“Will you testify to this? To Ollie trying to kill you under Dover’s orders?”
“I don’t have any proof.”
“All right, how about this. You work for us. You wear a wire. You tell Dover you’ll do what he wants as long as you have his word he doesn’t try to have you killed again.”
“What about the others?”
“His girlfriend and Burt Barnes are in jail. They’re not getting out anytime soon. Lonnie Hicks is in jail too.”
“Okay, I’ll do it.”
“Good.” Then they wouldn’t have to threaten Kinney with giving false information concerning the appearances of the carjacker and others who were involved in the carjacking.
“It was Victor’s car, a red 1997 Ford Expedition,” Kinney said. “Listen, after Dover went to jail, the regular crew began doing jobs for him on the outside, but they were also doing their own thing.”
“Such as?” Adam asked, glad Kinney was still talking.
“Hell, Burt Barnes was bragging about a captain of a boat hitting his boat’s wake really hard, and the two men sitting on the transom fell off. From the distance, Burt and his crew, Victor Freemont, Phyllis Kenton, and Lonnie Hicks, couldn’t see the men in the water. All they could see was the captain driving back around to pick them up. Then the captain left the controls and dove in to get them. When Burt drove up to help, there was no sign of the men anywhere.”
Adam’s heart rate sped up. “On the Willamette River?”
“Yeah, the men must have drowned. And there was a boat just sitting there, ripe for the picking. Someone else would have taken it if they hadn’t. That’s what Burt said. Phyllis drove their old boat to the boat ramp, and Burt and the other guys drove the other boat there. They ran into the River Patrol Unit, though, and had to pretend they didn’t have any ID on them, just because they didn’t appear to have life jackets onboard. Burt had no idea if there were or weren’t. They cited him for not having a permit to pilot the boat. He has one, but he didn’t want the officers to know his real name. He said he and the other men were sweating bullets, afraid the officers knew who the boat really belonged to. Burt showed me pictures of the boat. I thought it would be some old clunker, but it was a beautiful boat.”
“Like this?” Adam showed him a picture of the boat.
Kinney frowned as he eyed the picture. “Uh, yeah, that’s it. You found it already?”
“Do you think they were telling the truth about the men drowning accidentally?” Adam asked.
“Yeah, they just got lucky.” Kinney shrugged. “It was a fluke. Easily lifted. I mean, I know they’d done it with a couple of other boats they found in slips and sold them, but nothing that grand.”
“The three men who were on that boat were found dead in the Willamette. They didn’t report that the men had gone overboard, that they could have drowned. And you didn’t report it either,” Adam said.
Sweat beaded up on Kinney’s forehead. “Hell, no. I mean, I wasn’t doing any more jobs for them. Burt called me up out of the blue and was bragging about it, like he was telling me what I was missing. But I’d never helped them to steal boats. Truthfully, Dover didn’t approve of it. Burt said they were making way more money selling stolen boats than we were when we were stealing from hotel rooms. By then, I was clean and staying that way. I wasn’t there. I only know what Burt told me. And he’s been known to exaggerate or lie.
“If anyone would have had it in him to kill anyone though, it’s Victor Freemont. Or Dover’s girlfriend, Phyllis. She thinks she’s in charge most of the time, but so does Victor, now that Dover’s out of the picture.”
“What makes you think Victor and Phyllis might be capable of murder?” Adam asked.
Kinney scoffed. “The two of them are like Bonnie and Clyde when they get together, waving guns around, acting big, shooting off their mouths. Victor has got his grandmother’s farm way out where they go for shooting practice. I’ve been there once. I don’t know the address. I rode with Burt that time.”
An investigative officer knocked on the door, and Adam paused the interrogation. “Yeah, Roland?”
“You had me looking into Victor Freemont’s properties, and we found he had inherited this property from his grandmother.”
Adam smiled. “Good going.”
“No GPS directions out there though.”
“Okay, thanks.” Adam returned to the room and said to Kinney, “We have the address to Victor’s place. Do you think you could give us directions?” Adam asked.
“Uh, I could tell you where to start, but I would have to go with you to tell you where to turn off.”
“I’ll take you,” Adam said, eager to get further on the case. What if they found shell casings and bullets on the property that were connected to any shootings they might be looking into, like when Adam and Sierra were running as wolves in Forest Park?
“Do you know of any other robberies they’ve committed recently?” Adam asked.
“No. Once I said I wasn’t going to work with them any longer—and to tell the truth, not only do I not want to mess up my parole or lose my family, I can’t stand Victor or Phyllis—none of them have had any contact with me. Until they tried to kill me. Except for Burt bragging to me about the boat on the phone the one day. I really don’t have anything else I can add. I need to be getting to work in a couple of hours.”
“All right, thanks, Kinney, for all your help. The DA is dropping any charges against you. We’ll get with you on speaking to Dover so you can try to pin him down on the attempt to kill you. But we’ll take you out to Victor’s place in the meantime.” Then Adam called the judge to get a search warrant.
“Thanks.” Kinney got up from the table and shook Adam’s hand, then Tori’s. He looked relieved he wasn’t involved with the others in criminal activities, particularly if they had resorted to murder.
On the way out of the interrogation room, Adam said to Sierra, “We’ll be back in a little while.”
“Okay, I’ll be here, unless I’m out on another job.”
He thought she looked happy, like she was glad she would soon only be working part-time again. He was happy for her. Adam arranged for some of the officers to help collect evidence at Victor’s place. Then he, Tori, and Kinney went out to the parking area. Kinney wanted to drive himself so he could leave after they found the house.
In his Hummer, Adam and Tori followed Kinney, while the other officers were behind them. Tori was on her cell phone, checking her emails.
“Sierra seems really happy. I’m sure it has a lot to do with being with you, but I think going back to part-time work agrees with her.” Tori texted someone.