“You can’t prove we did anything to them.”
“Actually, we can. We’ve got Crime Scene detectives at your house right now, combing through every inch of the place. When they find Ethan’s and Tomas’s DNA in your house, that’ll tie them to you and your father.”
“I’m sure it’s easy enough for the cops to plant something to make us look guilty.”
“When we review the video at the Wharf, we’ll see them leaving with you two. And when we add that evidence to the DNA we’re sure to find at your house after they sawed themselves loose using a pocketknife, that’ll look pretty bad for you and your dad. You’ll be charged as an adult. Do you know what that means?”
He gave them a blank look.
“You’ll serve hard time with adult prisoners. They don’t take too kindly to boys like you who mistreat women and girls. You’re looking at a rough stretch when they find out what you did to Luna.”
“I didn’t do anything to her!”
“Did your dad do anything to her?”
“He doesn’t even know her.”
“Did you tell him she ignored you? Would that have made him mad on your behalf?”
“He knows she’s another Stacy and that she’s a nasty bitch, but he doesn’t know her.”
“Until you used Ethan and Tomas to lead him to her, right?”
“You’d have to ask him about that,” he said, some of his bravado fading as it became clear they were building a solid case against him and his father.
“We’ll do that,” Jake said, “but before we do, you might want to think about helping us out. Tell us where Luna is and what happened to her, and we’ll help you in return. Once we talk to your dad, he can tell us it was all you, that you killed her, and he found out about it after the fact. You’ll go down for the whole thing.”
A vein in Brecken’s forehead began to pulse. “That’s not how it happened!”
Jake sat back in his chair, feeling a sense of dread over Luna’s fate. “How did it happen?”
Brecken crossed his arms defiantly. “I don’t know.”
“Then I guess it’s time to talk to your dad,” Jake said.
Both men stood to leave the room.
“Wait.”
They turned back to him.
Jake noticed that he seemed more like a scared kid than an arrogant young man now that shit was getting real.
“If I tell you what you want to know, what happens to me?”
“That depends on what you tell us, if it leads to Luna and whether you harmed her in any way.”
“I never touched her.”
“Did your dad?”
His jaw set in an obstinate position, and that quickly, the angry young man had returned. “You’d have to ask him that.”
Jake returned to the table, laid his hands flat on the surface and leaned in close to Brecken. “Where is she?”
When the kid hesitated, Jake slapped the table. “Where the fuck is she?”
“Th-there’s a storage unit on Florida Ave. She might be there.”
