Page 14 of So Savage (Faith Bold #21)

Daniel was slumped over the table in the interrogation room when the three investigators walked in. His head lifted, and he stuck his lower lip out in a disgusting approximation of a pout. “What the hell’s taking so long? You guys left me in here for hours.”

“It took a while to search your apartment,” Marcus explained, taking a seat across from Daniel. “You had a lot of hidden compartments there.”

Daniel paled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Ooh,” Faith said. “Playing stupid won’t work anymore. See, we have a lot of pictures now. Also fingerprints and an astonishingly large amount of astonishingly illegal drugs.”

Daniel swallowed. “I want a lawyer.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Marcus said, laying out the pictures his officers had taken. “These ones here are the scars and bruises we found on Caesar.”

Turk growled low in his throat at that. Daniel flinched and said, “You have to show dogs who’s Boss. They'd tear you apart in a second if you didn't. You have to be the alpha."

“I think we already proved that your methods don’t work,” Faith reminded him.

"Of greater concern to me," Marcus added, "are the copious amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine. We're working with the DEA to tally the total amount, but we're fairly confident that we're going to be looking at seven figures' worth. Yours, or your clients? We know that you've been training security dogs for a lot of warehouses along the shore. Do you distribute for them, too?"

“Lawyer,” Daniel said hoarsely. He was white as a sheet now and trembling a little.

“Sure, sure, we’ll get there. I haven’t shown you my favorite part yet.”

Marcus pulled several more photos out of an envelope and laid them on the table. Faith felt a leap of triumph when she saw the darts and air guns in the images.

“That’s not what it looks like!” Daniel cried out.

All trace of bravado was gone from his face. He looked terrified, which was understandable considering how much trouble he now found himself in.

Marcus frowned. “It doesn’t look like hundreds of tranquilizer darts loaded with ketamine and xylazine to you? It sure looks like it to me. And being a bit of a gun enthusiast myself, I appreciate the attempt made to emulate the Heckler & Koch MR556 A4, but it’s fairly easy to tell that this weapon is designed to fire darts and not bullets.”

“That’s for the dogs!” Daniel insisted. “It’s not for people!”

“So this won’t knock a person out?”

“No! I mean, yes, it will, but that’s not what it’s supposed to be used for.”

"Yes, and heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine aren't supposed to be used to get people high," Faith pointed out. "Nor are they supposed to be stored in a private residence. So I have a hard time believing that you're all that hung up on how things are supposed to be used."

“Yeah, but… Look, I didn’t kill anyone!”

Marcus sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Here's the deal, Daniel. We have two dead victims and two K9 victims who are recovering from the effects of a powerful sedative. We have a guy who was convicted of animal cruelty, thanks to the testimony of our victims. Then we go to this guy's apartment and find millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs along with hundreds of darts that contain the very same compound used to knock out our victims along with long-range delivery systems in the form of air guns."

Daniel was shaking badly right now. He swallowed and said, “I didn’t kill anyone.”

“You can see how we have a hard time believing you, right?” Faith said. “I mean… this looks bad, Daniel.”

“I know,” he said, lifting a shaking hand to his head. “I know, but I didn’t do it.”

Marcus leaned forward and folded his hands. “I’m gonna level with you, Daniel. We have enough to convict you right now. We’ve got motive, we’ve got a history of harassment, we have the murder weapons, and the substance used to restrain your victims.”

That wasn’t exactly true. Marcus hadn’t mentioned the knife used to slice the victim’s throats. Remembering that caused a seed of doubt to germinate in Faith’s head.

“Minnesota doesn’t have the death penalty, but it does have life in prison,” Marcus continued. “I don’t like to speak ill of our prisons, but I’ve seen them, and believe me, it’s not a place you want to spend your life. I’m not going to lie to you. You’re going to go to prison. However, we can reduce that time considerably if you help us out.”

Faith’s lips thinned until they nearly disappeared, but she held her tongue. They had enough to convict him without a plea deal, but the presence of all of those drugs definitely threw a wrench into things. Daniel’s murder of the two K9 handlers was probably a personal vendetta, but if he was also involved in organized crime, then Marcus couldn’t think only of the two who had died already. An operation of this kind threatened many more lives.

“If you can give us the names of the people you work with and tell us where to find them, the prosecutor will look very kindly on that. We might even be able to shrink your felony drug conviction a little and start talking about ten to twenty instead of forty to life.”

Faith pressed her nails into her palm. That was far more of a plea deal than she expected. Then again, it was possible that Marcus was lying to Daniel to get him to talk. Contrary to popular belief, the police were allowed to lie to suspects. She did want to add one thing to the conversation, though.

“And you need to tell us what happened to Thomas Reeves and Kevin Walsh. You need to tell us the truth.”

Daniel swallowed. He looked between the three of them. Turk growled at him, and he whimpered. Faith felt a touch of satisfaction at hearing him whimper in front of a dog instead of the other way around.

Finally, Daniel slumped. “Okay. I can give you names. I need some assurance before I do, though. Legal assurances.”

“We can talk about that,” Marcus said. “I’ll pass along to the DA that you’re willing to help us out. They’ll be having a lot of long conversations with you. You’re doing the right thing, believe me. Not just morally but for yourself.”

“Reeves and Walsh, Daniel,” Faith reminded him. “We need the truth about what happened to them.”

Daniel released a hollow laugh. “Well, I really can’t help you with that. I didn’t kill them.”

Faith sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Not to be that girl, Daniel, but the little plea deal you’re making is contingent on your honesty about the murders. The FBI is involved in this investigation, and we want justice for the two dead men.”

“I know. I really didn’t kill them.”

The seed of doubt in Faith’s mind blossomed. “Can you confirm your whereabouts last night?”

“Last night?” His eyes widened with hope. “Yeah. I was at my girlfriend’s house!”

"What?" Marcus said. Apparently, he was just as surprised as Faith that this plankton had a girlfriend.

“Yeah! You can call her. I’ll give you her number. She’ll tell you we were together.”

“Anywhere in public?” Faith asked. “Anywhere someone who doesn’t have an interest in protecting you might confirm it?”

His face fell. “No, but… she doesn’t know about all the drugs yet, so she might not know that you’re calling because you suspect me of a crime.”

“I can’t imagine she won’t put two and two together when she hears that the police are calling for you,” Marcus said.

“Well… crap. That’s the best I can do.”

He slumped. Marcus sighed and looked at Faith. “All right, Mr. Ross. We’ll talk to the DA, but without a good alibi and with all of the other evidence—”

“Hold on,” Faith said. “I have an idea. Give me her phone number.”

Daniel provided the number while Marcus looked questioningly at Faith. Once she had the number, she left the room, Turk and Marcus following her.

“What are you thinking?” Marcus asked.

“I’m going to pretend to be his wife. See if we can scare the truth out of her.”

“You don’t think that would just make her pretend she didn’t see him?”

“Worst case scenario, we’re back where we started.”

Marcus shrugged, and Faith dialed the number from the police line. A moment later, a wary voice replied, “Hello?”

“Yeah, is this Olivia?” Faith said in a clipped tone.

“Um… yes? Who is this?”

“This is Shawna. Daniel’s wife.”

Marcus looked unsure, but Faith had a plan. “Hello? I know you’re still there, bitch.”

“Um… I don’t know a Daniel,” Olivia said. The trembling in her tone told Faith that was a lie.

“Really? So I didn’t see you screwing him through your window last night?”

“What? I… How did…”

“Yeah, I have pictures. I know you’ve been sleeping with him. Do yourself a favor and back off of my man before I find a reason to show up and deal with this myself.”

“I wasn’t with him last night.”

A spark of hope kindled in Faith’s chest. “Yeah? That wasn’t you I saw with your legs wrapped around his waist and that stupid look on your face? You sure? Because I can come over and look at the picture and see if it matches, and if it does—”

“Okay. Okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t know he was married.”

And just like that, Faith’s hope died. Daniel Ross wasn’t their killer.

“Really? What did you think that wedding ring was for?”

“He didn’t have a wedding ring. He told me he was single. He was hot, and he… well we… I’m really sorry. I won’t see him again. I promise. I would never sleep with someone’s husband.”

Faith sighed heavily. “Figures he’d lie to yet another woman. Girl, do yourself a favor and do your homework before you let some random asshole into your bed. I’ll do myself a favor and divorce this son of a bitch.”

“Okay. I will. I’m so sorry.”

Faith hung up and sighed. “Well, so much for that.”

“That was extremely illegal what you just did,” Marcus pointed out.

“I don’t know about that. It was bending the rules for sure, but considering that Daniel’s now a known gangster, I think we can get away with it. Besides, it cleared him as a suspect for the murders, so I doubt he’ll complain.”

“It also ruined his relationship.”

“Somehow I don’t see the two of them surviving what’s about to be all over the news,” Faith retorted.

“Yeah, maybe not,” Marcus admitted. “Well, we got a pretty serious bad guy off of the streets, and if he plays ball with the DA, we’ll get even more. I know it’s not the bad guy we wanted, but it’s still a good night’s work.”

Faith crossed her arms and looked out at the night sky. “I’m just worried about our killer enjoying another good night’s work.”

As happened all too often in Faith’s career, her worst fears came true a moment later. The door opened, and a wide-eyed desk officer reported, “Detective Waring? We just got a call from the Air National Guard base. They found one of their K9 units unconscious. His handler is missing.”