Page 13 of For Silence

"Nothing civil about that woman," he spat, bitterness seeping through every syllable. "Accusing me... Making my life hell..."

"Stand up, Mr. Keen," Morgan insisted, unwilling to wade through the mire of his marital woes.

"Make me!" Keen shouted, and with a sudden, reckless motion, he hurled his beer glass in her direction.

Instinctively, Morgan sidestepped, the projectile shattering against the wall behind her. Glass shards rained down like crystalline raindrops, catching the light with their brief, violent lives. The bar patrons gasped, turning their heads towards the commotion.

"Dammit, Keen," Morgan muttered under her breath. She lunged forward as Keen staggered from his stool, attempting to bolt for the door.

But Morgan was quicker, her honed reflexes snapping into action as she closed the distance, gripping his arm in an iron-tight hold. Keen squirmed and cursed, his face a mottled red as he struggled to break free.

"Let me go!" he spat, his eyes wide with fear. But there was something else there, too—a desperate glint that spoke of dark secrets and hopeless corners.

"I need you to calm down," Morgan ordered, maintaining her grip despite his thrashing. “Throwing a glass at a federal agent is assault, Keen—you’re under arrest.”

"Get off me!" His voice wavered on the edge of panic, attracting a crowd of onlookers from the bar patrons. But as Morgan read him his rights and snapped the cuffs on his wrist, she knew she’d won this time.

CHAPTER FIVE

The stench of stale liquor wafted from Daniel Keen's slack-jawed mouth as he slumped in the metal chair. The interrogation room was cold and sterile, but the man before Morgan seemed oblivious to the chill, his consciousness ebbing like the tide. Morgan leaned forward, her dark eyes sharp as flint.

"Mr. Keen," she began, her voice slicing through the haze of alcohol that enveloped him. "I need you to focus."

Daniel's eyelids fluttered, a slow grin spreading across his face, incongruent with the severity of the situation. "Agent... Cross, is it?" he slurred, his words a jumbled mess. "You're here 'bout Debby, right? Can't leave a guy to drown his sorrows in peace?"

Morgan's patience was a thin veneer over her frustration; time was a luxury she couldn't afford. "This has nothing to do with your wife, Mr. Keen. Your recent purchases have brought you under scrutiny."

Confusion flickered across Daniel's reddened features, his mind struggling to keep up. "Purchases? What are you—Debby?" His thoughts were a tangled skein, knotted and frayed.

"Focus, Daniel," Morgan pressed, her tone sharpening like the blade of a knife.

Morgan flicked the two glossy images across the scarred steel table, their corners skidding to a stop inches from Daniel Keen's slack fingers. One imagine of Elaine Harrows, smiling and alive. Another of Gina Bellwood, looking stoic.

"Recognize them?" Morgan's voice sliced through the haze of alcohol emanating from Keen like a knife.

Daniel squinted at the photos, his focus wavering before locking onto the faces. "Yeah," he slurred, the word dragging out into a sneer. "Screwed my clients over... more times than I can count."

"Good," Morgan replied, a cold satisfaction settling in her chest. She leaned forward, tattoos stretching along her arms as she braced herself on the table, dark eyes boring into him. "Because this isn't about your petty grievances, Keen. This is about murder."

"Murder?" The scowl etched deeper across Daniel's face, a wrinkle of confusion between his furrowed brows. He pawed at the photos, a clumsy attempt to align them better with his blurred vision. "Elaine? Sure, heard something happened to her. But Gina?" His voice wavered, disbelief and alcohol blending into a potent cocktail of denial.

"Dead," Morgan confirmed, letting each letter drop like a stone into the growing pit of realization in Daniel's gut. "Both of them. And not by accident."

"Is this some kinda sick joke?" Keen's laugh was hollow, a sound that didn't reach the bloodshot desperation in his eyes. He tried to prop himself up, but his limbs betrayed him, as unsteady as the rest of his crumbling defense.

"This is very real." Morgan's words were as sharp and precise as the blade she'd once been accused of wielding. "Sober up, Keen. I need you clear-headed. We're talking life and death here—yours might just hang in the balance."

Daniel's gaze faltered, flickering between the photographs and Morgan's unwavering stare. Somewhere beneath the liquor and loss, a spark of sobriety ignited. "I'm tryin'," he muttered, forcing the words out like they were dredged from the bottom of a bottle. "Tryin' to take it seriously."

"Try harder," Morgan snapped back. She leaned in, her eyes unblinking as she studied the man across from her. The interrogation room was suffocating, the air thick with the tang of alcohol that seeped from Daniel's pores. She had seen many a suspect unravel in these confines, but Keen seemed on the precipice of collapse without a nudge. "Let's talk about Gina Bellwood's last case," Morgan said, her voice steady. "She defended a man accused of attempted assault on his child with a noose. Ring any bells?"

Keen's gaze was distant, his thoughts adrift in a liquor-fueled haze. He shook his head, strands of disheveled hair clinging to his forehead. "Don't... don't know what you're getting at," he slurred, squinting to focus on Morgan's face. "Never paid her cases any mind 'less they crossed mine."

"Is that so?" Morgan pressed, sensing the veneer of indifference was just another layer she'd peel back. She knew Keen's type—prideful to a fault, yet crumbling under the weight of their own failures.

"Cross my heart," Daniel muttered, a sardonic grin twitching at the corners of his mouth before dissolving into nothingness.

"Sure, Daniel," Morgan replied, her tone dry as desert sand. She made a mental note of his denial, filing it away as she shifted her approach. "Earlier this week, you purchased a marine rope," she began, watching as Keen's bloodshot eyes widened slightly, a flicker of awareness cutting through the fog. "A rope similar to the one used in Gina's murder."

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