Baz sat quietly.
“That’s not what you’re saying?”
“I’m not saying anything,” he clarified. “That’s whatyou’resaying.”
“It isn’t true?”
“No. It is not true.”
“Which part?”
“All of it.”
“But you’ve already admitted you met her at Moonshiners. So part of it’s true, isn’t it?”
Well, she had him there, and yes, he’d walked right into it. His bad. This was how she would twist his words to get him to confess to something that never happened.
“Why am I here?” he asked.
“We’ll get to that.”
“No, you’ll tell me now. Otherwise, I’m gonna ask for my lawyer, and this little charade you’ve got goin’ is gonna end quickly.”
Her dark brown eyes narrowed again. Her lips pursed, and he could tell she was weighing her options. Like him, she didn’t want to reveal everything in one fell swoop because if she didn’t have the evidence she needed, this was all a ruse to get him to confess to something he didn’t do. And that would mean they’d manipulated a judge into getting an arrest warrant.
It was an intimidation tactic. Get the suspect into the hot seat, make them feel pressured, and let them incriminate themself. He’d done it a few dozen times himself. He knew their playbook as well as they did.
Baz glanced down at the file folder on the table in front of her.
“Don’t you want to show me a photograph of the victims so you can gauge my reaction?”
Her lips thinned. “We’re just talking, Mr. Buchanan.”
“Are we?”
“Yes.”
“So you aren’t arresting me?”
“Not at the moment, no.”
“So I’m free to go?”
“No.”
“To keep me here, you have to arrest me,” he told her, although she was well aware of that.
“I was hoping you simply wanted to clear your name.”
Right.
Baz glanced at the folder again, watching her as he did. Her hand moved over it as though she was worried he would lunge to get it. He knew better. What he didn’t know was why she was stalling.
And shewasstalling.
Of that, he was certain.
Chapter Twenty-Four
