Elias paled at the mention of Samer’s name. “I…I don’t know anyone by that name.”
“No?” Atwell pulled out the picture they’d found in the basement. Slapping it onto the table in front of him, she pointed to Elias’s stilled image. “So you’re saying that’s not you?”
Now the kid just looked like he wanted to throw up.
“I…”
“Here’s the deal, Elias. As it stands, we’ve got you on attempted armed robbery of a federal institution, possession ofa stolen firearm, brandishing a weapon in public, firing a gun in public, attempted murder?—”
“Murder?”
“You pointed that gun at the security guard on duty and pulled the trigger. Not once. Not twice. But over and over and over again. So yeah.” Atwell’s dark ponytail bobbed with a nod. “Attempted murder is absolutely on the table. But that’s not even the worst of it.”
“Wha…what do you mean?”
“I mean,this.” Atwell smacked her hand on the picture of Samer with Elias and the others. “You think the sentence for armed robbery of a bank is bad, wait until you’re convicted of conspiracy to commit a domestic terrorist act on U.S. soil. Oh, and aiding and abetting a known domestic terrorist by helping with the construction of that bomb you and your buddy, Samer, built in the basement of that house.”
The longer the agent spoke, the harsher her tone became.
“I…I think I want to go back to my cell now.”
“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me where I can find the bomb.”
“I don’t know anything about a bomb.”
“Life in prison, Elias,” Atwell announced loudly. “That’s the penalty for aiding in an act of domestic terrorism. But if that bomb goes off and people die…” She sat back with a sigh. “Then, you’re looking at the death penalty.”
Tears began to fall from his eyes, and for a long, tense moment, no one said a single word.
“I can still help you.” Atwell eventually broke the thick silence. “I can put in a good word for you with the D.A. Let her know you cooperated fully. That will go a long way in avoiding the death penalty.”
“He’ll kill me if I talk.”
Raegan’s pulse spiked at the kid’s first incriminating words. It wasn’t an admission of guilt, and he hadn’t mentioned Samer by name, but it was a damn good place to start.
“Who will kill you?” Atwell watched Elias closely. “Samer?”
Elias’s head dipped in a nod Raegan would’ve easily missed had she not been paying close attention.
“I need you to say his name, Elias. Aloud.”
The boy’s throat worked with a nervous swallow and sweat began to bead on his brow. “If I tell you, I won’t die?”
“You positively I.D. the man who talked you into going along with this, I can promise you I will do everything in my power to keep you off of Death Row.”
“It was him.” Elias’s voice grew a touch stronger. “Samer’s the one who planned the whole thing.”
“The bomb?”
“And the robberies?”
Bingo!
“Why the coordinated attacks?”
“That was supposed to just be for practice.”
Practice?