Kingston Kidnappings (What Happens In Vegas Book 3) by Matt Lincoln (great book club books .txt) 📗

a rage more intense than any I’d felt since I was twenty-two years old and setting a fire to escape my own captivity.

19

Charlie

Two hours after finding the notebooks, Patel and I were at the police station preparing to interrogate the suspect. We’d both been surprised at how quickly he'd been released from the hospital so that we could speak with him. I’d been even more surprised by how callously the department’s chief had been as he informed us of Tobias’s death.

“Of course, we will need some statements from you both,” he informed us. “As a formality since you were on the scene. Aside from that, we should not have a problem. Now, if you would be so kind as to wait, the suspect will be ready for the interrogation in a few minutes.”

Patel and I left the chief’s office and went to sit in a small lobby right outside the station’s bullpen.

“That was kind of cold,” I frowned as I took a seat on a hard, plastic bench. “It’s like he wasn’t even affected by the officer’s death.”

“Maybe he wasn’t,” Patel shrugged as she sat down next to me. “Jamaica is a gorgeous country, Charlie. The scenery is breathtaking, and the people can be so kind and generous, but it’s not all beauty and tropical beaches.” She lowered her voice and leaned closer to me before continuing. “There’s corruption, too. People fight and claw their way to the top, and they won’t hesitate to push others down to do so. It’s a dog-eat-dog world here. And Leo told me that Tobias was a jerk and no one really liked him, so there’s that.”

“I noticed,” I nodded. “I don’t get what his deal was with you. Especially about your being dressed ‘indecently.’” Patel was wearing a sleeveless, button-down blouse that didn’t reveal anything below her collarbone and a pair of long gray trousers. “Unless he was talking about your heels, which might be the dumbest thing you could wear while chasing a suspect, but I wouldn’t call them indecent.”

Patel pinched my arm in response.

“First off,” she began haughtily. “I wasn’t expecting to have to chase down a car less than an hour after getting off the flight. If it hadn’t been for Tobias behaving like a complete sleaze, I would have asked to stop at the hotel to shower and change first. And second, that’s not what he was calling indecent.” She tapped her bare shoulder with her finger.

“What, your shoulders?” I asked incredulously.

“I’m afraid so,” Patel nodded. “A lot of public buildings in Jamaica, including libraries, hospitals, and police stations, have rules about how women are allowed to be dressed. Shoulders are just far too provocative for some men to handle, it seems. It’s been a while since I was here, so I had hoped perhaps things had changed, but apparently, they have not. Tobias very helpfully proved that the moment he saw me.”

“Whatever,” Charlie scoffed. “If he can’t handle working with a woman without having his pride hurt, then he’s not much of a man. Or, well, wasn’t much of a man, anyway.”

“Agents,” a police officer greeted as he came to a stop in front of us. “The suspect is ready in the interrogation room now.”

“Thank you,” Patel replied as she stood up. I followed after her as the officer led us down a hall and toward the interrogation room.

“His name is Aaron Brown,” the officer informed us. “No family in the area. No official job on the record, which is peculiar considering the expensive home he lives in.”

“I’m pretty sure we know where he’s getting his money from,” I growled, and the officer shook his head in disdain before opening the door and stepping aside to let us through.

The man had a bandage around his head, and his entire body was shaking with fear as we walked inside. There was only one other chair inside the room.

“You sit,” Patel offered as she walked around the table to stand just behind the suspect. “I much prefer to stand.” It was a subtle but effective power move, and I could see the suspect break out in a sweat as he nervously glanced over his shoulder. Patel just stared down at him menacingly.

“Can you tell me what these are, Aaron?” I asked as I showed him my phone. Displayed on it was a photo I’d taken of the notebooks.

“I didn’t do anything illegal,” Aaron insisted. “I was hired to keep track of certain shipments and to keep records. I didn’t hurt anyone, and I didn’t break any laws.” He spoke robotically as if he was saying something he’d rehearsed in his head a hundred times.

“See, I don’t know if I agree with that,” I sighed as I leaned across the table toward him. “I mean, can you really sit there and pretend you didn’t know what the ‘shipments’ were when I have all of these notebooks filled with the names and pictures of missing children? I found them in your house, Aaron.”

“I didn’t do anything illegal,” he insisted again.

“Okay,” I nodded slowly. “Let’s say I believe you. This is all just a big misunderstanding, right? If you really had no idea what was really going on, then just tell me the names and locations of the people that you work for, and then maybe the judge will believe you were just a clueless pawn, and you won’t have to go down for human trafficking.”

“I didn’t touch any of those kids!” he protested. “You can’t charge me with taking a kid I’ve never even seen before! All I did was keep track of their locations and handle the money. Being an accountant is not a crime!”

“It is when you work for a group of child kidnappers,” I snapped at him. “All that money you were keeping records of was gained through the buying and selling of children. You’re delusional if you think you won’t go down for this just as hard as the rest of your little group if you