Unholy Shepherd by Robert Christian (rooftoppers txt) 📕

if there was a chance that the old priest was right, then she’d have to play the role that she had been given.

THIRTY

Manny sat on a bench in the hallway of the Sheriff’s Department, leaning his elbows on his knees and tenting his fingers to his lips. His eyes were fixed on a single tile on the floor in front of him, his vision occasionally broken by a pair of feet going by. He should have been thinking about his purpose for being there. Instead, he was thinking of Maureen. She seemed different ever since her dinner with the priest—more serious, determined. He told himself to let it go for the time being. The continual mystery of that woman needed to wait.

Manny jerked his head up at the sound of a slamming door across the hall. Agent Layton stood opposite him as if he had materialized out of thin air. The older man looked at him for a moment before stepping over and taking a seat next to him.

“Sandra Locke broke pretty quickly,” he said. “We only needed to sweat her for about half an hour. It was just like we figured. She helped doctor the books and got the payoff to clear her mortgage. Unfortunately, she wasn’t involved so far as to know who was behind the laundering. The LLC that purchased the building is routed through a couple dozen shell companies and bank accounts, and it’s nearly impossible even for our forensic accountants to unravel it. So we need to get Tom Lowes to roll on his business partners. You ready?”

Manny let out a sigh and slowly rose to his feet. He straightened his tie and buttoned the top button of his jacket.

“Let’s go,” he said as he began to start up the hallway.

“Hang on, kid,” the agent said, holding his arm in front of Manny. “Slow yourself. You can’t go head-on at Lowes and expect him to just give it all up.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“Not ‘we’,” the agent said. “You.”

“Come again?”

“I’ve read all your notes on the case,” Layton replied. “I was particularly drawn to your early ones, where you detailed how you decided to follow our good Ms. Allen the night you caught her at the Lowes house. You caught a small throwaway comment from a bartender, who you had never met, and you followed your instincts. So follow your instincts now. How would you suggest we go about handling our situation here?”

Manny thought for a moment, pacing the hall. Suddenly he realized that he hadn’t seen anyone come out of the interview room since the agent’s exit. A smile came to his face.

“Does Tom Lowes know that Sandra is here right now?” he asked Layton.

“He does not,” the agent replied, grinning.

“And Tom is still out in the waiting room, correct?”

Layton nodded.

“Then I think I have an idea. We’re going to take her out, right past him, and make him paranoid about what she might have told us.”

“Bravo,” said the agent.

A few minutes later, Manny and Agent Layton were silently escorting Sandra Locke through the halls toward the waiting room. The agent had made sure that the woman’s hands were not cuffed and remained visible in front of her. After all, they could only charge her as an accessory to fraud, and she was technically a free woman. Whether the county courts wanted to charge her, was their business.

They rounded the last corner and came into the waiting room. Tom Lowes was sitting in a chair next to his wife, an uneasy look threatening to break through on his face. Manny and Layton slowed their pace, making sure that the broker had ample time to see Mrs. Locke with them. Sandra’s eyes remained cast down at the floor, but as they neared, Manny saw them raise the slightest bit and find Tom. He saw that the man had caught her look and was now making a concerted effort not to continue looking in their direction.

Gotcha.

Manny turned his head to hide his satisfied look and led Sandra to the front doors and then mimed a quick conversation with the agent. Layton headed in the opposite direction, and Manny waived over one of the deputies and asked him to escort Mr. Lowes to interview room three.

Following the plan that he and Agent Layton had formed, Manny went to the break room for a cup of coffee and waited a good twenty minutes before he headed over to the interview room himself. He made sure he was carrying a manila folder with several papers inside. Several blank papers. He entered the room where Tom Lowes sat, leafed through the folder without looking at him, then excused himself, stating that he had the wrong file. He exited, marched around to the viewing area and exchanged his manila folder with a forest green one that the deputy was holding. In a few moments, Layton came around the corner and stood by the window. He nodded at Manny.

That was Manny’s cue to enter. The agent was going to watch from behind the glass, and he would conduct the interview. Between the strategy that they had mapped out and Tom Lowes’ guilty conscience, they would get what they needed.

“Mr. Lowes,” he said as he walked into the room and took a seat at the table opposite the broker, “you’re not under arrest, but I would appreciate it if you would answer my questions.”

“Must I? I mean, I’ve heard that you’re no longer with the investigation.”

“That is technically true,” Manny replied turning and nodding toward the mirror, “but would you rather have me or a federal agent sitting across the table from you right now? Sandra already talked. You might as well help us out. Help yourself out. And if not for you, for the memory of your son.”

“You don’t understand,” Lowes said, looking down at the table. “I can’t. More lives will get destroyed.”

“Only if you don’t talk,” Manny said, allowing his voice to build to a