I end the call and speed up, hoping Michaels pulls through. When I reach the building and hurry through the door, I make a brief stop in the bathroom where I change my clothes and wash the blood off my hands, both from punching the car and from staunching Gabriel’s wound. The rest of me is sore but not too bad. The winter clothes I’d been wearing gave me a bit of a buffer against the explosion, as well as the distance I’d been from the body when the bomb had gone off. If the shrapnel hadn’t hit Gabriel, I think he would have fared better as well.
Looking slightly more presentable, I slip into the interrogation room and impatiently wait for Richard, who they assure me will be here shortly. Just as I’m at the end of my patience and ready to get up and scream at someone to bring Richard to me, the door opens and the former hospital security guard is brought in. The moment he sees me, his expression darkens.
“What the fuck do you want?” he asks.
What do I want? I want to bash his head into the fucking table until he gives me answers. I want to grab him by his hair and make him bleed until he answers, but with a camera on me, I can’t very well do that.
Taking a deep breath, I try to calm my mind. This man is in Whitaker’s care because Whitaker has manipulated him. He’s likely someone who started off having no one before Whitaker got hold of him. He was possibly at the brink when Whitaker pulled him back. Whitaker likely manipulated him, much like he did Jesse, by finding someone who had nothing and promising them everything.
I just have to manipulate him into giving me what he needs.
“I wanted to inform you of what’s going on here. Have you been kept in the loop?” I ask.
“You think these assholes tell me anything?”
“Yesterday, your leader—Whitaker, right? Whitaker had a man named Tate Piers plant a body on me and tried to get me arrested. It was sloppy and showed that Tate was not very experienced. He failed to pull this off, and by the time we made it to Tate’s home to arrest him, he was murdered by Whitaker for failing. I don’t want that fate for you, Richard.”
He laughs. “He’d never kill one of us,” he says with a smirk.
I open my work phone and click on a picture I’d taken of Tate before sliding it over to him. The smirk immediately drops off his face.
“No… no… someone else did this.”
“You think one of Whitaker’s other pawns did this?”
“We’re not pawns!”
“Are you not? Does he not send you out there to do the dirty work for him while he safely sits in his home? And now… now he’s trying to dispose of any loose ends.”
Richard shakes his head. “You’re lying. Someone else did that.”
“Who do you think did that? You think some random man walked in off the street and picked one of Whitaker’s chosen ones? We found Whitaker’s ring on the scene. It’s how we figured out that he’s the man we’re looking for. How do you think we figured out his name? The body was displayed like Nadine’s was; we can see the connection.”
Richard is trying not to give away his unease, but I can read it in the way his eyes aren’t holding mine as defiantly. He’s also playing with his hands.
I sigh and run a hand through my hair. “Let me lay this out, Richard. If we can’t pin something on you, you could be released. But we’re not going to stop watching you. And you think Whitaker’s going to like that? You were rash when you attacked me in the parking lot. You fucked up. If it weren’t for you, we wouldn’t even have known about TateorWhitaker. It isyourfault this happened, do you understand that? Whitaker killed Tate for simply failing to get me arrested. What do you think he’ll do to you when you’re the reason the police are hunting him down? You’re the reason we know that he faked his death. What happens when we let you out those doors?”
Richard’s eyes are watching me closely, and I can tell that he’s hearing some logic in my words. “You’re fucking lying. You’re lying. Whitaker would never hurt me,” he says, but I don’t think he’s as confident as he initially was.
“Okay… we want to help you. We want to keep you from rotting in prison for something you didn’t do. You were a pawn, Richard. You were coerced and used and now you’ve been thrown out. I just don’t want you to end up like Tate did. You have your whole life ahead of you. I looked into you, Richard. You’re doing so well in college. You’ve turned your life around. You’ve broken away from your horrible family and you’re going to make something of yourself. If you are ready, I need you towrite down the address of where Whitaker is, and we’ll make sure you can keep living that life.”
“I can’t,” he says, shaking his head.
“If we arrested Whitaker, you’d be free of that life. You’d get to live your life with your beautiful girlfriend. You would have a future with her. Do you want to talk to her?”
He glances up at me, looking hopeful. “I can?”
“Sure,” I say.
I stand up and inform Michaels, who I find waiting outside the door, that I need a phone for Richard to use. He gets me one as well as the pencil and paper I request before I head back in, and I set the pencil and paper down. “If you think you’re ready, write down where we can find Whitaker. If you don’t, we’ll do our best to protect you, but I can’t promise you anything. Do you know your girlfriend’s number?”
“I do! I do,” he says as he nods.
I dial the number and put the phone on speaker on the table in front of me. When a woman answers, I reply, “Good morning, this is Detective Paige, and I’m here with Richard. Do you have a moment to talk to him?”
“I… yes,” she says, sounding timid.
“Baby, I didn’t do it. I really didn’t,” Richard promises.
