The Stolen - Jason Pinter [67]
finishing school. The one next to him was slightly trimmer,
yet had the same scornful look in his eye. Between these
two and the runaround I'd received from Lensicki earlier,
it was tiresome and frustrating to see the lack of support
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from this department. "What's done is done, and now here
you two come, harassing an upstanding member of our
community. You should be ashamed of yourselves."
"Damn ashamed," the other cop agreed.
"You've got it all wrong," I said. "I just want to know
why there's a doctor working at your hospital who knows
two children that were kidnapped, and who ends up dead
the same night we're held captive in some house in the
middle of Hobbs County. The fact that all of this went
down in your neck of the woods should, I don't know,
make you just the least bit interested, I'd think."
"About this...captive thing," the fat one said. "I find it
hard to believe that you followed this Russian doctor, as
you claim, and then you end up being taken by some guy
with a cigarette fetish? You're a reporter, right?"
"That's right," I said.
"Sure you're not looking to add a little spice to your
story?"
"Go to that house and you'll see if I'm adding anything," I said angrily.
The thin one chimed in. "So you followed the doctor
to his home, is that right? You waited in the hospital
parking lot?"
"I don't know if it was his home," I said. "We just
followed his car. In fact, I don't think he lived there at all.
I think he knew we were following him, and probably did
for a while. Wherever he led us wasn't his home, but he
set us up."
The fat one, whom I would guess was playing bad cop,
only the lines weren't really that clear, said, "You followed
him into, let me go over your statement again, a gated residence off Huntley Terrace?"
"That's right," I said.
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"You followed him into a gated community."
"No, it wasn't a gated community, just a home with a
gate out front."
"And a brick wall surrounding the property."
"That's right."
"And you want us to investigate him. " He paused, a
scowl coming over his face. "Sounds to me like you two
are the ones should be reprimanded."
"The gates were open," Amanda added. "And Petrovsky spoke to us when we got out of the car."
"That's when," the thin one said, "everything went,
ahem, black. Right?"
"Right," I said. "They must have knocked us out or
drugged us. I don't remember."
"And why did you follow Petrovsky to begin with?"
Fatty said.
"We think he has knowledge about the kidnappings that
took place over the past few years. He was the attending physician for the births of both Daniel Linwood and Michelle
Oliveira. Both children disappeared and reappeared years
later with no memory of their time gone missing."
"And why did you decide to follow the good doctor?"
thin man said.
"When we first spoke to him at his office, he claimed
to not know anything. It was a blatant lie." I paused, then
added, "And I think there's been another kidnapping. In
addition to Danny Linwood and Michelle."
"You fucking reporters," Ditka said. "Another kidnapping? You find two pieces of information got no connection, you put 'em together and make up some story 'bout
how there's some big conspiracy. All just to sell a few
newspapers, make a name for yourself. Do you have any
proof of another kidnapping?"
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"Proof? Not hard evidence, but..."
"Listen, fuckhead. Hobbs County is a nice town. I've
lived here near twenty years. Now, ten years ago I might
have said, yeah, we got some problems, not exactly the
kind of place I'd want my kids growing up. But all that's
different now. Things have changed. It's not right for you
to go bringing up the bad times, because we're past that."
"Tell that to Dmitri Petrovsky."
"We will when we find him," the other cop said.
"Let's go right now," I said, standing up. "I'm pretty
sure I remember how to get there. Us four, right now."
"Calm your horses, tough guy," Ditka said again.
"We're not going anywhere."
We sat there in silence watching the cops drink