Page 96 of Mann Hunt
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Luke drove towards Calgary while Justin sat handcuffed in the back seat of his car.
“We have CCTV and fingerprint evidence that prove you were at the house where Ian Mann was last seen on Thursday, July seventh. Wanna tell me what happened?” Luke asked.
“I didn’t do anything. I just wanted to talk to him. He had something of mine, and I wanted it back.”
“What did you want so badly that you pulled a knife on him?”
Luke watched Justin in the rear-view mirror. He was chewing his lower lip. It was like he was deciding on what story to tell. “You can start now, or we can wait’ll I get you down to the station and we get your folks involved. Maybe they’d be interested in hearing about your hotel buddy.”
“No. Please don’t call them. There were some photographs Ian Mann took of me and I wanted them back, that’s all.”
“Naked photos? Was that what he was into, taking naked shots of teen boys?” Luke asked.
“No. I was just…dressed up, and I thought if anyone else saw them, they’d think maybe I was…gay, or something. I can’t have people saying that about me. I’d be dead.” Justin stared at the floor as he spoke.
“And you pulled a knife on him?”
“Just to scare him. I wasn’t gonna use it. And it worked. He said he was sorry he’d upset me so much, and he promised not to show anyone the pictures. Then he said he’d give them to me.”
Luke probed, “What did you do next?”
“I left the way I came.”
“How did you know he was going to be at that house?”
“I knew where he lived. I went there to ask for the pictures but when I got there, he was getting into his car. I followed him. I couldn’t get in, because the gate closed behind him, so I had to climb a wall. That’s the way I got out, too.”
“Did you follow him when he left?” Luke asked.
“No.” Justin paused. “But I did see something.”
Luke tightened his hands on the steering wheel. “What did you see?”
“When Ian left, there was a car just down the street. A guy got out of it and stopped him.”
“Did you see what this guy looked like?”
“It was too dark to make out anything clearly. He was a muscular guy. About your size.”
“How about the car?”
“I don’t know. It was a car, not a truck.”
“See if you can remember anything else.”
“I got spooked and drove away. I just saw someone stop Ian’s car, and then I left. I don’t know what happened after that.”
Luke glanced at Justin in the rear-view mirror. His eyes were closed. Streaks of tears marked his cheeks. Then Justin opened his eyes. He looked at Luke with a strange expression on his face. “I’d like to make a phone call. I’m allowed that, right? When we get to the station, I’ll need my phone.”
Luke stared back and said, “No. I don’t think so,” as he turned off the highway away from the police station, and drove towards a place he’d been one time before—a boarded-up store between a bistro and a condo under construction.
Chapter Thirty
“Well, that must have been embarrassing,” Carrie said.
Charlie sat at the table in her kitchen relating the previous day’s adventures. He wore her second-best bathrobe and stayed out of her way as she scrambled eggs and made toast.
