Free End of Days by Eric Walters Page A

out looking for something for us to eat. When I first heard you coming along the hallway I thought it might be him.”
    “I’m sure he’ll be back soon,” Ramsey offered. “Maybe you can help us. We’re looking for somebody.”
    “There are lots of people in this building I think the police should arrest.”
    “We have a picture of him.”
    Ramsey showed her the picture.
    “No, I don’t know him,” she replied instantly.
    It was obvious that she was lying—he could tell by her expression, the slight widening of her eyes.
    “The picture is a couple of years out of date, so he’d look older. Maybe his hair is different,” Ramsey said.
    “No, I haven’t seen him.”
    “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” Ramsey said reassuringly. “Nobody will know that you told us anything.”
    He looked at her harder. She didn’t look afraid. In fact, she seemed calmer, as though looking at the picture of this boy reassured her. She did know him—probably well—but wasn’t willing to talk about it. What could that mean?
    Ramsey reached deeper into his pocket. He pulled out two more chocolate bars and a package of beef jerky.
    “We’d be really grateful for any information you might have that could assist us,” he said, trying to be charming.
    “It’s just that I don’t have anything I can say.”
    “Can
say or
will
say?” Ramsey asked. “Come on, I know you know him.” He smiled. “We just want to talk to him. Don’t worry,” he lied.
    She shook her head. “I don’t know—”
    Just then Gordon rushed forward and pushed her, pinning her against the wall, his hand around her neck. “I don’t know if you’re protecting this punk or you’re afraid he might hurt you. But you have to know that it’s a certainty I
will
hurt you if you don’t give us what we want to know!”
    “I don’t know anything,” she hissed.
    “Brave words. How about if I hurt somebody else?” he said, looking at her children sitting on the floor, licking the wrappers of the chocolate bars.
    Ramsey stood there, silent and without expression. He knew that he wasn’t going to let this go too much further. It was important that the woman didn’t know that, though. Nothing like this would have happened in the olden days, in the
before
days, but now … what choice did he have? They both understood the roles they were playing. It was time for him to play
good cop
to Gordon’s
bad cop
.
    Ramsey grabbed Gordon and spun him around with such force that he released his grip. “That’s not the way we do things.”
    “That’s the way
I
do things!” Gordon snapped. “You want to find this kid or what?”
    Ramsey stared him down. “Not on my watch. Wait in the hall.”
    “I’ll wait in the hall, at least until she doesn’t give you what you want. Then I’m coming back, and I won’t be coming back happy!” Gordon stomped into the hall.
    Ramsey was impressed. Even though he knew it was all play-acting, it was frighteningly believable.
    “You go too,” Ramsey said to the second officer. He turned back to the woman. “Sorry about that. Are you all right?”
    “I’m okay,” she said. She was rubbing her throat where he’d been holding her.
    “Look, just between me and you, you do know this boy, right?”
    She nodded her head ever so slightly. “I’ve seen him,” she said, her words so soft he could barely hear her.
    “That’s what I thought. Come on, we just want to talk to him. We have information for him about his parents.”
    “But his parents are—” She stopped herself, but not before she’d revealed more than she meant to.
    “You’ve more than just seen him around,” Ramsey said. “You know that I’m trying to do right for you here, but you’re not doing right by me. Any more lying and I can’t be responsible for what might happen.”
    He took a quick glance toward the hall, where they both knew Gordon was waiting.
    “Just tell me what you know … between you and me. Nobody else will have to