“No. Not that I’ve noticed.” Sariah said, her tone wry. If only this woman knew how un-nail-like she felt the vast majority of the time. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, you have to be the one who’s in charge, since you’re the only agent here.”
Fantastic. Here was another person that thought Sariah wasn’t up to the task. One more voice that was screaming at her that she wasn’t good enough.
“Yes,” she answered, trying to keep her tone from becoming arctic. “I’m in charge.”
Reggie gave her a look that seemed sympathetic. “Must be tough.”
That was more than Sariah could take right now. Maybe on a day where she hadn’t gotten four people killed she’d be more polite, but at this particular moment…
“I can handle it,” she snapped at the woman.
Reggie’s eyebrows lifted in what looked like surprise. “Of course you can.”
“But…” Now Sariah was confused.
“I meant that it must be tough to be so young and beautiful and have everyone talk down to you.”
Sariah felt her cheeks flush, and she thanked providence for having blessed her with dark skin. Reggie thought she was beautiful? That was beyond a compliment.
“You must have the same problem,” Sariah replied.
The young part-time cop ducked her head. “You know how it is.”
Yes. She did indeed.
Joshua came back into the room, glancing from Sariah to Reggie and then back again. “Setup’s working.”
“Fantastic,” Reggie grinned up at him. Joshua fidgeted with his fingers. Wait. Did Sariah see that correctly? Joshua was nervous around someone?
“Would you mind watching Bella for me while we’re in there?” he asked the young cop.
“Sure, no problem,” Reggie said, scooping up the puppy and holding Bella’s face in her hands. “You’re a beauty. Yes you are,” she sang to the dog, then turned her attention to Sariah. “Wanna bring in the first guy?”
“On it.” Pulling out her phone, Sariah texted Had, letting him know that they were ready. They’d already decided on the order. They’d pull in the two that had made the trip up to Cedar Ridge first and see what popped.
The first one’s name was Keith Sanders.
As the suspect entered, framed by Had on one side and Officer Chance on the other, Sariah observed him. From what she had learned in her days at Quantico and from her limited field experience, the first moments of contact could tell her a lot about the person she would be interacting with.
Keith Sanders was a bundle of nerves, even his walk marred by a near constant twitching. He scanned the room, picking out every person within. His gaze flicked from Reggie to Joshua and then landed on Sariah. He made eye contact with her, then his eyes flicked down to the badge at her waist. He flinched.
There was something significant going on with this one. Whether or not it was something that related to their case had yet to be seen.
“It’s not him,” growled Joshua in her ear.
“What are you talking about?” Sariah answered back, irritated. “He’s almost vibrating he’s so nervous.”
“That’s speed.”
“What?”
“Amp, crank, ice. Whatever. He’s a tweaker.” Joshua sniffed, looking the suspect up and down. He kept his voice pitched only for her. “And he’s got the drug charges to prove it. Not only that, but if he were actually nervous, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be the guy we’re looking for.”
“Okay, that’s true, but—”
“Come on, you know the other guy’s better for it anyway. That hole in his rap sheet fits almost perfectly with the hiatus in killings.”
Much as it pained her to admit it, she knew Joshua was right. They were looking for someone capable of killing and dismembering person after person. Normal responses were not going to be par for this course. She might still want to talk to him, but if she was going to be honest about it, she was using him as a warm up.
She was afraid to screw up in the interrogation room.
Sariah moved in closer to the suspect. “Mr. Sanders, I’m sorry, but can we ask you to go back and wait for a bit? We would like to talk to someone else first.”
Had looked a question at her, but she shook her head, asking him with her eyes to keep quiet, at least until they could speak without any of the suspects present. He nodded.
“What’s this all about?” Sanders snapped, a tic starting in his cheek. “I got places to go. You can’t hold me.”
“No, but we can ask you for a drug test, then take you down to the station until we get the results back.” She let that sink in for a moment, then continued. “Or, you could wait for a bit and then just talk to us.”
The man looked all around the room before his gaze settled back on Sariah. “Yeah. Okay. I’ll wait.” He turned around, then whipped back. “Can I get some coffee?”
“Go back and bring in Curtis Howse,” Sariah spoke to Had. She then turned to the other cop. “And could you get Mr. Sanders some coffee?” She hesitated, then added. “Decaf.”
“Will do,” Officer Chance responded.
They filed out, Had to get the next suspect, Chance to get coffee while trying to keep his man from vibrating out of his grasp. It wasn’t looking like he was succeeding.
“Not the guy?” Reggie asked. When Joshua and Sariah turned to look at her she turned red. “Sorry. You don’t mind if I stay and observe, do you? We don’t get to question too many people around here.”
“Sure,” Sariah answered.
“No prob,” Joshua said at the exact same moment. Each of them turned to stare at the other one.
“You’re welcome to stay as long as you’d like,” Sariah told her, after an uncomfortable moment spent staring up at Joshua.
“But that wasn’t him, was it?” Reggie asked again.
Sariah started to respond, but Joshua cut her off. “No, it wasn’t.”
“Well, we’re not sure,” Sariah corrected him. “But there were some indicators that made us want to talk to someone else first.”
“The fact that he was high,” she stated. It wasn’t a question.
“Um. Yes, as a matter of fact. Good call.”
“Better than yours,” Joshua muttered at her in a stage whisper that was a bit too loud for Sariah’s taste. She ignored him.
“Why don’t you set up in the observation room, Officer Black.”
“Please. Call me Reggie. Or Reg. That works too.” She gave Sariah a smirk and disappeared into the back room where the monitor was set up.
At that point, Had was returning with the next suspect. Curtis Howse wasn’t at all like the man they’d brought in first. He was fairly short, with coarse and wavy dark hair. He moved like a stunt man, with a rolling gait that seemed to keep his feet in constant contact with the floor. There was something grounded about him. Confident.
“That’s more like it,” Joshua whispered. “Get this guy in the box.”
“Yeah,” Sariah answered, her tone pitched to match his. “I think you’re right.”
As they faced off across the table from the man, Sariah met his gaze. It was steady and even, and she felt a cold surge trickle down her back. This was someone who was used to getting things done.
Now it was time to figure out exactly what those “things” might be.
* * *
Had settled in next to Reggie, whose attention was divided between the screen and Bella. He watched as she lifted up a hand to brush her hair away from the side of her neck, moving it around to her other shoulder. Bella thrust her nose into Reggie’s face and licked her, which made Reggie smile and reach up to scratch her neck.
Man, this girl was gorgeous. And, unlike Agent Cooper, she seemed to love animals. Such a crying shame about the dancing. Maybe she made up for it in the math department? But still, how could he be expected to live a life without Latin dance?
He cleared his throat, and Reggie jumped about a foot out of her chair with a tiny scr
eam. Jumping up, Had held out a hand as if to soothe her.
“I’m sorry. Sorry. Thought you knew I was here.”
“No, it’s me. I was so engrossed in what’s going on in there that I wasn’t paying any attention to anything else. Well, except this little one.” Bella had flopped over onto her back on Reggie’s lap and the young cop obliged by rubbing the puppy’s belly.
“I can see that,” Had answered, teasing her. She looked back with an exaggerated pout.
“You know better than anyone how cool this is,” she scolded him.
“Right? This is better than watching a movie,” he agreed.
They turned to stare at the screen, the sound a bit tinny as Coop introduced herself and Joshua, but it was intelligible. Reggie had set up three cameras, so they could see the suspect from a variety of angles. She seemed to know what she was doing.
“Nice set up,” Had whispered, trying not to distract her too much from what was happening on the monitor. Bella sat up and wagged her tail at him, possibly thinking he was talking to her. He reached out and rubbed her nose.
“Thanks,” Reggie responded. “I studied film for a semester in college.”
Agent Cooper was still sitting there, not speaking. What was she doing? And Joshua didn’t seem all that inclined to step in to fill in the gap. The suspect shifted in his seat a couple of times, and then finally spoke.
“Don’t want to talk?” Curtis Howse asked, his voice flat through the speakers of the monitor. The images onscreen were crystal clear, however. “Fine, I’ll start. Why am I here?”
“Why do you think you’re here?” Coop asked.
“Is it about what they found up in Cedar Rapids?” he asked.
“And how would you know about that?” Joshua leaned in, his face intent.
Curtis shrugged. “Please. I have a police scanner. Any trucker with brains has one.”
“So you heard about what we found up there?” Coop pressed. “Everything we found?”
The suspect shook his head. “I just heard that there was a body up there. Word spread pretty fast. That kind of thing doesn’t happen a lot out here in the Midwest.”
“So you hadn’t heard that it was only part of a body?” she asked.
“No.” He paused for a moment, as if to take that in. “So where was the rest of the body?”
Joshua pulled out a map and began writing x’s with a red marker. “Here. And here. And here. Oh, and here, here and here.” With the last here, the former agent circled the x and thrust the pen down, almost as if he were stabbing the location. It was the one in Cedar Rapids.
“Notice anything unusual about those locations?” Coop added.
“Uh,” Curtis grunted, leaning in to view the map. “They’re all over the place?”
“How about now?” Joshua added more x’s, locations of previous body part deposits from thirteen years ago. The map was beginning to look like a spider web, with tendrils and trails extending out in what looked like random patterns. But Had knew that those patterns were all related to trucking routes. This man’s trucking routes, to be specific.
“Hold on. There’s something weird here…” Reggie murmured at Had’s side, moving closer to the screen, her nose almost touching as she traced the routes. Bella bounded out of her lap and came up to Had, placing her paws on his thigh. He lifted her up into his lap. Reggie was still following the marks on the map.
Back in the room, the trucker also seemed entranced by the shapes described by the points of red. “This looks like…” He broke off, his gaze flicking from Joshua to Coop and then back to the map.
“Yes, it does, doesn’t it?” Joshua crooned. “Familiar territory for you, isn’t it? In fact, I would say that it looks like your travel itinerary for the last fifteen years.”
“It is interesting,” Coop chimed in. “And by interesting, I guess I really mean uncomfortable. Painful, even.”
“I can’t be the only trucker that rides these routes,” Curtis said, leaning back and crossing his arms. It may have been Had’s imagination, but the trucker seemed to have lost some of the confidence he walked in with.
“That’s true,” Agent Cooper said. “But let’s take a look at your rap sheet.” She pulled out a page from the file folder in front of her. “Stalking. Peeping. Public indecency. Breaking and entering. That’s not a short list.”
Curtis blew out air between his lips. “I haven’t been arrested for a long time.”
“Yeah, that’s part of what’s so interesting,” Joshua purred. “It has been a long time, hasn’t it? Thirteen years to be exact.” The former agent raised an eyebrow. “What happened thirteen years ago?” There was a strong current of menace that was creeping into Joshua’s voice, and the trucker hadn’t failed to notice it. The man scooted his chair back away from the source of conflict and licked his lips.
“I… uh…”
Joshua snarled at him. “I’ll tell you what I think. I think that thirteen years ago something happened. Something that scared the shit out of you. You know who I am, don’t you?”
The man’s forehead creased together as he looked closer. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t? You sure? Take a closer look.” Joshua leaned across the table, getting in the man’s face. “I’m the face you see in your nightmares.”
“You… ah… you’re getting a little close…”
“I’m sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable? Look too much like the woman and three children you killed and threw in a wood chipper?” By the end of the sentence, Joshua was standing up, the cords of his neck standing out against his skin. A pulse beat in his forehead. Had was mesmerized, but at the same time he thought what a lovely job Reggie had done with the audiovisual setup. Bella, hearing the change in her owner’s tone, barked at the screen.
“Hey, I don’t have any idea what the hell you’re talking about,” the trucker responded. It was hard to tell under the lights, but it appeared that he was getting more and more pale by the moment.
Reggie was still peering at the screen. “There’s something about those points on the map…”
And then Joshua was up and around the table almost before Had could blink. His face was inches away from Curtis’. The former agent spit the words out, each word articulated and clear.
“You killed my family. Did you think that wouldn’t come back around at some point?”
Agent Cooper moved over to Joshua’s side. “Okay. I think we need to take a second here…”
Curtis, on the other hand, seemed to be done. “I don’t understand what he’s saying, but I think I need a lawyer.”
Coop’s shoulders slumped, and she pointed Joshua toward the door as she spoke to the suspect. “That is your right. Are you sure you want to invoke it? I can’t help you once a lawyer gets involved.”
The trucker looked up at Agent Cooper, then over to Joshua, who was still staring the man down as if he were trying to peer inside Curtis’ soul. Shaking his head, the suspect spoke again.
“Yes. I want a lawyer.”
And just like that, the interrogation was over. Had was sure it would start back up again, but the next time, the trucker would be hiding behind his representation. They would never have the same opportunity with the guy that they’d had… and blown… right now. And from the look on Agent Cooper’s face, she knew it.
It was clear that there were about to be some sharp words, most of them directed at Joshua. Things were about to get ugly on their little team.
And Had was pretty sure that he was going to get caught in the middle.
CHAPTER 15
Joshua’s head throbbed as he took the scolding from Coop. Bella was prancing around at his feet, trying to get his attention, but he could do nothing with her at the moment. He knew he deserved every bit of what he was getting from Agent Cooper right now. There was no doubt in his mind, or anyone else’s who had been watching, that he had royally screwed the pooch here. Losing it in the middle of an interrogati
on was never a winning tactic.
But while Agent Cooper continued to berate him with the number of ways in which he had made their job here more difficult, Joshua went over the conversation in his mind. And there were some things that didn’t fit.
True, the guy had been in each one of the locations of the body part deposits, on or near the time they would have been left. Yes, he fit the profile Joshua and Coop had spelled out, which included the parameters Joshua had teased out when he was working the case the first time around. Male, 35 to 60, with a criminal record that pointed toward preplanning. A loner, a drifter, with antisocial markers.
Curtis Howse was a bull’s eye on just about every level.
Which is one of the reasons that had pushed Joshua over the edge. It had to be him. He was perfect.
But while Joshua was having what was close to an out-of-body experience there in the box, a part of him had remained calm, a third-party observer. It almost made Joshua wonder if he’d somehow gone ape-shit-crazy on purpose.
And what he’d seen was a man who had no idea what was going on. Curtis Howse was either the best actor Joshua had ever seen, or he was innocent. Well, innocent of these crimes, at any rate. Something strange was going on with the guy, but it might not be what they were trying to pin on him.
It just felt… off.
“And finding enough to convict him just got infinitely harder,” Agent Cooper was saying. She was right. But what if she were wrong, too?
“I don’t think it’s him,” Joshua replied, speaking in a brief pause that Coop had taken in order to draw breath.
“Excuse me?” she fired back. “Were we not in the same room together?” Bella growled at her, and Coop stared back at the puppy until she circled back behind Joshua’s leg with a whine. He looked back up at Agent Cooper.
“I know, it seems crazy—”
“No, you are what seemed crazy. Back in there, when you went off the reservation. Which is why I’m stunned that you’re now doing a one-eighty on me now.”
“I’m not,” Joshua shot back. “Not completely. I just think—”
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