Caribbean Rescue (Coastal Fury Book 16) by Matt Lincoln (i can read books txt) 📕

focus on seeing what he knows about the Oasis,” I replied as I turned off the ignition and got out. “Daniela said that there would only be one guard awake on duty, but we should make sure that’s accurate. Regardless of her status, she’s still one of the victims. There may be things she’s kept in the dark about.”

The three of us headed into the station. The officer sitting behind the desk greeted us as soon as we entered.

“Good morning,” he announced. “Are you the federal agents?”

“That’s us,” I confirmed as I pulled my badge out of my pocket out of habit.

“The captain is expecting you,” he replied after taking a close look at my badge. He pointed down the hallway with his pen. “Do you know the way to his office?”

“We do,” Olivia replied with a smile. “Thank you.”

We headed back off through the familiar bullpen and short corridor that we’d walked through so many times over the past few days. We had made it about halfway to Morris’s office when we were intercepted by Crowley. He stepped out of a room just as we were passing by, and he jumped in surprise when he looked up and found us standing in front of him.

“Oh, you scared me,” he breathed as his shoulders relaxed. “I was just getting the information off the suspect’s fingerprints.” He held up the bundle of papers he was holding for emphasis. “You came at the perfect time. Come on, the suspect is down this way.”

We followed him down another corridor and into a short hallway lined with holding cells. I recognized it from the previous night when we’d walked through there on our way to speak with Jenny. The cells had all been empty then, but today one of them had clearly been occupied recently. The door was open, and the sheets on the bed were rumpled.

We walked past the cell and toward a room just a few feet away. There was no two-way mirror like I was used to, but I could see the man from the night before through the small, rectangular window set into the door. His face was twisted into a scowl, and even from here, I could see how furious he was.

“His name is Antonio Roberts,” Crowley informed us as he glanced down at a tablet he was holding in his arms. “He has a few prior arrests on his record for public drunkenness, as well as one for domestic violence against an ex-girlfriend.”

“Sounds like a great guy,” Olivia muttered darkly.

“Oh, there’s more,” Crowley scoffed. “We looked into his employment history, assuming that he must work at the bar where he was arrested. Curiously, though, we were unable to obtain employment records for the last four months.”

“What do you mean?” I turned to look at him.

“Well, he was employed there,” Crowley explained. “He was a manager there for about a year. However, when we went to the bar, we could not find any official records for him beginning four months ago. No pay stubs, no tax paperwork. We also learned from a different employee that the owner of the bar suddenly stopped making his weekly visits approximately four months ago.”

“What?” Olivia gasped. “That’s a hell of a coincidence.”

“Indeed.” Crowley nodded gravely. “Apparently, Roberts told the other employees, most of whom are part-timers, that the owner had gone on vacation. None of them thought to question it until what happened last night.”

“Murder’s a pretty big step up from the petty crimes he’s been arrested for before,” I muttered as I turned to peer at him through the window. “Though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, considering he did shoot at us and in a bar full of people no less.”

“Maybe the owner found out what he was up to,” Holm suggested. “If he wasn’t in on it himself, Roberts would have to shut him up before he went to the police.”

“Let’s find out,” I replied as I pushed the door open.

Roberts looked up at us as we entered, the scowl on his face growing even more menacing as he recognized us.

“I’ll kill you,” he snarled, his teeth bared like a rabid dog.

“I’m sure you will,” I replied sarcastically as I sat down in front of him. His face turned a shade redder at the casual way in which I’d dismissed him. That was good. The more I poked his buttons, the easier it would be to get him to talk.

“You have quite the little operation going on down at that bar in Kew Town, huh?”

He snorted at me derisively before looking away, clearly intending not to talk. Why did they always have to do this the hard way?

“Tell me, just how long have you been doing this?” I asked, unable to keep the disgust I felt out of my voice. “It must be quite a while now, considering one of your victims was kidnapped nearly twenty years ago. You know who I’m talking about, don’t you?”

His gaze slid over to meet mine. He had an unreadable expression on his face. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but I did know that my words had at least caught his attention.

“Allison Newark,” Olivia suddenly chimed in. “I believe you knew her as Cat. Does that ring any bells?”

That definitely stirred a reaction. Roberts leaned across the table to sneer at her.

“What the hell is it to you?” he snapped at her.

“So you do know her,” I surmised. “Then you must have been there the day she escaped, too. Were you the one who shot at her?”

“Of course I did!” he roared, catching me by surprise. There was so much fury in his voice, more than seemed normal even for a piece of criminal scum like him. “She thought she could just leave! Run off and take the kid with her! Who the hell did she think she was?”

“Why wouldn’t she take her child with her?” Olivia asked, obviously confused by the man’s phrasing.

“Because she belongs to me!” he hissed back. “All