In Death 27 - Salvation in Death

right, conditional immunity. If he did murder, Dallas, I’m not giving him a wash.”
    “Good enough.”
    “I’ll be there in five minutes.”
    “Interview B. You may want to clear your slate for the rest of the day. It’s going to be a long one.”
    She swung out, met up with Peabody, and went in to talk to Joe Inez.
    “Record on. Dallas, Lieutenant Eve, and Peabody, Detective Delia, in interview with Inez, Joe, and Inez, Consuela. I’m going to read you your rights at this time.” Once she had, she sat at the table across from them. “Do you both understand your rights and obligations in this matter?”
    “Yeah, I do, but Connie isn’t involved.”
    “This is for her protection. Mr. Inez, have you come in to interview of your own volition?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Why?”
    “Why?”
    “I’d like you to tell me, for the record, why you chose to come in and make a statement today.”
    “I . . . I did a lot of things I’m not proud of, in the past. But I got a family. I’ve got three kids, three boys. If I don’t do what’s right, how am I supposed to tell them they have to do what’s right?’
    “Okay. Do you want something to drink?”
    “I—no.” Obviously flustered, he cleared his throat. “I’m good.”
    “Mrs. Inez?”
    “No, thank you. We just want to get this over with.”
    “Tell me what happened, Joe. What happened back in the spring of 2043?”
    “Ah, most of us, even if we didn’t go to the school, went to the dances. Maybe to dance, or pick fights, do some dealing, look for recruits.”
    “Who are we?”
    “Oh. The Soldados. Lino and Steve were co-captains then. Well, Lino mostly ran the gang. Steve was more muscle. Lino wanted more recruits, and he figured you got more recruits when you had trouble. When you had, like, a common enemy. He talked like that,” Joe added. “But I didn’t know, I swear to God, I didn’t know, until later.”
    “Didn’t know what?”
    “The bomb. I didn’t know. I’d been a member for about a year, year and a half, and Lino liked that I was good with my hands. That I could fix stuff. That I could boost cars.” He let out a breath. “He used to say I’d be somebody. He’d make me somebody. But I had to make my mark.”
    “Your mark.”
    “The kill mark. I couldn’t be upper level until I did a kill, until I’d made my mark.”
    “You still wear the Soldado tattoo,” Eve pointed out. “It doesn’t include the kill mark, the X below the cross.”
    “No, I never made my mark. I didn’t have it in me. I didn’t mind a fight, hell, I liked fighting. Get out there, get a little bloody. Blow off steam. But I didn’t want to kill anybody.”
    “And still, you and Lino were friends,” Eve prompted.
    “Yeah, or I thought we were. Lino used to razz me about it, but . . . just like guys razz each other about shit. I guess that’s why I didn’t know what he had going, what he set up.”
    “He didn’t tell you about the bomb.”
    “He never said anything to me. He said how he’d meet up with me there, at the dance. The bomb at the dance, when it went off, I was right there. Right there. Ronni Edwards got killed. She went up ten feet away from me. I knew her.”
    He stopped, and rubbed his hands over his face. When he dropped them again, Connie took one in hers.
    “I knew her,” Joe repeated. “Since we were in kindergarten I knew her, and she blew apart in front of me. I never . . .” He lowered his head, fought for composure. “Sorry.”
    “Take your time,” Eve told him.
    “It went—it went to hell in seconds. Music’s playing, kids are dancing or hanging. Then it went to hell. The noise, the fire. More kids got hurt, and then they’re running around, crazy scared, and more get hurt in the trample. Lino and Chávez and Penny, they’re hauling kids out like heroes, and saying how it was the Skulls, the motherfriggin’ Skulls.”
    He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “But they weren’t there, not when it went down.”
    “Lino, Steve, and Penny weren’t there,” Eve qualified.
    “Yeah. I mean no, no they weren’t there when the place exploded. I’d been looking for Lino. I had a couple guys who wanted in—wanted in the gang, so I was looking for Lino. Nobody’d seen him. Just minutes before it blew, nobody’d seen him or Penny or Steve. He never missed a dance. I figured, well, he was just late getting there. And probably lucky for him, I thought that after. Lucky for him because we figured he