Page 89 of Now Until Forever
“Did they tell you whether it was connected to the canisters that made everyone fight each other?”
Sylvia shook her head. “None of them will talk. One is on lockdown. We took his shoelaces and his belt, just to make sure he’s safe from himself, but we don’t have forever. This isn’t a prison facility, and this whole situation is hanging by a thread.”
“Just have Tony get one of the guys to talk,” Eliana suggested. “Knock him around a bit or something. He’ll cave.”
Tony shrugged. “That didn’t work either.”
“I’m here to find Carolena. Not to help you guys in a way that makes me complicit in keeping these people hostage here.” Eliana folded her arms.
Sylvia seemed unaffected by the truth. “Help us get answers, and we’ll let them go.”
Eliana knew then that she was nothing like these people. She’d never consider doing what they’d done, not even to her worst enemy. “I’m not an interrogator.”
“They know who you are,” Tony said. “It’s a tool you can use to get information out of them.”
“You just want to know who hired them?” Eliana couldn’t believe she was even thinking of doing this. If she stepped intothe hall, she could text Carlos. The police could come in, get these people out of here, and take them to jail.
“That’s all we need to know, and then we’ll let them go.” Sylvia stood straight with her shoulders back and a polite expression on her face. As if this were another normal day.
Meanwhile, the ocean where Eliana was drowning had just tossed her in a completely different direction.
Would the seas calm soon? She needed to catch her breath.
Sylvia held out her hand. “I’ll hold on to your phone for you. While you talk to her.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Eliana opened the door. She had a sub sandwich in a white paper bag and a can of soda. She put both on the table in front of this woman. “Those are for you.” Then she dragged out the chair opposite the woman and sat. “What’s your name?”
She wasn’t a cop. She wasn’t an interrogator. She had no training at this and knew nothing about this woman. And those were the facts that might make her the only person who could succeed at this. Believing it herself would make this seem far more natural than if she pretended to be something—or someone—she wasn’t.
The woman scoffed. “That’s all you came in here to ask?” Her voice sounded hoarse, as if she’d spent some time recently screaming. Dark circles ringed her eyes, and the clothes she wore had a rumpled note to them. The odor in the room wasn’t terrible, but it also wasn’t entirely pleasant. The room held a kind of musky air.
“Humor me. I need to call you something, and my boss didn’t tell me anything about you.” She exhaled a breath and rolled her eyes. “She just ordered me in here like I’m supposed to know what’s going on.”
Eliana tried to act relaxed. To appear friendly, even. At least not like someone who was at odds with this woman and wanted to get something from her. That was a decent starting point, right?
“Keri Herbohn.”
“I’m Eliana Jaxton.”
Keri glanced over, a hard expression on her face. “Yeah, I know.Hope Adams.” She snorted. “We all know who you are.”
And yet they’d pretended otherwise when she took the wig off.
“Are you guys some kind of group?” She found it hard to believe Sylvia and the Board of Governors hadn’t fingerprinted all of the would-be thieves and run their backgrounds to figure out who they were and where they’d come from. “You, and Miles, and the others?”
Keri paced the room as if anxiety was in charge of her movements, not any kind of rational thought. But having been kept here since the chaos would do that to a person. Not being able to shower or go outside.
Being cooped up would drive anyone nuts.
“We don’t have to talk about that.” Eliana needed to give the impression she could sit here all day. “But if I’m honest, the boss wants to know what you know, and she can deal with that. She’s prepared to let you go. You’re not the one she wants.”
“You think I’m gonna roll over and play dead, beg for mercy?”
“It’s a strategy,” Eliana said. “It could save your life. Or your freedom.”
In those instances when a stronger predator prowled around looking for something to devour, why stick up your head and show yourself as prey?
