Three weeks after his arrest, I got a chance to sit down with Eric’s former manager, Mark. The guard informed me that I had thirty minutes to ask whatever I needed to ask before the security feed would come back online. It had taken me twice as long to convince him that I had no intention of causing harm to the prisoner.

“You are welcome to watch,” I said. “I promise, I just want to have a private conversation.”

It only took a little more negotiating after that before I was finally allowed into the interrogation room with Mark. I could feel the guard watching me through the window, but I wasn’t worried about it. I meant what I said about not wanting to cause him any harm.

I did plan on getting the answers I needed out of him with the help of a trick I picked up from a friend of a friend, though. That’s why I took care to sit so the guard behind the mirror couldn’t see the thing I put on the table.

“What are you supposed to be?” Mark scoffed. “The Girl Scout cop?”

Instead of responding, I picked up the top I had set on the table and spun it, waiting a few seconds for his eyes to focus on the object before I said anything.

“How did you find out about the heart?” I asked.

“His father told me about his plan to pass down his legacy to his son, and he kept fiddling with it. So I asked him about it and he told me what it was,” he said, not taking his eyes off the top.

“Why did you arrange to have it stolen?”

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“Because I needed the money. I knew the boys would do it clean and make sure no one got hurt, and we agreed to split the profit.”

“Why did you go after the heart, specifically? Why now?”

“I heard about a buyer looking to pay a nice price for rare artifacts.”

“Who?”

“I never got the name.”

“How were you going to get in touch with him to sell the heart?”

“I’m pretty sure he had middle men in the market where I heard about his interest. My plan was to find one of them and set up a meeting.”

“Where is the market?”

“It moves around. I don’t know where it is going to be next.”

“What else can you tell me?”

The answer ended up being not much, and the top stopped working just as my time was up.

“Thanks again for letting me speak to him,” I said to the guard as he led me out of the prison.

“Did you get everything you needed?” he asked.

“I got as much as I could. I’ll have to figure out the rest on my own.”

“Well, I wish you luck with that.”

“Thanks.” I flashed him a smile and exited the prison, beelining for the car, where Maguire was waiting for me.

“So, how do you want to play this?” He asked, starting the car. I had made sure he could hear the entire conversation in case I missed something.

“I think it's time we get a change in scenery. See if we can get closer to those threads. If someone is paying top dollar for artifacts, I want to know why.”