The suspect sighed and sucked his teeth. “The rats, they deserved it.”
“Fine. What did they do? These men are dead, and we want to know who killed them, and why. Was it you?” Max tried, but I had a feeling the suspect wouldn’t give in that easy.
He seemed like the kind who liked to tell a story. Liked to make himself important to the situation so he could reassure himself for whatever reason. There were all kinds of suspects that came through that room and I had pretty much seen all of them.
“They steal. When we sell the guns, we mask it as trade investments; that’s why we need the little weasels and their impressive financial accounts. The only thing that makes them useful. When these rats,” he pointed to the photos, “started selling the guns for more than we wanted to price them, so they could pocket for themselves, we caught them. Boss asks them to stop, they don’t. So, I go and…teach them a lesson. It’s simple. I don’t care about the guns and technical bullshit, I was just told to get their contacts in the trade and they wouldn’t give.”
“So, you killed them?” Alex goes in for the kill.
“Maybe.” He shrugged like he didn’t already give himself up.
“And what about the woman you’re been stalking?”
Rose goes stone still next to me. I rub her knee and tell her to relax.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You said that about an hour ago about these, too.” Max points out the crime scene photos.
“I have not been given any orders to follow any woman.”
I got angry. He had to have known, he was their guy for all intents and purposes.
“Of course you haven’t. I’m sure you wouldn’t try and pin down a witness, who saw you kill this man.” Alex pointed to the picture of the most recent victim.
The suspect just chuckled like he didn’t give a shit. And he probably didn’t.
“I don’t have any idea. But if she has anything to do with us, she should get very far away from here.”
Chapter Twenty-Four: Rose
Watching that interrogation was like being way too invested in a movie. Except the movie was my life and I did have everything to do with it.
For the past few weeks I had wondered why someone would seemingly shoot three people in cold blood, and attack another man who hadn’t done anything. Maybe that was the problem; I considered all of those men innocent, that they hadn’t done anything to deserve being shot and killed. Though no one could ever deserve to just be killed in my eyes, they had done something.
They were participating in so much illegal activities, that if the cops got to them first they probably would have been spending most of the rest of their life in prison. The mob had just gotten to them first. That was another thing; I never even thought the mob was a real thing, I thought it was just over-exaggerated for the movies. Sure, I believed that there were Irish people who organized crime, but never a real mob with all the ridiculous ‘family values’ and shit.
But there they were, sending out a real hit man to get rid of the people who had crossed them.
It was visibly obvious when Alex realized that the whole thing was bigger than he had imagined, than any of them had imagined. Still, they held their own in the interrogation and got him to crumble like a petty thief. It was somehow interesting to watch and even though I was scared it was very arousing. Seeing them in their element, taking control. It was downright sexy.
But I was also glad that Nate was there watching me, especially when they asked him about me.
Which was even more frightening being that I knew he was lying when he said he didn’t know about me. I was the one who had put him in that room, who had the cops on his tail since that third murder. There was no way something as powerful as the mob wasn’t going to try and get rid of a primary witness in their case.
I was so afraid I was shaking. I didn’t think I could ever calm down, or ever process my thoughts correctly again. Every time I left my apartment, I would be looking over my shoulder. I would always feel watched, always feel like I was being followed. I had no idea how I would survive it.
“Are you okay? Maybe that’s a stupid question, but still.” Nate offered me a sweet smile as he tucked hair behind my ear and cupped my cheek softly.
I looked up into his eyes and they grounded me for a moment.
“I’m…good as I can be right now.” I hugged myself like I was trying to keep myself together. I probably was.
I didn’t want to fall apart in front of them, and I wanted to be as strong as I could. They had enough to worry about me without hoping I wouldn’t break down, so I tried not to. But still, it was scary. Someone had already been following me, taking photos of me. And I had no way of knowing how much they saw of me and Nate that night. And now this; a suspect in custody who more or less confessed to everything. I thought that would make me feel safe, but it didn’t.
But if she has anything to do with us, she should get very far away from here.
I thought of him saying that over and over. With his thick Irish accent that was scarier than anything else. I used to read a bunch of romance novels where the hero had an Irish accent and I always thought it would be sexy; it wasn’t. Especially not when it was practically warning me to skip town and disappear altogether.