Gage gritted his teeth but recited the numbers. The shorter detective went over and opened the safe. “We got a couple of guns in here,” he said, “along with some papers. Looks like wills and deeds to some properties, but that’s it.” He turned back to face Gage and his partner.
The taller cop nudged Gage, “They were right. We were told you’d have weapons. You got a permit for those?”
Gage frowned. “I don’t know who ‘they’ are or what ‘they’ said, but it’s obvious you guys didn’t bother to read up on me?”
The detectives exchanged a look. “What are you talking about?” The tall one demanded, his eyes narrowing.
Gage chewed the inside of his cheek as he stared and pieced this whole shitshow together. These guys were nothing more than soldiers… told where to go and who to arrest. But they weren’t lead on the case. If they were, they’d have done at least a cursory background check before they came. Either they hadn’t had time to run any checks, or someone else was pulling strings. Not good.
“I have a license for the guns,” was all he said. No need to do any work for them. Better to keep his mouth shut.
“Detective Connors?” one of the cops in tactical gear said. The tall detective turned toward the door. The cop shook his head. Connors nodded.
A small flame of triumph leaped inside Gage. They hadn’t found what they were looking for. They wouldn’t because therewas nothing here to find. He didn’t plan the heist and was only there as backup in case something went wrong.
“Time to go to the precinct.” Connors nodded at the cop at the door. “Take him to get dressed and then transport him downtown.
The officer nodded and then pointed at Gage to get moving. Gage went into the bedroom and stopped. The cop undid his cuffs.
“Thanks,” Gage said and then went over and pulled on a pair of jeans over his boxer briefs. He pulled on a t-shirt and socks. Turning to the cop, he asked, “Can I use the head?”
The cop nodded. “Just keep the door open. We will be watching.”
Gage went into the bathroom. He left the door open as directed. The cop stood outside the door but didn’t watch. Apparently, he didn’t get the memo to not take his eyes off Gage. He bit back a sigh as he reached over and hit a tile behind the toilet. It popped open. He quickly grabbed his work phone. Always a master at multitasking, he texted his brothers an SOS as he peed. He stowed the phone back in the same place and used the cover noise of the toilet flushing to obliterate the sound of the tile hatch closing. After washing his hands, he stood outside the bathroom and waited for the cop to re-cuff him.
When Logan first said that it was a good idea to hide their work phones at night, Gage had thought he was crazy. Dani had them using serious encryption, so it wasn’t like anyone was going to break into them unless they had a whole lot of time and skill. He thought Logan was overreacting, and so had Mitch, but Mitch was all about giving Logan whatever Logan wanted whenever he could. They’d been at odds for so many years, he was just so happy to be on good terms again. Truth be told, Gage was thrilled about it, too. He would have to give his brother a big thanks. Logan had been right. The warrant had any cell phonespresent listed on it. If they’d found his and Dani’s work phones, it could have gotten ugly. Instead, the cops got their personal phones. No great loss.
They marched Gage to the front door, where he slid into his boots. “It’s going to be okay,” he said to Dani. She nodded but bit her lip. His gut churned. She was seven months pregnant and didn’t need this stress. He would find out what the hell was going on and make the appropriate people pay. It was a solemn promise to himself.
“I love you,” he said before the cop pushed him out the door.
Twenty minutes later, he’d been shown to an interrogation room and left on his own. A tried and true cop technique to get a person to talk. God, the smell alone would be enough to make a weaker man sing like a canary. An overriding stench of urine and stale coffee hung in the air like a noxious cloud.
He’d been in here long enough to guess the cops were probably doing the research they should’ve done before they served him the warrant.
They’d cuffed his hands to a metal loop on the table, and though he balked at being shackled this way, it was more comfortable than sitting with them behind his back. By his reckoning, it was probably about three-ten or three-fifteen a.m. The SOS he’d sent to his brothers was a code red. They’d put protocols in place when they’d first started expanding Callahan Security. The SOS meant that all family would be taken to the Callahan Security building, which would go on lockdown. Dani knew what to do, so as soon as the cops left, she would be on her way to safety. Thank God. He wanted her and the baby to be safe. With the timing of everything, he figured Logan would be here within the next thirty minutes.
What was interesting was that they hadn’t formally arrested him yet, despite the search warrant and the handcuffs. It told him a few things. One, the evidence against him could onlybe circumstantial, which was true because he hadn’t actually entered the museum. Two, the authorities had something fairly solid in this circumstantial evidence, or they wouldn’t have requested the warrant in the first place. That said, the fact that the cops knew nothing about him before descending on his place like a bunch of fucking storm troopers meant that someone higher on the food chain was involved. Only time would tell if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
In short, there was nothing he could do but sit and wait. The ball was in the cops’ court. He would just have to wait and see how all this unfolded, which just pissed him off to no end.
He’d called Dani his wife. That wasn’t true, but only because she kept refusing to marry him. She was worried he only wanted to marry her because she was pregnant. Fucking ridiculous, but he was doing his best to honor her wishes and alleviate her fears. After this, he was going to have a serious talk with her about marriage. He didn’t like that she was just his girlfriend. She would have more rights if they were married.
The door opened, and as he straightened on the uncomfortable metal chair, Connors walked in, followed by the shorter detective. They both took seats across the table from him.
Connors had taken off his suit jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. “Well,” he said, “you have quite the military record. Or maybe I should say at least I think you do. Most of what I could get was redacted.”
Gage remained silent.
Connors continued. “You and your brothers took over your family’s company a few years ago and have expanded it into all kinds of areas. Funny how the only information I can find on your business is on your website, and that says very little.”
There was no point in responding to this. It was true. They kept their information locked down and most of their clientscame their way by word of mouth. They advertised in the right circles and those circles weren’t the type where you put up an ad on social media or in a newspaper.
The shorter guy, in his shirt sleeves as well, leaned forward. “Where were you tonight?”
“That’s a bit vague,” Gage responded, not exactly regretting his flip tone, but deciding it was in his best interest to at least appear to be cooperative. “Did you have a time frame in mind?”
“Let’s say from five p.m. onward until we knocked on your door.”
