Page 92 of Mob Bride

Eventually, the agents who were upstairs make their way back down. Their boxes remain clearly empty. One of them shakes her head. Now I hear the basement door. My stomach knots, but I show no outward reaction when footsteps on the wooden stairs reach me.

“You’re still under arrest, Mr. O’Rourke.”

Cormac turns with his camera still on and faces Steve again. “And you still haven’t told my client what the charges are. Are you going to arrest him without probable cause? There’s no evidence here that justifies an arrest, and you haven’t provided a warrant for him. So, what are your grounds for this, other than to intimidate my client?”

“Intimidate?”

Steve scoffs, but then he remembers why Cormac’s holding up his phone. There’s nothing he can say, short of trying to distract us as much as Cormac and I have been trying to distract them.

“We’d like Mr. O’Rourke to come in for some questioning.”

Cormac doesn’t drop a beat. “My cousin can give you the link to his calendar, and you can book an appointment.”

“Book an appointment?”

Steve’s voice rises with each syllable until he’s practically yelling the last one. Perfect. Let him get upset. Let him show his arse even more.

“Yes, you have no grounds to detain my client, so you’re not arresting him. You said you’d like to ask him some questions. I don’t believe my cousin would like to answer any. Therefore, you can schedule an appointment, just like anybody else who’d like to have a meeting with him.”

“You are unreal.”

“Am I though? Because right now, I sound very much alive with my freedom of speech intact, recording all of this.”

Cormac’s tone remains innocent, like he and Seamus did when we were kids, and somehow always stayed out of trouble when our parents busted the rest of us. He makes his point loud and clear.

“If you have nothing else to do here now that you’ve searched the entire premises, and—I heard the agents come in and out from the backyard and the garage—you can leave.”

Cormac and I wait, and it takes a moment before Steve orders his agents out of the house. Cormac lowers his camera, but I know he still has it angled toward the door.

“Mr. O’Rourke, this isn’t nearly over. You will do what we want, and we will get what we want.”

Cormac holds his phone up again.

“That’s a very interesting thought to share. I’ll be sure that’s included when we file a harassment and wrongful detention suit. Thank you for letting us know your plans.”

Now Cormac grins, since he’ll easily spin that last comment into a perceived threat against us and an admission to premeditated evidence tampering.

Steve snaps his mouth shut and cuts in front of two other agents to leave my house. Angela’s the last one out. I gesture for Cormac to put his phone away. I know he’s not turning off the recording, but he puts his phone out of sight.

“You’re doing her no favors. We will find her.”

“Who is her?”

I play ignorant, since nobody has mentioned her name yet. With no warrant, they’d hoped to find her hiding, and that would be probable cause to them.

“Mr. O'Rourke, you know exactly who I’m talking about.”

“But I don’t. There are billions of people in this world whose pronoun is her. You’ll have to be more specific.”

“Carys Pritchard.”

“Oh, okay. I’m not sure how I can help. But I’m certain whatever you’re looking for is very serious. Well, good luck with that.”

“You might get away with patronizing Steve, but you won’t with me. I’m trying to help, so calm down.”

“You don’t think I’m calm, agent?” I sound just as innocent as Cormac.

“I know you have her somewhere. You aren’t doing her any favors by hiding her. If you’re keeping her against her will, then there’ll be no coming back from kidnapping a federal agent.”

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