Ricky had the feel of someone who was accustomed to conducting his business on the streets. He looked to be in his mid to late twenties. His greasy dark hair was tied back in a ponytail and three earrings hung on his left ear. He had a pencil thin mustache above his lips and long sideburns. Despite the hot weather, Ricky was dressed in a black leather jacket. Danny could see rings of all shapes and sizes on Ricky's fingers as he tapped them impatiently on the table.
Flack pushed photos of Tim Higgins and Nick Bloom across the table so Ricky could take a look at time. "Recognize them?" Flack asked.
Ricky looked at the photos and shook his head. "Never saw them in my life."
"Really? We're about to prove him wrong, aren't we?" Flack looked over at Danny and arched his eyebrows.
Danny knew it was his cue. "Let me refresh your memory then," he told Ricky. He opened the folder and took out a picture they had printed from the security camera footage.
"What?" Ricky eyed it suspiciously.
Danny held it up for Ricky to see. "See this person here? That's you with your ponytail and leather jacket. As you can see, this picture shows you with someone. See that person sitting at the same table as you? Oh look, that's Nick. The two of you are having a cup of coffee together. Now isn't that sweet?"
Ricky brushed the photo aside. "This pic is so blurry, you can't even see their faces. If you think this is going to proof that I'm there, then you're bonkers."
"Perhaps," Danny shrugged. "But you see, the manager remembers you." It was a lie of course but Danny hoped Ricky did not know that. From the sudden stiffness in Ricky's posture, Danny could tell that his bluff was working. He decided to push a little more. "We also have a couple of witnesses who saw you calling on Tim at his apartment."
Ricky ran his tongue over his lips and remained silent. Danny could see the wheels turning in Ricky's head, weighing the pros and cons of telling the truth. Finally he said, "Yeah okay, so I know them. So what? Ain't no crime in making friends."
"Seems you're not too careful in choosing your friends, Ricky. Both of your friends are working together to manufacture heroin. One is now dead while the other is under arrest," Flack replied.
"Hey, I know them but it doesn't mean anything. Knowing them doesn't mean that I am involved in what they are doing," Ricky replied. He crossed his arms and looked stonily at both Flack and Danny.
"Come on, Ricky," Flack cajoled. "You're busted twice for selling drugs. Do you expect me to believe that it's a coincidence that you know Tim and Nick?"
"Maybe that's just what it is, a coincidence. Maybe you're just thinking too much about things. It can drive a man crazy, you know," Ricky tapped his index finger against the side of his head as he looked pointedly at Flack.
Flack wasn't affected by what Ricky said. He had dealt with too many criminals in the course of his career to get upset over mere words. "Here's what I think, Ricky. The three of you - Tim, Nick, Ricky - are involved in a drug scam. Tim grows the plants, Nick makes the drugs and you sells them. A profitable business for the three of you. Then something went wrong. Nick told you about it and you get really pissed off at Tim. So you went up to his apartment and beat him to death." Flack smiled.
Danny took out another photo from his folder. It was a close-up photo of a big patch of blue, black and purple. "Know what this is?"
"I don't know. Some kind of modern art?" Ricky replied.
"It's the bruises we found on Tim's body. You know what's interesting here? See this marking? It's an indentation made by an object the killer was wearing when he beat up Tim. Show me your hands."
"No."
Ricky tried to stuff his hands into his pocket but Flack was quicker. In a flash, he reached across the table and grabbed Ricky's wrists, pinning his hands to the table top. Danny placed the photo next to Ricky's right hand. A ring in the shape of a skull matches the markings.
Flack smiled, "We have a perfect match."
Ricky's face whitened visibly.
Flack stood up. "Ricky Garcia, you're under arrest for first degree mur-"
"Wait!" Ricky banged on the table. "I didn't kill Tim! You can't pin this on me!"
Danny replied, "Give it up, Ricky. We have proof that you beat Tim Higgins up."
"Right! So I did! I beat Tim up, but that's all I did. I didn't kill Tim, just rough him up a little. I swear that Tim was still alive when I left his place." Ricky looked anxiously at them.
Flack gave a sigh. "Alright, tell us what happened, and don't try to bullshit us. We'll know if you're lying."
So Ricky told them what happened, starting with how they met. Ricky bumped into Nick at a bar. After finding out that Nick had recently lost his job as a chemist, it was easy to persuade the penniless and debt-ridden Nick to help Ricky manufacture some drugs to sell. After getting a taste of easy profits, Nick began to think about increasing the output and roped in an old buddy, Tim, to help grow more poppies for harvesting. At first Ricky was wary about adding a new member as he knew from experience that more mouths meant more talk. But Nick assured him that Tim was tight-lipped guy.
For a while, things were going well and Ricky didn't complain as he had a steady supply of heroin to sell. Then one day, he received a call from Nick who was too worked-up to talk over the phone so Ricky arranged to meet Nick over coffee to find out what happened. Nick told him that Tim had managed to repay all his debts and now wanted out from the drug business. Seeing that his production line was in trouble, Ricky decided to pay Tim a call and persuade him that it would be in his best interest to stay.
"Killing him sure is a strange way to persuade him," Flack commented.
Ricky protested, "I didn't kill him! I only roughed him up a little. What good would it do if I killed him?"
"Okay, what about Johnny Dobrev?" Danny asked, holding up a photo of the dead man.
"What? Who? I've never seen him before."
"Come on, Ricky, tell the truth. Did you kill him because he found out about your secret?" Flack probed.
"I don't know who this guy this. It's the truth. I'll admit to beating Tim up but I didn't do anything to him." Ricky tapped Johnny's photo.
Flack and Danny exchanged a look and both of them stood up to leave. "Alright, interview's over," Flack said.
Ricky sprang up. "Hey, you can't just pin those deaths on me! I'm innocent!"
Flack replied as he walked through the door, "You better hope you are."
As Danny shut the door behind him, he noticed that his boss was standing outside the interview room, looking through the one-way window at Ricky.
"Looks like Ricky insisted that he didn't kill our vic," Mac commented.
Danny sighed. "Yeah, he's sticking by it. He sounds pretty insistent. I almost believed him."
Flack laughed. "Danno, you must be losing your touch if you actually think he is innocent."
Mac smiled empathically. "I had a talk with Sid before I came here," he said.
"Oh, about what?" Danny wondered. He knew that Sid had already determined the cause of death as as result of intra-cranium bleeding. He wondered if Sid had discovered something else which caused the victim's death. But it was rare for the meticulous coroner to make a mistake. Of course there could be nothing in it as Mac and Sid were good friends and they often chatted with each other over other matters besides work. But then again, Mac won't have mentioned it if it wasn't relevant to the case.
"Sid was puzzled about the intra-cranium bleeding. It caused the vic's death but Sid wasn't able to determine what exactly had caused the bleeding in the first place. After talking to several medical experts, Sid was able to determined that the hemorrhaging was caused by a pre-existing genetic defect of the artery," Mac replied.
"What does that mean?" Flack asked.
"It means that given our vic's condition, the bleeding could be caused by anything that stressed the artery, even a cough or a sneeze. Basically our guy was a walking time bomb."
"Woah, so you're saying that Ricky didn't kill our vic?" Flack asked.
"No, I'm saying that Ricky didn't intend to kill our vic. He just wanted to beat him up. The injuries were non-fatal. All were inflicted for pain, not for death. For all we know, his punches might have triggered the bleeding, or it might be something else. There's no way to tell for certain." Mac studied Ricky through the one-way window. "A good defense attorney might just be able to get him off on manslaughter," he mused.