Carson stared directly into Dan’s eyes and laid out the harsh truth. “Because helping me is the only thing standing between you and dying in prison. You’re thirty-six years old, Dan. Thirty years means you’re sixty-six when you get out. If you get out. Or you can give me what I need, serve twenty, and still have some life left when you’re released.”
Dan was quiet, staring at his cuffed hands on the cold table, warring with himself.
“I need to know about Captain Shaw,” Carson said. “Did he help you? Help Eugene? Make evidence disappear?”
Dan’s eyes widened slightly. Bingo.
“I’m not talking without my lawyer,” Dan said.
“Your lawyer knows about this deal. He signed off on it. You talk, you get reduced time. You don’t talk, you serve the full thirty.”
Another long silence. Then, “Shaw didn’t help me directly. But Eugene... Eugene knew people. Had connections. He said there was a cop who could make problems go away. For a price.”
Carson’s pulse quickened. “Shaw?”
“Eugene never said the name. Just called him ‘the captain.’ Said he’d been doing this for years. That lots of people used his services.”
“How did Eugene find out about him?”
Dan huffed. “I don’t know. Eugene’s father, maybe? Robert Whitmore? He was into some shady shit before he got caught. Maybe he knew about the captain.”
“Did Eugene pay the captain to destroy evidence?”
“Probably. Eugene always had money, way more than a building security guard should have. And he’d talk about how he was untouchable. How he had insurance.”
“Insurance?”
Dan made an impatient gesture. “Protection. Someone on the inside making sure nothing stuck to him.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Look, I don’t know details. Eugene kept that shit close to the vest. But I know he paid someone. I know he felt safe because of it. And I know that when you arrested him, he was more surprised that it worked than that you’d caught him at all.”
Carson absorbed this. Eugene had felt untouchable because he’d been paying Shaw to protect him. Which meant Shaw had been actively enabling a stalker and potential murderer.
“Do you know how Eugene contacted the captain? Phone number? Email? Meeting locations?”
“Eugene used burner phones for that kind of thing. Bought them with cash, used them once, threw them away. He was paranoid about being tracked.”
“But he must have had a way to reach the captain when he needed something.”
Dan hesitated. “There was a coffee shop. Downtown. The Brew & View. Eugene would go there sometimes. Said he was ‘making a drop.’”
The Brew & View. Where Nora had met Lila for lunch. Where Carson had first officially taken Nora’s statement. Where—
Carson’s blood ran cold.
Maggie Reeves owned The Brew & View. Maggie, who’d been serving coffee to cops for twenty years. Who knew everyone. Who was always around, always listening.
Was Maggie the middleman?
“This coffee shop,” Carson said carefully. “Did Eugene ever mention the owner? Maggie Reeves?”
“Maybe? I don’t remember. Look, I told you what I know. Eugene paid the captain to protect him. The coffee shop was somehow involved. That’s all I’ve got.”
Carson ended the interview and immediately called Finn as soon he left the interrogation room.
“I need everything you can find on Maggie Reeves. Owner of The Brew & View coffee shop. Financial records, phone records, property records. Everything.”
“You think Maggie’s the middleman?”
“I thinkshe’s been right under our noses this whole time.”
