Collins’ lip quivered. He said nothing.
“Thank you, Jack,” said Manny, patting Officer Collins on the shoulder. “Head back to the desk and keep an ear out for the phone. You never know if you’re gonna get an important call.”
He kept his eye on Collins as the officer headed back to the main desk, pleased that his gamble had payed off. It was probably a fortunate thing that it was Jack who had been assigned to the overnight shift and not one of the more senior of the officers. He could be relatively sure that his power play would not have worked on any of them.
“You should probably stay out here,” he whispered to Maureen as they walked down the hall.
Maureen said nothing, but stopped after a few paces and leaned against the wall. He nodded to her and continued forward, hoping he didn’t hurt her feelings by not letting her join. It was for the best, though. He would get more out of Tasha if they were alone in the room. Manny opened the door to the interview room and ushered the other woman in. He pulled out one of the chairs at the table for her to sit in and took his own familiar seat on the opposite side.
“All right Tasha,” he began, pulling his notepad out of his pocket, “what’s got you so worked up that you had to call me? You do remember I’m not working on this case in any official capacity, right?”
“I trust you,” she shrugged back. “I don’t know, we go back a long way, you know? And when I tell you that I lied in my statement to the cops yesterday, I trust that you won’t say anything.”
Manny felt his heart jump at her admission. Whatever came next, it had to be bad.
“Go on,” he urged her as gently as he could.
“Before I start, I just want you to know that I love Ben more than anything.” Her eyes were wide with sincerity. Whatever else she said, at least Manny knew he could believe that.
“Tasha, does Ben know more about your son’s disappearance?” he asked. “Are you protecting him?”
“No, no, nothing like that! It’s just that . . . oh God.” She buried her head in her hands.
Manny turned his head to look at Maureen, who was standing like a statue by the door. Her eyes barely blinked as she stared at Tasha. She didn’t even seem to notice him.
“Tasha,” he said firmly, turning back and prying her hands off her eyes, “time isn’t something we have a lot of.”
“I know, I know,” she replied, composing herself and looking back up at him. “This is just really hard.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m just going to say it. I’ve said it out loud before, I can do it again. I haven’t been faithful to Ben.”
In spite of himself, he dropped his head and shook it sadly. He couldn’t believe that someone who seemed so in love with her husband could be with another man.
“I’m sorry,” she sniffled, trying to hold back the tears. “It’s just been hard with his work schedule lately, and we got together so young, and I’d never really been with anyone else. There’s this guy at the gym, Rod, one of the personal trainers. It started out as just some innocent flirting. But one thing led to another, and before I knew what was going on, we were sleeping together.” She grabbed for his hand earnestly. “You have to believe me, I never meant for it to go so far.”
Manny patted her hand briefly before releasing it and setting it gently on the table. He did feel bad for her, but in that moment, he knew he had to be a cop and not a friend.
“How long has this been going on?” he asked, putting on his most professional tone.
“About four or five months,” she whispered. “I’ve tried to break it off so many times. But every time I see him . . .” She trailed off for a moment, a tiny smile nearly breaking through on her face.
Manny sighed, hoping his growing disappointment wasn’t showing through. “So, why is this important, Tasha? Do you think this Rod guy has something to do with Benny’s kidnapping?”
“Oh, God, no! Rod doesn’t want to have anything to do with kids. Which is ironic, considering—” Tasha’s eyes widened as she cut herself off and clasped a hand over her mouth.
“Oh, no,” Manny said quickly. “You don’t get to drop something like this on me and clam up now. Spit it out—every word. And come to the point of why this has anything to do with the investigation.”
“I . . .” Tasha began, seeming to force every word out of her mouth. “I’m pregnant.”
Manny couldn’t even form a sentence. Was she insinuating what he thought she was? He stared at Tasha, silently compelling her to keep talking so he didn’t have to be the next to speak.
“It might be Ben’s,” she said defensively. “I’m just not sure.”
“So again,” Manny said impatiently, “what does this have to do with your son?”
“I wasn’t at the grocery store when Benny got taken,” she said, looking down at the table. “I did go there that day, just like I said, only before that, I had called Rod and went over to his place. I left Benny in the car with the window cracked. I was just going to be gone for a minute. I went there to tell him that I was pregnant, and that I wanted a paternity test from him, and that if it was his, I wasn’t going to keep it. I was going to tell him that it was over between us,
