Page 6 of Be Very Quiet

“You’re finally conscious. For a while there, I was beginning to think you wouldn’t wake at all, and what fun would that be?”

He turned his head as much as the restraints would allow. His lips curled in disgust to see Erik Swanson staring back at him. “You sonofabitch,” he spat. “I always knew you were dirty.”

“I finally got you right where I want you, Russo.” He smiled evilly before twisting a handle on a crank. The chain around Luca’s neck tightened, and he was lifted in the air until his toes barely touched a platform beneath his feet. He hissed at the pressure on his windpipe.

“You should’ve come at me like a man,” he wheezed. “It would’ve been a fair fight instead of ambushing me from behind like a coward.”

Swanson reversed the crank until Luca’s feet touched again. He sucked in a much-needed breath.

“That wasn’t me. I’m not afraid of you, Russo. I would’ve come at you head-on, and I’d have taken your sorry ass down.”

“I’m the one who hit you.”

Luca blinked, trying to focus. The lack of oxygen caused his vision to falter. When a face swam into view, he was struck momentarily speechless. “Sherry? You’re involved in this?”

Swanson tugged her to him for a disgusting, sloppy kiss. Huh, he’d never have put them together. He lost all the respect he had for the female detective. He’d never had any for Swanson.

Swanson released her, grinning smugly. “Jealous, Russo? Sherry picked me, not you. We’ve been going at it like rabbits for years.”

Classy. “Not even a little bit.”

“What do you mean?” Swanson looked perplexed. “Look at her rack. Her ass is bodacious. She’s every man’s fantasy.”

Not only was she overdone and persnickety, but he didn’t go for heartless, cruel child abusers. “She’s not my type.”

Sherry gasped as if he’d dealt her a physical blow.

“He’s lying,” Swanson assured her. “Everyone wants you, sugar bear.”

That seemed to pacify her, and she turned her attention to Luca. “Why are you so interested in the cabin fire?”

“How do you know about that?”

“I heard you and Isobel talking in the break room.”

“You mean you eavesdropped—ah!” Luca sputtered when the chain tightened again. He hadn’t been prepared and fought to keep his toes in contact with the platform. It was barely a relief since the pressure on his neck bordered on excruciating, but he refused to let them know how excessively it hurt. Much more, and they’d know anyway since he’d be dead.

“Try again, asshole,” Swanson snapped. “You know something. The question is, how much?” He lowered the chain again, and Luca’s feet touched down. Breath sawed in and out of his lungs. “Lie to me, and I’ll jerk you up again. I can do this all night. I don’t think you can. Spill. What do you know?”

At this point, Luca had nothing to lose. They wouldn’t let him live, no matter what. He wasn’t sure he could survive many more yanks of the chain. He wanted answers before he died, so he told them everything.

Swanson tried to mask his shock, but Luca was a trained detective. Sherry had no poker face at all. She’d blanched white. “Yeah? Where’s your evidence?” Swanson demanded with false bravado.

With the evidence destroyed, none of this could be proven. They didn’t need to know that tidbit. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

Swanson slammed a fist into Luca’s stomach. The force sent him swinging, knocking the wind from his lungs and his toes off the block. The chain tightened around his neck again, cutting off what little oxygen he had left. His feet struggled for purchase as he swung back and forth. He landed one foot on the platform to stop the momentum and then the other, sucking in air as the pressure slightly lightened. He was having trouble focusing. His field of vision had narrowed to pinpricks. He was already dealing with a head injury from whatever Sherry had smashed into his skull. Repeatedly depriving his brain of oxygen couldn’t be good.

He’d always known Swanson was a sadistic bastard, but he couldn’t figure out Sherry’s part. He’d considered her a good cop and a friend. She was most definitely high maintenance, from the weekly manicures to the expensively styled hair to the four-inch heels she insisted on wearing. Despite all that, he’d never looked at her as anything other than a colleague. They’d bounced ideas off each other in the past, and he respected her opinion. To know that she had a part in selling children online was hard to reconcile with the person he thought her to be. Realization dawned. The girls were dolled up for the cameras.

“You did their hair and makeup,” he gritted out accusingly.

Sherry’s silence was all the proof he needed.

His stomach ached worse from Sherry’s duplicity than from Swanson’s blow. “Why?”

She shrugged and averted her gaze. Despite his limited sight, he caught the flash of remorse in her eyes. Somewhere inside was a decent person. Could he reach that part of her? “How could you be involved with selling innocent children? You were so good at speaking to the grade-schoolers about safety and bullying. They adored you.” It was true. The young kids hung on her every word.

Any regret he thought he saw was gone when she turned to him with a sneer. “The world’s a cruel, dark place, Luca. You should know that by now. None of us are getting out alive. We might as well enjoy the ride while we can, and to me, that means money. Lots and lots of it. We put our lives on the line daily, and we barely make enough to survive.” She pointed a finger at him like he had something to do with their salaries. “I wanted my fair share.”

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