Page 53 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case

Thrown for a Loss

seems so far in the past that I know I couldn’t possibly understand
their emotional turmoil. I had to be tough in my job, but at least I
retained a bit of sympathy. Lieutenant Gramercy did not, but she
might be smart enough to figure out how to manipulate these kids
after a few tries.
“Curt.”
“Your last name?”
“Rudin.”
Curt was the biggest and meanest looking in the quartet. Labelle
must have picked him out first on purpose. Like the others, he was
around seventeen or eighteen, probably a drop-out from high school
or close to it. But he had a tattoo on the side of his neck and his
turnip-shaped head was bald down to the razor bumps. He clearly did
not like sitting down next to the lady with the badge and the cold
green eyes. His big meaty hands kept twisting together, cracking the
knuckles. I had no desire to sit next to him, and Labelle gave me no
indication that I should.
“Address.”
“27830 Malpygia Boulevard, apartment 547-A. Maybe for a week
or two.”
“Your parents moving soon?”
“No. They want me to.”
“Do you know Autumn Pratt or Bertha Marks?”
“Autumn? Yeah, she used to be in the same class as me. I’m still
there. She kept going.”
That was the payoff for displaying the girl in front of Curt and the
other mall rats still in the food court. They couldn’t know how many
of them she had identified. Labelle indicated his companions with a
nod and a glance. “Are those your friends?”
“Yeah, some of the time.”
“Were you with them when the alarm went off?”
Finally a question he had to think about. This called for fine
distinctions to be made in his simple mind. Did he need an alibi? Did
anyone else? Should he betray his buddies to save his own skin?
“I guess we were right around here at the time.” He was getting
more agitated, less willing to talk. Did she have a feel for how far she
could push this guy? I reached down, unbuttoned my flashlight-baton
holster and moved one step away from where I had been standing.

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