Page 78 of Twice Missing

"How long did you know her?"

Abel leaned back in his seat and looked up at the ceiling. "Um. I had seen her at the Pow Wow back when she was very young. When Selena was alive but we never talked to one another. It was a few years after that I saw she was running the booth and continuing making those…"

"Bracelets," Noah added.

"That's right."

"Did she approach you or the other way around?" Noah asked.

"I approached her mostly to offer my condolences. From there we got chatting and then…"

"She went missing," McKenzie interjected.

Abel turned to McKenzie. "I don't like you."

McKenzie smiled back. "A lot of people say that."

Noah kept them on track. He cleared his throat. "Did Selena ever mention to you anyone by the name of Emily Carter?"

He pulled a face. "No."

"So you wouldn’t recognize this woman," Noah said, taking out his phone and showing him a picture of Emily.

"I'm afraid not."

Noah nodded. "So neither woman ever mentioned anything about human trafficking, drug smuggling, or anything of that nature?"

Abel laughed, finding something funny.

"Something amusing?" McKenzie asked.

"Well it's just that I know what rumors were said about the men here."

"And what would that be?"

As Abel attempted to defend his company and its practices, Noah's suspicion grew. The man's insistence on the impossibility of any wrongdoing felt overly emphatic, as if he were trying to convince himself as much as the detectives. "Oh you know — that we host wild parties on the weekends and evenings for the men. Lots of drugs,sex with Natives, and so on. I mean it was all in the newspaper. It was one of the many tactics that were used to attempt to drive our company out of here. Except, no one could prove it because that doesn't happen. Look, detectives. Our men work long days. Twelve hours. By the time they are done, they are tired. They don't have time to go on a drug binging spree or have sex with women. They have to be up at the crack of dawn, out those doors and working. Anyone who is not is fired. It's as simple as that."

"And weekends?"

"Some go home if they live nearby, but most are from out of state so they do what anyone else does on their weekends."

"And you think that wouldn't include drink and drugs."

"We run a tight ship. It's not allowed. Too much risk. This company has existed for almost twenty years. We are not going to jeopardize that from a few bad apples."

"Are you here on the weekends?" Noah asked.

"No."

"So you wouldn't know."

"We have security cameras."

"And let me guess, the footage is removed after twenty-four hours?" McKenzie said. Abel could see where this was going and he leaned forward in his seat.

"We hire good men."

"Women," McKenzie said.