Title: My Brother's Keeper, Chapter 3
Don Flack sat waiting in an interrogation room until Sonny Sassone was brought in, arms and legs in shackles, wearing a prison jumpsuit.
"Detective Don Flack," Sonny smirked. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Sit down, Sunshine. I've got a few questions for ya," Flack said. The two officers who brought Sonny in led him over to a chair and helped him to sit down. They then exited the room to wait outside. "What do you know about Louie Messer's death?"
"Louie's dead? I heard he got jumped but I didn't think it was that bad. Just needed some sense knocked into him," Sonny said.
"This is the first you're hearing of this," Flack smirked.
"On my mother's grave," Sonny swore.
"Nice. So I guess that means you also know nothin' about Danny Messer's disappearance," Flack continued.
"Danny's missing? That's news to me. Serves him right, sticking his nose where it don't belong," Sonny smirked.
"Danny's good at what he does, and he's a good friend of mine, so let's play nice okay? Any chance your hoodlums are working independently of you now that you're in the can–carrying on the Tanglewood tradition without ya?" Flack asked.
"There's always that possibility. They got no orders from me. I'm tryin' to be on my best behavior here," Sonny smiled.
"Good luck with that. What would your boys be wanting with Mac Taylor and the tape from the wire Louie wore?" Flack asked.
"Hell if I know. What's it to you?" Sonny said.
"Never you mind that. We're done here," Flack said, standing up and walking to the door. He let the guards back in. "Take him back to his cell," he said. He then pointed a finger at Sonny. "You'd better hope I find no connection between you and your thugs, or there'll be hell to pay," he said.
"Is that a promise?" Sonny smirked as he was being led away.
Flack shook his head and pulled out his cellphone. "Mac, it's Don. Sonny claims no knowledge of Louie's death or Danny's disappearance. If it's the Tanglewood boys they're acting independently of Sonny now that he's in jail."
Suddenly one of the guards that was with Sonny came running back to the interrogation room.
"Detective, come quickly!" he shouted.
"Mac, gotta go, I may have a situation here," Flack said, hanging up the phone. He followed the guard to the visitation area where Sonny Sassone lay in a pool of blood, a sharpened toothbrush protruding from his neck. Two guards were subduing another prisoner, apparently the one who had stabbed Sonny.
"What the hell happened here?" Flack asked angrily.
"We were taking Sonny back to his cell, and as we were passing through the visitation area, this other prisoner comes up and stabs Sonny in the neck with the toothbrush," the guard said.
Flack pulled out his cellphone again. "Mac it's Flack again. Sonny's dead–stabbed by another prisoner. We'll need two of your guys up here. Stella and Lindsay? Good deal, I'll taking this clown to booking and meet them here," he said, hanging up his phone. "Nobody touches that body until the crime lab gets here, got it?" He told the guards. "Take him to the interrogation room, now!"
The guards took the prisoner they were holding down to the interrogation room that Flack and Sonny had just been in. They crammed the prisoner into the chair and stayed in the room this time with him.
"Who is this clown?" Flack asked the guards.
"Name's Johnson, sir," one of the guards said.
"Who put you up to this? Huh? Did one of the Tanglewood boys pay you a visit?" Flack asked angrily. "Answer me!" He demanded.
"I'm not saying nothing 'til my lawyer gets here," Johnson said.
"Beautiful. Leave it to a con to lawyer up. Get him out of here. Take him to booking to process him and lock him back up," Flack snapped. The guards led Johnson away. Flack grabbed a coffee mug that was on the table and hurled it against the wall. He took a deep breath, then went back out to see if Stella and Lindsay had arrived yet.
"Hey Don," Stella said. He muttered a hello. "Rough day, huh?"
"I don't like this. The Tanglewoods are turning on each other. This is starting to scare me," Flack said.
"Do you think this has anything to do with Danny's disappearance?" Lindsay asked apprehensively.
"Don't worry about Danny, Kitten. He's a tough cookie. He's been around the Tanglewoods long enough to keep himself outta trouble," Flack said, sounding like he was trying to convice himself as much as Lindsay. Lindsay and Stella looked at each other–they knew Flack was just as worried as they were.
Mac made his way to Central Park West. He waited only a couple minutes before he spotted two men, dragging Danny along with them. Mac could see that he had been beaten severely. Danny stumbled and fell to the ground, landing on his hands and knees. Mac could see the edges of a tattoed "T" and "d" peeking out from the edge of the undershirt Danny was wearing. Danny looked up at Mac, and could tell by the look on his face that Mac had seen the tattoo. Danny lowered his head in shame, wishing the ground would just open up and swallow him. "Mac must think I've joined them," he thought to himself.
"I want to see the log book for everyone who's come in to visit today," Detective Flack demanded. A guard handed the log book to Detective Flack. "Let's see, Johnson. Here we go. That can't be," he said, concerned.
"What is it?" Stella asked.
"Johnson's vistor signed himself in as Danny Messer."