Page 95 of Beckett
“Are you kidding? Thanks for letting me.”
Through the glass, I got my first real look at Reggie Garrison. The man who’d terrorized Audra for over a year, who’d burned his sick message into her neck, who’d tried to kill us both just yesterday.
He looked…different than I’d expected. The mug shot Travis had shown last night was a skeletal man with hollow cheeks andthat thousand-yard stare that came from hard time. This version carried more weight, filled out through the shoulders and chest. Prison had carved him down to bones and rage, but freedom, and evidently chasing Audra, had let him rebuild. His hair had grown out some from the prison buzz, though it was still thin enough to show scalp, and he was definitely going bald. The beard was new too, patchy and unkempt.
Ugly as fuck, with that particular kind of ugliness that came from the inside out.
He sat cuffed to the table, shoulders rigid with fury rather than fear. Good. Let him be pissed. Let him stew in his own rage while the system he’d thought he could outsmart closed around him like a fist.
“Doing better on the outside than he did inside,” Lachlan observed, echoing my thoughts.
We both looked at the computer screen on the desk with Reggie’s mug shot and compared it with the man in front of us. Definitely the same guy. The fingerprints matched too, confirmed twice through the system.
“Already been Mirandized,” Lachlan continued. “Didn’t ask for an attorney.”
The ultimate sign of arrogance. Every criminal thought they were smart enough to talk their way out of trouble. The truly smart ones knew to shut up and lawyer up. Reggie apparently didn’t fall into that category.
“I’ll try to get a confession,” Lachlan said. “Tie this up with a pretty little bow. No room for reasonable doubt when this goes to trial.”
“You need anything from me?”
“Text me if you think of questions or notice anything I miss. Sometimes an outside perspective helps.”
I pulled out my phone, sending a quick message to Travis.
Reggie in custody. Starting interrogation now. Let the team know they can stand down.
His response came immediately.
Still digging through his digital footprint. Will send anything interesting.
I wanted to send Audra a text too, but she still didn’t have a phone. I needed to rectify that immediately. Instead, I sent one to Lark, asking her to let Audra know everything was going well.
Lachlan rolled his shoulders, slipping into what I recognized as his interrogation mode—calm, professional, with just enough edge to keep suspects off-balance. He was good at it, better than I would ever be. I’d want to go straight for the throat. Lachlan knew how to play the long game.
“Here we go,” he said and pushed through the door into the interrogation room.
Through the speaker system, I heard the door close with finality. Reggie’s head snapped up, eyes tracking Lachlan’s movement with the hypervigilance of someone who’d learned to watch for threats in prison.
Lachlan settled into the chair across from him, movements deliberate and unhurried. “I’m Sheriff Calloway. We need to discuss why you’re in Garnet Bend.”
“This is bullshit!” Reggie exploded immediately, spit flying. “You drugged me! I don’t even know how I got to that rest stop! Last thing I remember was—” He paused, confusion flickering across his face. “Your storm troopers drugged me and dragged me here! This is some kind of setup!”
His voice had a nasal quality that made my skin crawl, high and whining like a teenager who’d been caught with porn.
“No one drugged you, Mr. Garrison. You were arrested on multiple warrants, including stalking, assault, and attempted murder.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about! My head is killing me because of whatever you people did to me!”
Reggie pressed his palms against his temples, face contorting. The headache was probably real—looked like a hangover to me. The sheen of sweat on his forehead, the slight tremor in his hands, the way the fluorescent lights made him squint.
“Perhaps you had too much to drink last night?” Lachlan suggested mildly. “The officers noted empty beer cans in your vehicle.”
“I want to sue! All of you! This is false imprisonment! Police brutality!”
“You’re free to file a complaint. After we discuss why you’ve been stalking Audra Cartland for the past fourteen months.”
At Audra’s name, something shifted in Reggie’s expression. The rage didn’t diminish, but it focused, sharpened into something more personal.
