Chapter Nineteen #2
“So that means you did talk to her?”
“I tried to. She took one look at me, made a disgusted face and wouldn’t have anything to do with me after that. She didn’t even know me, and she was, like, nah. You see why I hate girls like her?”
“How much do you hate girls like her?”
“A lot.”
“Enough to kill one of them?”
His nonchalant position sent another chill down Jake’s spine. “I didn’t kill her, but if someone did, she probably had it coming.”
“Is Luna dead?”
“How the fuck would I know? I just told you she won’t have anything to do with me.”
“When you used Ethan’s and Tomas’s phones to try to get her to come hang out, what happened?”
“She never showed up.”
“Did you go looking for her?”
“Why would I waste my time on a cunt like her?”
“Why do you call women and girls that word?”
“My dad says that’s the only way to describe them when they act like they own the world.”
“Did he tell you that women find that word offensive?”
“What do we care if it hurts their delicate sensibilities?”
“Delicate sensibilities,” Avery said incredulously. “Who taught you that phrase? Your father?”
Brecken shrugged as he shifted his weight in the seat.
“Does it ever occur to you that women can sense you hate them, and that might be why they stay away from you?”
“They can’t tell that.”
Avery gave him a skeptical look. “You don’t think so?”
“Nah, they’re too fucking stupid. The only thing they’re good for is spreading their legs and spitting out babies.”
“Did your dad teach you that, too?”
“It’s the truth. I figured that out for myself.”
“Where’s Luna?” Jake asked.
“I got no fucking clue. I’d be the last person who’d know where that bitch is. You should ask Ethan and Tomas. They probably did something to her because she blew them off, too.”
“How could they have harmed her when they were being held by you and your father, with zip ties on their wrists?”
“You can’t prove we did anything to them.”
“Actually, we can. We’ve got Crime Scene detectives at your house right now, combing through every inch of the place. When they find Ethan’s and Tomas’s DNA in your house, that’ll tie them to you and your father.”
“I’m sure it’s easy enough for the cops to plant something to make us look guilty.”
“When we review the video at the Wharf, we’ll see them leaving with you two.
And when we add that evidence to the DNA we’re sure to find at your house after they sawed themselves loose using a pocketknife, that’ll look pretty bad for you and your dad.
You’ll be charged as an adult. Do you know what that means? ”
He gave them a blank look.
“You’ll serve hard time with adult prisoners. They don’t take too kindly to boys like you who mistreat women and girls. You’re looking at a rough stretch when they find out what you did to Luna.”
“I didn’t do anything to her!”
“Did your dad do anything to her?”
“He doesn’t even know her.”
“Did you tell him she ignored you? Would that have made him mad on your behalf?”
“He knows she’s another Stacy and that she’s a nasty bitch, but he doesn’t know her.”
“Until you used Ethan and Tomas to lead him to her, right?”
“You’d have to ask him about that,” he said, some of his bravado fading as it became clear they were building a solid case against him and his father.
“We’ll do that,” Jake said, “but before we do, you might want to think about helping us out. Tell us where Luna is and what happened to her, and we’ll help you in return.
Once we talk to your dad, he can tell us it was all you, that you killed her, and he found out about it after the fact. You’ll go down for the whole thing.”
A vein in Brecken’s forehead began to pulse. “That’s not how it happened!”
Jake sat back in his chair, feeling a sense of dread over Luna’s fate. “How did it happen?”
Brecken crossed his arms defiantly. “I don’t know.”
“Then I guess it’s time to talk to your dad,” Jake said.
Both men stood to leave the room.
“Wait.”
They turned back to him.
Jake noticed that he seemed more like a scared kid than an arrogant young man now that shit was getting real.
“If I tell you what you want to know, what happens to me?”
“That depends on what you tell us, if it leads to Luna and whether you harmed her in any way.”
“I never touched her.”
“Did your dad?”
His jaw set in an obstinate position, and that quickly, the angry young man had returned. “You’d have to ask him that.”
Jake returned to the table, laid his hands flat on the surface and leaned in close to Brecken. “Where is she?”
When the kid hesitated, Jake slapped the table. “Where the fuck is she?”
“Th-there’s a storage unit on Florida Ave. She might be there.”
“Is she alive?”
“I… I don’t know.”
Jake put a pen and notepad on the table. “Write down the name of it and the unit number. Be quick about it.”
He was satisfied to see Brecken’s hand tremble as he wrote the information.
Jake snatched the pad off the table and made for the door, jogging straight to Ruiz’s office.
“I was just coming to find you,” she said.
“The son gave us the location of a storage unit on Florida Ave. Let’s go.”
“Let me know,” Avery called after them.
“Will do.”