Before I can answer her, there is a knock on the door, and Mick comes in with a silent nod, followed by Maya’s parents, who both rush to hug her.
We step outside to give them some privacy. I look at Mick, waiting for some answers. “What did you find?”
“Name’s Ryan King, calls himself Diamond Boy. We have an address, and an undercover is heading there now to see if we can pick him up.”
“So we wait?” I ask him.
“We wait.” He turns, walking to his desk as I walk to my computer to search anything else I can find on this Ryan King. Nothing really pops up. Semi-decent family, a couple of misdemeanors, but as a minor, they’ll be sealed as soon as he turns eighteen in three days.
The phone on Mick’s desk rings, and he picks it up. His answers are curt. Hanging up the phone, he looks at me as he says the words that will change the course of the next couple of hours. “We got him.”
I nod at him and begin getting ready for when they bring in Ryan King. It takes about twenty minutes to bring him in and install him in a room on the other side of the building so Maya won’t see him.
I look over at Mick, who is practically bouncing on the heels of his feet like a boxer getting ready to enter the ring.
“I think it’s safe to say I’m going to be the one doing the talking. You should sit back and listen. Yeah?” I ask him, opening the door, and coming face to face with our first real lead in these cases.
He sits there in baggy sweats, tight T-shirt, and one of those stupid flat-billed baseball hats with diamond logos all around it. He looks like the punk that he is.
“Hey, Ryan, thanks for coming in.” I’ll start easy with him.
“Well, I didn’t really have a choice since they cuffed me, put me in a car, and brought me here.” I sit back, throwing the pen on the table, already knowing this little shit is going to push me to my limits.
I’m also hoping he doesn’t push me so far that Mick has to take over.
“All right then, let’s cut the bullshit. Where were you yesterday afternoon?”
“Out and about,” he answers with a smirk.
“You go to the mall yesterday?” My voice is calm and even as I wait for him to dig his own hole.
“Yesterday? I don’t really know. Maybe I should check my calendar.” Such a wise-ass. I can feel my blood pressure ticking up.
“No need to check your calendar. You see, we have video.” It’s a stretch. We haven’t seen the video yet, and I have no idea what’s on it, but Ryan’s expression immediately changes.
His smirk gone, the vein in his neck starting to pulse faster.
“What video?” His face pales as he asks the question.
“Come on, Ryan, smart guy like you? You have to know there are cameras all over that mall. It’s all going to be there, my man.”
He swallows, his leg starting to bounce. “I was told they weren’t working,” he mutters.
Bingo. “Who told you that? Dude, you got played. It’s all there. Gotta say”—I shake my head at him—“you had us going there for a bit, but it was only a matter of time.”
“I didn’t do anything.” He pushes himself forward, placing his hands on the table.
“See, Ryan, that’s where you’re wrong,” I tell him and when he doesn’t say anything further, I continue. “I gave you a chance to tell us your side of the story, but you think you’re smarter than us.” I lean back into my chair while Mick is leaning against the wall with one foot folded over the other.
“I did nothing wrong.” He looks at both of us, trying to convince us.
“That isn’t what the video shows. You know it.” I point to Mick. “We know it.”
“Listen, I don’t know what you have, but I did nothing wrong.”
“You baited them.” Short and sweet, I tell him, “The video shows you even slipped them something.”
“That’s bullshit! I didn’t give them shit till after we left!” And just like that, he buried himself. He knows it now just like I know it.
“Really? Then it’s my mistake. You drugged them after you left, took them to wherever it is you took them, and now you are going to go down for drug possession, kidnapping, assaulting, and I gotta be honest with you, Ryan, no one in jail likes someone who drugs helpless women. Let alone sex offenders. They get the worst treatment in jail.”
“I didn’t kidnap anyone. They came with me willingly.”
“Where are they then?” I ask him. “Give me a location.”
“I...I...”
This is when I snap. “You what? Did you kill them?” I raise my voice.