“Interesting. We’ll start questioning the leader and end with the little one. Give him some time to stew about what we’re going to do to him.”
What are they planning to do? “Are they going to be executed?”
Maddox shakes his head. “They didn’t hurt anyone. We’ll give them one choice. They can choose rehab or, if not, there’s a detox place we know of in the middle of nowhere for juvenile delinquents. It’s out of the country and run by people who were once addicts themselves.”
“Don’t those facilities have a history of abuse?”
“Oh yeah. Finding this one took us years, but when the issue kept popping up, and Fiona’s heart couldn’t handle what needed to be done… You ready for that?”
No. “Yeah. I can do whatever needs to be done. She’ll get over it.”
“You seem awfully sure of yourself. Just wait until Fiona gives you her disappointed look. It’s soul-crushing.”
That’s not going to happen. We’ll have a conversation, and she’ll understand…Those are the famous last words of any man, according to my father. But Mom always forgives him.
Fiona will forgive me. “Let’s get this done.”
***
“Are you always this creative with your questioning techniques?” I watch the python wrap around the leg of the drug addict, who brandished a knife at Fiona.
“Yeah. Ice Cream won’t hurt him. But she’ll give him a nice hug if we let her. She might give him a nibble or two. She’s gravid and grumpy.” Maddox smiles. “It usually doesn’t take long to convince people to talk.”
“Let me out of here. You gotta let me out of here before this thing eats me!” the leader screams.
It seems he doesn’t understand basic physics. That snake can’t open her mouth wide enough to swallow a man tied to a chair.
“And he’s ready. Shall we?” Maddox opens the door to their interrogation room.
“Why’s he here? I thought he left. He said he was going.” The boy gapes as I step in. “I didn’t touch your woman. I didn’t touch her. Don’t let him kill me. Don’t let him hurt me.”
“I do believe he’s more afraid of you than he is of my pets.” Maddox grins.
“Good to know someone understands there are some laws written in blood.” I walk up to the kid, trying to pretend the almost four-hundred-pound snake by my feet doesn’t bother me at all. “The only reason you have a chance of walking out of here still breathing is because you didn’t touch her. My friend here seems to think you didn’t come to Willow Street just to eat the free food and make a nuisance of yourselves. That there was a reason.”
The boy shakes his head. “No. No reason. We were just high and wanted to mess with people.”
“That’s a lie. I hate liars. So now you wake up that drug-addled brain of yours, and tell me who sent you to mess with my friend.” Ice cream brushes my ankle. Maddox's tactics are impressive.
“He’ll kill me.”
“And I won’t?” I probably won’t, but the kid doesn’t need to know that.
The boy trembles. “He’s a ghost. You won’t ever find him.”
“I can find anyone. You can’t hide from me.” I literally have the world at my fingertips. “Give me a name.”
“No.”
“Let’s leave him for the snake.” I know just which one of them will talk.
We enter the holding room with the smallest boy. He looks to be about thirteen.
Who gets a thirteen-year-old addicted to drugs?
“Look, all we were supposed to do was break a few things and scare the woman so she’d sell her restaurant. That’s it. He told us he’d give us a big bag of the good stuff. All we wanted was a fix. We weren’t going to hurt anyone.” The boy starts crying.
“Who?” I can guess, but I want to see if the boy will talk.
