Back in New York
Chapter 11
A Gang is Like a Family
. . . . .
Daniel Keating was an obviously scrawny seventeen-year-old and if it wasn't for the fact that all of the evidence they'd collected since arresting the teen had cleared him, Javier could definitely see him as the type who would need to prove himself to a gang. He looked nervous as he sat across from Ryan, his youth representative nowhere in sight. They'd dismissed her, informing her that Danny would have family present. And, admittedly, Javier was counting on that family to get him the answers he was still missing.
Because once he had those answers and his damned murderer in custody, he'd finally be able to drop all of this polite crap he was playing at with Lanie. He hated it. Bitterly. He ran a hand over his head. The last few weeks with only the most polite of interactions had stressed him out more than he'd anticipated and definitely more than he was completely comfortable with. Sure, Lanie had always haunted the back of his mind, but he was a man and a petite curvy body like hers was one that was bound to draw a man's eyes. Now though, he was looking at her as the quickest way of clearing Danny, getting his information and then eradicating the conflict of interest problem they'd run into the minute she'd admitted Evelyn Keating was her cousin.
Her scent wafted into his nostrils and he looked down to find her standing by his side, a determined grin on her face. "I'm ready when you are, Detective."
Javier reached for the doorknob, pausing and turning back to her, leaning close despite the fact that they were in the precinct. "We get the information out of him, I'm taking you out tonight, cari," he murmured and pretended not to see the heat swell in her gaze. Then, he pulled open the door and stepped inside.
It was Lanie that Danny really fixated on first and Javier knew even Ryan caught the distinct relaxing of the boy's body. He turned to the detectives when Lanie took a seat beside him. "I don't understand," Danny said, "I thought I was being released."
"You are," Javier reassured the kid. "We just had new evidence come in that we want to ask you about."
"What kind of new evidence?" Danny asked, immediately wary.
Lanie reached out now, taking the seventeen-year-old's hand. "You're not going to be arrested again, Danny, but MK told me about the guy who put the gun in your room."
Danny swallowed visibly. "How? When? I haven't been home in weeks."
"Which is why we're so… concerned," Ryan spoke up, flipping papers around to close the folder in front of him.
Danny immediately looked to Lanie. The ME sighed. "She said she saw the guy come in after you were arrested. You weren't home. She says the guy looked like the gangbangers that were in the hospital with us when you were shot."
Both Lanie and Danny visibly shook at the reminder and Danny's hand went to his stomach. Javier would bet money that there was a scar under the teenager's hand, a scar that had been given to him by the same guys who were trying to frame him.
Still, it was Lanie's voice that broke Danny's debating silence. "Tell them, Danny," she coaxed gently. "Who would want to frame you?"
There was silence.
"Nobody," Danny finally said. "I made my peace with Marco years ago."
Javier and Ryan had already looked up the information in connection with Danny's shooting, so they didn't need the translation. The 'Marco' Danny was referring to was the intrepid and demanding leader of the local gang.
"Peace?" Ryan asked with an arched eyebrow.
Danny sighed. "Look, Marco and I used to be friends. Like, good friends. He'd come over when his dad hit him, when his mom was passed out, that kind of thing. He got caught up with the gang, I got caught up with honour roll, we went our different ways. A few months back the school assigned him a tutor for English. He moved in with his aunt after his dad got busted for drugs and she's on him a lot more about his school work." He flashed a grin at the confused detectives. "We keep in touch. Anyway, contrary to popular belief, Marco's damned smart-"
"Watch your mouth, Dan," Lanie admonished out of habit, interrupting the flow of the story.
"…And he keeps his grades up," the teenager finished, punctuating it with an eye roll at his aunt. Javier had to bite his cheeks against the laughter.
"So the school assigns him an English tutor and I'm that kid. Marco and I started talking again, pretended we didn't know each other in the hall, but when it was him and I, it was like old times. He apologized about the shooting, said he gave his guys a good old fashioned dressing down for it – which I'd already heard – and I told him I lived and really that was what mattered. See, he's going to get out, go straight, he told me that and I believe him." Danny took a deep breath. "I didn't say anything because I don't know much beyond that. All I know, is Marco and I owe each other, for keeping each other straight and whatever. I don't know his business, he doesn't know mine."
"But you're friends," Javier asked, leaning forward.
Danny shrugged. "Passably."
"What about initiations," Ryan inquired. "Anyone want into the club?"
"With all due respect, Detective, there's always someone who wants in."
"Dan," Lanie jumped in, "Come on. You know someone. Something."
And Javier believed that. He'd caught on to the kid holding back and it wasn't sitting well in his stomach. Still, he could understand Danny's reluctance, especially after the grilling they'd put him through at the beginning of the case.
"We want to get this guy," Lanie said passionately. "We want to put him away for putting you through the wringer on this."
Danny's grin was a quick flash. "Is that before or after you kick his ass, Aunt Lain?"
Javier bit his cheeks against the laughter, but Ryan full out snorted. The glare Lanie shot his way had him clearing his throat to hide the snicker.
"She won't be in on the arrest," Javier answered for her. "She's going to take you home."
Lanie seemed almost affronted, but if he wanted his time with her, Javier knew the arrest had to be utterly and completely clean. They couldn't risk any sort of 'cross-contamination' from her presence.
Danny shrugged. "Let's say Marco told me about his sister, Vickie. Vickie's got a boyfriend that wants an in with Marco. But let's say the guy doesn't know Marco at all, thinks that he's all into the gang lifestyle. So he picks a low-level rival and offs him. Now let's say the gang isn't happy about that, but there's nothing they can do because of Marco's sister, who they're not going to mess with. So what do they do? They find a scapegoat, a good scapegoat since Vickie's close with another girl I tutor."
"You really think you were set up."
Danny's eyes actually hardened, turned cold. "There's no doubt in my mind. And I'm not sure Marco's going to protect him."
Marco Vincente was a man looking for a way out. Javier had been one of those men, one of those people who just needed to leave the borough. The only difference was that while Javier had chosen the police academy, Marco had chosen drug running, weapons smuggling and gang-related activities. He'd been arrested more than once, served a couple of months in various prisons, all since he was twelve, according to Danny. Now, Javier knew, Marco was turning a new leaf and, apparently, doing it in secret.
He didn't seem nervous as he lounged back in a chair in interrogation, as if he was totally aware that this particular meeting wasn't about him. That, seemed to sit fine, since being hauled in looked good on your gang reputation, regardless of whether or not you were actually charged and arrested. He was perfectly at ease as Javier and Ryan sat across from him.
"You got nothin'," he said, and Javier resisted rolling his eyes at the stereotype.
"We don't want you," Ryan replied, leaning forward. "We want the guy who killed Johnny D."
Marco snorted. "Guy's got no class, going with a nickname that corny."
"Don't care 'bout the nickname either, Marco. We care about the killer."
"And what makes you think I got the info you want?"
Javier leaned forward, mirroring Ryan's position and putting on his best interrogation face. "Let's cut to the chase, shall we? We've got Danny Keating who says the guy who offed Johnny was probably someone lookin' to get in with you. Know anyone who might fit that description?"
"So what if I do?" Marco shrugged as if unaffected.
"We also think you don't care 'bout this kid," Javier continued, ignoring Marco. "He's not one of you and as far as you're concerned, he's never gonna be one of you so long as you run the nest."
Marco continued to just stare, and Javier had been in enough gang interrogations to know when the guy really didn't care. The killer may want in, he realized, but he'd hit it right on the money when he'd told Marco that the gang didn't want him.
"No reason to protect him if he's not gonna be one of you, Marco. We both know that."
Marco pondered a minute, taking in Javier, still leaning over the table, and Ryan who had, in response, leaned back in his chair, arms folded over his chest. "I may know a guy that fits."
"Oh?" Javier replied, arching his eyebrow.
"Pansy, he is, and we call him that." The grin that flashed over Marco's face was cruel. "Kid thinks it's a nickname. He's nowhere near playin' with the big boys."
Now, it was Javier's turn to lean back. "Tell us more."
"Let's put it this way… you want in, you don't flake out. You take the hit when you off a guy, and you don't off a guy without full permission from the higher ups. Johnny wasn't sanctioned."
"So what did you do?"
"To Pansy? Nothin'. He's tight with my sister, so I leave him be. Kid's fifteen and he thinks he's gonna rule the world one day. Yet the kid can't even take credit for the whack?" Marco shook his head. "He ain't worth my time."
Ryan's grin was wide and almost feral as he popped the cap on his pen. "Pansy got a real name, Marco? Because he's certainly worth ours."
Yay! Know what this means? More Lanie/Javier! And I've missed them!
I did change Danny's age. I discovered that the case took a turn I hadn't originally anticipated when I wrote the first chunk, so I had to edit it and fix the ages. Going all the way back and fixing the rest is on my list of things to do in the next couple of days.
The next one will be updated when it catches up to Hamptons. The next chapter is another 'crossover' chapter, so it may take a few days. At least assuming I remember what I wrote for the next chapter correctly.
Review please? Pretty please?
