Thario’s lips thinned. This was something he would have to deal with, but Sharp understood his hesitation to speak with the police. Thario worked with the authorities to bring down traffickers, but sometimes the things they did were outside the law. If the cops got pissed at Thario, he could end up in trouble.
Chapter 8
Thario wasn't looking forwardto talking to the police. He hadn't done anything wrong, not really, but some of his methods were on the edge of legality. If they found out about some of the stuff he did, they may not think too kindly of his methods.
Rescuing people from kidnappers wasn’t easy. Sometimes, difficult decisions were made that included breaking laws. He didn’t like to do too much illegal stuff, and he wasn’t the one doing the actions, but they could get him for collusion if they wanted to press. But first, they would have to know about those activities, and he wasn’t going to divulge.
Instead of heading to the station, the police were coming here to Sharp's house. He hated bringing the police here, but with him and Frog both a little on the weaker side, it was for the best.
Frog stayed by his side when the officers arrived. He had taken his prosthetic off earlier but had put it back on so he could stand and shake the officer’s hand at eye level, or close to eye level.
“Mr. Nolan, I’m glad you’re out of the hospital. I guess you have a concussion.”
He nodded. “Yes. It will hurt for a while.”
“So I just have a few questions.”
“Sure.”
Frog circled around and sat beside him, his head resting on Thario's knee as he stared at the officer. He put his hand on Frog's head to reassure him that everything was okay. Thario appreciated that Sharp and Griz stayed in the room with them.
“So the man who passed away. What was his name?”
Thario shook his head. “I have no idea. Brent brought him over and then killed him in front of me. That’s when I knew stuff was off. Brent slipped Frog a sedative when he first arrived. I missed that he’d given Frog a treat. I guess the other guy was there to distract me. Once he did his job of distracting my attention from Brent’s interaction with Frog, he wasn’t needed. At least that’s how I took it.”
“So you didn’t get the guy’s name?”
“No, he was a nervous talker, but he didn’t deliver much information. If I’d met him alone on the street, I would have automatically been suspicious. With Brent there, I thought I was okay. I shouldn’t have trusted him.”
“So this Brent guy, how well do you know him?”
"Obviously not as well as I thought. As far as I knew, he was good. I never thought he would do the shit he pulled at my place. I'm just lucky I escaped."
“So how did you get free?”
Thario didn’t want the police to know about the garage or any of the stuff located there. It wasn’t much, but having the location discovered by the police would make it unusable. Sometimes, the people he helped rescue wouldn't be treated well by the police because of their occupation.
Sharp cleared his throat. “I think I can help with that.”
Thario shot Sharp a look, wondering exactly what his friend would divulge. They hadn’t discussed this before, and now it wastoo late for him to warn Sharp not to tell the police about the garage.
"Thario sent Asher an email, sharing his location. We headed over and picked him up. We decided to drive him to the hospital ourselves because we all have basic EMT training and some other medical training. The location is off Third Avenue near G Street. I think the car is still there. It wasn't Thario's vehicle, so we had no reason to move it."
Thario almost sighed with relief. They must have arranged to have the car moved from the garage. He didn’t need the secret location often, but he was glad he had it when they needed to hide someone before getting them out of the state.
Thank goodness he’d never told Brent about the garage. If he had, he would have been really screwed.
“I can send you the location,” Sharp said.
The officers nodded. “Thank you. I want to get a good look at that car. Maybe we can figure out the name of the man who was killed. I’ve gotta say, this is a mess. We have no idea where this Brent guy is. I think finding him would answer a lot of questions.”
Thario nodded. He had questions for Brent, but he wasn't sure he would just hand the guy over to the cops if he got hold of him. Anger and revenge were too close companions for him to just turn Brent over to the police. What would he find on Brent's computer? There were questions, like what had really happened at his place? And why had Brent tried to kill him?
After the police took off, Thario contacted his insurance agent and started the ball rolling on getting someone out to survey the damage so he could get some money out of it. He needed to find a place to live that wouldn't put his friends at risk.
Sharp and Danika were being very nice to allow him to stay here. Hopefully, nothing bad would happen, and Brent would leave him alone for a while.
He didn’t understand why Brent had attacked. Maybe if he learned why, he could figure out how to protect himself in the future.
