Page 25 of Rescuing Alix

They pulled into the station lot and found a spot in the visitor parking. When they were both out of the car he hugged her to him until he felt her relax. He kissed her forehead then grabbed her hand and walked her into the building where he asked to speak with Detective Wilson.

“Thanks for coming Alix, I’m Detective Wilson. Follow me and we can have a quick chat.”

He led the way to the interrogation room and closed the door behind them. After a twenty-minute conversation with a lot of questions that she didn’t really know the answers to, the detective moved them to another similar room.

“Kody, I don’t think I’m ready for this.”

“You heard what he detective said, he just wants you to look through the men and if any are familiar to you, just let him know. Like I said, they already have the guy so they just want to know if you’re as familiar with him as he is with you.”

“When you say it that way, it sounds really creepy.”

“I know, sorry.”

Kody put an arm around Alix, pulling her close for moral support.

***

Alix was extremely nervous to see the line-up of men about to be displayed in front of her. Shewasslightly curious to know though, what kind of a person could do this to someone. She was glad Kody was with her, he always made her feel safe.

She jumped when the door opened, and Detective Wilson entered the room. He turned the lights down low and picked up the telephone, telling the person on the other end they were ready.

She could see people on the other side of the glass filing into the room, but it was too dark to see what they looked like. A few seconds later the lights in that room lit up bright and a voice told the men to face forward.

“Okay Alix, from left to right, slowly take a good look at each person as they step forward and tell me if you think you know any of them.”

She nodded in agreement but didn’t really have any words. She made her way through each person until she got to number eight and she tensed.

“I know that man.”

The detective picked up the phone again and told number eight to step up again.

“Okay Alix, how do you know this person.”

She looked at Kody and back at the detective.

“He’s a customer of mine at the café.”

“Okay, do you know him well?”

“I don’t know him at all actually. He started coming in for lunch a couple weeks ago I think but I’ve never had a conversation with him until a few days ago.”

“A conversation about what?” The detective pulled a notebook from his pocket and started scribbling notes.

“Just about lunch. Actually, Kody was there too. This guy came in after him, but Kody let him order first. He started asking personal questions about what I was doing over the weekend. I ignored it, took his order and while I was in the back making it, the guy turned on Kody. He wanted to know what he was doing there and that he shouldn’t be bother me.”

“Was Kody bothering you?”

“No, not at all. I had to force that other man to leave. Then he came the next day. While my partner was helping him, Kody came in and I went to talk to him. The man got angry because I wasn’t paying attention to him, so I told him to leave or I’d call the police. That was the last I’d seen him.”

The detective turned back to the phone and said they could take all the men out.

“Thanks, so much Alix. You both are free to go but keep your phone close, I’ll be calling you in the next couple days.”

“Is it that number eight?” The detective hesitated, avoiding eye contact with Alix at first.

“It is actually, but keep that on the downlow, it isn’t official yet. We haven’t been able to connect him with the café fires but he was your burglar. The officers caught him going through the woods.

“Will you keep him locked up then?”

---