of birth of the complainant so that you can do your own investigation?”
“Right.”
“So you can vilify her in the press?”
“That won’t happen. You have my word.”
“And you are going to share information with me?”
“Immediately. You’ll know minutes after I know.”
Danni thought about his words again for a minute. It certainly would be nice to talk to Julian Reardon. And Tobin wasn’t asking for the moon.
“All right, but I don’t want any shenanigans. You double-cross me and I’ll get the state attorney to throw the book at your client.”
“Wouldn’t think of it.”
“Have your client here tomorrow at ten.”
“Fine.”
She stood up to let him know the meeting was over.
“How’d it go?” Ronnie asked when Jack showed up at The Swamp for lunch.
“She’s a tough cookie.”
“She is, but she’s a good cop too. You’re lucky she’s on this case. Some of those other bimbos over there would have pushed for an indictment already. She won’t do that.”
“She’s awfully young to be retiring.”
“Not as young as you might think. I’d say forty-five or so. Still, it’s young to retire from most jobs. We had a serial killer loose here about eight years ago. You remember because you called me in the middle of all that to find out how I was holding up.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, that situation affected Danni tremendously. Her daughter was ten at the time and Danni sent her out of town for a while—I don’t know all the particulars because she didn’t and still doesn’t talk about it. I do know that ever since then she’s been counting the days until her retirement.”
“Why?” Jack asked.
“Like I said, I don’t know.”
“Well, I hope she doesn’t retire before we get Julian’s case resolved.”
“I don’t think she will, although you know how those public service jobs work. Even if you’ve got six months to go before you retire, if you’ve got enough sick time, you can just leave.”
“Our tax dollars at work,” Jack said.
“Tell me about it.”
Chapter Eighteen
Jack called Julian that night and made arrangements to meet him at eight o’clock the next morning at a coffee shop downtown. He wanted Julian to tell the truth in his own words, but he also wanted him to be prepared so that his answers were concise and to the point.
“Just answer her questions, Julian,” he told the young man the next morning. “Don’t anticipate what she wants to know.”
“Do you think she might want to talk to Darryl?” Julian asked.
“Who’s Darryl?”
“My roommate. He was with me that night. He didn’t see anything but I told him what happened right after.”
Jack wanted to smack himself in the head. How did I not ask that question? I’ve been away too long. I’m slipping.
“Is Darryl on the football team?”
“Yeah. He’s the starting defensive end.”
Several ideas hit Jack at the same time.
“Does the coach know that Darryl was there?”
“Yeah, but he hasn’t disciplined Darryl or anything. Darryl has no problem telling you or anybody what he knows.”
“Where is he now?
“He’s back at the apartment. I told him you might want to talk to him.”
“I don’t need to talk to him. Maybe we’ll just bring him along and give Detective Jansen an added bonus this morning.”
“There was something else I didn’t mention to you yesterday.”
“What’s that?”
“A lawyer from Miami called me right after this story was in the news. He said he could help me and it wouldn’t cost me.”
“That was generous of him. Why didn’t you take him up on it?”
“I called my mom, and she said we should talk to you first.”
“Did you get his name?”
“I know he told me but I forgot. I think I still have his number in my phone.”
While Julian was scanning his phone, Jack tried to figure out how this new information fit into the puzzle. Every case started as a puzzle, but some proved to be more difficult than others. Maybe this was a lawyer trying to make a name for himself by taking a high-profile case. Maybe it was something else.
Julian found the number and Jack wrote it down. He decided not to give it to Detective Jansen until he had a little more information although if she asked about it, Julian would tell her.
Unlike the day before, Danni was very prompt. The desk sergeant had barely set the phone down when she came out to the waiting room to greet them. She wore black slacks and a white Oxford shirt with the sleeves rolled up halfway between the wrist and the elbow. A pair of small diamond earrings accompanied her silver