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Silence stretched, and she and Trent let it expand. The hope was Simon would eventually feel compelled to fill it. The reward came after at least a minute when Simon spoke.
“You realize these plates we’re talking about are from a year and a half ago? That’s what you told me.”
She resisted smiling, not fooled by the latter bit. He knew exactly what plates they were talking about all along. “Just a name, maybe a repeat customer? Though you’d make a lot of deals. Do all the faces blend together after a while?”
Simon glared at her.
Trent pointed at the photo of the accomplice that was on top of the stack. “Did you pass Mr.Elliott’s plates on to that woman?”
“I told you, I don’t know her.”
“You know what? We’re wasting our time with this guy. Let’s just report him for his shady business dealings and get on with our day.” Amanda stood, and Trent followed her lead.
Simon shimmied up straighter. “Hey, there’s no need for that.”
She pivoted toward him. “I disagree. You’re not being cooperative or helpful.” She turned back to the door again. Her hand was on the knob.
“Please, just wait,” Simon blurted out. “It was just some guy.”
She buried her smirk before returning to her chair. “You have a name?”
“If I do, you won’t report me?”
“Name, Mr.Wheable,” she put out firmly, avoiding his question altogether. “If I get up again, any chance that I’d put in a good word for you is off the table.” It was best he remained in the dark that there was no chance of a good word regardless of what he said. As long as he thought there was, it might loosen his lips.
“Fine. Name’s Barry, but that’s all I know.”
“You deal with this Barry on a regular basis, Simon?” One reliable thing with criminals, they were typically repeat offenders until they were caught.
“I’ll take that lawyer now.”
“Are you sure? This is your chance to be a hero.” Normally once the request for representation was made, she left silently. This time the stakes were too high. They could have time to save Katherine.
“Lawyer,” he dragged out.
She and Trent left without another word. They went into the observation room next door and found Malone there.
“You see the whole thing?” she asked him.
“Yep.” Malone’s hands were on his hips, and he was grimacing. “That guy knows Barry’s last name and where to find him. He could be our shooter and get us to Katherine. Meanwhile we’re in a holding pattern because he asked for a lawyer.”
“It stinks.” It was frustrating as hell needing to play within the confines of the law sometimes.
Malone rubbed his beard. “There has to be another way to get info on this Barry guy.”
Amanda examined their situation from different angles in her mind and landed on an epiphany. “There might be.”
TWENTY-TWO
It was 2 PM, marking nine hours since Katherine was abducted. With every passing minute, the likelihood of finding her alive diminished. No request for a ransom either. Those facts haunted Amanda.
She and Trent were going back to Eco-Friendly Recyclers. In an ideal world, Helen would be more forthcoming than her boss. The only reason they hadn’t dragged her down to Central with Simon was because he had primary responsibility as the owner. Helen had plausible deniability. Her knowing about plates was contingent on Simon telling her about them.
Trent breezed through a yellow to red, not even attempting to slow down.
“This entire thing is so frustrating, isn’t it?” she said. “I’m clinging to the belief we’ll save Katherine. Meanwhile we’re just this close to a good lead.”
“Let’s put faith in that.” Trent pulled into the lot for the auto recycler, and his phone rang. He parked and glanced at the screen. “It’s Bauer,” he said before answering on speaker. “Detective Stenson here, and Detective Steele is here too.”
