Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147967 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 740(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
“I know. I wanted to. We’ll see you at home.”
A soft sigh filled the air and he glanced down at Sable. She was staring up at Ink and Betsy with longing. Which confused him. Didn’t she have a husband? He stared at her ring finger. Yep, she was married. So why did she look so sad and envious?
Ink walked back to the meeting room and he followed after saying goodbye to the two women and Zippy.
When he walked in, he nodded at Ethan Stone who was sitting at the table. Stone had worked for Ink for a long time. Brody was also there, but as usual, he had his head in a laptop and didn’t see him walk in.
The other man wasn’t one that Matthieu knew. But he could guess who he was. He seemed impatient, he had his fingers tapping against the table and he shifted around impatiently as Matthieu and Ink sat.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t have much time. I can’t afford to sit around, waiting.”
“You’ve been here five minutes,” Stone said dryly.
The other man glared at him.
“Matthieu, meet Detective Clayton Reeves with the Billings PD,” Ink said.
“Detective,” Matthieu said with a nod. “Sorry to keep you waiting, I’m not normally late but there were extenuating circumstances.”
Ink shot him a look. But he ignored him. For some reason, he didn’t want to tell him about the girl. He had no idea why.
“He works for you too?” Detective Reeves asked Ink, nodding at Matthieu.
“From time to time,” Ink replied vaguely.
Detective Reeves leaned forward, giving Ink an angry look. “Do I need to remind you that I’m putting my neck out here. I need to know that everyone in this room is trustworthy.”
“And might I remind you that you came to me,” Ink replied sharply. “Not the other way round.”
Even Brody looked up at that exchange, glancing around in shock as though he couldn’t work out how he’d come to be there.
“Matthieu, hi,” he said cheerfully. “How are you?”
“I’m good, Brody. And you?”
“Same old, same old,” Brody replied, adjusting his glasses as he stared at the other man. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
Ink sighed. “Brody, I introduced you before. This is Detective Clayton Reeves.”
“I don’t know if this was a smart idea.” Detective Reeves got to his feet. “Clearly, I should go elsewhere.”
“Good luck,” Ink told him casually. “If you want a recommendation for another security firm, I can give you some but none of them are located in Billings.”
Reeves scowled, but Matthieu could see that he wasn’t stupid. Instead of leaving, he sat. Matthieu expected him to remain angry, but he surprised him. Instead, Reeves ran his hand down his face tiredly. “Fuck. Look, I’m sorry I’m acting like an asshole. I’m just under some pressure.”
“So tell us how we can help you,” Ink said.
Reeves glanced around at them all again.
“I promise you that everyone here knows how to keep their mouth shut,” Ink added.
“Yeah?” Reeves gave Brody a skeptical look.
“Yes,” Ink replied firmly.
“All right. Look, what I’m here to say . . . I shouldn’t be telling anyone this, right? But there’s shit going down with the Billings PD that isn’t right and it’s downright scary and illegal.”
“So why come to us?” Stone asked with a frown. “Shouldn’t you be going to the Chief of Police with this?”
Surely the Chief knew what was going on in his force?
“Or IA,” Ink added.
“Hard to go to the Chief when you’re pretty sure that all of the problems stem from him.”
Well.
That wasn’t good.
But it also wasn’t surprising. Either the Chief had to be turning a blind eye to everything going on, was blind, or he was the problem.
Seemed like it was the latter.
Stone glanced over at Ink, then at him. “And is there a reason you don’t want to go to Internal Affairs?”
“Last year, we think one of the beat cops went to IA. Three weeks later, he was shot dead during a routine traffic stop. His wife packed up her two kids and left that day. No one has heard from her since.”
Ink’s face tightened and Matthieu felt his hands curling into fists. So the wife knew why he’d been shot. She likely knew he’d gone to IA. Had someone threatened her? Or had the people who’d gotten to her husband taken her out?
“There were clothes missing, toys, we think she definitely left. Whether she wanted to go or not, I can’t be sure. The lead detective on that case is a guy that I wouldn’t trust as far as I can throw him and considering he weighs two hundred and fifty pounds, that’s not far. He appeared to do everything by the book, but he didn’t seem all that interested considering a cop lost his life. Kids lost their father. That poor woman lost her husband.” Reeves looked disgusted.