who introduced himself as Conrad Underwood. They followed Underwood up two flights of stairs. The Major Crimes Unit, where they were supposed to meet Detectives Evans and England, looked more like a telephone call center than a specialized police unit. Unlike Rio’s bullpen, which was one big square room full of metal desks, Dark Falls Major Crimes Unit was long and rectangular with rows of cubicles separated by narrow aisles. Not that they’d had a chance to see much of it. The two detectives waited at the entryway and escorted them to an interview room around the corner.
Detective Rhys Evans was a big blond dude with tats peeking out from beneath his sleeves. He was dressed casual—a white polo and khakis—and had the wide shoulders and narrow hips of a quarterback. Tag would bet a case of Bud that the guy had played ball back in the day.
The guy reminded him of Rio—but not his looks. This dude was light to Rio’s dark. No, it was the eyes and the lack of expression. That shuttered take-everything-in-and-give-nothing-away look was apparently handed out to cops alongside their weapons, radios, and badges. Evans's partner, who’d introduced himself as Mason England, had the same affect.
“Did your brother ever mention Dark Falls?” Evans asked, his flat blue eyes shifting from Sarah to Tag and back. “Did he say anything that indicated he was in Dark Falls, as this Porter Hayes told you?”
“No. He didn’t call very often. And when he did, he never mentioned Dark Falls.” Sarah’s voice didn’t waver.
She’d held up amazingly well under the questioning. Better than he’d expected. She’d stuck with the same story every time they’d asked, and they’d asked numerous times—from multiple entry points—as he’d known they would. Interrogations were interrogations whether the interrogators were cops or special operators.
It was obvious that the past two years had taught her to lie. And to lie with conviction.
“Your fiancé never responded to Hayes’s demands.” England stepped in. “And you never spoke with him. So what makes you believe what Hayes told you? What makes you believe your fiancé is selling stolen military weaponry?”
Tag gritted his teeth and held his tongue. He’d already told them what Mitch had said over the phone—or at least some of it—and Tram would bear witness to that conversation. But the cops were feeling Sarah out, wondering if she had a grudge against her fiancé, wondering why she’d believe the word of a criminal.
“Ex-fiancé,” Sarah said. “And I’m not sure I do believe what my kidnapper said. But it made me wonder. Sean was supposed to be at my wedding. He was supposed to give me away. He promised me—promised—that he’d be there. Only he never showed. He’s not answering his phone. He’s not returning my messages. I can’t get hold of him. Hayes told me my brother was here, so I came to look for him.”
“And your fiancé?” Evans asked, his gaze hard on Sarah’s face, assessing every flicker of emotion.
“Ex-fiancé,” Sarah stressed again. “What about him?”
Sarah’s question emerged stiff. Raw. But not suspicious—thank Christ.
“Do you believe he’s capable of what Hayes implied?”
She lifted a hand to her pale cheek and brushed aside a strand of hair. “I don’t know. Hayes called him repeatedly. Left him threatening messages about what he was going to do to me if Mitch didn’t pay up.” Her voice shook, dropped then rose. “But Mitch never picked up. He didn’t make arrangements to pay the ransom. He didn’t make arrangements to get me back. What am I supposed to think?”
“That he was working to get you back in other ways. He’s a SEAL, right? He’d have the capabilities.”
“Then why didn’t he join Brett and Lucas? Why didn’t he join the SEALs looking for me? His own teammates? Why didn’t he answer the phone and talk to Porter Hayes? He could have reassured him that he was gathering the money. He could have stalled for time until his buddies rescued me. But he didn’t do any of that. He disappeared instead.”
All valid points. The two detectives exchanged indecipherable looks.
“Could Armstrong be dead? Maybe that’s why he never answered.”
“I didn’t talk to him from the grave,” Tag bit out. “He was alive when he told me he had no intention of paying her ransom.”
Another glance between the two detectives. Yeah, he might want to think about toning down his own responses. At this rate they’d think he had feelings for the woman beside him.