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Lindy’s lips parted, only nothing came out but a grunt.
Holder leaned forward. “You need to tell me everything. I don’t want to go to trial without knowing where all the skeletons are. The background I was given on you is that you work for a human trafficking ring. You were Biggers’s contact. You were waiting for him at a place called Fuzzy Fridays but he never showed. He said you promised him ten thousand dollars for a three-year-old child named Lili Glass. But the feds are telling me that the gang you are associated with always paid for their deliveries with a bullet to the back of the head.”
Lindy groaned. They knew more than she’d thought.
“Who’s your boss?” Holder asked. “You have to help me help you, or you’ll be going down for all of this on your own.”
“I want a deal,” she said.
“They’ll have to hear everything you know to see if it’s worth making a deal.”
Lindy popped the last bite of doughnut in her mouth, chewed, swallowed, and washed it down with coffee.
“What would be my best offer?” she asked.
“You’re looking at a minimum of twenty-five years to a maximum of life, and if they designate each sex trafficking case separately, you might never see outside again.”
Lindy reached for a second doughnut. “I’ll tell them what I know for the minimum sentence with a chance of parole.”
“Well, they won’t promise you anything. The final decision will belong to the judge. Otherwise you’ll just go to trial and suffer the consequences of twelve angry jurors knowing you participated in selling young women as sex slaves and kidnapping babies to sell on the black market. They’ll crucify you.”
She took a bite, chewing as she thought, then shrugged. “I’ll talk to them up to a point, but until I know what they can offer me, I’ll take my chances because there is no paper trail to tie me to any of this.”
“They have Biggers’s phone with your texts on it. You’re nowhere near in the clear. Just remember that,” Holder said, then signaled to the guard they were ready for the agents.
She finished the doughnut and the coffee, then took the second cup and held it between her hands to warm them. Even though the room was warm enough, she felt cold all the way to her bones.
Chapter 18
As soon as they got the nod, Howard and Pickard entered the interrogation room, carrying file folders. They sat down opposite Lindy and her lawyer, pressed Start on the recorder to tape the session, and only then did they look up and make eye contact with Lindy.
Howard began the interview. “Special Agent Howard and Special Agent Pickard are present in the room, along with Darrell Holder, the court-appointed lawyer for our detainee, Melinda Sheets.” Then he eyed Melinda. “Please state your full name for the recording.”
“Melinda Renée Sheets.”
“You have been read your rights prior to this interview. Do you understand that anything you say that is being recorded today can be used against you in a court of law?”
“Yes, I understand,” Lindy said.
“Is it true that you hold dual citizenships? One in Canada, one in the United States?”
“Yes.”
“And for the record, would you please state the name under which your Canadian citizenship is recognized?” Howard said.
“Melinda Renée Lehigh. That’s my legal maiden name.”
“And what name is your U.S. citizenship under?”
“The same.”
“And you’d been married twice? First to Rance Woodley, then to Thaddeus Sheets in later years, and at the present you are a divorced woman. Is this correct?” Howard asked.
“Yes,” Lindy said.
“Thank you,” Howard said and then fired the first volley. “What was your relationship to Danny Biggers?”
“Just someone I knew,” she said.
