A brown-skinned policeman stopped me. “Mr. Tseng?”
I didn’t know this guy. “Get out of my way.”
“Please.” He moved in front of me.
“I wouldn’t,” I warned. “I seriously would back off now.”
“Please, sir. You need to listen to me,” the officer pleaded in Dutch.
Against my better judgment, I grabbed him by his collar. “No, you’d better listen to me. I’m going in there to look for my boyfriend. You’re not stopping me unless you want a broken nose.”
I didn’t go about threatening police officers on a normal day, but this was about Jake. He shouldn’t be missing, he should be here with me right now, staring down at yet another boneless body.
Only, there didn’t seem to be a body anywhere.
The officer pushed me off. “Don’t do that, sir.” He reached for his taser.
“Get the fuck out of my way.”
“Please, listen.”
I went to go around him again, his colleagues now on alert. “If I stand here listening to you then—”
“We found his phone,” the officer said.
It wasn’t enough to stop me.
“There were witnesses to him being attacked by the lake. He was carried off in a black van.”
I froze. “What?”
“It was gone before we got here.”
A black van.
Oh. My. God.
This was not fucking happening! I kept my tone as level as I could. “Did anyone see the direction it went in?”
“We have reason to believe it took Nesciobrug and crossed the river.”
That bridge wasn’t too far. “Then that’s where I’m headed.”
I went back to my bike.
“Mr. Tseng?”
“What?” I growled as I up-righted my vehicle.
“There was no body at all. We’ve got officers in pursuit of Sonny.”
I pulled the throttle. “Let me know when you do.”
Before he could say anything, I was off into the park, my bike roaring in synchronicity with my rage.
Time Passes
FIVE HOURS LATER
Eighteen
Dean
My fist collided with Sonny’s jaw, his head snapping backward with such force that his chair flew back too, sending him tumbling to the floor of the interrogation room.
My cool had lasted less than ten seconds.
Lars grabbed me before I could pounce, while a pale-skinned male officer burst into the interrogation room to help Sonny to his feet. He didn’t look old enough to be on the police force.
Thank God they’d caught the snaky bastard!
Sonny’s nose was bloody as he got vertical. His tail started to rattle.
“Is that supposed to be a warning, you slippery fuck?” I barked.
His eyes were wide with shock, blood all down his front. He didn’t say anything.
“Outside,” Lars ordered me. “Now.”
I went with him, not taking my eyes off the piece of shit.
With my hands on my head, I sucked in a deep breath, resisting the urge to push Lars out of the way and beat the snake man to death.
“What was that?” Lars demanded. “Are you stupid?”
“He’s a fucking …” I roared and punched the wall. I barely felt it, but my knuckles came back bloody.
“You need to calm down, Dean. He’s the one with the answers, and you can’t go around beating up suspects while they’re in custody. If anything, the paperwork will be a nightmare.”
In any other situation, I would have known better than to behave this way. But this wasn’t like any other situation. Jake was a victim of kidnap, the case I had to crack.
My Jake.
For five hours now, taken by a black van. That boneless body in the canal had been dumped from a black van.
Shit.
I’d crossed the river, ridden my bike as far as I could go until I was forced to stop. There was no sign of him, no clues. He was just gone.
I was at war with my mind, not wanting to think about his body being torn apart and dumped somewhere. It wasn’t a battle I was confident of winning.
Breathe … He’ll be okay …
He had to be.
“You need to hold it together, man,” Lars said. “There are people looking for him. We’ll find him.”
Sonny wouldn’t talk to the police, insisting on speaking to me. And I’d punched him in the face, could’ve seriously messed up my one and only key to finding Jake.
I blew out a breath. This wouldn’t do. I had to find him.
I’d contacted Sophie to say we wouldn’t be home, that there was a lot of work for us to do. I couldn’t tell her Jake was missing. Not yet.
“Let me check if things have cooled off,” Lars said. He returned to the room, then stepped back outside a few minutes later. “Lucky for you, his nose isn’t broken. Also, he’s still willing to talk to you.”
“He’s willing?” No. Cool it. “Right.”
The young officer came out of the room and threw me dagger eyes. I stared at him. Today wasn’t the day for the throwing around of weight from some twig I’d snap the shit out of.
Cool it.
Another deep breath and I brushed the officer aside. I was used to those looks from police officers who didn’t care much for PIAs. It’d never bothered me much before, and I wasn’t about to let my anger be stirred by it now. The longer this went on, the more I was delaying finding Jake.
Idiot! Tick, tock! Get back in there!
“Okay,” I said. “I’m ready.”
“No more warnings, Dean. Don’t mess this up.”
I nodded. “I won’t.”
Sonny had a bunch of blood-stained tissue held to his nose. His eyes followed my every step to the table.
I sat down, resting my elbows, and leaning forward. “Well? Talk.”
He shuffled in his seat. “You could’ve broken my nose,” he said in that nasal voice that comes from pinching a nose.
Play. It. Cool. “Sorry,” I offered.
He sighed, closing his eyes. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“Oh?”
“They threatened me, said they’d burn me alive for being the disgusting creature I was.”
“Who did?”
When he opened his eyes, they were moist. “I wanted to run, to get as far away from them as I could. But they held me down, those triplets. I couldn’t breathe, and they meant it, Dean. They would have
