Free Bad Break by CJ Lyons

Maybe retired police or military from the way he kept his posture so straight despite his age, at least in his sixties. The man examined Lucy’s credentials, eyed Megan, then picked up his phone. After a moment, Officer Gant appeared at the door.
    Megan hastened to join her mother. Hildy and Jorge stood and stepped forward, but Gant waved them back. While he was focused on them, Megan slipped past the doorway on her mom’s other side, figuring it’d be harder for them to kick her out once the door locked behind her.
    Gant frowned at her but let her stay. “You can wait in there.” He gestured to the open door of an interview room. “The chief needs your mom first.”
    Megan hesitated but Lucy nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
    Megan crossed the bullpen to the room Gant had indicated. There were four desks all covered with evidence: crime scene photos, the note with the safe combination, the knife. Why weren’t they at the state crime lab? Had the techs not arrived yet? Gant led Lucy to a small office on the far side of the desks.
    There was one more interview room beside the one Megan stood outside of—empty and with the same reinforced steel door and window as her room. Multipurpose, interview and lock them up, made sense for a small town. The chief had the only proper office, glass walls like Lucy’s office back home.
    Chief Hayden was there now along with Mateo’s mother, who sat in a straight-backed chair, face buried in her hands, shoulders heaving. Gant and Lucy joined them and the Chief turned her computer monitor around so they could all watch something. Whatever it was, it made Mrs. Romero even more upset.
    Finally, Gant escorted Anna from the chief’s office to the room beside Megan’s. He stood, facing both of them, arms crossed over his chest as if he were guarding maximum-security prisoners. Megan didn’t care. It was obvious Mrs. Romero needed help, so she strode out of her room past Gant, flinging him a glare that dared him to stop her. He surprised her by giving her a small nod of approval as she joined Mateo’s mother in the room next door.
    “What’s happened?” she asked, crouching beside Anna’s chair. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
    “They’re saying he did this. That tape—” She broke off, choking on tears. “It’s fake. It has to be.”
    “What was on the tape?”
    “It’s a ransom demand. One million dollars or Pastor Fleming dies.”
    “And Mateo?” It was clear the Romeros didn’t have that kind of money. “What will happen to him?”
    She shook her head. “No. You don’t understand. They didn’t ask for any money for Mateo.” She raised one hand to her mouth then lowered it again, wrapping it around her other hand on her lap. “On the tape. There’s a few seconds where you can see a mirror. And Mateo. As if he’s the one filming Pastor Fleming. They say he’s the kidnapper. They want to arrest him.”
     
     

Chapter 14
     
     
    “WHAT CHOICE DO I have but to get an arrest warrant?” Hayden asked Lucy. “I have the kid’s fingerprints in the victim’s blood at the crime scene on the paper with the safe combo and the knife. Not to mention on the Pastor’s insulin pump. And now this.” She gestured to the computer screen where she’d frozen it on the frame that caught Mateo’s face reflected in a mirror.
    “Play it again for me,” Lucy asked.
    Hayden was rushing things, letting her emotions drive her rather than the facts. Lucy glanced around the office. On a credenza behind the desk were several photos: Hayden in uniform, with her officers, accepting an award, and several photos of Hayden with what Lucy supposed were prominent residents including one of Hayden and Shelly Fleming laughing out on a boat, the open water behind them. Hayden wore a wedding ring but there were no photos of a husband or family. In such a small community, where everyone knew each other, why did she find it necessary to keep her personal life so conspicuously