Big Breaks and Quick Deaths (City of Angels and Elves Book 4) by Ramy Vance & Michael Anderle

Author:Ramy Vance & Michael Anderle [Vance, Ramy & Anderle, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2024-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

A loud buzz sounded.

The barred iron gate slid to allow the guard, Mable, and Agatha through the sterile prison hall.

They’d already signed in as visitors, the guard on duty remarking how it was odd for them to be visiting so late but the warden had personally signed off on it.

“You’ve got thirty minutes.” The guard led them inside a square, concrete room with a bolted-down table in the middle. A metal ring projected up from the table for handcuffs to be clipped to. Two chairs sat on one side of the table, one on the other.

“Do not approach the inmate. Stay back behind the line.” He toed a line on the floor that split the room in half. The line extended across the table. He explained that the guards wouldn’t be able to hear them but would be watching in case they were needed.

Mable sincerely doubted they’d be needed.

Mable and Agatha took their seats. The guard prepared to leave but stopped and addressed them a final time. “You know what this man did, right?”

“He’s accused of being a serial killer,” Mable replied.

The guard grimaced and nodded, then left.

As they sat and waited, Mable thought about how fast things had happened over the past few hours. Mini had phoned his minotaur warden friend and gotten them permission to come over immediately for a sit-down with Rick. The drive to the prison hadn’t been long. Neither of them had talked much along the way, like neither of them were talking now.

Mable nudged Agatha’s arm. “You okay?”

Agatha bit her lip. “It’s complicated. Rick’s in here because of something I did. He’s innocent.”

Mable could only imagine what her sister was going through. “It’s not your fault. Assuming he isn’t guilty, how would you have proved it to the police? It’s not like you could give them your ‘see through the Veil’ formula.”

“I know. But still. I feel like a horrible person.”

Mable put her hand on Agatha’s and gripped it. “We’ll figure this out, okay? Find a way to exonerate him. To do so, we’ll have to try to get some clues out of him. Can you do that? Can you help me?”

Agatha nodded. “You’re right. I⁠—”

The door to the room opened, and a different guard escorted a thin man with a long beard and hair into the room. Rick looked malnourished and haggard, his cheeks hollow. He had trouble focusing on any one thing as if he were walking half-asleep. He didn’t look at Mable and Agatha as the guard sat him down into the chair and locked his handcuff chain to the metal hook on the table.

The guard gave Mable and Agatha a long look, then exited, closing the door behind him. The click of the lock turning echoed in the room’s silence.

For a time, the three of them sat there. Eventually, Rick turned his head and saw Mable and Agatha. “You,” he murmured as he looked at Agatha. “I know you.”

“I lived at the Diamond Dreams Motel.”

The man nodded, his forearms resting on the table, his cuffed wrists chained to the hook.

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