An Offer You Can't Refuse by Sal Bianchi (ebook reader wifi txt) 📗

she laughed bitterly. “So, as usual, you’re going to let him do whatever he wants and just clean up his messes for him? You aren’t kids anymore, Park. Can’t you see he’s just holding you back?”

“Why are you even here, Owens?” He sighed in exasperation. He’d dodged her question, but I still felt the sting. It was like she was echoing my exact thoughts from two nights ago.

“I’m on the case now,” she sneered.

I snapped my head up to look at her. Was Flint going to kick me off of the case for what had happened?

“This is our case,” Jase argued indignantly.

“And clearly, you can’t handle it,” Bette retorted. She glared at me venomously before turning back to look at Jase. “This is obviously bigger than we initially anticipated. We now have three murders on our hands, with potentially many more depending on how far back this pattern continues. The director is assigning Agent Duncan and me to assist on the case. Though it wouldn't surprise me if you two got kicked off entirely.”

It was jarring how quickly and dramatically her tone could change between speaking with me and anyone else. She’d been literally screaming at me just a moment ago, but she’d been perfectly calm and polite while addressing Jase. I couldn’t honestly say I didn’t deserve it after last night’s fiasco, but Bette was like this to me all the time. Honestly, it kind of hurt to have someone be that hostile toward me all the time for no reason.

“Oh, there you are,” Flint mumbled gruffly as he entered the break room. I tensed and held my breath as he looked at me, genuinely worried that he was about to kick me off of the case. “The situation isn’t ideal. The lawyer is making sure he stays tight-lipped, but since he’s now a suspect in the murder of Josie Keller, you’ll have a chance to interrogate him. The upside to all of those videos is that they also caught him screaming about being glad she was dead. The situation is tenuous, though, so tread carefully. Don’t do anything stupid to cost us this chance.”

I sighed with relief as I realized that not only was I not being booted off of the case, I was actually going to get a chance to question him.

“Are you serious?” Bette snarled. “Director, I’m sorry, but this is ridiculous. You’re really going to let him continue after he nearly tanked the entire case?”

“Agent Owens,” Flint replied seriously. “I appreciate your concern, but I’ve made my decision. Please respect that.”

For a moment, Bette just stared back at him in angry disbelief. Finally, though, she relented with a sigh.

“Of course, sir.” She nodded. “I’m going to go get back to work.”

She spun on her heel and marched out of the break room without another word. Despite how unabashedly abrasive she was toward pretty much everyone else, I’d noticed that she was always respectful of Flint. I wondered why that was. My own relationship with the SDCT director was a complex one. Maybe Bette’s was too.

“Well then, you should go conduct the interrogation,” Flint grumbled before turning and leaving the break room as well.

“So, how should we do this?” Jase sighed as we slowly left the break room and walked toward the back end of the office where the interrogation room was. “It’s going to be difficult to get a good read on him with his lawyer right there the entire time.”

“Maybe not,” I mused as I ran through several different interrogation tactics in my mind. “Ian strikes me as a coward. Did you hear how he immediately started yelling for daddy as soon as he was in cuffs? I think we can rattle him into talking.”

“You’re not planning to do anything crazy, are you?” Jase asked me warily.

“I couldn’t if I wanted to,” I frowned. “Not with a lawyer in there. It’s not illegal for law enforcement to lie, though, and I’m not even a real agent here. All I have to do is work him up enough that he sings even despite his lawyer’s warnings.”

“I’ll leave it to you, then,” Jase grumbled. "You're better at getting under people's skin than I am."

A two-way mirror bisected the interrogation room down the middle. On one side was a small viewing area, and on the other was the actual interrogation chamber. I could see Ian sitting inside, next to a gaunt, graying man with pinched cheeks and a mean-looking scowl. Ian’s eyes were puffy and red, and he was holding his head as though it hurt. Considering how drunk he was last night, he definitely had a hangover right now. I kept that in mind as I pushed open the door and stepped into the room.

Ian snapped his head up to look at us and immediately adopted what was probably supposed to be a confident glare. The red tinge around his eyes and his disheveled hair spoke to how uncertain he really was.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen,” the gaunt man greeted us flatly as Jase and I stepped inside. “My name is Richard Pence. I do hope we can settle this quickly. My client would like to go home and rest after the ordeal he’d been through.”

He stared at me pointedly as he spoke, probably alluding to the way I had supposedly “tackled” Ian the night before.

“I’m sure it couldn’t be that bad,” I replied calmly. “At least, not compared to the ordeal that Josie Keller went through, having her throat slashed and all.”

Just as I expected, Ian flinched and looked down at his lap at my words. The kid was an open book. He’d probably gotten everything he ever wanted his whole life. Spoiled brats like him never learned to lie because they didn’t have to.

“Don’t reply to that,” Pence snapped at Ian before the kid could even open his mouth. “Agent, I’d appreciate it if you would refrain from making any baseless accusations during the course of this interview.”

“Who’s making accusations?” I smiled. “I was merely stating