Page 73 of Dangerous Silence
After I filed the report on Olivia, I got a ride from one of my classmates to the police station. I leaned on the counter. In my mind, I could do both; I could respect authority, like Dad taught me, and still help the vigilantes—if you could call the Adlers that. But that discussion was neither here, nor there. I was going to help them, no matter what.
“I’d like to file a report,” I said. The clerk raised her brow at me. “It’s about Miles Muro.”
A few people stopped, turning to stare at me.
“You said Muro?” she asked. I nodded, my eyes darting around. Why were they looking at me like that? He couldn’t have possibly been known here. “I think we’ve got Shines on that case. Let me get him for you.”
She wandered into the back, while I waited in the front, dragging my finger across the counter, wiping the stray pen marks with my thumb. A man with a clean-cut face nodded at me, his thumbs in his pockets.
“I’m Officer Shines,” he said, holding out his hand. I shook it. His hand was sweaty.
“Demi,” I said.
“You say you got something on Muro?”
“I know what’s going on with him. His warehouses. The drugs. The weapons.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Tell me where to sign and I’ll write it all down.”
“I like your attitude,” he said. “We’ve got a friend from the next city over who just came back from apprehending one of his men. I’d like to introduce you two.”
“Anything I can do to help,” I said.
He gestured toward the front door, and I followed him out of the entrance. We went around to the line of police cars all parked together. Seeing the vehicles like that, my stomach clenched, another thing I had gotten from Dad; he never liked police officers. But Shines seemed nice, and he was listening to me.
But my stomach lurched. Could I actually do this?
“You know,” I said slowly, “I don’t think I can do this today. Maybe tomorrow.”
“Demi,” he said, his jaw pinched tight, his shoulders tensed. “Crime doesn’t wait for when we’re ready. And after what Muro’s done, we’ve got to make movesnow. Before it’s too late.”
That made sense. But it didn’t help the feeling in my stomach.
He opened the back seat for me. “Rules, I’m afraid,” he said.
I tapped my fingers on my legs. He was an officer. This was normal. A simple regulation.
“It’s fine,” I said, sliding into the backseat.
Once we were driving, Shines immediately merged onto the highway. My gut twisted in knots.
“Where are we meeting him?” I asked.
“Just a little way farther now.”
He kept talking about his glory days, the police radio chattering every so often, Shines ignoring it. He asked me what I was majoring in at PGU and was pleased to hear that I was studying criminal justice. I shuffled my feet, trying to listen and have a real conversation, but I couldn’t keep still. Something wasn’t right. Then I saw that thin, red double M logo on a skyscraper that stretched up high, like an all-seeing eye looking down on everything around it.
“What are we doing here?” I asked. “I thought we were meeting your friend? Another officer?”
“Look at it this way: I figure that with your help, we have enough on Muro,” he flashed his white teeth, “You’ve got the info. Now we can arrest him.” He put a hand on my shoulder. I shook my head. I hated when people did that. He laughed.
“You’re just one man,” I said.
“What is he going to do?” Shines asked. “Kill me?”
“Killus.”
He tapped his handheld radio. “That’s what backup is for,” he said. But I wasn’t stupid; I knew this wasn’t the way things worked. “Trust me, kiddo.” He slid out of the car, then opened the back door. “Think of this as your first assignment,” he beamed, gesturing at the building. Most of the windows on the bottom floor had been taped up with sheets of plastic, some of which were loose and fluttering in the wind. The bottom floor was empty, with a withered brown flower near the exit. He clicked the button for the elevator.
“Does it work?” I asked. The elevator dinged, and he tilted his head, gesturing inside.
