Page 37 of Secrets Beneath the Waves

CHAPTER

SIXTEEN

“This is ridiculous,”Zeyla said quietly beside him.

Ramon wasn’t sure he could agree. “They’re just doing their jobs. Hopefully, with integrity. Otherwise, we can’t even trust the justice system to take care of their simple duty.”

“Admit it, being a vigilante is looking better and better all the time.”

Ramon shook his head, sitting next to her on the edge of the curb. A uniformed officer stood over them while forensics technicians gathered evidence from inside the house, and the detectives walked around taking charge of everything.

The officer standing over them cleared his throat.

Zeyla rolled her eyes. “Don’t say you’ve never thought of it.”

The guy was probably barely twenty-four and had red hair. “If I had, I probably wouldn’t have become a cop. At least this way, I get to be on the right side of the law.”

The detective who had been speaking to Zeyla walked back over to them. “Okay, who wants to tell me how you knew the girl would be here?”

Ramon said, “Drew Chamberlain told us.”

The officer frowned. “Isn’t he a firefighter?”

“He’s also one of the kidnappers, as we’ve been saying to you over and over. He’s in the hospital in police custody,” Zeyla said.

“How about you tell me about that incident, Mr. Santiago?”

Ramon immediately regretted having handed over his ID earlier. “I was protecting Dr. Swanson from Pioneer Forensics as he was transporting sensitive evidence that relates to this case. Evidence that implicated Mr. Chamberlain in the crime. He tried to kill the doctor and was probably planning to destroy the evidence that would convict him of kidnapping and probably also murder.”

“This is going to take longer than just one curbside conversation. We should take these two over to the station, Officer. Get them situated where we can interview them.”

Zeyla asked, “Do I need my lawyer?”

Before the detective could answer her, a black SUV with government plates stopped at the curb. The driver jumped out, coming right toward them. Pulling out a cred pack with FBI identification and a badge. But it wasn’t any FBI agent Ramon had ever met.

He showed the detective his badge. “Special Agent Pedro Alvarez. This man is my confidential informant.” He motioned toward Ramon with a dismissive wave. “I’m pretty sure the woman is a hooker he picked up and trained to help him with cases.”

Zeyla made a choking sound.

Mr. Special Agent turned to Ramon. “Do we need to have another conversation about you sticking your nose into other people’s business?”

“I’m going to go with…yes.” Ramon stared him down, trying to figure out what on earth this guy was playing at.

He glanced at the detective. “I have to take them with me, per my boss’s orders. You can have him back tomorrow, or youcan come to the FBI office with any questions you might have for either of them.”

Ramon didn’t even know if there was an FBI satellite office up here in Spokane. He should probably look that up at some point, although presumably, Miguel had…before he decided to pretend to be an FBI agent. It was a little on the nose as far as ruses went.

Special Agent Alvarez dug in his back pocket and pulled out a zippered pouch. He opened it and held it out. “You can both put their weapons in here.”

The cops handed over what they had.

“Any backup weapons I should know about?” the fed asked.

Zeyla gave him the sweetest smile, and Ramon didn’t believe she was innocent. Not one bit. “Nothing else.”

“Me either.” After all, they’d likely have to defend themselves from someone soon enough. Why risk their lives having to do that with no weapons, and when he had all the advantage? “So, let’s go.”

Ramon strode away from the group of cops, happy to be away from here even if it meant going with a fed. Answering questions always took longer than it needed to, and there was no way they’d be satisfied by his responses. All of it would point to the fact he knew more about this case than he should. Or, at least, more than they did. Either way, they’d be suspicious as to how he’d learned what he knew.