Shane tightened his lips for a moment and looked away. Finally, he answered. “PTSD. I’m not saying I was a model citizen before the war, but when I got back…” He shook his head. “I couldn’t deal. Couldn’t sleep, couldn’t think straight. The only thing that made me feel better was getting high. It was the only way I could block out the memories. I couldn’t hold down a job, and after getting fired a couple of times, I was totally hosed.” Shane looked up at me. “But I’m guessing Luke already told you about that.”
“Some, yeah.”
Shane nodded. “After Luke moved out, things really went to shit. I fell apart. They denied my disability claims, I lost my job at the garage, so I couldn’t pay the rent. The landlord gave me a three-day notice. I was pretty much homeless. That’s when I met up with a guy at a gun range out in Agoura Hills.”
I figured out where this was heading. “And that’s the guy who got you into gun sales.”
“Yeah. It was a natural move for me. I was raised in Montana. Learned to shoot before I learned to read. So I knew guns. And the money was great. I got myself out of debt and out of L.A. and got myself a job at the tree service. And I’m practically off the meds. Doing good now.” Shane looked at the three of us surrounding him. “Well, I was.”
“Good? You call illegal gunrunning good?”
He leaned back and glared at me. “What the fuck do I care? The U.S. government screwed me over. Hard. Used me up and spit me out. The VA takes a year to process my claims. They were worthless when I needed help finding work. So the government wants to regulate gun sales? Fuck ’em. It’s my constitutional right to bear arms.”
“And to sell them to kids?” Shane looked away. “Where have you been for the past two days?” I deliberately didn’t give him the date of the theater shooting. I wanted to see how much of his time he could account for.
“Up north, near Red Bluff.”
“When did you get down here?”
“This morning. I dumped the car-”
“The Jetta?”
“Yeah. Figured you guys might be onto that. Picked up the bike-”
“You mean stole-”
Shane glared at me. “Bought-just outside Sacramento.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
If that was true, there was no way he could’ve done the theater shooting. “Who’d you buy it from?”
“Look in my wallet. There’s a receipt. Seller was a guy named Trinidad…something. Got his phone number on there and everything. You’ll see.”
Bailey leaned over and whispered to Todd and he nodded. “Be right back,” she said. “You keep going.” I knew she was going to check Shane’s alibis.
“Assuming your alibis check out and you’re not one of the shooters, you’re still on the hook for selling the guns to them-”
“Them? I didn’t sell anything to ‘them.’ The only person I sold to was Logan. I never saw anyone else.” His voice was firm. “I kept my customer list tight. Never spread my net too wide.”
“You didn’t deal with any friends of Logan’s?”
“Never. Our deals were always one-on-one.”
“Didn’t it strike you as odd that one kid would buy that many weapons? All those AKs and at least four handguns?”
“No, it didn’t strike me as ‘odd.’” He tilted his head to indicate air quotes. “I had more guns than that by my thirteenth birthday.”
“Your dad gave you an AK for your thirteenth birthday?”
Shane looked away.
“How’d you get your hands on a fully automatic AK?”
“I didn’t. I converted it myself. It’s not that hard.”
“How many guns did you sell to Logan?”
“Two assault rifles and four handguns.”
I had an idea, but before I could pursue it, Bailey came back and pulled me aside. “The VA story checks out,” she whispered. “He was there at eighty thirty a.m. the day of the Fairmont shooting and he was in the pharmacy getting his script filled at ten forty-five. No way he could’ve been at the school.”
“And Cinemark?”
“We’re waiting to hear back about him buying the bike the day of that shooting, but the receipt was in his wallet and the voice on the answering machine gave the name Trinidad. It’s probably going to check out.”
And in any case, he had an airtight alibi for the school shooting. If Shane hadn’t been involved in the Fairmont shooting, then he probably hadn’t done the theater shooting either. Which only begged the question: who the hell was the second shooter? I’d never been wild about the theory that a grown man like Shane would be Logan’s sidekick. But clearing Shane meant we had no one on the hook.
When I went back to Shane, his head was hanging down and his expression was tortured.
“Logan never brought a friend who talked guns with you? You’re sure about that?”
Shane shook his head emphatically. “I don’t remember ever meeting any friends of his and I sure as hell didn’t talk guns with any other kids. I only talked to him because he was Luke’s brother.”
I couldn’t think of a reason for him to hold back any names at this point. He knew he was on the hook for so much already, admitting that another kid was involved wasn’t worth lying about. He really didn’t know. But maybe he could help us find Logan. “Did Logan ever tell you about any places he liked to go?”
“You mean places to hide?” I nodded. “No. And you gotta believe me, I’d tell you. I would. You’ve got to catch that kid, he’s a friggin’ maniac.”
Coming from the man who’d given him the firepower, that was some kind of irony.
57
Shane rolled his head and stretched his neck. “You can take the cuffs off, guys. I’m obviously not going anywhere.”
He did look uncomfortable. But I was fresh out of sympathy for gunrunners. “Who’s your connect?”
Shane stared straight ahead. “Internet.”
He might as well have been wearing a neon sign that said I’M GOING TO LIE NOW.
“Let me help you with those cuffs.” I walked around behind his chair and held up my hand to Bailey for the key. She tossed it to me with a smirk. I unlocked the cuffs. Then ratcheted them down two notches tighter and relocked them. Shane let out a yelp of pain. “Not much better, huh? Sorry ’bout that.”
I walked back around and faced him. “Let’s try that again. Who’s your connect?”
Shane lifted his head defiantly. “I told you, I buy my guns on the Internet.”
“Is that right? Then why’d you burn off all the registration numbers?” That was a separate charge unto itself, and I could file one for each gun. Shane’s sentence could add up to serious double digits real fast.
“That’s how they were when I bought ’em.”
I stared at him. “Seriously, what makes you think I’ll believe such obvious horseshit? Because I’m female?” I folded my arms. “Or is it just that you’re that bad at lying?” Shane opened his mouth to protest. “No. Stop it. We don’t have time for this nonsense. That kid you called a maniac is out there planning his next massacre at this very moment. So start talking, and this time, go with the truth.”
Shane squirmed in his handcuffs, trying to find a comfortable position. I could’ve told him not to bother. When I first joined the DA’s office, I asked a bailiff to cuff me to one of the chairs at counsel table so I could feel what it was like. He was happy to oblige. And then he and the clerk took off for lunch. Such funny, funny guys. For the next hour, I tried to wriggle my way out of them. I learned two things that day: those cuffs are damned uncomfortable and never trust a bailiff.
Shane tried to flex his shoulders, but the electrical cord didn’t leave him any room to move. “You can’t do this. It’s gotta be, like, against the law.”
“That’s cute. A lesson on the law. From the man who sold illegal weapons to a minor. Do you know how many years you’ll get just for bringing those assault rifles into California? Let alone for selling them to a kid? And then we can talk about burning off the serial numbers. By the time I get done stacking up all the charges, you’ll be facing close to a hundred years. And trust me, there isn’t a judge in the county who won’t max you out. Know why? Because you’re going to be Public Enemy Number Three. Right behind the two shooters. They couldn’t have done it without you, and I’ll make sure no one forgets it. In fact, some might even believe you knew that’s what Logan planned all along. That makes you a coconspirator. So tell me, who do you think is going to give a shit that your cuffs are too tight?”