hair tangled, his dark-brown eyes narrowed. Howie was wearing a fresh shiner. Josh wondered if he’d fought with a prisoner or a guard.
“Howie, what were you supposed to find for the guy who hired you to rob the antique store?” Josh asked as he and Adam took seats opposite Howie. Josh knew it was a thumb drive, but he had to ask the suspect to state for the record why he’d been at the shop.
Howie shrugged.
“You asked for the boxes from the Gulliver estate. You have to know what you were supposed to get, just like the other two men did. You and your buddy are repeat offenders. Trying to shoot a police detective will put you in for a long damn time,” Josh added.
“So what? If I tell you what it was, you’ll let me go? You and I both know it’s not happening, dude.”
“Did you know Pinky Struthers, the guy who died?” Adam asked.
“You already know he was a former cellmate, so why ask?” Howie said.
“Did he tell you he had this job to do?”
“Yeah, man. He did. He and some other guy I didn’t know. Ackerson, he said his name was.”
Hell, the same guy who had been involved in the other two armed robberies Josh and Adam had been investigating? Josh and Adam exchanged glances.
“First name?” Josh asked, hoping they’d get lucky.
“You’re lucky I knew his last name. He’s done some prison time too. I asked Pinky why he didn’t hook up with me next to do the job. He said the woman—”
Both Josh and Adam perked up to hear that a woman was involved.
“Uh…she already knew Ackerson, and he picked Pinky to help him do the job because he knew him from the joint. Pinky told her I was available for other jobs, in case she needed someone for something else. Anyway, so Pinky and Ackerson botched the job, and then I got called to do it. I knew Matson, so I called him, and he needed the money and agreed to come in on the job. Hell, who knew I’d get smacked upside the head with a cast-iron frying pan. The doc said if she’d hit me any harder, I would’ve been dead, but she had to strike from behind the counter, and that meant she couldn’t deal enough force. We had no idea she had a boyfriend who was a cop staying with her.”
“What’s the name of the woman who hired you?” Josh asked, glad Brooke hadn’t killed the scum so they could learn something more about the case.
Howie slumped in his chair. “Daisy Fern. At least that’s what she said her name was.”
Adam was on his phone, looking for someone by that name.
“What is she after?” Josh asked.
“Some thumb drive. She said someone slipped it into one of the boxes at the auction that was being shipped to the antique shop here. The person who was supposed to grab the box didn’t get it in time.”
“Someone? Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was the thumb drive slipped into the box on purpose or by accident?” Josh asked.
“I didn’t ask. She didn’t say.”
“Why didn’t she just ask the owner of the antique shop if she’d received a thumb drive by mistake? If it belonged to this Daisy Fern, why hire ex-convicts, armed to the teeth, to steal it?” Josh asked.
“Hell, she didn’t tell me, man. How should I know? I was hired to get the thumb drive, no questions asked. If you ask me, I’d say it had some damning information on it.”
Josh leaned back in his chair. “Not something valuable?”
“Maybe.” Howie folded his arms. “You’d have to ask her.”
“Do you have her phone number?” Adam asked.
Howie smiled. “Yeah. What does it get me?”
“If the information leads to an arrest and conviction, we’ll put in a good word for you with the DA’s office. We want the person behind the robberies before this turns deadly,” Josh said.
Howie pulled up his sleeve and gave the number penned on his arm to Adam.
“Why didn’t you guys lock the front door of the shop when you first entered it?” Adam asked.
“We had to wait for all the customers to leave. Then Matson was supposed to lock the door. And really, if the woman had just handed over the thumb drive, everything would have been cool. Imagine my surprise when you walked into the shop, your gun in your hands, ready to shoot me. I thought you were just a customer.”
“The other guys who botched the robbery were trying to do the