Chapter Nineteen
Back at HQ, Jake Malone and Avery Hill prepared to interrogate Asher and Brecken Mayfield. They’d start with the son, while the father sat in the cooler, hopefully worrying about what the kid might tell them.
Phillips, the officer who’d taken them to Central Booking, appeared in the doorway to Malone’s office. “Asher is downstairs in lockup. Brecken is in interview one.”
“Anyone asking for a lawyer?” Jake asked.
“Not to me.”
“And they’ve been read their rights?”
“Twice.”
“Excellent, thanks, Phillips.”
“No problem, sir.”
“Any word from the USA’s Office?” Malone asked.
“AUSA Charity Miller is here.”
“Let’s go have a chat with Brecken,” Malone said to Hill. “I’ll take the lead.”
“I’m with you, Cap.”
Though it went against everything his team believed in to “enjoy” working with Feds, Jake liked Agent Hill and appreciated that he knew when to defer to them. He found AUSA Miller in the hallway by the interrogation rooms, checking her phone.
She looked up when she saw them coming. “I heard one is a juvenile.”
“Yes, he’s fifteen, but we believe he was an integral player in whatever game his father is playing.”
“Proceed with caution,” she said. “Read him his rights again and make sure he understands them.”
“Will do,” Jake said, while he bit back the urge to remind her that he’d been doing this since before she was born.
They burst into the room, scaring the shit out of the kid. Good. He should be scared, Jake thought as he activated the recording device.
“I’m Captain Jake Malone, and FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Avery Hill is also here with Brecken Mayfield.”
Brecken Mayfield was a handsome kid with wavy dark hair and brown eyes that should have attracted a lot of female attention. He had broad shoulders and the muscular chest of an athlete.
“Wh-why is the FBI here?”
“Because when kids go missing, it’s all hands on deck,” Jake said.
“I didn’t… I didn’t do anything.”
“Let’s start at the beginning, Brecken.” Jake recited the Miranda rights, outlining Brecken’s right to remain silent and to request counsel. “Do you understand your rights in this matter?”
“Yes, I already told the other officer that I understand, but like I told him, I didn’t do anything. I don’t know why I’m here.”
“Where’s Luna Ahern?” Avery asked.
“Who?”
Jake put printouts of the texts between Brecken, Ethan and Tomas on the table that showed Brecken knew exactly who she was.
Brecken’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat.
“Do you want to try that again?” Avery asked.
“I don’t know her or those other kids.”
They said nothing, simply staring at him until he began to sweat.
Jake slapped his hand on the table, startling Brecken. “Where is she, Brecken?”
“I don’t know!”
“So now you’re admitting you know her?” Avery asked.
“I know of her.”
“Why did you lie when I asked you about her before?”
“I’m scared! I don’t know what to say! I’ve never been arrested before.”
“You can drop the act. We’ve seen your record.”
“How’s that possible? Juvenile records are supposed to be sealed.”
Interesting that he knew that and had been perhaps counting on that info remaining inaccessible, Jake thought. “When you’re involved in adult-level crimes, adult-level access applies.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“Did your dad tell you what to do if you were taken into custody?”
Brecken seemed incredulous as he shook his head. “He’s never been arrested.”
Jake pushed Asher’s rap sheet across the table for his son to see. “He’s been arrested more than twenty times.”
Brecken scanned the pages that detailed Asher Mayfield’s criminal history. “I… I didn’t know.”
“Why do I smell bullshit in the air, Agent Hill?”
“Maybe because the air is thick with it.”
“Do you know what an incel is?”
He looked up, eyes big, mouth agape. “What about it?”
“Are you an incel, Brecken?” Avery asked.
“What? No. I’m not involved with that stuff.”
Which meant he knew what it was since he didn’t ask what it meant. “Your devices are being examined by our IT detectives as we speak,” Jake said. “Do you want to think about your answer to Agent Hill’s question?”
“D-don’t you have to have a warrant or something for that?”
“We’ve got one. How do you know about warrants?”
“From TV. Law & Order.”
“You’re a fan of that show?” Jake asked.
He shrugged. “I’ve seen some of it.”
“Then you know you’re in a shit-ton of trouble here, Brecken,” Jake said. “The way we see it, you used phones belonging to Ethan Hogan and Tomas Cambra to lure Luna Ahern to you. What did you do to her when you got her there?”
“I never saw her. Ethan and Tomas were with her.”
“That’s not what they told us.”
“Wait, where are they?”
“In the hospital.”
He clearly hadn’t been expecting that news. Interesting to note that Brecken hadn’t known the boys had escaped from the home where they’d been held.
“That’s right,” Hill said with a little grin. “They managed to escape. I can tell that’s news to you. Were you hoping they’d never get out of wherever you two put them?”
“I… I haven’t seen them in a couple of weeks.”
“That’s not what they said.”
His eyes bugged as it seemed to set in with him that this wasn’t a Law & Order episode, but a real police station with real officers sitting before him, accusing him of serious crimes.
“The girls must love you.” Avery took Brecken by surprise with the shift in tone. “A handsome kid like you… They must be knocking down your door.”
Jake sat back to let Avery take the lead on this line of questioning.
“Hardly,” Brecken said with a hard edge to his voice. “They don’t like me.”
“Why not?”
“Who the fuck knows? They like Ethan and Tomas, but they won’t even talk to me.”
“That must make you mad.”
“It’s ridiculous. Look at them and look at me. If you were a girl, who would you rather be seen with?”
“Looks are important to them?”
“Looks are everything. I’m better-looking than both of them, so why do girls like them and not me? They’re a couple of Chads.”
“I’m not familiar with that term. Can you tell me what it means?”
Brecken sighed, as if this was a huge waste of his time. “A Chad is a guy who gets all the girls without doing much of anything besides being a douchebag. The Stacys, those are the girls who love the Chads and ignore the rest of us.”
Even though he knew all this, Avery still took notes as if he were hearing the information for the first time.
“How do you know about Chads and Stacys?”
“My dad and his friends talk about them. My mom is a Stacy. She’s with a Chad now.”
Bingo, Jake thought. That could’ve been the inciting incident that’d led to him and his father becoming active in incel culture.
“Do you see your mom?” Avery asked.
“Fuck no. I want nothing to do with her. She’s part of the problem.”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“When I was, like, ten or something.”
“Do you know where she lives?”
“I think in Potomac. She married the Chad.” He rolled his eyes. “That guy is the biggest douchebag ever.”
“So you’ve met him?”
“Once. A long time ago.” He shrugged. “They’re nothing to us. My dad and I have been a team for years. We don’t need anyone else.”
“Why’d you want Ethan and Tomas to invite Luna out, then?”
“I didn’t. They did that.”
“Brecken, the text messages show you encouraging them to invite her and them resisting. The messages from them to her are from after they stopped responding to their parents. That means you knew her, and you used their phones to get her to come out so you could see her. Is that right? Was that the reason you bothered to kidnap Ethan and Tomas? Because she’d respond to them in a way she never would to you? ”
Brecken’s eyes narrowed, indicating his displeasure with the question. “I’d seen her around. She’s nothing special. Just another bitch who thinks her shit doesn’t stink.”
“How do you know that about her if you’ve never spent time with her?”
“I know her type. They’re all the same. They walk around like they’re something important and people need to pay attention to them. But I see through that bullshit.”
“Does your dad have a girlfriend?”
“Hell no. He says they aren’t worth the bother.”
“Has he had any girlfriends since your mom left him?”
“She didn’t leave him. He kicked her out when he found out she was cheating on him. He made sure she got nothing but the clothes on her back, that lying cunt.”
“Whoa,” Avery said. “That’s a nasty word to call your mother.”
“Nasty people deserve nasty words.”
The kid’s eyes were so cold and devoid of emotion that Jake felt a chill go down his spine.
“Has your dad had any girlfriends since then?” Avery asked again.
“Nah, he says he’s better off alone than dealing with their crap.”
Neither one of them could attract female attention, so they’d become bitter toward all women, Jake concluded. He was sure Avery was thinking the same thing—that they needed to talk to Brecken’s mother right away.
“Did your parents fight over you in court?”
“Yeah, she tried to take me away from him, but I wasn’t having that. I didn’t want to live with her and her asshole lover.”
“What’s her name?” Avery asked.
“Why does that matter?”
“Because I’m asking, and when the FBI asks you a question, it’s a good idea to answer it.”
“Her name is Melanie. She took Chad’s last name. I don’t remember it.”
Jake got up and left the interrogation room to find Ruiz, who was still in her office after having pulled an all-nighter.
“Brecken Mayfield’s mother is named Melanie, and she’s married to a guy in Potomac.
There was a custody dispute over Brecken between her and his father, Asher.
We need to find her and talk to her ASAP. ”
“I’m on it.”
“Can you assign it to one of your people and go home to get some rest?”
“I’m invested. I want to find Luna.”
“Thanks for sticking with it.”
“No problem. I’ll let you know what I find.”
Jake nodded and returned to the interrogation room, where Avery was talking to Brecken about why he’d wanted to speak to Luna.
He shrugged. “I wanted to know why she was being such a bitch when I was nothing but nice to her.”