Rock Tumbler

“You want out of here? Too busy to answer a few questions, huh?” said Detective Joseph Suarez. He swiped the side of his middle-aged crooked nose, the only faulty part of what would have been a perfect Latino silhouette if it hadn’t been for too many assaults in back alleys and clandestine escapades. He used the disfigurement as evidence of how far he pushed to get what he wanted. 

“Not under the Fifth Amendment,” said Andy Giuseppe. He snickered with an exaggerated lift of his beard. Slowly as though daring Suarez, he slide the sleeves of his army jacket fatigue on the interrogation room’s table and leaned forward. “I got educated watching how you manipulated circumstances to arrest my brother. You wrongfully convicted him and sent him to jail, officer.” He punctuated the last word with a deeper tone.

“Address me as ‘detective’ or I’ll charge you with slander,“ said Suarez who sat opposite him. Giuseppe tightened his worn hands gnarled from years of professional landscaping. With a heavy sigh he sat back in the chair, lips pressed. Suarez dug out a phone from the inside pocket of his suit coat. He waved it in front of Giuseppe’s potato skin brown eyes that matched his disheveled hair. “I’ve got all I need right here in front of you so I can arrest you in the murder of Prosecutor Jarrod Jorgensen.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it.”

Suarez scrolled the screen and turned it back to Giuseppe. “Oh yeah? What do you call this?”

Giuseppe squeezed his eyes for clearer vision, “What’s so important about a city map?”

“It’s a map record of your travels and purchases yesterday.”

“You had me followed?”

Just then an officer burst into the room tapping Suarez on the shoulder and nodded toward the door.

“I’ll be right back,” Suarez said as he left the room.

Outside the examination room, the officer handed him a sheet of printed paper and a land line phone. “Yes sir,” said Suarez into the mouthpiece, “I have him with me right now. No. (Pause.) No confession yet but I’ll have it, you can be sure. Sure I’m sure he’s as guilty as his brother.” Suarez frowned as he listened to a longer statement. He nodded twice. Whipped his finger along his nose. Nodded agreement. “Yes. I want the downtown position. I’ll stake my reputation on this arrest in the Jorgensen case.”

He handed the receiver back to the officer, then shook his shoulders to readjust his jacket before opening the door. He spoke as he reentered. “I had officers follow several people I suspected as a matter of course to solve this case within the magic forty-eight hours.” He pounded a fist on top of the chair back for dramatic effect. “You are number one on my list because we . . . have . . . evidence.”

Giuseppe laughed. “I don’t know what you think you’ve got but I know enough about how you operate that it is all, I repeat all, wishful thinking and today I don’t have to answer any of your questions.” He pointed a finger at the detective, “You better get that ugly nose of yours out there and find the real culprit or I’ll charge you with kidnapping.” He checked his watch. “I’ve got to get to my niece's tenth birthday party in exactly forty-five minutes. I’m not gonna be late.” He leaned his chair back and stood. “I’ve had to work two jobs to support my brother's family, thanks to your maniac ego.” He pointed to the nose again, “Mark my words; you’ll pay.”

Suarez ignored his threat. “Why were you at the grocery, hardware, and pharmacy yesterday? The manager and clerks all testify you were there.” He lifted the paper and rattled off the individual items purchased from these stores that had been found at the crime scene.

“I know all about it,” said Giuseppe swinging an arm in the air as though he could erase the situation in one fell swoop of a bird’s wing, “I knew about all this this morning ‘cause I got connections. Nothin you got will hold water.”

”Don’t waste tax dollars for when I wax your behind in a trial, Andy. Talk now, damn it!”

“Not in your life time, brother. But here, I’ll leave you a clue as to my innocence.” Giuseppe fumbled in his deep thigh pocket. He pulled out and placed a smooth flat oval stone painted white on the table. It was the size of a hockey putt. Black polka dots arranged in rows presented an attractive rendition of a mandala design. “This explains everything,” he grunted, “if you’re smart enough to figure it out, that is.”

Suarez palmed the stone as Giuseppe left the room. He rubbed its smoothness with his thumb, his forehead crinkled, lips squinched tight.

. . .

Giuseppe hugged his niece after all the guests had left the birthday party held in the dining and living rooms of her mom’s house. “My dear Laconia, you have turned this old man’s heart around. I am inside out about you!”

“My uncle is a big teddy bear!” she said as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “I love the present you gave me!”

He knelt down to look straight into the tree bark dark brown eyes that mimicked her imprisoned father’s. Giuseppe wasn’t sure which he loved more, her strong all-knowing eyes or her vibrant personality, but in either case, he was hooked as her number one fan and he swore that nothing would ever come between them. “What do you think about taking an adventure with me?”

She spanned the table filled with empty cake plates and toppled cups. “Mommy says I have to help clean up the party.”

“Okay. Let’s do that and then I’ll ask her if we can run a secret mission.”

“What’s a mission?”

Giuseppe whispered into her ear, “A task only you and I know about that will help me keep the bad guys away from this family.”

Laconia’s eyes grew larger, “Bad guys?”

“Yep. Got one coming after me but you know what?”

“What.”

“This bad guy was bad to your dad too so we can teach him a lesson he won’t forget.”

She turned from him and scooped up a dirty plate and cup from the table. “Then this bad guy will have to look for the real bad guy!”

“You got it. The real bad guy might have gone to the same stores we did yesterday. We will go to the stores and show people what you did; it will clear my name.”

“Can I go in my new party dress?”

“You betcha.”

Laconia took her uncle’s hand as they entered the grocery store. They looked for the manager and then invited him to follow them down the aisle where containers of kerosene were displayed on the shelf. Giuseppe had purchased a container when they had shopped there the day before to help light his barbecue. He explained that no doubt the store video camera had recorded him making the purchase  but further police investigation would only prove he used it on his barbecue. Then with his prodding, Laconia reached between the canisters and withdrew a smooth rock painted pink with black polka dots dancing in a circular pattern.

“While I’ll be,” said the manager.

Laconia said, “I learned how to paint them in art class. Our teacher said we spread love everywhere we hide them.”

“No kidding.”

“Yeah,” added Laconia. “When someone finds one they are to hide it for another person to find. That way the love is,” she opened her arms wide as she spun her fancy dress around like a top, “love is spun around the whole wide world!”

The manager laughed.

Giuseppe said, “Would you mind calling Detective Suarez and explain to him what you just discovered about our visit here yesterday?”

The manager tossed the rock several inches into the air and caught it. He winked. “Of course, I will.” He looked at Laconia. “Thank you for leaving love in my store young lady.”

“Thank you for not getting mad at me for doing it. I did it to celebrate my tenth birthday,” she said.

As Giuseppe shook the manager’s hand to say goodbye, he had an idea. “Would you have the time to skip that call and just drop by the police station instead?”

“Why?”

“Remember my brother’s trial?”

“Who wouldn’t forget that monstrosity.”

 “My brother is up for parole in a month so we may see him soon for perfect behavior. In the meantime, you could do him honor by dropping this piece of love art off at the station for Suarez.”

The manager nodded. “A little love to unnerve that guy’s goat? You bet I will!”

The next stop was at the hardware store. The manager was taken to the rope section where Giuseppe had purchased thirty feet to hang his niece’s innertube for a swing on a backyard tree limb. The manager was surprised when Laconia pulled out a blue rock with red swirls on it from between the rolls. He willingly agreed to  place the love rock on Suarez’s desk.

At the pharmacy they had to wait in line until the pharmacist, who was also the store manager, waited on a line of customers first. When he was done and the store empty, the duo led him to the cigarette lighter section. Giuseppe had purchased a lighter with a long handle that would reach deep inside the metal hole in the side of his old fashioned barbecue to light the resistant coals. Laconia pulled out a purple rock painted with blue and yellow flowers. The manager was amazed at its beauty and was willing to pass on her birthday tradition to Suarez’s desk.

“Yes,” he agreed, “this is the best way to show that arrogant copper we know the truth about the Giuseppe brothers.”

. . .

Giuseppe hugged his niece when they got back into his car. She said, “Are you going to get me more stones from those lawns you fix? Everyone loved them!”

“We’ll pick up rocks from along the creek on our way home for you to start that rock tumbler I bought you. That way the painted stones will all be totally your creation, from start to finish.”

“Oh goodie. I start tonight!”

“You bet, sweetie. We are the grit that will polish that detective’s rough spots right out of his life. With enough love hitting his desk, he’ll have no other choice than to come as clean as a beautiful gemstone.”

Laconia slapped both her knees. “If he changes from a bad guy to a good guy, he’ll find a way to send daddy back home!”

Giuseppe looked straight into the vast darkness of her rich believing eyes, “That’s really quite possible. If there’s one person I’ve learned that truth from, it’s you.  You’ve shown me that love never fails.”