Page 32 of No Quarter

Patrick sank to his knees and then lay on his stomach.

“You lied to me! Dirty Feds.”

Valerie and Charlie rushed over and put the gigantic man’s hands in cuffs.

“No,” Valerie said, helping him to his feet. “I didn’t lie. This is Doctor Will Cooper. He is an expert. He does want your input about Elmwood Retreat. It’s just that we also want to question you about the murders of Agatha Mitchell and Gillian Pugh.”

“But I didn’t do anythin’!” he yelled.

But Valerie could hear it in his voice. He was guilty as sin. Of what, though, that was the real question.

CHAPTER NINE

Valerie smiled at the police officer behind the front desk.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

Valerie pointed to the two cars parked outside the glass doors in the parking lot. In one of them, Charlie and Will sat with their suspect, Patrick Ives, in cuffs.

“I’m Agent Law with the FBI,” Valerie said to the police officer. “I spoke with the Buford police department earlier about using your interview room.”

“FBI!” the young officer said, excitedly. “Of course! I’m Officer Teller, anything I can do, I will.”

“You don’t get the FBI here very often, I take it?” Valerie said, smiling at Teller. He must have been no more than twenty-five years old.

“No,” he said. “But I was thinking of applying to the Bureau one day.”

“You should,” she said. “We’re always on the lookout for people with a positive attitude.”

But the job can eat you up. You’ll see terrible things. You’ll chase shadows. In the end, you’ll see the best and worst in the world.

She thought this but didn’t say it out loud. She remembered being a rookie and being so enthusiastic. The last thing she wanted was to snuff out a dream before it had begun.

Will and Charlie entered the building with the hulking figure of Patrick Ives. Officer Teller gleefully led them and Valerie through to a small interview room at the back of the police department.

The town was small, and the police office was just as diminutive.

“Anything I can get you? Coffee or a snack?” Teller said as Valerie and the others sat down around a gray table in the middle of the room.

“No thanks, Teller,” Valerie said. “But you’ve been a great help.”

Teller smiled from ear to ear, his sandy hair moving slightly as he nodded happily before leaving the room.

“He’s a keen one,” Charlie said.

“Can we get on with this crap?” Patrick Ives said, sitting at the table, still wearing his Elmwood Psychiatric Retreat security guard uniform.

Valerie noticed something about him. The way he had looked with disdain at Officer Teller. There was something in his eyes.

Jealousy, she thought.Use it, Valerie. Use it to find out more.

The interview room had an antiquated tape system to record interviews. Up in the corner of the room was a dusty old camera. Together, they were supposed to make sure interviews were above board.

Valerie pushed therecordbutton on the recorder at the side of the table and then smiled at Patrick Ives.

“Mr. Ives, do the names Agatha Mitchell and Gillian Pugh mean anything to you?”

Ives face turned white. “Yeah. But look, I got nothing to do with what happened to them two.”

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