The Hours in Between - The Devereaux Case Files Book 5

Chapter 14

Seth and Sammy didn't have to spend long looking for the other two accomplices. Once they had a hold of Edmund and Ariel, they were only too willing to talk and give up their co-conspirators, Clarice and Gervais. And inform them that they were probably heading down the back staircase to the parking garage, or using the private elevator in the manager's office. Sammy radioed that information to the back up team, who quickly found the two criminals trying to start a car in the garage without keys. They weren't doing a very good job when backup picked them up, and they were taken into custody without much of a fight. With their arrest, from the documentation evidence Seth had deciphered, all that was left was to find Miguel and get him to safety.

"If you don't release me, right this instant, he'll get killed!" Edmund shouted at them, inside their base interrogation room. It was nice and cosy; no windows or doors, just a small ventilation shaft in the ceiling, where he thought they had entered from. It made the whole thing much more frightening when Edmund thought there was no way out. He just didn't realize that there was a secret door in the steel paneling that allowed them access, but they weren't going to tell him that.

"So, you have armed criminals watching over him, waiting on a call?" Seth asked, sounding curious and all knowing, though Edmund frowned.

"No." He confessed, sounding confused. Seth nodded and made another guess, sounding so casual and calm that it put Edmund on edge. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he didn't like it.

"You have a timed bomb waiting to go off, strapped to his chest and if you don't send a jamming signal at a certain time, the bomb will go off with Miguel attached to it?" He wondered, rhyming off all the possibilities.

"No!" Edmund yelled in outrage, as if he would never stoop so low. But when Seth smiled across at Sammy, he could feel his hands getting sweaty and wondered if he would ever get out of that room alive.

"Then why should we let you go?" Sammy wondered, as if it was a simple question with a simple answer. Edmund sat there, staring at them for a full minute, stunned into silence, before he managed to come up with a plausible excuse for them to set him free.

"Because the kid will starve without me." He claimed with indignation. It was putting him off, having Seth and Sammy staring at him like that, walking around his chair in opposing directions, like sharks circling their prey. He was getting confused.

"So." Seth said. As if he didn't care that Miguel starved to death. Edmund snapped his head up to look at them again, confused.

"What?"

"I said...so. As in, what does that matter? He's hardly going to starve after one day without food. Unless you're tell us you've been deliberately refusing him sustenance as torture?" Sammy asked, smiling when his question only caused Edmund to struggle in his handcuffs again, held behind the back of the chair to make him uncomfortable.

"I'm not a maniac." He protested. But neither Seth nor Sammy agreed with that. "What are you pair? Sadists or something?" He asked in shock, to which Sammy could only tut.

"No Ed, we're just well skilled at detecting bullshit when we heard it. There is absolutely no reason we should get you out of this hole. We can find Miguel ourselves, we certainly don't need your help." He reminded him that he was the prisoner and it wasn't his place to make demands. He could see a happy smile on Seth's face that said he liked playing the bad guy for once, since they hadn't had a real job in months. But they couldn't lose focus. "Besides, for all you know, he might be outside getting checked over by a doctor, right now." He claimed innocently, without giving any hint of whether he was telling the truth or not. Instantly, Edmund began to panic.

"He couldn't...you wouldn't..." He protested, sure that Miguel was safely hidden somewhere no-one would easily find him. Then again, he had no clue what or who Seth and Sammy were. They certainly weren't the local cops, and they weren't corruptible.