Shadow Knight: Darkness In A Pill

Chapter 3: Marked Avenger!

LCPD SCU Building Interrogation Room: July 20th 2020: 2:30 PM

Detective Rene Alverez entered the interrogation room where one Loco Gringo Gang member called Tulio Manchus sat in a chair at the table, handcuffed to the chair.

"Oh come on chicha, how many times do I have to tell you what happened?" Tulio Manchus said in annoyance.

"Detective Alverez to you, and to answer your question 'as many times as it takes before we are comfortable that you are telling us the truth'. Now once more Mr. Manchus... Why did you kill that Red Death gang member and leave the puzzle we found with your fingerprints on it?"

"I told you, I'm not a member of that gang anymore. I retired, look..." Tulio Manchus said, pulling back his right sleeve as best as he could and showing a scar "when we leave the gang, we have our tattoos removed. Even if I was still with the gang I wouldn't have killed that Red Death gang member. The Red Death's and the Loco Gringo's made a pact. We stay away from each other's turf and leave one another alone unless it's for an alliance in business or when other gangs are muscling us and trying to move in on our turf... after both The Brain and Dark Shadow's deaths, we're the only gang that mutually gets along and respects one another enough to keep working with one another on occasion. A gang war with them would be devastating and killing this guy would pain a target on me from both sides when they realize that I was to blame for causing the fight by killing a guy...why would I do that? I'm trying to put my life as a gangster behind me."

"Where were you the night you shot the guy and left the puzzle?" Detective Rene Alverez pressed.

"I didn't kill..." Tulio Manchus protested.

"Just answer the question Tulio" Detective Rene Alverez said annoyed, "Start from the beginning this time and work your way from there up to the point of your arrest."

Tulio Manchus did a double take for a second, and then he relented.

"I was with my girl, Maria Décolleté... she texted me on my phone asking me if I wouldn't mind coming over to her house for a hot date night. You know...a hot Date Night? A romantic movie, dinner and sex..."

"And you decided to pop off one of the Red Death gang as you were making your rounds towards her house" Detective Rene Alverez pressed.

"No. I just went straight to her house after finishing my work shift at Pauline's pub on Bleak Street." Tulio Manchus shook his head in earnest, "I stopped at the pharmacy down the street from her neighbourhood in the heights to get condoms and some of that frenzy stuff. I also stopped at the market to pick up her favorite fruit as a treat. We sat down, watched 'The Bachelor' and just when another promising romantic film needed to get her in the mood started to play just when I put my hands under her pants...the next thing I know I'm standing out on the street, surrounded by cop cars and being arrested."

"When did this um..." Detective Rene Alverez looked at her casefile, "what did you call it 'time skip' happen around that night the night before last night?"

"9:00 PM" Tulio Manchus answered, "look...it was 9:00 PM and a flash of light later I'm standing in the street in Central Lunar and it's 3:00 AM. I'm not making this shit up. I don't know why or how my prints ended up on that gun. But that's all I know. I wasn't on drugs either. I'm clean, never have used except for pharmaceutically approved drugs like Tylenol. Just contact my girl, she'll vouch for me."

"Where does she live?" Detective Rene Alverez asked.

"91 Auburn Street" Tulio Manchus answered, "But she's probably at work at the Cluck and Oyster. Try her on her number. It's on my cellphone you guys confiscated."