“Fine. Do not eat my cookies.” Tallus pointed a warning finger in my face.
“I don’t want your cookies.”
He moved the finger to Darcy and leveled him with a similar threat. “I will kill you with my bare hands.”
My boyfriend earned another dirty look.
“Go, Tallus.”
He went, reluctantly.
Darcy crumpled his sub wrapper and added it to the tray of garbage. His cookies were gone, his Coke empty. He longingly eyed Tallus’s treats.
“Don’t even think about it. He’ll turn into a velociraptor if you eat his desserts. Do you need more food?”
Darcy shook his head and fidgeted, spinning the ring on his index finger. I got a clear view of his ink.ANTI HERO. I wanted to ask for the story behind it but knew better. Tattoos were personal, and if Ididn’t want to share about mine, I couldn’t expect him to share about his.
“Who are you working for?”
With rising panic, Darcy blubbered, “No one. I swear.”
I sighed and repeated the question with more emphasis. “Who are you working for?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I don’t.”
I shoved the tray of garbage aside and folded my hands on the table, leaning in and lowering my voice. “Am I to believe that a scummy little brat like you single-handedly created an untraceable mule account and scammed Elwood Scarrow out of thirty thousand dollars all by yourself… Kael?”
Darcy’s cheeks flushed, eyes widening with incredulity. “That’s not… Fuck me. Thirty thousand? Are you sure you’ve got your facts straight?”
“You didn’t know it was that much money, did you?”
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t do nothin’.”
“You’re the brains behind this scam? Not a chance, but I have you on video entering and leaving Evergreen and signing in as Kael Scarrow, who, by the way, is living overseas and hasn’t been home in over a year. I have a staff member who identified you, who gave you a cigarette, and shared a bus with you. She gave us a perfect physical description, tattoos and ring included.”
Darcy tucked his hands beneath the table, guilt burning hot circles on his cheeks. “You’re wrong.”
“I have a senior citizen with all his faculties intact who could easily pick you out of a lineup without blinking. The police will lock you away for a long, long time. Identity theft. Fraud. Money laundering.You’re looking at twenty years at least. Upwards of forty. I could come up with more charges if I got creative. You’d be older than me by the time they let you out. All it would take is one phone call. I used to work for the department, kid. I have sway, and I can have you arrested before morning. Think about it.”
I spun my cell phone on the table for emphasis and noted an objection taking shape on Darcy’s lips.
I held up a finger. “Or… you can tell me everything, and I’ll hunt down the person who is really responsible and do all I can to minimize your involvement.”
“I needed the money, but I didn’t take thirty thousand dollars. I swear.”
“I believe you, but thirty thousand is what’s missing, and I doubt Elwood is the sole victim. I also believe you had no idea what kind of scam you were involved in. I’m curious. What was your cut?”
Darcy seemed reluctant to talk, so I repeated the question. This was getting tiresome.
“Five hundred per visit,” he finally said, shrinking in his seat and peering miserably at the empty wrappers on the tray. His cheeks turned pink, and he went to town on the ring, spinning it in nauseating circles. “I needed to cover my share of the rent, or I would get kicked out. I have nowhere else to go.”
“Three visits to Scarrow at five hundred a pop. That’s fifteen hundred dollars. Do you realize that’s only five percent of what your employer pocketed?”
Darcy shrugged. “I don’t care what he makes, so long as he pays me what he promises.”
