Chapter 15

“Mr. Long, I’ve been a cop for thirty years. My first duty sergeant helped me become the youngest detective in the department. Over the years I’ve developed a real sense about the truth when I interview people. You and your roommate know more than you told me.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Three decades of experience.”

“I was out of town when it happened, Detective. Matt was at his sister’s house. We both have people who can vouch for us. How can you think we’re involved?”

“I don’t think you were directly involved in today’s attack, but I do think you’re lying to me. At this point I’m not sure whether to consider you and Mr. Johnson as witnesses or something more. Keep in touch, okay?” He hung up.

Matt got to the apartment soon after me. “Dude, that cop called me. Mick damn near killed a woman this morning. He thinks we know somethin’.”

“We do.”

“Yes, and your stupid fuck-ups made it obvious!”

“I wasn’t the one who got antagonistic and sweaty when Davis and Martinez were here. I don’t think they liked you at all.”

“I don’t like cops, okay? I never got myself in a situation where I had to talk to a pair of fuckin’ detectives before.”

“Well, you’re in one now, and I only know one way to get out. We have to tell them what we know.”

“Out of the question, dude. We discussed all this. The best outcome is we get busted and labeled as sex offenders.”

“Then we have to lead them to Mick somehow. You really don’t know how to find this guy, Matt?”

“I told you. We’re dead if we go after him.”

“What if we spy on him?”

“You mean with the drone?”

“It has some sort of ‘follow me’ feature, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t think I can use it to follow someone else.”

“Okay, but if you went someplace where he was, you could launch the drone, get it to watch you, and then when you get back to your car you could watch him. I can fly the thing well enough to follow him if he leaves first if he’s on foot. When you come out you can take over.”

Matt pondered for a moment. “I guess that could work, bro. But what then?”

“We track him. See where he goes. Maybe catch him following some girl.”

“And?”

“We call the cops to try to stop him before he does something. We’ll tell them we were in the area and saw this guy doing something suspicious – only what we can see from the ground.”

“Dude, I don’t know.”

“If that woman dies, it’s a homicide. We could have prevented it.”

“I hate your fuckin’ logic. Don’t do this, Jason.”

“We have to, and you know it. He’s a serial rapist now, a violent one. You told me yourself how he broke a guy’s jaw. Do you know why he did it?”

“The story I heard was the guy mouthed him off. Mick didn’t bitch slap him, didn’t even look mad, they said, like he didn’t care. Then, boom! No warnin’. Just punched him in the gut, kneed him in the nose, threw him on the ground, and curb stomped the poor bastard. That’s why I don’t wanna fuck with him.”