High Risk by G.K. Parks (books for 10th graders TXT) 📕

For the next half hour, Carter spilled his guts on the things he’d overheard Michael Tolliver and Jonathan Gardner saying about the night watchman gigs. And Carter had shared all of that with Brandon Tarelli and Diego Eisner. That must have been when Tarelli came up with his scheme to rob the armored truck. Based on Carter’s story, it sounded like Tarelli might have planned to knock over the all-cash business but decided it’d be more lucrative to go for the truck instead. But since Carter possessed most of the intel needed, Tarelli invited him to join them. Since the pothead could barely scrape by on his two minimum wage jobs, he probably didn’t need that much convincing.

“Brandon swore to me no one would get hurt. These were supposed to be victimless crimes. We go in, get some uniforms, then unload the back of the truck, and walk away. It was supposed to be easy money. But none of it went the way it was supposed to. When he killed the security guard at the dry cleaner’s I knew I had to get away from him, but he made us stick together. It’s like he knew.”

“So when did he leave?” Winston asked.

“He left maybe fifteen minutes before you showed up. Diego wanted to get a drink. So he went to pick up some booze. Before he got back, Brandon said he needed to run an errand and he’d be right back. He told me not to go anywhere.” Carter bit his lip. “By the time I worked up the courage to make a break for it, you guys busted in.”

“Voletek,” Winston jerked his chin at the door, “see if you can get some corroboration.” Voletek slipped out of the room and went across to the other interrogation room. I remained where I was, watching Winston continue the interview. “We know he has police uniforms. What is he planning to do with them?”

“Don’t answer that,” the attorney warned.

“If he doesn’t answer, Diego will.” Winston waited. “And Diego didn’t slice open my star detective’s throat with a glass door.”

“No, it’s okay. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt. I’m sorry that happened. Is she okay?” Carter asked.

“She should be fine,” Lisco said. “But whoever Tarelli goes after next won’t be. You know that. You know what he’s capable of doing. You’ve seen it firsthand. Help us save someone’s life.”

“We were supposed to take out the armored transport tonight. He said it’d be filled with cash. All we had to do was dress the part, open the doors, and walk away. Brandon had the subway routes mapped out. We were going to split our shares and split up. I’d never have to see him again.”

Winston shoved a pad and pen in front of Carter. “We need the location and time. Every detail you know.”

And while Carter wrote everything down, Voletek convinced Diego Eisner to give up the same information in the next room. Tarelli planned to hit the LockBox armored truck when it arrived at metro plaza and escape on the subway.

“Do you think he’ll go through with it without a crew?” Voletek asked once we reassembled in the conference room.

“He has everything he needs,” Lisco said. “He won’t be able to haul off as much, but he won’t have to share it either.”

“All right, let’s get tactical on that truck, snipers in the area, and plainclothes officers covering every shop, exit, and entrance. This guy isn’t killing anyone else, and he sure as hell isn’t getting away.” Winston dismissed the room, leaving Brad and me to see ourselves out.

Brad sighed. “I guess that’s that. Are you ready to go home?”

“They’re wrong.”

Brad studied my expression. “The uniforms,” he said. “Tarelli has the wrong uniform, unless this has been his plan all along. Maybe he figures he’ll be able to slip in and out without anyone noticing if he’s dressed like a cop.”

“No, he didn’t count on his team getting caught. And he didn’t steal the police uniforms in order to rob a LockBox truck. He already had LockBox uniforms, and he left those behind. He has something else in mind.” I reached for the copy of Carter Moore’s statement and confession. “He said Tarelli wanted to hit the armored transport, not truck.”

“He could have misspoken.”

I peered into the bullpen, but everyone was already moving on this. “We better make sure.”

Forty-one

“What kind of armored transports do we have in the area?” I asked. “What about prison transfers?”

Brad shook his head. “Nothing close to us.”

I looked at Brandon Tarelli’s prison record. From what I gathered, he didn’t make many friends in prison, aside from Diego. Okay, so this wasn’t a prison break. “Federal?”

“I don’t know. The Reserve does transport a lot of old money to get destroyed.”

“It also delivers new money to get distributed.” I thought for a moment. “It’s not uncommon to have uniforms assist in securing the area.”

“That’s a possibility. I’ll make some calls.”

While my partner did that, I tried to come up with other possible targets. The bastard took my badge, either as a trophy or an access card. So what could I access that would be worth stealing?

“Hey, did they put an alert out if someone uses my badge number?” I asked Brad.

“That’s the first thing they should have done, but since I’ve been with you, I’m not sure.”

“All right, I’ll check with Mac and then head down to forensics and see if maybe there’s some evidence we haven’t considered. It’s possible they found something else in the motel room that Winston failed to share with us.”

“Okay.” He watched me climb out of the chair. “Are you sure you should be moving around so much?”

“I’m fine. I’ll let you know when I’m not, or you’ll find me curled up on the