Page 23 of Rise of the Witch (Witches of Keating Hollow #17)
“Mr. Williams,” Deputy Sheriff Hunt said as he opened the jail cell. “Come with me.”
Briggs rose from the hard bench without a word and followed the man past the four other cells that were empty. Apparently, Keating Hollow wasn’t a hotbed of crime. Or at least it wasn’t until Kassie had gone missing that morning.
Bile rose up in the back of his throat. It wasn’t so much that he was worried for himself, though he had to admit that being arrested hadn’t been on his bingo card.
It was that Kassie appeared to have been abducted, and since everyone thought that Briggs had done it, no one was looking for the real perpetrator.
The thought made him sick to his stomach.
No matter how much Kassie got under his skin at times, he definitely didn’t want to see anything bad happen to her.
And if she was being held against her will…
He ground his teeth together so hard that his jaw ached.
“Your lawyer is waiting for you in here,” Hunt said, opening a door and waving him inside.
“What lawyer?” Briggs asked. It was the first time he’d spoken to anyone since they’d arrested him that morning.
The deputy sheriff didn’t respond. He just waited for Briggs to enter and then closed the door, leaving Briggs alone with the woman who already occupied the room.
“Mr. Williams, I’m Lorna White.” The woman with long gray hair and serious blue eyes stood and held out her hand. “Your friend King McGrath hired me on your behalf. I’m here to help if that’s acceptable to you.”
Briggs said a silent thank you to King and shook the woman’s hand. “It is. If King hired you, then I’m good with that.”
“Excellent.” She took her seat and opened a folder. “Let’s get down to it, shall we?”
Briggs nodded and sat down across from her.
“First of all, do you know why you’re here?” she asked.
“They said I was under arrest for the assault and abduction of Kassie Kinny,” he recited in a flat tone.
“Yes, that’s on the arrest warrant,” she confirmed.
“They have video of her being attacked outside the recording studio where you work early this morning.” She checked the paperwork.
“Says here the time stamp is 7:39 a.m. I haven’t seen it yet, but the notes indicate that while Ms. Kinny is in full view, the video only portrays a partial back view of the attacker.
” She looked up from her notes. “Can you tell me where you were at 7:39 a.m. this morning?”
“At home in bed,” he said.
“Was anyone there with you?”
“In my bed?” he asked but then quickly shook his head. “No. I was home alone. No one else was there.”
“Okay, reasonable for a Sunday morning.” She tapped her fingers on the table. “The arrest report indicates they found your credit card at the scene, and it appears the attacker was wearing a flannel shirt that matches one you’ve worn before.”
Briggs frowned. “My credit card was there?”
“Yes. Your legal name is Brandon Williams, correct?”
He nodded. Briggs had changed his name once he’d gone to foster care. He didn’t want to be reminded of the kid who’d spent his childhood getting his ass kicked by his father.
“There’s a picture of it here.” She turned the file around so he could see his credit card, the one he’d used just the night before at dinner, lying on the ground.
“I have zero idea how it got there. Honestly. I used it at dinner at the Cozy Cave last night and haven’t touched it since,” Briggs explained.
“Is it possible you forgot to grab it and left it at the restaurant?” Lorna asked.
“Maybe?” He frowned. “I don’t know.”
“I’ll mark that as a yes. There are witnesses who say you were with Ms. Kinny on Saturday night. Is that true?”
“Yes.” Briggs went on to explain that they’d spent the day in the studio and then went to get dinner before he dropped her off at Melissa’s house that night. “I haven’t seen or heard from her since.”
“And there’s no one who can verify that you were at home?”
He shook his head.
“Do you have security cameras that maybe recorded you coming and going?” she asked hopefully.
“I have cameras on my front and back doors,” he said. “I can send you the clips if I ever get out of here.”
“Okay, that’s good,” she said with a nod. “It won’t stop speculation that you could have used a window, but it helps.”
Briggs groaned.
“Don’t get discouraged,” she warned. “We’re just getting started.”
That was exactly what he was afraid of.
After she asked a bunch of questions about his relationship with Kassie, and then about his relationship with King and their shared history, she closed the file and leaned forward. “Here’s the deal. As of now, they don’t have anything but circumstantial evidence.”
“They have my credit card at the scene,” he said, feeling pretty defeated.
“That can be explained away,” she said with a wave of her hand.
“Maybe Kassie took it. You said she was having money issues. Desperate people do desperate things. The point is, there is no smoking gun, and no judge is going to keep you behind bars with only circumstantial evidence. Bail will likely be set low since you don’t have any priors. ”
“Okay. When can I get out of here? Tonight?”
She shook her head. “Likely tomorrow morning. Right now, Sheriff Baker wants an interview with you since you refused to answer any questions without a lawyer present when they arrested you. Are you ready for that?”
He wasn’t, but it wasn’t like they were just going to escort him back to his cell. “Yeah, but I’m warning you now; I don’t trust law enforcement, so I’m not likely to answer any questions at all.”
“That’s your right. And in this case, I think it’s best.” She stood. “I’ll let the sheriff know we’re ready.”
A few minutes later, Sheriff Baker entered the tiny room along with Lorna. Briggs’s lawyer sat next to him, and the sheriff took the seat across from them.
“Good evening, Mr. Williams,” the sheriff said. “I’m hoping we can have a conversation to clear a few things up.”
Briggs didn’t respond.
Lorna cleared her throat. “My client has informed me that he’d like to exercise his First Amendment rights, Sheriff.”
Drew Baker let out a tired sigh. “That is, of course, your right, Mr. Williams. But I want to assure you that I really am here to figure out what happened to Ms. Kinny.”
“If that were true, you’d be out looking for whoever abducted her,” Briggs said. “Not wasting your time with me.”
“So you’re saying that you did not meet up with Ms. Kinny this morning?” Drew asked.
“That’s what I’m saying,” Briggs said. He wasn’t going to answer any questions about his relationship with Kassie or their past interaction, but he would make it clear they were making a mistake. “The longer you try to pin this on me, the longer Kassie remains in danger.”
“Can you tell me how you know Ms. Kinny?” Baker asked.
Briggs paused and looked at Lorna. When she nodded, he said, “She’s a singer. I work for the studio where she’s recording.”
“Okay. And is it fair to say that you were in a relationship with her at one time?”
“I have no comment on that,” Briggs said.
“All right. Can you tell me about this TikTok video that was put out by Ms. Kinny? It heavily implies that you are involved in a relationship with King McGrath. Did you know about this?”
Briggs gave the sheriff a flat stare.
“No comment,” Lorna answered for him.
Sheriff Baker went on to ask a number of questions about his involvement with Kassie, how long he’d known her, if he knew of anyone who might be a person of interest, as well as his whereabouts for the last forty-eight hours.
He didn’t answer any of them. Instead, he just said, “You’ve got the wrong man, Sheriff.
If you’re really worried about Kassie, you need to look elsewhere. ”
“That’s what I’m trying to do, Mr. Williams,” Baker said, sounding impatient now. “Your insistence on not speaking isn’t going to help us find her.”
“Perhaps I’d be more talkative if I hadn’t been arrested,” he said and then stood. “Can I go back to my cell now?”
The sheriff leaned back in his chair and nodded. “If you think of anything you think we should know, please don’t hesitate to tell one of the deputies. I’ll be here.”
Briggs stood in the hallway with his lawyer and one of the deputies.
“I’ll see you first thing in the morning,” Lorna said. “King McGrath has already said he’d cover any bail. With any luck, you’ll be home tomorrow by lunchtime.”
“Thank you,” he said and then followed the deputy back to his cell.
After he heard the clanging of metal on metal, he sat on the bench and leaned against the cold cement wall. It was going to be one long night.