It made no sense.
Three weeks ago, they reported the SUV stolen from the parking lot at the Neverpoint Mall. Donnie made an insurance claim. While it was being processed, the Insurance Frauds Bureau’s Auto Unit was alerted and the SUV was flagged as a potential fraudulent claim. The NYPD Auto Crime and Insurance Fraud Unit were notified. That unit then alerted Brewer’s joint task force.
And now here they were, with Brewer losing it with Sheri.
“Where are Sarah and Cole Griffin?”
“I told you, I don’t know.”
“Who are the dead people in the picture?”
“I don’t know. Why do you keep asking me the same thing? I told you everything I know from the moment the police came to my home and asked me to come down here and help answer questions about our stolen SUV.”
“We keep going around in circles.”
“Maybe I should have a lawyer?”
“You waived your rights when we brought you in.”
“That was when I thought you were treating me as a victim and not someone who is part of-part of this! Oh, Jesus, let me go home and see my kids.”
“How do you know Jeff Griffin?”
“He’s a freakin’ stranger to me. I told you what happened.”
“Where’s Donnie?”
“I told you, he’s looking for a job in New Jersey.”
“Did Donnie kill the people in the SUV?”
“No. He’s in New Jersey.”
“Where? The numbers you gave us don’t seem to work?”
“Bayonne, or Elizabeth. I don’t know.”
“Does he have Sarah and Cole?”
“God, no! We got nothing to do with that shit!”
Pages snapped as Brewer flipped through the file again. His jawline started throbbing.
“Do you know what insurance investigators at the State Frauds Bureau found out after you made the claim for the SUV?”
“How would I know?”
“They found that just before the claim you had an extra key made.”
“So?”
“Mall security cameras show you touching a wheel before leaving the vehicle and then an unidentified suspect touching the same spot before driving off with it.”
Sheri said nothing, then flinched when Brewer’s hand whip-slapped on the table.
“We know what you and Donnie did! We know you staged the theft!” Brewer stood and raised his voice. “Listen good, Sheri. As we speak we’re preparing to execute search warrants at your house in the morning. You will be charged in connection with two homicides and the kidnappings of Sarah and Cole Griffin. You will sleep in a holding cell tonight, you will not go home and you will never see your kids again.”
Sheri didn’t move.
“Now, you can bring in a lawyer and we’ll call the D.A. and prepare charges. Or, you can tell me who else is involved, help us and we’ll tell the D.A. you’re being cooperative. Sheri, you’re facing a world of trouble and this is your last chance, the only way you can help yourself. Our offer is going to expire in about five minutes.”
Sheri was frozen.
“Do you understand what’s at stake for you? This is the end of the road for you, Sheri Marie Dalfini. You’re going to prison.”
She stared through Brewer to a lifetime of hard living, a lifetime of mistakes, bad choices and anguish. She couldn’t take it anymore. Her chin began to quiver. Brewer had played his hand and at this point he’d let her have the quiet. The life she’d had, as sorry as it was, was over.
He had her.
“I told Donnie it was stupid for us to buy that goddamned SUV. We couldn’t afford it. But no, he had to have it. He said he needed it after losing his job at the foundry so he wouldn’t look like a loser.”
Brewer slid a box of tissues to her.
“The payments were too much. We had to go to his mother for money, then for food. When it finally sunk in with Donnie, he started asking some of his asshole friends at the bar about people who could help us out of our jam.
“He found a guy who would pay us two thousand for the SUV if we left it in the lot. He’d make it disappear, then we could make the insurance claim and still be ahead to pay off some bills.”
“Who is this guy?”
“I don’t know.”
“Think!”
“I can’t remember his name exactly, but after the SUV was gone, Donnie never got the money. Donnie couldn’t find the guy. Donnie’s friends warned Donnie not to mess with the guy, to shut up about the money, which we would never see, and that if we told anybody we’d be ratted out to insurance. That’s when Donnie got scared and got his mother’s gun.
“Then out of the blue, friends get word to Donnie that the guy that owes him the money has a one-time high-paying job, or something, that was yesterday.”
“Is this the Bayonne or Elizabeth thing?”
“I don’t know, because I haven’t heard from Donnie since the day before yesterday. I don’t know nothing and I can’t find Donnie. We got bill collectors calling, then this Montana guy scares me to death by showing up at our home looking for his wife and kid and I’m losing my freakin’ mind and now our SUV is-” Sheri began choking on her words “-and those people in the pictures and, Jesus, I don’t know anything…I swear.”
“Who, Sheri?” Brewer said. “Who is the guy that Donnie went to work for, the guy who owed him for the SUV? Give us the names of the people involved, the people who wanted your SUV.”
Brewer slid a pad and freshly sharpened pencil toward her.
“Give us names and if they’re real I’ll do all I can to help you.”
Sheri nodded, brushed the tears from her cheeks, took up the pencil.
“I don’t know-I’m not sure of the spellings.”
“Give us what you can.”
As her tears stained the paper she began printing, slowly and carefully.
18
Tranquil.
Acting on Sheri Dalfini’s information, eight more unmarkedpolice cars rolled into the crime-peppered enclave in the low hundreds, east ofMorningside Park.
Would they find Sarah and Cole Griffin here?
Brewer watched from his window.
Despair permeated this corner of the city where living meantdying a little every day. Here, dreams twisted into rage against the systemuntil they yielded the belief that to survive you have to take what you want. Itwas the same story in neighborhoods like this everywhere, Brewer thought.
This is how it was for Omarr Aimes.
His name was the one Sheri Dalfini had given them. All she hadwas “Omar Big Time,” with Omarr spelled
