“You still want to talk with her?” he asks.
“That’s why I’m here.”
“She already gave her statement. I should’ve sent her packing an hour ago.”
“She wants to appear the picture of cooperation,” Alexei says. “Hell, I’d believe her if I didn’t know any better.”
“But I don’t,” I say and turn to the sergeant. “I need thirty minutes.”
He winces. “I can do ten, then I’ve got to cut her loose.”
“Fine.”
He nods toward the door.
“I’ll join you,” Alexei says. “You get actionable information, and my people are ready to move.”
We follow the sergeant into the hall. He opens the door to the interview room, and Alexei and I step inside.
Amanda’s seated with both hands wrapped around a paper cup, her hair slightly undone. She’s wearing the same expression I recognize from boardrooms and dispositions, controlled vulnerability precisely calculated to make her appear sympathetic.
She’s a good actor.
She looks up when I enter the room, and for one unguarded half second, I see her flinch. It’s raw and involuntary, as if she’s certain that I’m there to kill her.
Then the mask goes back on.
I glance over my shoulder at Alexei and nod. He takes the cue, leaning against the back wall with his arms crossed.
Time to go to work.
“Gabriel,” she says. She rises from her seat, rushes over, and throws her arms around me. “God, it’s good to see you.”
I place my hands on her shoulders, guiding her gently off my body.
“Likewise.”
“It was…” She looks down and shakes her head. “It was horrible. One second I’m sitting in the waiting room, and the next men are flooding in with guns. They killed those two guards.”
“Horrible, indeed.”
She squares her shoulders and nods once. “But I helped Thea get out of there. Is she okay? Is she at home?”
I can’t keep up the charade any longer. I glace at the camera in the corner of the room and nod. The red light on the unit turns off.
“Sit, Amanda.”
She furrows her brow and cocks her head to the side. “What’s going on? Please tell me Thea’s alright. Please.”
“Sit.”
She opens her mouth to speak but thinks better of it, closing it before saying a word. Then she does as I ask, turning and sliding back into her seat. I take the one on the other side of the table.
“I’m here because there are some things I need confirmed. Details. Timing.” I place my hands on the table, folding them. “And you’re going to help me with that.”
There’s a flash in her eyes, my first indication that she knows something’s wrong.
“I don’t know what you think happened, Gabriel. But I was attacked?—”