Page 14 of The Pleasure of Panic

“Did you talk to her?” Declan asks, slumping into one of two chairs.

“Nope,” I say, shoving the last cookie into my mouth, bunching up the empty bag, and tossing it towards the trash can. I miss, but don’t pick it up. “I have no clue what’s going on, so just waiting on you. Where the fuck have you been?”

Declan looks at me with an expression that says, Watch your mouth, son, but doesn’t bother to say the words out loud. Doesn’t have to. We both know who’s boss here and it sure as fuck isn’t me.

He pulls up a screen on one of the many monitors stationed around the observation area, which displays a dossier of Ms. Grey. Three others contain footage of the raid. One is a live image of a chest cam on an officer still on the scene, two are looping different discoveries found in her back rooms, and the last three are trained on her, inside the interrogation room.

“OK, so this is where we’re at. We got an anonymous tip this afternoon that there was a meth lab over at Go Fuck Yourself—”

I laugh at the name because I sorta love it. Issy Grey is totally the kind of person who names a business Go Fuck Yourself.

Declan just continues. “Upon arrival it was clear the tip was bogus, but during the search the dogs sniffed out a sizable amount of C4 explosive.”

“What?” I say, pulling out the chair next to Declan and taking a seat. “Her?” I flick my thumb over my shoulder at the two-way.

“Like a lot of it, Finn.”

I laugh. “Bullshit. She’s an elf-sized demon, sure. But no one would be that aggressive and call that much attention to themselves if they’re holding C4 explosives in their back room.”

“Obviously”—Declan sighs, rubbing his temples with two fingertips—“something’s going on here. So let’s go in there and get to the bottom of it.”

“Wait,” I say, placing a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from standing. “You think she’s… what? Using her little women’s empowerment classes as a front for terrorists?”

“Maybe,” Declan says.

I laugh. “Really?”

“I follow the evidence, Finn. If you know anything about me by now, it should be that. And this woman had five hundred pounds of C4 in her back storeroom. So let’s go talk to her and see what the deal is. I’m Bob, you’re Joe.”

“Fuck that,” I say. “I’m Bob and you’re Joe.”

“Whatever,” Declan says, standing up.

Bob is good cop and Joe is bad cop. Declan always plays good cop-bad cop during interrogations. It’s cliché, but it works. Usually. I’ve only been working with the Lakewood office for about three months, but Declan has already proven himself to be a powerful interrogator, so I generally just follow his lead.

Besides, being bad cop requires a lot of effort and I’m just not into that kind of investment tonight.

We exit the observation room, enter the hallway, then open the door that leads to the interrogation room, go inside, and close the door behind us. No one is watching on the other side of the glass now, but she doesn’t know that. And the whole thing is being recorded, so it hardly matters.

“’Bout fucking time,” the demon-girl spits. “I want my phone call and my lawyer. If you think I’m gonna—”

“Issy,” I say, because I’m good cop, and he always goes first and he always uses first names. “You’re not under arrest. We’re just here to question you.”

“Then set me free. Unchain me and let me go. I’ve got nothing to say.”

“What my partner meant to say,” Declan adds in his most unfriendly FBI agent tone, “was that you’re not under arrest yet. If you want a lawyer, you will be. So think very carefully about that request, Ms. Grey.”

“Lawyer,” she says.

“Issy, listen—”

“Lawyer,” she repeats. “His name is Jordan Wells. I’m not saying anything until he gets here.”

Declan looks at me, almost smiling, which makes me squint my eyes at him for a moment. “Jordan Wells, huh? You got that guy on retainer?”

“Lawyer,” she says one more time.

I take a deep breath and walk over to the table, taking a seat across from her. I have no idea who Jordan Wells is, but obviously Declan does. I’ve only been here three months and his name hasn’t come up before, so I’m just gonna roll with it.