Page 64 of Shattered
“Well,youtruly don’t seem like the type,” he said, the sarcasm evident. “So I don’t mind sharing what we know.” My heart rate decreased. He was toying with me now, but he had nothing on me yet. He forced a smile, then looked down at his notepad again. “Have you noticed anything strange about your time at the club? Suspicious activities? A person with strange behavior?” He pulled out a folder and removed pictures of the male staff, serving as security, and placed them in front of me. “Do these faces bring anything to mind?”
Jake’s dimpled grin glared at me. The piece of shit.
“This one,” I said. “He has a crush on Mel.” I took the photo and studied it. “We spoke about her once.”
“Jake Harris?” He vigorously nodded. “A long time crush.” He wrote a quick sentence down. “Innocent though?”
I shrugged, but inside, I was reeling. “He has a reputation.”
He lifted his chin. “Oh? Such as?”
What the hell was I doing? I had to stop myself. “You’ll have to ask the servers for the details.”
He crossed his arms tight around his body. “But you know something.”
I gave a slight shrug. “Only that his behavior can be called questionable to some.” To people like me, the Angel sitting right in front of you, Detective. “He isn’t universally liked.”
He wrote down what I said, then nodded. “Thank you for that.”
We stood and shook hands. “Am I remembering the rumors correctly, that the Dahlia District has connections with the Adler family?” I asked.
Detective Foreman sighed and nodded. “Unfortunately, that is true. Their attorney is from the Adler family.”
“The mob is backing them, then.” I nodded deeply, and stuck a firm hand on his shoulder as if to express my condolences for the lost case. Some of the suspects protected by a ring of criminals.
“Unfortunately.” Detective Foreman shook his head. He knew, then, that even trying to go after anyone from the Dahlia District was futile. “It’s been a dead-end trying to get almost anything on the servers and staff of the Dahlia District. So if anything, anything at all, seems noteworthy to you, please give us a call.”
“Of course,” I said.
Detective Foreman escorted me to the lobby in front of the police station, and we chatted politely for another moment. Then I walked outside and saw a flash of brown hair. Jake. He was pacing, walking back and forth on the side of the building. Crossing his arms, uncrossing them. He hit the sides of his face as if to wake up. A man close to a panic attack.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
His jaw dropped open, but then he rushed towards me. “You’ve gotta help me out, man. They’re gonna think I killed those guys, but I didn’t. I swear I didn’t.” Sweat ran down his cheeks, his breathing erratic. I slapped him on the back.
“Get yourself together. You’re acting like you have a guilty conscience. This will be a damn confession if you keep acting like this.”
Jake let out a long, exasperated sigh, which turned into dry heaving. He held his sides, and eventually, I eased him to the ground, sitting next to him on the grass.
When he caught his breath, he rambled with a new sense of vigor: “You know, it’s not like I’m doing anything different than what they would have done anyway. Slip them a drug, or get them to drink enough. Either way, they’ll be drunk as hell. So what’s the difference?”
“You only expedite the process,” I said.
“Exactly. You get it.”
The concept itself was logical enough, but the motivation behind it was worthy of getting his dick chopped off and shoved down his own throat.
I nodded solemnly, trying to ease his nerves. “So what happened?”
“I used to bounce at the Theater, you know?” I knew that. What a wonderful world we lived in, to be given the sense of false security from pricks like Jake. “I was hanging out with this stripper there the other day. We used to be tight, you know? Back when I worked there. But then I come back for some drinks and she acts like she’s too good for me and the next thing I know, she was passed out in my lap. What was I supposed to do? Tips at the Dahlia District have been crappy since the Angel rampaged through our town. And it’s not like she hid her wallet.”
It’s not like she ever thought she’d have to, not around Jake, someone who had once protected her.
So he had stolen her money after he drugged her. “Did you fuck her?” I asked.
“I’m not going to let the roofie go to waste. You know how much one dose costs these days?”
On the exterior, Jake seemed charming. The bouncer that would protect the servers from club members like me. But he was one of the worst predators of all, hiding behind false sweetness and the appearance of love.
