Page 141 of Always Red (Chasing Red 2)

At Justin’s blank stare, Clooney shook his head mockingly. “Don’t make this hard for yourself. They’ll put you away for twenty years if you don’t cooperate.”

Fear lit up Justin’s eyes. “You’re lying.”

“I’m sure they can make it twenty-five. What ya think, Constable Penner?”

Constable Penner stroked his beard. “Easily, I’d say.”

“Possession of drugs, theft…and what’s this?” Clooney gripped Justin’s wrist, whistled softly. “A Piaget watch.”

Rage boiled in my blood.

In a lightning-fast movement, Clooney took the watch off and inspected it. “Lookee here. I see an engraving on the back: To my grandson, Caleb. Mr. Dumont, this is possession of stolen property. This is worth over five grand, eh? That means longer jail time, for sure. Does this look familiar to you, Mr. Lockhart?” He handed the watch to me.

I looked at Justin. “This is my watch. My grandpa gave it to me before he passed away, you motherfucker.”

“I got it from a pawnshop!” Justin backed away, but the holding cell was no bigger than a five-dollar bill. He bumped against the wall behind him. “I didn’t steal it from you!”

“How did you get into my apartment?” I demanded. “You better tell me everything. You know the connections my family has, you bastard. I’ll put you away for life.”

He shook his head, swallowing nervously. “Sh-she gave me the code. Beatrice-Rose. It was her. She paid me to watch your girlfriend.”

“Watch my girlfriend?”

“I have Beatrice-Rose’s text messages. I’ll show you everything. It’s evidence. I have evidence! It’s not my fault!”

“Start talking,” I said quietly. The urge to smash his face was getting stronger every second.

“She wanted me to follow your girlfriend while you were spending the night at her place. I told her I saw your girlfriend buying a present, and she told me to steal it.”

A present. Red had told me she bought me a present. A key chain, Kara had said.

I realized he was talking about the night when Beatrice-Rose visited my flat while Red was there. The awful night that had started everything—when I took Beatrice-Rose home, thinking she was having a panic attack, and left Red alone in my flat.

“But I didn’t steal it. Beatrice-Rose went back for it. She stole it! Said she’d pay me if I scared your girlfriend a little bit.”

“Scare her?” I reached through the bars and grabbed his arm, pulling hard. He let out a howl of pain as I slammed him against the bars. “Touch her again, and I’ll cut both your arms off,” I whispered in his ear, softly enough that only he could hear me.

“He’s threatening me! Did you hear that? He said he’s going to cut my arms off! He said he’s going to cut my arms off! Do something!”

“Didn’t hear nothing, son. Calm down now.” Constable Penner placed a heavy hand on my shoulder. “Let him go.”

“What the fuck did you do to my girl?”

“I’m not telling you anything more! Get him away from me!”

“Son, calm down now,” Constable Penner said to me. “Let him go. Don’t make me arrest you too.”

Before I let Justin go, I slammed him against the bars again.

Constable Penner cleared his throat until Justin looked at him. “I’ll make sure you won’t rot in prison if you tell us everything,” Penner said. “If you don’t, I’ll try my best to keep you there for thirty years. I’m not kidding. I take my job very seriously.”

I didn’t know if he was telling the truth about the prison sentence or if it was just a tactic to make this asshole talk, but I certainly wasn’t going to stop him.

Justin moved to the corner of the cell, as far away from me as possible. “I didn’t do anything. I just pushed her a little, and she fell on the ground. Didn’t hurt her or anything.”

My hands balled into fists. “You fucker.”

Constable Penner nodded. “What happened after that?”

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