The Mindf*ck Series

Chapter 9

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘦𝘳𝘳.
- 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘶𝘴

𝗟𝗢𝗚𝗔𝗡

Frustrated, I try to keep my head here and not on Lana, who hasn’t answered my calls since she walked out of the hospital five hours ago.

Duke isn’t answering his phone either.

Which will have serious fucking consequences.

My eyes settle on the swat team commander who is inside the interrogation room. The glass between us is a one-way glass, not that he doesn’t know that.

His hands are shaking. He keeps standing and sitting, acting as though he’s jittery and ready to get out.

“His twenty-year-old daughter hasn’t shown up for her college classes in four days,” Donny says, watching him with me. “The roommate says she had to go home because of a family loss. We’re tracking phone calls to see if Plemmons contacted her that way, maybe lied with the ruse of someone passing? The mother seemed genuinely oblivious, had no idea what we were asking so many questions about.”

“Brunette?” I ask him, still studying Lee Norris as he paces the room, then sits down, then stands again.

He’s definitely agitated.

He’s our leak.

“Yes,” Donny answers. “Plemmons taking her shows a level of organization that doesn’t fit with his background, or what little we know of it. He felt like he was fooling us all this time, but when we found him out, he took it as a personal challenge to one-up us.”

I nod, agreeing.

“I’ll go in. See if you can get ahold of Detective Duke. What did the patrols say?”

He tightens his lips, and I study him.

“What?” I prompt.

“The guys said Lana kicked them off her property. I didn’t want to tell you with so much else going on. She drove off and basically told everyone to fuck themselves. You included.”

I slam my fist against the wall, the sheetrock crumbling around it.

“I’ve never seen you lose your cool like you’re losing it now, Logan. Maybe you should take—”

“𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 finish that sentence,” I bite out, rubbing my bloody knuckles on my pants, ignoring the burn. “Everyone is emotionally invested in this. Not just me. Send Leonard in with us. Norris will want to attack me within the first few minutes.”

“You sure you got the head for this?”

“He’ll spill immediately. He’ll blame us for getting his daughter killed. But he may also be the lead to catching this sick son of a bitch. My head is working just fucking fine. Find Lana. Call me if you do.”

I turn and walk out of the room, and head straight into the interrogation room, where Norris jumps up from his seat, glaring at me the second I step inside.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing locking me in here?! Do you have any idea what kind of sub-committee reports I could—”