“I get it. It’s nearly midnight. I promise you, each and every one of us at the station just wants to go home and get rebuffed by our tired spouses. Again.”
Feeble smile for him. Fresh witness-- plucked minutes a block from a wealthy community gate after the de-activated alarm system alerted its parent company, which alerted the police.
This man had been swiftly ruled out as the thief. A quick sweep of the crime scene suggested months, even years’ worth of planning to scale the acres of territory, dash past finely hidden systems, and work downright magic on Sweden-imported safes. Break-in skills that would have taken a lifetime, kicked up with gallons of talent, to master.
This one in front of xer, supplied with office coffee and an extra danish xe scrounged up-- couldn’t be it. Not so much gut feeling as sheer disbelief. Since when would criminals get that honed and look so-- look so--
It was just a man.
Maya drummed an anxious, soft beat against the fold-out table. Hell of a time it took to convince him that he was just going to be asked a couple of questions. Witnesses got scared. Worried that a crime scene would falsely implicate them as suspect.
“Between us. I need your help. Just you and me here-- half the people hanging around couldn’t care less.” Sound off with less rue, Maya.
“It’s just you and me here. It-- matters to me. Hearing you out. Can you tell me anything about the scene? Any details whatsoever?”
Even with all lights, Maya’s vision went wading. Too many long shifts. Xer styrofoam cup wasn’t so much as ringed with spittle. Xe’d been slugging back caffeine all day and the crash was coming to collect. Thumb pad brushed against the hot base, shaking.
So much of the force invoked their excuses, turned in early. Complicit. How many of them would smile indulgently if Maya let this witness depart now?
Xe almost wondered if it was a completely arbitrary decision to decide from the start that xe thought he couldn’t be guilty at all. To see if xer co-workers would be proper and contradict naivete.
To see if they wanted xer naivete.
Now it wasn’t “Could the police support the Organization?” but “How much of it?”
Look him in the eye. Breathe. Focus.
“Please.”