Page 50 of Wolf Bound

“I didn’t plan any of these.”

“How many kidnappings were you involved in?”

“I didn’t plan them.”

“If you were with the other two men who planned them and you took part in them, you are partially responsible,” Larry said.

Royce let out his breath and ran his hands through his hair. “Okay, I was only with them on this last case, and I didn’t grab the kid, plan any of it, or anything. I was just supposed to drive and hell, I didn’t know that they were going to do it.”

Bridget shook her head. “Twelve kidnappings occurred and though he didn’t actually plan them—Oscar and Reggie did that—Royce was there and an active participant in all of them.”

Kira shook her head. “He’s good at lying, that’s for sure. And here I had believed he was telling the truth.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Fisher said.

“So what kind of a deal can I get, if I tell all?” Royce asked.

Larry leaned back in his chair. “You’ll tell me where Reggie and Oscar are? You’ll testify against them?”

“What will I get for it?”

“No promises.”

“But you said you would represent me.”

“I’ll talk to Dan to see what he has to say.” Larry got up from his chair. “I’ll be right back.” Then he left the interrogation room, and everyone went with Larry to the office to discuss the matter.

“Okay, so you heard what was discussed,” Larry said. “I told him I would talk to Dan, but I know this is something the USF agents will decide.”

Everett sat down on one of the chairs. “The way we do this is that whoever is involved the most in the crime gets a longer sentence. But they’ll all go down for the roles they played. We don’t make deals. If he wants to give us details, it might help him some, but we can’t guarantee he won’t be punished for his crimes. He’s a more newly turned shifter. He’s a danger to our kind if he’s released out in the public with his willingness to commit crimes against others.”

“I agree,” Fisher said.

Bridget said, “He’s not trustworthy. I don’t believe anything he says. He was involved in everything but the planning, from what I could tell from what he was thinking.”

Smiling, Larry shook his head. “I wish I had your gift, Bridget. Criminals are such con-artists and it’s hard to see through their BS. Does anyone else have anything more to say before I go back in and talk to my client?”

“Who doesn’t want you as a lawyer,” Kira said.

“Right, but he’ll get a jaguar then and he or she won’t treat him any better,” Demetria said. “All I’ve got to say is he’ll have an easier time of it if he tells us what he knows. We’ll get the truth out of these guys, one way or another.”

“Yeah, but if we, or Larry, talks to him about certain things—we’ll learn the truth because Bridget can ‘listen’ in on his thoughts, right?” Kira asked.

“Right,” Larry said. “So give me some details and I’ll go ask him some more questions. Whether he wants to answer me or not, Bridget might get some more information.”

Dan printed out some sheets of information about where he and Oscar lived in Denver, about his relatives, and details about the other kidnappings in Denver and Boulder that had the same signature as the crimes they were sure they were connected with.

Larry took the pages and shook them at everyone. “Now this is what I’m talking about.” Then he left the office and returned to the interrogation room while the others headed back into the viewing room to watch more of the interview with the suspect.

“Okay, the deal is”—Larry laid the papers out on the table—“it depends on how involved you are. Here’s the information they have on you. So if you believe they don’t know anything about you, you can forget that.”

“You already know that Oscar is my cousin. The rest of my relatives don’t figure into this,” Royce said, which Kira thought showed a bit of empathy for his family.

“Yeah. But we need to know the details of the crimes,” Larry said.

Royce didn’t say anything.

“Where are your co-conspirators?”

---