Fate (Drift Series Book 4)

by Michael Dean

  “That one is sure full of pep, Sheriff.” I joked with Sheriff Taylor.

  “Damn it, Leo, how many times do I have to tell you, I’ve told you to stop with all that respect stuff…call me Sam.” He grinned at me.

  “I know…I forget…I will.”

  “Good. Now as for your assessment of our…friend…back there, he’s about three sheets to the wind if you get my expression. We were lucky he wasn’t armed at the time we surprised him. Once he sobers up a bit, we’ll talk to him. Always best to avoid a person in that state—let a person's sense come back to them before trying to deal with them rationally. Even if they’re sober and just angry, always give them some time to themselves to calm down before talking with them.”

  “Understood. When are ya' gonna deal with that one?”

  “Well, luckily for us we just have to hold him until the detectives from the other county show up to get him. They may question him here, but it isn’t our concern. We just have to keep him on ice until they get here to claim him. Good thing too, that guy is a pain in the butt as you can tell.”

  “I see that.”

  It wasn’t until the next morning that a couple of well-dressed gentleman showed up to deal with the hostile man. When the investigators showed up, they announced to Sam that this had become a murder investigation now and that he was the main suspect. Apparently the store clerk that he robbed and shot had succumbed to his wounds overnight. It appeared we had a murderer on our hands now.

  Everyone piled into the holding area to get the potential fugitive. Although he wasn’t as amped up as he was when he first came in, he was still acting like an ass. They cuffed him and brought him back into the office area and into one of the small interrogation rooms where the two investigators from the other county went in to join him.

  It was a couple hours before the duo came back out of the room and spoke with Sam. They informed him that although the suspect hadn’t called for a lawyer yet, he played games with the investigators just to be a jerk and waste their time. Sam told them he could see how arrogant the man was on the police video.

  The man insisted to the detectives that it wasn’t him. He mentioned he has no gun nor has he ever owned one. His case was that he was in Mountainside the whole time, along with some other excuses. He hammered those investigators with profanities as well and belittled them. No doubt the guy was a real “class act”.

  The detectives wanted to give it one more go to try and get a confession from the guy before they hauled him away. Sam wished them luck as they disappeared back into the room. It wasn’t ten minutes before they came out and said that the suspect had clammed up and asked for an attorney. They were about to concede and take him away before Sam came up with an idea; an idea that walked a fine line.

  “Gentlemen, I think I could get you a confession, but it would require us to bend the rules a bit.”

  “What do you have in mind Sheriff?” One of them responded.

  “I have a friend here that can be very persuasive in getting someone to talk.”

  “Look, Sheriff, I think we can appreciate your approach for a jerk-off like this guy, but we can’t go back to the nineteen fifties style of investigating. We rough this guy up, we get sued. Not to mention the possibility of setting free a murderer as result of such an act. Not to mention he’s requested an attorney now.”

  Sam just waved his hands back and forth, “No, no, no…I’m afraid you don’t understand. The suspect won’t be harmed, in anyway, just scared enough to talk with the two of you after my guy pays him a little visit. No threats, no violence, just a little one-on-one talk to get him to open up to you about a confession.”

  The two investigators just looked at each other like they had nothing else to lose. I knew Sam was talking about me going in there.

  “No violence…nothing illegal that could end up having us all lose our jobs? If he talks…he talks?” One investigator asked for reassurance.

  Sam waved at me to come over.

  “Gentlemen, meet Mr. Leo Cutler.” I nodded and shook their hands.

  “Leo, do you think you could get this guy to talk without using any violence toward him or crossing any legal lines…strictly using your power of persuasion?”

  “I don’t know, but I could give it my best shot.”

  Sam stepped aside and outstretched his arm towards the interrogation room. I started to walk to the door to go in when I thought of something, “You have to turn the cameras off…Sam.”

  When I said that, the two investigators were about to object when Sam interjected, “I promise…this will get done…legally. Just let Leo here work his magic.” He reassured the men.

  They shook their heads before one of them spoke, “Okay, but we are not liable for anything that may happen if this goes awry. We’ve known you for a while Sam, we’ll go against our better judgment on this. This is risky.”

  “Duly noted.” Sam agreed and looked to me.

  “Leo…follow the rules of law. I’m trusting in you to use your better judgment.” He raised his eyebrows and sunk his chin sternly.

  I nodded in approval. One of the investigators tossed a pack of cigarettes and a lighter at me.

  “Here…we promised we’d bring him one. Good luck.”

  I caught the cancer sticks and opened the door to the interrogation room. When I entered the room, the shaved headed man was sitting in a chair at the end of a small table. I got a better look at him now that I was closer to him. He had tattoos up and down his arms, even on his neck. He had a look of arrogance about him as he sported an egotistical smirk. I walked up to one of the empty chairs at the end of the table and pulled it around in front of him, tossing the smokes I was given, along with the lighter on the table in front of him.

  He didn’t say anything, just kept right on smiling at me as he reached for the pack. Still silent, he pulled one out and lit it, blowing it out as he slouched in his chair as if not having a care in the world. I just continued to stare at him.

  “So…when all else fails, they send in the janitor to question me?” He took in another drag and laughed it out. I remained quiet.

  “That’s right, I saw you when I came in. You’re not a cop. You think I’m going to talk to you? Better go back to sweeping the hallways in this dump.” He continued to grin at me.

  I remained silent, keeping my glare on him. He kept grinning at me as he smoked his cigarette.

  “You’ve got nothing to say? Oh…I get it. They sent you in here to bring me my smokes. Well, thanks…now get the hell out of here. I’m tired of your face.” He blew a hit of smoke right into my direction.

  I reached over and grabbed one of the smokes out the pack. Now of course, I do not smoke, but that wasn’t the reason for me grabbing one. I lit it and drew back a hit.

  “You know…a pretty boy like you would be very popular in prison.” He laughed, mocking me. “You wouldn’t walk straight for a month if you were on the inside. Your job here would be a perfect fit for someone like me to use you for in prison. I’d have you doing all kinds of favors for me…and my friends.”

  Again, I remained silent, never taking my eyes off him.

  “You think you’re tough? You’re young…and stupid. Little thugs like you think you’re soooo hard when you know you have backup in the other room. If the cameras were turned off and the pigs stepped out for a donut, I bet you wouldn’t have the guts to sit in that chair and stare me down like you’re doing now. You’d be shivering in a corner if I was out of these cuffs.” He held up his hands, showing me the handcuffs.

  When he did that, he took another drag off his smoke and then flicked the still lit cigarette butt right in my face. I didn’t flinch an inch.

  “The cameras are off,” I replied.

  The suspect chuckled and reached for another cigarette.

  “Yeah right.” He lit it.

  “When I’m sent into a room with a criminal, they always turn off the cameras.”

  My threat fell on deaf ears as all
he did was lean back in his chair and laugh out loud.

  “Oh…I’m sure they do. You probably are the toughest guy in this place.” He continued to laugh.

  With a smirk, I took the cigarette I was smoking and raised the lit end towards my eye. The suspect just stared at me with a curious grin. I pulled down my lower eyelid and methodically ground the cigarette out on my eyeball. When I was done, I blinked and flicked my stamped out butt right back in his face.

  He continued to smile, but his face transformed around his grin to a look of morbid confusion. He started to laugh again and clapped his hands within his cuffs.

  “Well done…well done. We have a magician here too. Is that supposed to scare me?”

  I leaned forward in my chair, “Why did you kill the clerk in that store? What did you do with the murder weapon and cash?”

  He stopped laughing and leaned towards me in his chair, coming face to face with me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about…and if I did…I sure as hell wouldn’t tell some no account coffee runner like you. Like I told them, I want my attorney.”

  “Forget your attorney. I’ll ask you again…where is the cash and the murder weapon?”

  The suspect didn’t say a word. He took a drag off his smoke and blew it in my face, very, very, slowly.

  “Well…I tried to be nice.” I warned.

  He just smiled and rolled his tongue around his teeth in a menacing way.

  I leaned back in my chair, “Tell you what…I’ll make you deal.”

  He chuckled and leaned back in his chair too, “Oh yeah? What kind of a deal can you make me that I would even consider?”

  “If I can make you piss your pants in fear…will you tell me everything you know?”

  His voice gurgled before he replied, “You…make me piss my pants…with fear? I can honestly say that I’ve never been approached with a proposition like that. You got a set on you…I like that, but I’m afraid you’ve hit a wall here errand boy. I’ve never been that scared in my life.”

  “Then that should make it easy for you to take the bargain then. Do we have a deal?”

  Again, he laughed with confidence before stamping his cigarette out on the table, “Sure…out of sheer curiosity, I will humor you. I don’t know anything but I kind of want to see what you’re all about, tough guy. If you can make me pee my pants…I’ll tell you whatever you want to hear…with one condition.”

  “And that is?”

  He raised his hands up, signaling for me to take his cuffs off.

  “Done.” I accepted his counter offer.

  I stood up over him and grabbed the chain between his cuffs. He glared at me to see if I’d really set him free. Instead of reaching for cuff keys, that I didn’t have in my possession anyway, I just squeezed the chain in my fist and it crumbled into pieces. His hands sprang free, even though the cuffs themselves were still around his wrists.

  “Very nice tricks…but they’re not going to work little man.” He stood up and looked me in the eye. “You just made a catastrophic mistake.” He smirked.

  He pulled a fist back and went to punch me in the chest, when he made contact with me he screamed in pain and grabbed his wrist. He stared at his injured hand for a second before he pulled back the non-injured one and punched me in the face. Naturally, he ended up with the same results.

  One more time he yelled as he hunched over in pain, staring at both of his hands. I reached over and grabbed him by the throat, picking him up off the ground. I pulled his face right into mine and let my fury show through my eyes. I could feel his fear begin to build inside of him as I knew he’d witnessed my eyes turning solid black. For added affect, I whipped out my demon wings which made him shriek in fear.

  “For the rest of your life, if you do not confess to your crimes, you’ll be a slave unto me. Every waking hour, I will haunt you, torment you, and torture you, for all of your days. You will not even be afforded the luxury of sleep, for I am a creature of the night. You will never again know peace in your life…I will rip it from you. All you will ever know from this day forward is fear. Your sanity will flee from you. I will corrupt your mind until you can longer discern fantasy from reality. I will steal your life, only to return it back to you in shambles.” I glared at him and snarled.

  He just trembled in my grip and stammered around for words to say. I shook him.

  “Confess…and I will leave you with the only thing you’ll have left in your life, your sanity…confess!”

  He mumbled, “We have a deal.”

  I smirked and turned into smoke right in front of him, parading him around the room while I still had him by the throat with my near invisible hand. Again, this was just for intimidation. I was trying to honor Sam’s request by not hurting him. After I played with him for a bit, I materialized again.

  “You’re right…we do have a deal.” I walked him over to the wall.

  “What are you?” He asked, trembling.

  “Seems I get asked that same question and I always have the same answer.”

  He looked at me with confusion as I placed him against the wall. I reached back and punched the wall around each side of his head, creating two holes on either side of him. I ripped away at the wall creating two small crevasses with those holes. I then reached over and grabbed the metal chair he was once sitting in and contorted it around his neck and through the holes I created. This held him in restraints in as creative way as I could think of. This was my best idea of intimidation without hurting him.

  “I’m everything you never want to be…that’s who I am.”

  He stammered for words to say as his voice trembled, but then he began to laugh which caught me off guard.

  “You-you-still didn’t make me pee myself. I’m innocent.” He continued to laugh.

  “You’re right…but we’re not finished yet.” I flashed a sinister smirk.

  That made him stop laughing in an instant.

  I balled up my fist.

  “Wh-what are you gonna do?” He panicked.

  I plowed into his gut with a punch, being sure I held back a little so as not to kill him, he got his answer. With that blow, I jarred lose his bladder and from his pants began to flow a stream of shame down his leg. That wasn’t the only thing that happened, the sound of…release…for lack of a better term, sounded out from behind him. I knew I had won our little wager...with a kicker.

  “Ooops, I guess I broke the rules a bit.” I pointed out for my own amusement.

  “Oh maaaan.” He whimpered at his shame.

  “Remember what I told you…when the detectives come back in here…confess, right now, or you’ll never be rid of me…never…understand?”

  He nodded in agreement.

  I walked to the door and opened it, “Gentlemen, I think your suspect it ready to talk.” I called, stepping out of the room.

  When I came out, everyone was standing a few feet away from the door to the interrogation room. I winked at Sam to let him know my work was finished. Sam and the two detectives walked by me and entered into the interrogation room, only to quickly file out holding their noses.

  “My lord, Leo, what the heck happened in there? It stinks to high Heaven.” Sam pointed out as the three men fanned the air in front of them.

  “When it airs out, we’ll go in and talk to him. But I have to ask you…Leo…is it? What did you do? It’s a mess in that room.” One of the detectives questioned.

  “Just a simple act of intimidation. We have tricks we use here.” I grinned.

  I received suspicious looks from the two of them and they entered the room.

  “I’ll go get him a change of clothes.” Sam referred to the suspect.

  “Thanks, Sheriff. Let’s get him off that wall.” The detective pointed to the other investigator.

  It wasn’t long before the second interview was over with the suspect and they came parading him out. The entire time he walked through the front office, he kept yelling at them to keep him as far away from me as pos
sible. I kept my eyes to the floor, trying to ignore them all. Once they secured him in their prisoner van, they spoke with Sam for a while before they left. When Sam came back inside, he was giggling to himself.

  “Leo, come into my office for a second.” He continued to smile as I followed him.

  “I’m sorry, sir. I probably took it a little too far…” I started to explain myself as Sam sat down in his chair, holding his hand up ordering me to stop explaining.

  “Leo…when it came to that guy, you didn’t go far enough in my opinion. Have a seat.” He pointed to the chair in front of his desk.

  “You sure had all three of those boys in an uproar, let me tell you.” He kept smiling.

  “I know, I apologize…”

  Again, he interrupted me, “Nonsense, son. You did what I told you to do. Don’t worry about it. I told those detectives that we rigged that room so it looks like we can punch holes in bricks for intimidation tactics. I told them we have putty covering most of the walls in there. Not sure if they believed that, but that was the best I could come up with.” He shrugged.

  “What else did they ask about?” I questioned.

  He continued to chuckle, “That man confessed to crimes he didn’t have to admit too. Burglaries, robberies…hell, he even admitted to stealing a candy bar from a convenience store when he was twelve.” I joined in with him with a snicker.

  “That’s why I’m going to love having you as a police officer, Leo. Not only can you catch people like no other person can, you can get whatever information you want out of them. That’s why I sent you in there. To measure your talents and have you train in the art of restraint…for the most part. You’ll make all of our jobs so much easier…so much safer when you come aboard.”

  “I hope that’s the case. So…the suspect didn’t mention anything about me? What I did in there?”

  “Oh yeah…he sure did. The detectives told me that he said you disappeared into smoke, had wings, all kinds of stuff. Naturally they didn’t believe him. They think he’s going crazy, but they were curious how you dissolved the chain on the handcuffs into shards.”

  “What did you tell them?”