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“Don’t shoot!” he squealed, his voice unpleasantly high-pitched.
They didn’t shoot, but they didn’t exactly treat him gently either. They tackled him to the ground roughly, cuffing him and jerking him to his feet.
“Hey there, Doctor,” Travis said, “let’s go for a drive.”
“What’s going on?” Porter cried out. “What is this? Am I under arrest?”
“No, no,” Travis said, leading him to a curb and pushing him roughly into a sitting position. “My friend there is just going to talk to you. You like talking, don’t you, Doc? That’s your job after all.”
“What is the meaning of this?” Porter cried indignantly. “I demand to speak to my lawyer!”
Michael rolled his eyes and shook his head as he approached them. The one silver lining to this fiasco was that it was Tucson PD and not Faith who had escalated the situation.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Once he realized he wasn’t under arrest and Turk wasn’t going to tear him limb from limb, Doctor Porter’s fear transformed into indignation. “What is the meaning of this?” he shouted. “I demand to speak to my lawyer! You have no right to detain me!”
“Who’s detaining anyone?” Travis asked pleasantly. “We’re just talking.”
“Not without my lawyer,” Doctor Porter insisted.
“Why do you need a lawyer?” Travis asked, smiling. “Are you hiding something?”
Porter stared at him silently, jaw jutted out defiantly.
“Detective Brown, uncuff him, please.”
Travis turned his deadly smile to Faith. “Will you be handling the conversation then, Special Agent Bold?”
Before Faith could reply, Michael interjected, “I will.”
Faith’s eyes snapped to Michael, but he ignored her glare. “Uncuff Doctor Porter, please,” he said.
Travis looked like he would enjoy nothing more than to run the two agents over with his car, but he complied with Michael’s instruction. “Will that be all, Special Agent?” he asked, his voice laced with venom.
“That’s all for now,” Michael said. “Can you give me some space, please?”
Travis and Derek exchanged a look. The uniforms looked around at anything but the five of them.
“All right,” Travis said finally.
He and Derek walked back to their cruiser. The uniforms followed suit. Michael turned to Doctor Porter and said, “I apologize for my overzealous colleagues with the police department. Would you like to continue this conversation in your office?”
“I wouldn’t like to continue this conversation at all,” Porter said. “This is absolutely unacceptable. If you needed something from me, you should have called my office and made an appointment. I assume you have no warrant for whatever this is.”
“No warrant,” Michael agreed, “and at the moment, you’re not a suspect.”
“So, you’re in the habit of physically assaulting and detaining people who are suspected of no crime?” Porter challenged.
“We are not,” Michael said, “which is why I’m apologizing for the police department. I’m speaking on the behalf of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We’re assisting the Tucson Police Department in the investigation into the murders of Katherine Navarro, Amanda Montgomery, and Elmore Holland.”
Porter’s expression told Faith that he knew the individuals named. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I have nothing that can help you.”
“I’m not suggesting you murdered them,” Michael said, even though he was, at the moment, their only suspect. “I’m just hoping that you might be able to help us with some information.”
“If you want that information, you need a warrant,” Porter insisted stubbornly. “I’m not going to disclose confidential information about my patients without an order from the court.”
“So, they were your patients,” Michael said.
