Racing the Light by Robert Crais

Author:Robert Crais [Crais, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Suspense
ISBN: 9780525535720
Google: EIZdEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B09RP51VDG
Goodreads: 60312264
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Published: 2022-11-01T05:00:00+00:00

29

The dick who cuffed me was Bud Leifertz. His partner was a dud named Vince Osch. They walked me into the Hollywood Police Station through the back door, led me up to the second floor, and cuffed me to a little table in a small yellow interview room. Then they walked out, closed the door, and left me alone.

The yellow walls were originally a pleasant pastel, but years of sweat and spit and splashed coffee nobody bothered to clean had changed the once pretty yellow into the color of pus. I’d been in this very room twice before. It came equipped with a gray plastic table and two gray plastic chairs. There were no windows or two-way mirrors, but a camera mount without a camera hung from a corner of the ceiling like a dead spider on a frayed web. By cuffing me they had technically arrested me. They had frisked me and taken my wallet, my phone, my keys, and my watch, but they had not booked me nor told me why they had arrested me nor read the Miranda warning. I wondered why. I was still wondering about it forty minutes later when Leifertz and Osch returned.

I said, “Did you guys know the camera was missing?”

Leifertz took the chair across from me. Osch leaned against the door with his arms crossed. Leifertz leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table.

“Lemme start by saying we can get this cleared up here and now. You’re in control, man. How this plays out is up to you.”

Every bullshit interrogation began the same way. Word for word.

I gestured at his arms.

“The booger.”

Leifertz hesitated, not understanding.

“What did you say?”

“Your sleeve.”

I gestured toward his arms again.

“On the table. Somebody left a big booger. You’re on it.”

Leifertz flushed, but moved his arms. He looked into my eyes and spoke softly.

“Vince? Did you hear Mr. Funny?”

Osch spoke from the door.

“They’re all the same.”

Leifertz leaned closer.

“People like you end up dead.”

“Everyone ends up dead, Leifertz. What matters is how we live.”

Osch spoke from the door again.

“Have you ever had sexual relations with the young woman known as Skylar Lawless, whose actual legal name is Rachel Belle Bohlen?”

His saying her name surprised me. I shouldn’t have looked at him, but I looked. Osch had the calm, quiet voice of a pastor and the empty eyes of a carp.

I said, “Who?”

Leifertz made a nasty slash of a grin.

“Bet you watch her movies over and over.”

I forced myself to look at the camera mount. It was still empty.

“Whatever you guys are doing, bag it until my lawyer gets here.”

Osch never changed his expression or tone.

“How long have you been stalking her?”

I shook my head.

“Lawyer.”

Leifertz made the nasty grin even nastier. He looked like a deranged jack-o’-lantern.

“I watched a couple of her vids this morning. Hot little freak like her, yeah, dude, I can see how you’d get obsessed.”

“Lawyer.”

Osch smiled.

“Stalker.”

Leifertz rapped the table.

“We have you at her apartment. We have you tracking her all over town. You’re good for it.”

Osch said, “That, or he’s covering for someone.

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