on the door sounded a mere instant before it was pushed open. Captain Morales stood in the doorway, taking in its occupants with one sweeping gaze. “Good, you’re here,” he said, looking at Nate. “Javon Emmons was scooped up in the BOLO last night. The commissioner says we get first shot at him.”
Emmons was slouched in his chair, a hat pulled low over his eyes. He was more dressed up than the last time they’d seen him. Black-striped jeans and a collared shirt were topped with a butter-soft leather jacket the color of olives. His expression was the same, though. Cocky, with a hint of underlying slyness.
“McGuire. I hear you’re looking at my old apartment. Want to rent it, I hear.” His teeth flashed. “Man, I’ll let you in on a secret. Place has cockroaches the size of rats. Matter of fact, I seen a death match between a cockroach and a rat in the building. Crowned that roach champ.”
“Good to know.” Nate sat back in his chair and surveyed him. “You’re a hard man to find.”
“I’m a rolling stone. Got people to see. Can’t be sitting around waiting for the po-po to come calling every time you gets a notion.”
“Tell us about your brother,” Risa put in.
He sent a lazy glance her way. “Which one? I got lots of brothers. I got stepbrothers, half brothers, full brothers . . . got sisters, too. Want to hear about them?”
“No. Just Lamont Fredericks.”
Something flashed in his eyes, there and gone too quickly to identify. “What about him? Lamont, he was a half brother and a lot older than me. Hardly knew him. He died when I was just a kid.”
“He died in that fire at Tory’s.”
“That’s right.” He slipped a little farther down in his chair. “He wasn’t wearin’ his asbestos pjs. Never made it out of the fire alive.”
“Who do you think is to blame for that?”
“Well, I guess it’d be whoever created fire.”
“The police report indicated the origin was undetermined. Do you know what that means?”
“Shit means they don’t know if someone started it or not.”
“That’s right.” Risa nodded. “If someone started it, who do you think would want to burn Tory’s down?”
He shrugged. “My brother was a businessman, just like me. Had a lot of enemies.”
“Did those enemies have names?” Nate asked.
Javon spread his hands expansively. “Now, this is nice. Warms my heart to see y’all so worried about how Lamont died. More than twenty years late, but hey, that’s the rate you guys get things done, ain’t it? Better late than never.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
He looked at Risa. “Naw, I don’t know. How would I? I was just a little kid at the time.”
“But you’re in the same kind of business he was in. Even the same territory, from what I can figure.”
Juicy wagged a finger at Nate. “Now that sort of talk is what they call entrapment. Trying to make me say something that ain’t true. I sell . . . what you call it? Mary Kay products.” He laughed.
“Tell us more about Tory Baltes’s son.” She folded her arms across her chest. “The one you used to run with sometimes when you were kids.”
Humor faded to be replaced by boredom. “What about him?”
“Do you remember his name?”
“Should I? He was some kid. Kids came and went in that neighborhood all the time. Still do.”
“The name Samuel Baltes ring a bell?” Nate watched the man closely.
“Sammy. Yeah, maybe it was Sammy. Never saw him again after that fire. His old lady grabbed him and moved away.”
“That’s interesting.” Risa took a sheet out of the file folder in front of her and pushed it over for him to look at. “Because you sold him a car a few years back.” She paused a beat. “So you must have seen him at least once more after he moved.”
He heaved a long breath. “I meant I didn’t see him any more when we was kids. Saw him once or twice after that. When we were grown.”
“And one of those times you sold him a car.”
“That’s right.” Nate’s words didn’t seem to faze him. “Dumb shit got himself killed in it, too.” His shrug said it didn’t matter to him one way or another. “It’s a dangerous world out there.”
“Is that what you told Sammy Baltes?”
He grinned, leaned forward to slap his hand on the table. “Can’t tell Sammy a thing, can I? Dead is dead.”
“Unless it isn’t.” To Nate’s surprise, Risa said the next words in unison with