“You don’t have to put me up.I’ll be fine in a hotel,” she told him.
“I don’t mind at all, and there’s plenty of room.Besides, you haven’t seen the place yet, and I know you love the beach.No more arguments.”
“Okay, but if I get in your way, feel free to kick me out.Where should I meet you tomorrow?”
Sean gave her the address for the Dare County Sheriff’s Department for her GPS.“Call me when you’re almost here, and I’ll meet you at the station.”
“Perfect.Talk to you then.”
After he disconnected the call, Deputy Montgomery walked into the room.“Got some good news for you, Agent Malone.Patrol found Stuart Crowell.Apparently, he ran after spotting them.Had some burglary tools with him.They got him, though.Should be pulling into the sally port just about now,” he said, referring to the drive-in garage where prisoners were brought into the station, away from public view.The locked area also prevented suspects from trying to flee.“Detective Lynch is already on his way to booking—he asked for you to meet him there.”
As Sean stood, the deputy handed him an electronic passkey.“The sheriff told me to give you this.It’ll unlock most of the department doors without asking one of us to let you in.”
He took the flat, plastic card and tucked it into his pants pocket.“That’s great, thanks.How do I get to booking from here?”
“Far end of this hall, take the stairs down, make a right, and a quick left.You’ll see the sign.”
Before leaving the room, Sean left his computer program running but locked access to the laptop.Although it seemed silly since it was sitting in a police station, it was always better to be safe than sorry.One never knew who could be wandering around the halls—and they still didn’t know who the leak was.There were also civilians working in various jobs in the department.He also locked the conference room door on his way out since the files were now spread out and information was on the boards.
He made his way through the station and walked into the booking area right behind Lynch.A sergeant and booking deputy were already waiting for the prisoner when the door to the sally port opened.Two deputies entered, escorting a thin, white male wearing baggy clothes with his hands handcuffed behind his body.All three men were covered from head to toe in dark brown mud, and the two deputies looked ready to spit nails.
The sergeant took one look at the motley bunch and burst out laughing.“I can’t wait to hear this one.What the hell happened?”
The two scowling deputies remained silent as they put the suspect in a holding cage and removed his handcuffs.The cage door was then slammed shut after they stepped back out.
The shorter and older of the two cocked his head toward the suspect.“We were driving around looking for this knucklehead and finally spotted him coming out of an alley off King Street.Took one look at us and ran toward the high school.We caught up with him on the football field, which, thanks to a broken sprinkler system, was a hundred yards of nothing but mud.”The deputy looked at his partner’s clothes and then his own.“Needless to say, Crowell here is also being charged with resisting arrest.”
The other deputy snorted at his partner.“Johnson, man, I know you’re not big on cursing, which in this job is unheard of, but at a time like this, feel free to call the guy a fucking asshole.”
The rest of the men chuckled as the sergeant ordered, “You two go get cleaned up and into new uniforms before you do anything else.The detectives want to talk to him first anyway.”
Crowell spoke up for the first time since walking into the station.“Hey, what about me?Don’t I get to clean up too?I’m freezing.This is false arrest.I know my rights.”
Both arresting deputies and the sergeant barked in unison, “Shut up!”
Johnson handed the booking deputy a plastic bag containing a wallet, a pack of cigarettes, and a few other items.“Here’s his personal property.The rest of what we found on him will be logged into evidence.”
“Hey, that’s my stuff,” Crowell whined.“You can’t take my stuff.I have rights, you know.”
Complaining suspects were always annoying, and at this point, everyone in booking yelled, “Shut up!”simultaneously.
The suspect mumbled to himself but wisely quieted down.
Chapter6
Sean and Brad stood in an interrogation room as Stuart Crowell took a seat.The mud covering him was now dry and flaking all over the table, chair, and floor.Sean stifled a laugh as he watched the suspect try, unsuccessfully, to clean the dirt from under his fingernails.Under the circumstances, Crowell’s actions were comical since nothing short of a waterfall would get the man clean.The two lawmen waited silently until the human mud pie finally looked up at them.“What?”
Neither man responded but continued to stare until the suspect started to squirm under the dark scrutiny.Lynch finally moved from where he’d been leaning against a wall to stand opposite Crowell.“Where were you this past Saturday night and Sunday morning?”
The suspect shrugged his shoulders as if he was bored.“I don’t know.”
Lynch leaned forward and slammed his hands on the table, causing Crowell to jump back, almost falling off the chair.“You better know,” the detective growled in a low voice.“Cause I’ve got a dead body that you’re looking good for.”
“Wh… what?”Crowell’s eyes became as wide as saucers.He began to panic, rapidly looking back and forth from one face to the other.“I didn’t kill no one!No fucking way, man!You got the wrong guy!I never killed anyone!”
“Well, then, help us clear you,” Sean said in a sympathetic tone of voice.He took the role of good cop to the detective’s bad cop.“Tell us where you were Saturday and Sunday.”
“I… I don’t remember.”
