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The Manifest
Chapter 29

Chapter 29

     The cops had been sweating out Edgar for the past four hours and hadn't the manners to offer him a cup of crappy coffee from the detective's lounge. This led Edgar to believe that the coppers assumed to possess strong evidence that linked him to the killing of Tuck and their men. Chances are all they had was a mess of circumstantial evidence, and hoped Edgar would do all the heavy lifting for them and just confess. He was sure Jerome's auctions were over by now but he would have to wait a little longer to find out what those labors were. The two detectives where getting impatient as one of them slapped an open hand on to the desk, in a futile attempt to intimidate him,

     "Edgar Willis," The first detective started, "We know you and Tuck got a substantial amount of money two days ago. Where did it come from?"

     "A client." Edgar said, actually being rather honest with his answer.

     "Which client?" the other detective asked.

     "You probably got some monkeys tracing the money," Edgar said, as he knew the routine. "You tell me."

     "We traced the payment to a company called Dryden Supplies." The first detective said as he laid down the papers regarding transaction, "Did you know that Tuck took over half the money and wired it to an off shore account in the Caribbean."

     Yes I do, Edgar thought to himself. It was also wired to several other accounts from there and then laundered back into the states under dummy accounts that he's now using to finance his operations.

     "I had no idea." Edgar said out loud, trying to act rather surprised. "Wouldn't that be a good motive for Tuck to fake his own death and spend the rest of his life sipping margaritas for the rest of his natural life?"

     "We've already identified Mr. Tucker by dental records." The other detective who was still standing replied, confirming what Rod had said earlier.

     "Well, he's a detective and a former cop." Edgar added, "Don't you think he would know that and work his way around it to give you the slip?"

     Edgar was now having fun with then. He knew Tuck didn't fake his death, but this kind of cat and mouse was the best way to suckle information out of them. Both suckers were falling for it hook, line, and sinker.

     "It would give you motive to kill him and keep that money for yourself." the detective said, jumping right to the punch, "That's why you killed them all and burned the place down, isn't it?"

     "Oh sure, and if you think I had that kind of money available for the taking, would I be stupid enough to just waltz right in here and give myself up that easily?" Edgar said as he beat them at their own game. His appearance at the police station made no sense at all. His conversation with the two detectives was more than enough to let him know what happened to his men. They were gunned down in cold blood and then the bodies were burned to destroy the offices and possibly any evidence of the case they were working on. Edgar was ready to weasel out a few more answers when there was a loud knock at the door. When it opened, another detective walked into the room. This startled the other two who didn't seem impressed.

     "This is our case Jenkins!" The first called out to him. "What the hell are you doing in here?"

     Jenkins didn't seem very impressed either as he gestured to the door, "I want both of you to leave this room immediately. I need a moment alone with Mr. Willis."

     "We're trying to interrogate this man!" one of them protested.

     "You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" Jenkins said, smirking at the two idiots, "He's been squeezing more information from you than you have from him! You've pretty much feed your entire case to him. This is probably the real reason why he came here in the first place, isn't it Mr. Willis?"

     All three men turned to face Edgar as they waited for him to answer the question. Edgar knew he was in the presence of a real professional now, so there was no point trying to be cute with him.

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     "Pretty much," Edgar confirmed, "I was actually hoping no one was going to notice until Twiddle Dumb and Twiddle Dumber here gave me a rundown of the other suspects."

     Jenkins turned to the other two men who were pretty much dumbfounded by what they had just heard, "Get out, now."

     As the two detectives shuffled out as quickly as they could, he closed the door behind them, but kept eye contact with Edgar as he walked back into the middle of the room and sat down at the table.

     "Would you like a cup of coffee?" Jenkins said with a smile. "Maybe we can get someone to wrestle up a donut too."

     Edgar smiled back as understood what trouble he was finally in. This was no fool he was dealing with here and, and he had an inkling that the real pressure was about to be really applied.

     "Why not?" Edgar said, "I'm starved. I'd love either a walnut crunch or a honey curler if one is available."

     Jenkins responded by casually snapping his fingers. Apparently this man was so high up that he was above doing minor crap like that. Even after the donut and coffee arrived, Jenkins still didn't say a word and sipped on his own coffee that the cop had also brought in for him. Edgar noticed that he didn't even add anything to the coffee and just sipped away. This meant that either he liked his coffee black like Edgar did, or this man has had his coffee made up so much that his underlings knew exactly how he preferred it made. Edgar knew the routine so he broke the ice after taking his second bite out of his donut.

     "What exactly are we waiting for?" Edgar asked as he chewed rather loudly on his bite. "I don't exactly have anything new to add to the conversation or to your investigation."

     Jenkins still said nothing, but then the answer came by other means. The cell phone his pocket rang, and he quickly opened the phone,

     "Hello? Yes, he's right here." Jenkins smiled back at Edgar and then reached out and offered him the cell, "It's for you."

     Edgar took the small phone from Jenkins and pressed it to his ear, "Hello?" he softly said, not exactly sure who was going to respond.

     "Good afternoon, Mr. Willis." a familiar voice on the other end replied.

     "Norsberg?" Edgar guessed, a bit surprised. He looked back up a Jenkins and suddenly a lot of things started to make sense, "To what do I owe the pleasure of your attention?"

     "My subordinate in front of you told me that you were being questioned for what I suspect is something you had nothing to do with." Norsberg paused for a moment, "I feel really bad about what happened to Mr. Tucker. Please accept my deepest condolences."

     "Thank you," Edgar answered, trying to be as polite as possible.

     He still couldn't believe someone like Jenkins was on Norsberg's payroll, but it would explain how Norsberg got his hands on that video tape of Jessica ranting to the cops about her mother. Jenkins, being the smart bloke he was, probably knew about Norsberg's connection with Flight 77 and likely brought the tape to him for a sizable fee.

     "Is there anything in particular you wanted to pass on besides your condolences?" Edgar asked, as he was a tad impatient and not in the mood for any games at this point.

     "I just called to inform you to keep your mouth shut." Norsberg answered, as the old man let out a soft chuckle. "Dryden Supplies is sending over their best attorney to deal with your current incarceration. I'm sure you've been a good boy so far, but thought it would be wise to remind you just in case. Unless they have something to stick you with, which we both know they don't, your attorney will have you released within the next hour or so. The word is sit tight, Mr. Willis. The cavalry is coming, but it wouldn't hurt if you sped things up by asking to speak with him too."

     "Understood." Edgar acknowledged as closed the phone and then passed it back to Jenkins before one of the other detectives walked back into the room to see how things were going in there. Edgar answered the question for Jenkins as he looked to the detective who just interrupted them.

     "I just told him this, and now I'm going you the same thing." Edgar started, "I'm not saying another damn word until I speak to my lawyer."

     "You're lawyering up?" The detective at the door asked, surprised.

     "I am," Edgar confirmed. "So you either charge me with something or get the hell out of here until my representative arrives."

     Jenkins responded by throwing up his arms and gave up, walking out of the room and thus leaving the other detectives there to mop up. It was only a mere ten minutes later when Edgar's attorney arrived to tossed around a lot of ultimatums and even threats to sue the department if they didn't release him. It was fun to watch, as Edgar used to be the cop who watched the lawyer do this song and dance for crooks, and scum who never deserved representation this good. After going a few rounds with this lawyer, the cops looked like prize fighters who had just gone ten rounds with a boxing phenom. In quick time it was decided not to charge Edgar with anything for now, but he was asked to stay in the jurisdiction in case they needed to ask him a few questions. Edgar was released a half hour later after the lawyer arrived and left the station as soon as he could, rushing back to the alternate location to get an update on Jerome's efforts to find their missing person.