But my predicament wasn’t half as uncomfortable as Luis’s. When Darryl stretched for an item across Luis, he made sure to brush against him: a shoulder against a shoulder, his hand skimming Luis’s, his face just close enough to be awkward. My partner’s responses were like a spastic attack. He scooted sideways, yanked his hand away, jerked his head back. I spent so much time laughing at Luis’s reactions that I was instantly aware when Darryl suddenly lost interest in pestering my partner. A frown passed over his elfin face. He leaned across the table and began to push baggies around, lifting them in quick succession.
“What are you looking for?” I asked.
Luis removed his palm from his brow, his eyes darting after Darryl’s hands. “Something you don’t see?”
“The beer place,” Darryl responded absently.
Peter sat up and began helping. “Right. I remember that.”
“Beer place doesn’t help much.” Neither of them looked at me.
“Not beer,” Peter said, “Lager.”
“Yeah, Lager. That was it. It’s not here.”
“Lager? Was that a name or an inventory item?” I started reading through the papers and tax forms they’d dropped.
“Neither,” Darryl said, pulling a large pile in front of him and following my lead with slow reading. “I just remember Rabbit ‘n’ me having this laugh about how they probably did really well at Oktoberfest because we saw the address was on the mall, and it said 'barn lager'. Which probably didn’t sell at any other time of the year.” The mall must’ve meant the 16th Street Mall, where every year an Oktoberfest celebration was held. “Like who drinks beer from a barn?”
Luis and I both wrote down ‘barn lager’. For some reason it seemed familiar to me, and I kept circling the word barn.
“I think there’s more stuff missing here,” Peter said and chewed his bottom lip. “I’m sorry. I can’t remember what they were.”
“This was everything you found in the safety deposit box?”
My father finally made a noise, in the way of clearing his throat. “Hypothetically.”
My gaze found the ceiling and glared. “Hypothetically speaking, is this all that was in the safety deposit box?”
“Yeah. Except the money.” Darryl said. Peter slumped back in his chair and nodded.
“And there was no indication of another box?”
“I didn’t find one,” Peter said.
“Mine was empty.” Darryl shrugged.
“You both had one?” They looked at Luis as he leaned forward, and both of them nodded in answer. “And the other boy?”
I could see comprehension slip slowly over Peter. Moments later he picked up his phone. “Hey, kiddo… Yeah, we’ll be home soon… Okay… Okay… I’ll call Dr. Sherman later about—… Yes, I’ll call her later about your prescription… We’ll work it out… Listen, I—… Cai… Cai, stop talking for—… Cai!” Peter rubbed the spot between his eyes. “I need to know if Joe got you a safety deposit box?… Cai? Are you there?…” Peter looked up and nodded, slowly. “No, I’m not going to look into it… Yeah, I promise.” He grabbed his pencil and wrote the name of the police credit union and pushed the paper to me. “Okay, no one is going to… We can talk about it when I get home… Me, too.”
When Peter hung up, there was a collective inhale as Luis picked up the phone to obtain a search warrant for Cai’s safety deposit box. However, it was late and there wasn’t enough of an emergency to awaken a judge. Luis came up empty-handed, but with news that squeezed the breath from my lungs.
“They want probable cause to get into the box,” he said.
Christ. Unless Cai gave permission to examine what was in the box—and thereby maybe incriminating himself further—Luis was going to have to tell the DA the truth about the evidence at Alvarado’s house. We’d have to explain that Peter set Alvarado up and that we covered up that information.
I should´ve been forced to wear a full body condom, because I had now completely fucked my partner, Peter and myself.
Chapter Eighteen
Predictions and Predicaments
“I’ll speak to my clients alone now,” my father said. His inherent understanding the dilemma was a tribute to his skills as a criminal lawyer.
“What’s going on?” Peter asked, looking to me for an answer.
“We need a warrant to get into that safety deposit box. In order to apply for a warrant, we need to have permission or show probable cause. If Cai won’t give permission, the only way we can show probable cause is if we show there’s a likelihood of more evidence being stashed in there. Evidence that either of you, or Joe or Cai hid there.”