“You lock her in interrogation and start chipping away at her story until she breaks.”
“No wonder you’re divorced.”
“Fuck off, Nick. I’m busy. I’ve got a body to deal with. My ribs feel like they turned to chalk dust. And all I want to do is get answers out of my sister, but she’s not talking.”
“Accidental death. Dumbshit got high, cracked his head on that exposed rafter up there, and swan dived into a dumpster. Case closed.”
“We have procedures for a reason,” Kellen said, absently rubbing his ribs.
It was an old argument between them. Nick had left the force in a fit of temper when the metaphorical headbutting had escalated…into actual headbutting. “Look, let’s focus on how we’re going to get You Know Who to talk. It’s not like we can just take her down to the station and throw her into a room with Jonesy.”
Kellen looked over his shoulder, then steered Nick to the sidewalk away from all the ears. “We need her statement sooner rather than later. But she says she’s not ready.”
“So how do we get her ready? At least ready enough to tell us what happened, even if it’s off the record.”
“Shecriedin my kitchen when I pushed for information.”
“Did you hit her with a phone book? Threaten to put your mom in prison?”
“No! I asked nicely. And then she got all sniffly and started hiccupping and said it was too traumatic to deal with yet. So I felt like shit and stopped asking questions.”
“Were there real tears?” Nick pushed.
“How the hell should I know? I was busy making her tea and giving her my bedroom because it has a bigger closet and a private bathroom.”
“We need her to tell us enough that we can get a lead on these assholes,” Nick insisted.
“And bring them to justice,” Kellen added pointedly.
“Or road-trip to Arizona, have a little chat with everyone, and then bury the bodies in the desert on the way home.”
“You maybe wanna not plan a murder on an active crime scene within earshot of half the homicide squad?” Kellen suggested.
“Are you really going to be satisfied with just putting the asshole responsible for Beth’s disappearance behind bars?”
Kellen slid on his aviators. “That’s justice.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “Your parents should have watched lessColumboand morePunisherwhen you were a kid.”
“Vigilantism isn’t justice. It’s anarchy.”
“You’re telling me that there isn’t the smallest part of you that wants to go beat this family into a coma?”
Kellen ripped off his sunglasses. “What do you want from me, Nicky? You want me to tell you that for the last six years I couldn’t sleep because I didn’t know where my sister was? Or that last night was the first night I couldn’t sleep because I’m afraid that what she went through was worse than death? I want whoever’s responsible to feel what I felt for the rest of his worthless fucking life.”
Nick clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s better. Doesn’t it feel good to come play on the dark side? What do you say you quit this whole law-and-order thing, join Santiago Investigations, and we go vigilante on every asshole who slipped through the court system’s fingers? They’ll make a TV movie out of us.”
Kellen put his hands on his hips and studied the ground.
“Come on. It sounds kinda good, doesn’t it?” Nick teased.
“You’re such a pain in my ass,” Kellen complained.
Nick grinned. “Thorn says the same thing.”
“You don’t deserve her.”
“No shit. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t remind her.”
