The Red Light Girls (Unsolved Mysteries Book 2) by Kim Knight (most romantic novels TXT) 📗

man held up his wrists, and as he did, the chains clashed against the floor.

Ruiz took a deep breath and allowed the sarcasm to go over his head. He didn’t have time for it today, or any day, for that matter.

Coolly, he took a seat on his side of the protective glass, crossed one leg over his other knee, and met Mr. Lee’s intense gaze.

“I’m sure you’ve got better things to do, then bein’ here on Valentine’s Day an’ all.”

Ruiz exhaled a long, steady breath. “Mr. Lee, I was told you have some information for me about Mariya Crosby’s disappearance.”

“Yeah, Mariya.”

Ruiz watched with interest as Mr. Lee leaned back in the chair, the chains that bound him, crashed on the polished concrete floor around him.

Mr. Lee tapped his chin as if in thought. “Mariya…Hmm, yeah ‘bout twenty years back now. They say she never made it home.”

“From what we understand, yeah, that’s right,” said Ruiz. “What do you know about this?”

“She never made it homes ‘cos, I took her.” Mr. Lee chuckled.

Ruiz leaned in closer to the glass that separated them and tried to remain patient. “You took her,” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “What do you mean by that?”

“Like I said”—Mr. Lee leaned in closer and matched Ruiz’s stance, as he did, the slack of the chains fell to the floor again with a ting. Ting. Ting—“I. Took. Her.”

“Is that so?” Ruiz held Mr. Lee’s empty gaze.

A shit eating grin split the man’s lips. “Yep, that’s right, I did.” He leaned back, chuckled, and mumbled to himself.

Ruiz took another deep breath and maintained a passive expression. “Mr. Lee.” He approached the glass. “Mariya Crosby went missing twenty years ago. Are you confessing to her kidnap?”

Mr. Lee cocked an eyebrow in Ruiz’s direction. “Yep.” He confirmed with a slow nod.

Leaning back on the chair, Ruiz re-crossed one leg over the other. He clasped his hands in his lap.

“So, what happened that day? What contact did you have with Mariya?”

“She clocked-out after her shift at the hospital. And let me tell ya, she wasn’t expecting me, but I sure did show up.” He winked. “I even asked her if we could talk a spell.”

The man paused a moment as if allowing Ruiz time to absorb the meaning of the words.

“Then we had a coffee and talked.”

“Where did you go?”

“My place, then we went for a walk, and the rest, well, she just wouldn’t listen.”

Ruiz swallowed hard.

“Go on.” Ruiz had him talking and didn’t want him to stop now.

“Well, I had to put an end to it.” Mr. Lee’s shoulders raised in a non-fussed shrug.

Ruiz paused a moment to measure Mr. Lee’s cool stance through the glass.

“Ya had to put a stop to what, Mr. Lee?” Ruiz pushed him, applying a bit more pressure—hoping he’d open up more.

“It’s not important. Just take my word for it. She was one of my victims that I never confessed to. That’s all, Detective.”

“Why come forward now?” Ruiz questioned with suspicion. “Twenty years later?”

“I swear it’s true, all of it.”

“Okay, but you never answered my question. Why now, Mr. Lee?” Ruiz noted the agitation in his voice, he didn’t have time to play twenty questions.

Mr. Lee studied the shackles around his wrist, finally he looked directly at Ruiz and grinned. “It’s the anniversary request for information on her unsolved case. It came out this week, ya know? It’s been exactly twenty years to date she went missing on Valentine’s Day. And that’s today.”

“Is that all? You’re on death row Mr. Lee. This confession won’t exactly help your case.”

“I know, I just wanted to come clean. That’s all.”

Ruiz cast a sceptical eye over Mr. Lee, then pulled out his note pad and pen from an inside pocket.

“Fine.” He’d bite and see what information he could catch. “What time did you meet her? Tell me what happened that day.”

“It was so long ago, I can’t remember.” Mr. Lee paused and glanced around the room. “Maybe sometime during the afternoon, you know, after she clocked-out of her shift. Like I said, I begged her to talk to me. And she did.”

“She did what?”

“Came back to my place.” The shit-eating grin reemerged. “We had coffee. We went to the beach. We walked. We talked. Then—then we—well, that’s all I wanna say right now.”

“Why her?” Ruiz asked.

“Why not? We’d been talkin’ for a while. We’d become good friends.” Mr. Lee laughed.

Ruiz slid his gaze slowly over the man in front of him. He wasn’t sure why a man on death row would confess to an additional crime, especially after getting away with it for twenty years.

What’s this guy’s game? He thought to himself. Is he seeking credit for the murder?

He pushed aside his doubts and focused on the here and now. “How? How’d you become friends? She was married.”

“Met her along the beach one day, and we just got to talkin’. We exchanged stories and kept in contact. But she never seemed to want more from me, but I knew she was upset about life—her life.”

“What about it upset her?”

“She wouldn’t say. And I tried ever so hard to get it out of her. I, well…” Mr. Lee’s expression moved to one of confusion as if he were trying to recall a past memory with great difficulty.

Ruiz decided to change his questioning tactics. “How long did you know her?”

“In all honesty, it was a long time ago.” Mr. Lee stroked his beard.

Ruiz zoned in on his body language. A faraway look misted over the man’s face and his brows met in the middle.

“A few months, maybe.”

“What did you do to her?” Ruiz forced his body to remain relaxed. “Where’s her body?”

“I don’t wanna get into all that—”

“Mr. Lee, come on, now. You just confessed to a kidnapping and possible murder. You need to let me know what happened to Mariya Crosby. You know you want to—you want the world to know, don’t you?”

“No comment. I’ve already told ya all ya need to know. I don’t wanna talk