The Crime Left Behind (Casey Summit Series, #1), page 20
Casey’s mind was going a mile a minute. If Officer Smith was to be believed, there was an undercover police officer involved. Did the OPD have someone working in the same gang that Eric was part of? Had that officer witnessed something between Ty and Eric? Smith mentioned a ‘beef.’ Was there some sort of argument? Over what? If an undercover officer and Eric were involved, then drugs were likely part of the answer.
She shook this idea off. Ty doesn’t do drugs. Ty couldn’t do drugs. The NCAA does regular drug testing of student-athletes; there was no way that he could be taking drugs and still playing football.
The more she thought about this recording, the angrier she got. If there was something to this, why couldn’t Grant just say it? Why was he playing these games? She picked up her phone and fired off a text to Grant telling him that they needed to talk.
Casey saw the clock was approaching ten and she remembered she had an important call to make. She took a deep breath, trying to shake off her anger and frustration. Ty answered quickly, out of breath from just ending his workout.
“Hey, Babe—how’s your morning?”
Casey smiled at the greeting. “How was your workout?”
“Pretty good. You go for a run this morning?”
“No, still kind of waking up,” she said. She loved how easy the conversation was between them; how she instantly felt more relaxed just hearing his voice. She decided right then not to tell him about the video. Besides, Grant needed to answer some questions first.
“Taking this whole vacation thing seriously, I see,” Ty said.
“Actually, it was casework that kept me up late, and you are not going to believe the night that Jack and I had.” For the second time that morning, Casey described meeting Shawn James.
Ty was silent throughout the story but breathed a ‘wow’ when it was all done.
“Casey—you are amazing. I can’t thank you enough. I mean, you became like a legit investigator for me, and we have... a suspect.” Ty’s voice got quieter for his last few words. Casey thought it sounded like he might be getting choked up. Strong and sensitive – wasn’t that every girl’s dream? After hot, she thought, which Ty also had down.
She grinned at the thought, momentarily forgetting about the video Grant sent.
“Are you free tonight?” Casey asked. “Want to celebrate?”
“Yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to come over here.”
“There? Like... like to your parent’s house?” Casey stammered.
Ty laughed. “No pressure. Just for dinner, maybe? They’d love to meet you.”
“Meet me?” she asked. “Oh. Yes. Of course. Yes. Text me the time and I’ll be there.”
They talked for a few more minutes, and then she received a text message back from Grant saying that he’d stop in after his shift today, probably around seven. Casey let Ty go and reread the text. There was no way she could wait that long to talk to him. Besides, she now had plans.
She sent a text to Alex and then hopped into the shower to get ready. If Grant couldn’t come to her, then she would go to him.
Chapter 27
Casey and Alex arrived at the police station a little before noon. Alex donned a small blue backpack, just large enough to house the important papers that her sister asked her to bring. They were greeted by a young female officer behind the counter.
“Can I help you ladies?” She smiled at the two.
“Officer White, please,” Alex said, taking charge again.
“Is he expecting you?”
“No, but I’m sure he’ll be happy to see me!” Alex answered, a little louder than necessary and with a smile on her face.
The officer glanced at them before picking up the phone. “Names?”
“I’m Alex and this is my sister, Casey.”
The officer spoke into the phone, “Yeah, an Alex and a Casey are here for you.” She paused, listening, then put down the phone. “He’ll be right out.”
Casey and Alex sat down on a bench across from the counter and waited. After about five minutes, the door beside the counter buzzed open and Grant came out.
“Casey, Alex—please come on back,” Grant said, acting more formally than Casey was expecting.
Alex popped up and walked past Grant, smiling at him as she did, leading the way for the three of them. Grant slowed a bit, and when Alex was far enough ahead of him, he whispered, “I thought I told you to watch the video alone.”
“I did, Grant. I haven’t told anyone about it. We have other information that we want to discuss with you, but you better believe you have some serious questions to answer about that video,” Casey whispered back. He looked over at her and she gave a look in return that said she was not happy with the surprise email.
They reached the large room with desks spread out and started to make their way through the maze. “So, Grant,” Casey said louder so that Alex could hear, “we were wondering if, perhaps, Detective Ronaldo was in today... so we could bring a few things to his attention regarding the Eric Jackson investigation.”
An officer looked up from his desk as Casey said the name ‘Eric Jackson,’ then glared in their direction. Grant gave a half-smile to the officer and pulled Casey by the arm over to a closed door at the end of the room.
“He is not in, but how about we discuss this with a little more privacy?” He opened the door to a conference room and led Casey inside, still holding onto her arm. Alex followed.
She didn’t seem to notice Casey wrenching her arm free and glaring at Grant but was more than happy to make herself comfortable, pulling out a chair from the large table centered in the room. Casey thought this must be where families or witnesses come to talk—not suspects. She sat down next to Alex and Grant closed the door behind them.
“Okay, what do you guys need this time?” Grant asked, sitting down across from the sisters and folding his arms across his chest.
“We have a suspect!” Alex exclaimed, not reading the tension hanging in the air.
“Huh. Interesting. Is his name Tyrell by any chance?”
“No. It’s Miguel Jimenez,” Alex answered readily. “You guys thought it wasn’t him, but you were wrong and we can prove it!”
Grant raised an eyebrow. He looked at Casey, rather than Alex, and replied, “Really?” in an icy tone.
“Yep! We—” she continued, still unaware of the non-verbal cues that Grant was loudly communicating to the pair.
“Uh, Alex, can I explain?” Casey interrupted, holding her hand out in a ‘stop’ gesture towards her sister. Alex looked at her with an expression of hurt on her face but resigned herself to letting her sister take over. She pulled a file from her backpack and slid it over.
“We got Miguel ‘Snopes’ Jimenez’s name from the phone records.”
“Miguel Jimenez? The dealer?”
“Yeah. The police identified him on the phone record, and Rana was able to pull up his arrest history. We know that he was a part of the same gang as Eric, and we know he called Eric that night around the time Eric was seen on the phone. And according to his prior arrests, Jimenez’s choice of gun was the same caliber as the gun that killed Eric.”
Grant stared at her. “Look, I know that I’m not as up on the file as you and your little—” he waved his hand in the air in a dismissive gesture, “gang are, but I find it hard to believe that the investigating officers missed all of this. Are you going to tell me that Miguel Jimenez’s name came up and the investigators didn’t follow through? A known felon was overlooked and instead, Ronaldo and his team just jumped to a college student and star football player as a suspect?”
“Of course, that’s not what my gang is saying,” Casey said. “We aren’t saying the OPD didn’t do their due diligence. But we are saying that they were more likely to blindly trust the system housing Florida police records than our team was.”
She opened the file folder in front of her and pulled out the transcript of Officer Ronaldo’s deposition, seeing that, at some point, Alex had highlighted the lines that discussed Miguel Jimenez. She passed it over to Grant.
“The highlighted part,” she gave her sister a wink and a smile to acknowledge Alex’s handy work, “discusses how OPD did consider Jimenez a viable suspect but dismissed him once they realized that he had a very strong alibi. He was in lockup in Brevard County the night of the crime.” Grant read the piece of paper in front of him, then put it back down and slid it back to Casey.
“Okay. So, what’s the catch?”
“The catch is—Brevard County Sheriff’s Office publishes mugshots for every arrestee.” She pulled three more sheets of paper from the file and slid one over to him.
“This is Miguel Jimenez’s page on the Florida Department of Corrections, and you will see from his record that he did, indeed, have an arrest in Brevard County on the day that Eric was shot.”
Grant picked the piece of paper up and looked at the DOC mugshot and record for Miguel Jimenez. Then Casey slid a second sheet across the table—it was the mugshot printout from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office website that Rana had found.
“And this,” she tapped the paper with one finger, “is the man arrested and booked in Brevard County as Miguel Jimenez on March tenth of last year.”
Grant looked back and forth between the two pieces of paper, staying silent as he did. He moved his finger down the DOC page, stopping on the section that discussed distinguishing features and the spider tattoo, then looked back at the mugshot.
“This... is Manuel Jimenez. And his DOC page,” she said, placing a third sheet of paper in front of Grant, “shows no arrest in Brevard County.”
Grant started shaking his head. “I am... not sure what to make of this.” He looked up and moved his gaze back and forth between the two girls.
“I can’t believe you guys found this... and that we didn’t?” He looked back down between the pieces of paper, obviously unsure of what to do next. Alex looked like she was about to say something, but Casey quickly put her index finger in front of her mouth and made a “shh” motion with her lips. Alex snapped her mouth shut. The two remained silent, letting Grant absorb the implications.
“This is way above my pay grade.” He swept up the papers and started to get up. “I’ll be back.”
As he shut the door behind him, Casey immediately turned in her seat. She and Alex both watched out the window as Grant crossed the large room, arrived at a closed office door at the other end, hesitated, then lifted his hand to knock on the wooden door. Casey was still trying to make out the nameplate on it.
“Captain Said?” Alex asked. “What kind of name is that?” Damn, she has good eyesight, Casey thought, and briefly tried to remember when the last time was that she went to an eye doctor.
She paused for a second at her sister’s question, then recognition came. “It’s pronounced Sa-EED.”
The local news aficionado that she was, Casey had seen the Captain at numerous press conferences. Said came across on TV as a ‘no-nonsense’ police captain, but he also frequently showed little sympathy for the accused and was always ready to defend his officers.
Casey could see Grant entering the office and envisioned him trying to explain the situation to his Captain, including who Casey and Alex were and how they had become involved in this case. She sighed, realizing this may take some time.
“Want a coffee?” Casey asked her sister, rising from her chair and making her way over to the small kitchenette. She asked for a list of the flavors on the boxes of coffee pods and Casey read them off. Alex settled on a Sea Salt and Caramel and Casey decided to try the Aged Colombian Dark Roast, feeling like she may need something a bit stronger to get through the rest of what had already been a long morning.
Casey brewed the cups, brought them back to the table, and sat down again, this time across from Alex so that she could watch the office space.
“Casey?” Alex stared down at her coffee as she asked the question: “Do you think we solved it? Like... do you think we’re done?”
Casey smiled. She was guessing this was the most fun Alex had in years—she knew that she hadn’t felt this engaged in anything in a while, and it had been nice to do this as a group.
“I don’t know, Alex. What do you think?”
Alex paused and thought about it for a minute.
“I guess... I guess it feels like that point in the podcast where you think it’s done, but, like, nothing is ever done that easily. You know?”
Casey was surprised she had misread her sister. It wasn’t that she was sad to be through with the case, it was that she didn’t feel like the puzzle had been solved yet.
“Not that we’re in a podcast, but what do you mean?”
“Well... if it were my podcast—” Alex started.
“Again, not a podcast,” Casey corrected.
“Right. But if it were, and if it were mine, this would be like Episode seven out of ten. You know? Like, Episode ten is always the wrap-up, and where the time moves to the present day and maybe, like, a court case or something. Episodes eight and nine are when you figure it out for real and then catch the guy who did it. But Episode seven is more like the... what do you call it? The person who you are supposed to think did it and think that the crime is really solved, but who didn’t actually do it and couldn’t have done it, and so the crime isn’t solved, and you have to find another person yet?”
Casey looked at her, trying to understand the rambling description. “You mean a red herring?”
“Yeah. Red herring. What if it’s that?”
“Why do you think it’s a red herring?”
Alex sighed. She seemed frustrated. Casey knew that sometimes it was hard for her to communicate her thoughts in a manner that made them clear to others. Casey waited while her sister remained silent, trying to decide on the right words.
“I guess it’s the Murder Board,” she finally said. “It’s really, really full. With really, really important stuff. You know?” She turned to Casey, gesturing towards her with both hands, palms facing upwards. “Like what about the SUV? Even if that guy you and Jack met was the runner, what about the SUV driving away? And I still don’t get why they targeted Ty in the first place. And—”
Alex was interrupted by the door swinging open. An imposing figure suddenly stood in the doorway. Both girls started a bit, sitting up straighter in their chairs.
Here we go, thought Casey.
Chapter 28
Captain Ibrahim Said was about six feet tall and slender in build. He had a full head of black hair and a thick black mustache to match, alongside a crisp white shirt with four gold stripes at the top of each sleeve, a thin black tie with an American flag pin adorning it, black pants, and the shiniest black shoes that Casey had ever seen.
“I’m Captain Said,” the man said, forgoing any further introductions and preparing to get straight down to business.
“You were right,” Alex whispered to Casey, all too loudly, acknowledging that the name was, indeed, pronounced ‘Sa-EED’ and not ‘Said.’
“So, Officer White tells me that you two have been investigating the Tyrell Burnesh case,” Said said, looking at the two women, coming to sit with them.
Casey could see that he was holding the papers she had given Grant. He placed them face down on the table and Grant followed behind, taking the seat closest to the door, seeming to be unsure if he should still be there.
Casey was impressed by the man sitting across from her, but not intimidated. She wanted to make that very clear. She knew her appearance often led to being underestimated, so she looked Said straight in the eyes, gave a smile, and replied, “Good morning, Captain Said. It’s very nice to meet you, and I believe you meant to say, ‘the Eric Jackson’ case.”
He seemed taken aback, momentarily confused at the correction, “Pardon?”
“It’s the ‘Eric Jackson’ case—he’s the victim. Tyrell Burnesh was acquitted in a court of law, so he has no association with this case anymore.” Casey tried to keep her face expressionless; it was all business. Alex’s eyes darted back and forth between them. Said looked over to Grant disapprovingly, but he had his eyes downcast to his folded hands.
Said turned back to Casey. “The Eric Jackson case, then. Although, you may or may not realize that police technically close a case upon arrest, regardless of what the court says. So, to us, unless new evidence comes to light to reopen a case, it is the Tyrell Burnesh case.” He was borderline condescending in his tone, but she decided it best to ignore this.
“Then I guess we are here to convince you to turn it back into the Eric Jackson case, because, as Officer White has likely just finished telling you, we have uncovered new evidence.” Casey gestured towards Grant as she invoked his name, but never let her eyes leave Said’s.
“Right. This... jail mix-up.” He used a dismissive tone as he turned over the papers and looked down at them.
“Yes... for one.”
Captain Said raised his eyes at this statement. “For one?”
“Yes, Captain Said—we also have a runner,” Alex added, trying to mimic Casey’s professional tone.
Said looked at her, not quite knowing what to say. He settled on simply repeating, “A... a runner?”
Casey saw that Alex’s presence—and her response—might be throwing the Captain off his game. “Alex, would you like to explain to the Captain about Shawn James?”
Alex grinned, then caught herself and put on her best serious expression. She turned in her chair to face him, put her left arm up, and reached behind her head to deftly fling her backpack from the back of the chair and onto the table. She quickly unzipped the bag and pulled out a folder in one smooth motion, as though she was just waiting for the signal, and this was always the plan.
Casey sat back in her chair and watched her sister unfold the story in real-time. Alex rose from her chair and began lecturing, speaking slowly and enunciating as best she could, as though talking to a classroom full of students. Each time she referenced a fact, she accompanied it with a document, plopped down in front of the captain, who, to his credit, remained silent and attentive for the whole presentation.
