Page 21 of All He Sees
Nicky was out of her car a moment later, gun drawn. The nighttime air swallowed her as she approached Pedro's car, Ken behind her. He was behind the wheel, and he opened up the car door and spilled out, landing on the ground.
"Okay, okay, you got me!" he exclaimed, holding his hands up. Nicky kept her gun on him.
"Pedro Lopez--why did you run from us?" Nicky demanded.
He stood up on shaky legs, still with his hands up. Nicky slowly lowered her weapon but kept it out. She didn't know what Pedro was capable of.
"We're with the FBI," Nicky said. "We need you to come with us."
CHAPTER NINE
Nicky sat across from Pedro Lopez at the local precinct, Ken at her side. He sulked in the chair, his head hanging low, and he was handcuffed. Running from the FBI, speeding down the highway while under the influence of alcohol--none of it looked good for Pedro.
But he wasn't talking.
"Pedro, I'm going to ask you again," Nicky said, her frustration peaking. "Did you pay a child to break the camera at Dan's Convenience?"
Pedro hung his head lower, covering his eyes with his black hair.
This was going nowhere. Beside her, Ken let out a sigh, his eyes skating over Pedro. "It's too bad you're not willing to talk to us, Pedro," Ken said. "I mean, the DUI charge--that's nothing. We could probably get it swept under the rug if you'd cooperate."
Nicky couldn't help but smirk. A good play from Ken. Of course, the DUI charge wasn't going anywhere--but Pedro was drunk (and possibly desperate) enough to fall for it.
"That's right, Agent Walker," Nicky said. "A DUI, it's a joke. We're with the FBI--we don't care about minor crimes like that. We're really focused on the big stuff." Nicky opened a file in front of her and slipped out a photo of Mira Phillips, sliding it across the table. Pedro looked but didn't react. "Our job is just to find out what happened to this girl. You know her, right?"
Pedro glanced at the photo another time. "Never seen her in my life."
"Really?" Nicky said, leaning forward. "She lived in Vale, in your old neighborhood before you moved. You really never saw her?"
Pedro said nothing.
"Beautiful young girl," Nicky said, eyes on the photo of Mira smiling right. "Would be hard to miss, I'd think."
"I don't know a damn thing about her," Pedro muttered. Nicky could still smell the booze on him. He really was wasted, and he was swaying back and forth.
"She was kidnapped, Pedro," Nicky said.
Finally, his dark eyes met hers. And something in him seemed to finally register--because Nicky saw fear flicker across his face.
"Whoa, I had nothin' to do with that," Pedro said.
Nicky shared a look with Ken, who nodded. Time to get Pedro to open up.
"But you paid the child to break the window at the store across from Mira's house, right before she went missing," Nicky said. "We have a witness who states she heard Mira when she was taken from her home. That camera would have caught the footage, had it not been broken."
"I don't know nothin' about that," Pedro said. "I don't know nothin' about no kidnapping."
"But that's what it is, right?" Ken said. "The FBI takes on kidnappings in Vale--and we've got a girl here that was kidnapped. You're going to have to tell us what you know, or you could be in some serious trouble."
Pedro's eyes flicked between the two of them. "I-I don't know anything. I'm telling you."
"But you knew about the camera," Nicky said. "And that's why you paid the child to break it. You didn't want that footage caught."
"I don't want to go to jail!" Pedro blurted suddenly.
Nicky and Ken shared a look. He cracked.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Pedro said. He looked at the photo of Mira and his face softened. "I really don't know what happened to that girl," he said. "Yeah, I broke the camera, okay? But it was only… it was only because I was gonna—"
