then Pike was next to her, wrapping her in his arms.

I stayed high on Thurman's shoulders and let him carry me across the room and into the wall. He was angry and scared and probably not thinking too well, but he was also large and strong. We hit the wall and he backed away to throw a punch, and when he did I spun left and kicked him on the right side of his face and then I slipped to the side, and kicked him behind the left knee. He went down. I could've kicked him on the outside of his knee and broken the ligaments, but I didn't want to do that. I said, "Don't be stupid, Mark. You're not helping you and you're not helping Jennifer."

He shoved his way up and this time he sort of crabbed in sideways, like he wanted to box. He feinted with his left and threw a straight right and when he did, I pushed it past and snapped a side kick to his head that made him stumble back and drop his hands. I kicked him twice more, and punched him hard once in the solar plexus, and he went down. I'd hit him hard enough to keep him there.

I squatted beside him and said, "You're going to listen to this."

He shook his head. Like a five-year-old. His nose was swelling and there was a smear of blood along his lower lip.

I said, "Eric Dees and Akeem D'Muere conspired to set me up for this dope bust. In the course of that action, Akeem D'Muere murdered James Edward Washington. That makes Dees a co-conspirator to murder."

Thurman was breathing hard. Sucking deep breaths and letting them out.

"You tried to keep all of this from Jennifer, but Jennifer hired me, and you finally brought her in. You told Jennifer about Charles Lewis Washington and Akeem D'Muere, and that means you've implicated her. You're a cop. You know what that means."

Mark Thurman looked at her.

"She's become an accessory after the fact to murder. She can be charged, and she can be tried. Do you see that? Do you see what you've done to her?"

Jennifer Sheridan frowned. "Mark?"

I said, "Who are you going to protect, boy? Eric Dees, or Jennifer?"

Mark Thurman raised his hands as if he were about to say something, but the something didn't come and he lowered them. He looked from me to Jennifer Sheridan, and then back to me. He said, "It was Floyd."

You'd know it was Floyd. It'd have to be.

"I'm not even sure what happened. Floyd was hitting him, and then Pinkworth was hitting him, and he just died." Jennifer Sheridan knelt down beside him and put her hand on his arm.

I said, "You told yourselves it was an accident. Everybody's thinking Rodney King, and you decide to cover up."

He nodded. "Only a couple of days later, here comes the tape. Just like Rodney. Only this time the bad guys had the tape, and not the good guys. Akeem had the tape."

There was quiet in the small house.

Jennifer Sheridan said, "He went along because he didn't know what else to do. You can see that, can't you?"

I didn't answer.

"He didn't do it for himself. Don't you see that?"

I looked at Pike and Pike looked at me.

Mark Thurman said, "What are you going to do?"

I shook my head. "I don't know."

He said, "It was just an accident." I looked at him and he wasn't a cop anymore. He was a big handsome kid who looked confused and scared, and more than a little bit lost. He said, "I dream about it every night, and I just don't know. It got out of hand, and we didn't know what to do. Even Floyd was surprised. Floyd didn't expect to kill him. It just happened." He tried to think of another way to say it. His mouth opened and closed a couple of more times. His brow knotted. Then he just shook his head.

"So you decided to protect each other."

"You think I'm proud of this? You think I don't see that poor guy? Jesus God, I don't know what to do." He was shaking his head. Jennifer Sheridan looked like she wanted to hold him and take care of him and make it all better even though she knew it was wrong. Maybe that's what love is.

I said, "How many copies of the tape are there?"

"We got one. I don't know how many D'Muere has. Maybe a million."

"Who has the copy you saw?"

"Eric." Jennifer Sheridan put out her hand and Mark Thurman took it. Jennifer smiled, and Mark Thurman smiled back at her. They looked relieved, as if by finally sharing this the weight was becoming bearable. Mark said, "I know where he hides it."

I took a deep breath and then I let it out. I felt tired and my back hurt where the muscles lace over the shoulder blades. Tension, I guess. Stress.

Jennifer Sheridan said, "Will you help him?"

I looked at Jennifer Sheridan looking at me and I nodded. "Okay," I said. "I want to see the tape."