He shook his head. “I didn’t see this the other night when we were looking through the pages, and I don’t remember it being here before.” The conversation with Melvin popped into his head. “This is the shelter Melvin said he told Dan about, where Carlos does community service. I wonder if Dan got the flyer because of that.”
Callie reached for the flyer. “I remember him saying that. Do you know anything about this place?”
“I know it’s a well-respected shelter and gives a lot of aid to the homeless. It’s run by a woman named Dorothy Tipton. Her picture is in the paper a lot because of all the work she does there.”
“Did Uncle Dan volunteer there?”
Seth thought for a moment before he answered. “I never heard him say anything about it.”
“Do you think we should go down there and ask Mrs. Tipton about him?”
“I don’t know. Let me think about it.”
He’d no sooner spoken than his cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket, smiled at the caller displayed and pressed the phone to his ear. “Hey, Rick. I can’t believe you’re already getting back to me about Carlos Allen.”
Rick chuckled. “You should have given me somebody more difficult to track down for you. Carlos has been in the mix of things for quite a while now.”
Seth reached for the notebook and found a blank page in the back. He pulled a pen from his pocket and waited for what Rick was about to tell him. “Really? Like what?”
Rick took a deep breath. “Well, he’s had several arrests over the past few years. Once he was arrested for attempted murder. A gun found at Carlos’s house was determined to have been the weapon used, but then it disappeared from the police evidence room. The victim who’d identified him also disappeared. So without a victim or a weapon, the charges against him were dropped.”
“Yeah, I remember that now. It happened right after I’d moved to the Cold Case Unit.”
“His next arrest came when he was accused of nearly beating a guy to death in a barroom brawl. That time the charges were dropped because the police didn’t read him his rights, and the judge threw the case out.”
Seth scribbled down the details Rick had just given him. “Anything else?”
“Oh, there’s all kinds of little stuff on him over the past ten years or so, but he’s never served any time. Most of the time the charges have been reduced, and he’s been allowed to do community service work.”
“At the Midtown Mission?”
“That’s right.”
Seth’s eyes grew wide, and his heart pounded. “Who approved that?”
“Assistant District Attorney Abby Dalton. It appears she’s a big supporter of the mission. I’ll send you some links to check out that tell about the mission and its supporters. Her face shows up quite a bit.”
“Thanks for all this information, Rick. I appreciate it.”
“No problem. I always enjoy working with you guys in the Cold Case Unit. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
Seth thought for a moment. “Yeah, one more thing. Can you find out who arrested Carlos when his rights weren’t read to him?”