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Another shake of his head.
She believed he was telling the truth, as his reaction was calm and level-headed. She put the photo away. “What happened to those license plates, Barry?”
He traced a pattern on the table, watching his fingertip as it moved. “I don’t know. And that’s the truth.” He looked pleadingly at his mute lawyer.
“We’ll need more than that. Let’s start with the reason you got the plates in the first place,” she said.
Barry didn’t respond.
“Mr. Holden,” she pushed.
Barry met her gaze. “I got them for someone.”
“For what purpose?” she countered.
“I don’t ask questions I don’t want answers to. Besides, that was a long time ago. Why the plates are kicking around now, I have no clue. You’ve got to believe me.”
Amanda took a few centering breaths, detesting Barry’s expression, but slapping it back in his face wouldn’t be conducive to gaining any forward traction. “We’re going to need a name.”
“I don’t have one.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Come on, you expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t get involved with names. It’s better that way.”
“All right, I get that. Then you can’t be accused of being a snitch.” She’d laid out the label to get a bite, and she got one.
“I’m not a snitch,” Barry seethed. “Never have been, never will be.”
“Not how we hear it,” she said nonchalantly.
He lunged across the table, and his lawyer reached out to settle him back down.
Trent glanced at Amanda as if to ask if she was okay. She nodded.
“Intending to assault me isn’t going to help your cause.” Her instinct would typically have her bringing up the teenage girl in the morgue or the fact a police sergeant had been abducted, but Daisy’s words were ever-present in her mind. “Give us a name, or we’ll arrange a reunion for you in prison. You’ll be able to meet up with some old friends.”
“You can’t just threaten my client,” Alan pushed out.
Barry sat still and from the look of his chest, he might have suspended his breathing. Amanda recognized the rock and the hard place between which he found himself. He detested being a snitch, and that’s what she was asking from him. If he refused her request, he’d be face to face with old friends who already pegged him as one.
She peacocked her stance and ignored the lawyer, keeping her focus on Barry. “It’s not a threat.”
“I can’t tell you who they were!” Barry’s yell would have reached past the thick brick walls to reception.
“Yeah, I’m not sure I believe you.” She had said it calmly, antagonizing him.
Barry’s nostrils were flaring. “I don’t get names, and I’m no snitch!”
She held his gaze, and his eyes penetrated hers, threatening, but she wasn’t one to back down. She stared back just as unrelentingly. “Name.”
Barry smacked the table, and she buried her instinct to react and flinch. She just continued to watch him. One second, two, three… She stopped counting and left the room.
In the hallway, she said to Trent, “He’s not going to give us anything.”
“Nope, and I don’t think he’s behind what happened this morning either.” The admission was devastating and put them right back to square one.
TWENTY-SIX
