Is that just a coincidence or is there a connection? Maybe I need to talk to Sandra again while I’m there.
In the morning, promptly at ten as instructed, she called the number Jack had given her.
“Good morning, Ms. Jansen.”
“And who am I speaking to?”
“My name’s Henry, ma’am. I’m Jack Tobin’s investigator. I’ve got a small conference room at the Holiday Inn on West Flagler. We’re here already but you’d better hurry. My man here is nodding in and out.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Just give your name to the lady at the desk.”
Fifteen minutes later a woman ushered Danni into the conference room where Henry was waiting with his witness. The room was fairly good sized for a small conference room although Henry made it look small. There was a table with four chairs in the middle and a credenza with a coffee urn and cups in the back. Henry put Danni at ease right away with a handshake and a smile. His witness was sitting in a chair, asleep.
“He nods out now and then,” Henry told her. “You get yourself comfortable and I’ll wake him up. Want some coffee?”
“No thanks.” Danni settled in a chair across from the witness. “What’s his name?” she asked.
“Pablo Ruiz.”
“You can wake him up.”
Henry gave Pablo a gentle shake and then another and another until the man couldn’t help but wake up. “Pablo, this here is Detective Danni Jansen. She’s the woman I told you about who is going to ask you some questions.”
“Shoot,” Pablo said in a daze.
Danni started off with a preliminary question to make sure Pablo could focus. “What’s your name?”
“Pablo Ruiz.”
“Do you know Sandra Davis?”
“Yeah. I know her real well.”
“How’s that?”
“We live in the same neighborhood—same apartment complex.”
“What did she tell you about the rape charge in Oakville?”
“She said it was bullshit. She said she just did it for money. She does things for this guy once in a while, she says.”
“What guy?”
“Hell if I know. Just some guy with money who pays her to do stuff.”
“Like claim somebody raped her?”
“Yeah. Why not? Money’s money.”
“Why would she tell you?”
“I don’t know. We were just shootin’ the shit, you know. Kind of like what me and Big Henry was doin’ the other day and now I’m here talkin’ to you all formal and shit.”
“And why are you talking to me now?”
“Why?”
“Yeah, why?”
“For the money, what else?”
“How much money?”
“Two hundred bucks for an hour.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Danni stood up and walked over to where Henry was standing in a corner.
“Tell your boss this isn’t going to fly. Paying a drug addict to tell a story is not going to get your client off.”
“I didn’t pay him to tell me the story to begin with. I just paid him to come down here and talk to you.”
“That’s a distinction without a difference.”
“Well, here’s another one: You cops pay snitches all the time for information. At least I didn’t pay Pablo beforehand.” Henry turned his attention to Pablo, who was starting to nod off again. “Pablo, what would happen to you if Sandra found out you were talking to the police?”
Pablo didn’t open his eyes. He just took his index finger and passed it across his throat. There was no need for words.
Danni did not have a counter to that so she changed the subject.
“How do I get to Liberty City? I want to stop and see Sandra Davis while I’m here.”
“I’m going there to drop Pablo off. I’ll take you and drop you back here.”
“That’s okay. I want to go alone.”
“I can’t let you do that, ma’am. I’ve got orders.”
“Orders? From who?”
“Jack. I told him that neighborhood is dangerous day and night. You wouldn’t know what you were getting into. He asked me to stay with you.”
“That doesn’t sound like orders.”
“No, ma’am.”
“Listen, Henry. This isn’t my first rodeo. I can handle this alone.”
“I’m sure you can, ma’am, but if you walk in Sandra Davis’s door, I’m gonna be with you.”
Danni gave him her best defiant stare but Henry was not going to back down, she could tell.
“I could arrest you for impeding a police officer in the performance of her duties.”
“You could but I’m not impeding you at all.”
“If I agree to allow you to come, I don’t want you interfering in any way.”
“I won’t as long as things don’t get out of hand.”
She thought about it for a moment. “All right, let’s go.”
Danni didn’t like it, but there was a part of her that felt a little more secure with a man of Henry’s