Jaxar
Chapter 26

Agent Novak (Penny): Meanwhile, on Earth...

Penny waited for the green light and the thunk of internal parts unlocking before pulling open the door.

A man sat at the steel table, dressed in an unflattering red polo shirt and khaki pants. The cold room had all the charm of a fallout shelter with painted gray cinder block walls, humming overhead lights, and a poured concrete floor. It looked exactly like every interrogation room in every tv show, by design.

Penny tossed a file folder onto the table, the noise reverberating off the walls.

"Chaz Gable, thirty-one, contractor for the Mahdfel Brides Program," she said.

"I don't have anything to say," he sneered and slumped down in the chair.

"That's fine." Penny sat at the table and thumbed through the file. "I have plenty to say to you."

He watched her turn pages. Terribly old-fashioned, Penny found that paper made information more real. It was one thing to have a suspect's criminal history loaded onto a tablet, but it was another thing to have page after page of court records laid out on the table.

She let the silence stretch out between them. Apparently, Chaz couldn't abide the silence. "Is that supposed to intimidate me? I know all your tricks, Special Agent Novak."

"Oh, this isn't your file, Mr. Gable. I already have all I need to keep you behind bars for a long, long time. Do you want to see your file? Special Agent Bryant can help us out."

The mirror turned translucent. On the other side stood a man in an expertly tailored suit, holding a three-inch-thick binder.

The color drained from Chaz's face. "That's a prop. You don't have anything on me."

"If you say so." She placed four photos on the table. "I want to talk about these women."

"I don't know them," he said quickly, then glanced away.

"That was a lie and not even a very good lie, Mr. Gable. These women are missing, and you had appointments scheduled with each of them no more than two weeks before they vanished." He shrugged and then licked his lips..

Penny tapped the third photo. "We might have never noticed their absence. They're all alone, you see. No family and none of them are required to submit for annual testing. Curious, right? Fortunately, her ex-husband alerted us to her disappearance." Penny flipped the photo over, hiding the woman's face. "Oh, you didn't know she had people. It's understandable. Basically orphaned in the Invasion, no surviving family, and an alien ex-husband who lives on a planet far, far away. But don't worry. We found her safe and sound."

"I don't know anything. I don't remember that woman."

"Really? Because you filed a complaint that she broke government property." Penny removed the pertinent page from the folder. He flinched. God, she loved burying suspects in paperwork, especially ones petty enough to fill out complaints about every little slight.

"If you're ready to stop lying to me, I'd like to talk about these women." Penny tapped the remaining three photos. "Ginger Fernandez, Agnes Powell, and Marcella Aguilar. All missing. All on your caseload."

He looked anywhere but at the photos on the table. Penny helped him out by holding the photos up in front of his face.

"You don't have anything on me, or I'd already be arrested," Chaz said with a grin.

She sighed. "If we must. Chaz Gable, I'm placing you under arrest for human trafficking. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say "

"I want a lawyer."

Penny began again, this time managing to finish reading Chaz his rights. "We can wait for a lawyer. I don't mind." She waved to the mirror. Bryant would contact the defense lawyer. "Or maybe we can save us all the time and you can just tell us what happened to these missing women."

"I didn't take them! Okay, I didn't. I'm not like that. I didn't hurt them," he said.

"But you know who did take them and you're a smart guy-" Penny couldn't believe she said that with a straight face. "You must know that whoever took them plans to hurt them."

"I just sold a list of names. That's all. I don't know who gets them or what they do with them. It could be a marketing list." He grinned, confident and cocky for no reason.

She really wanted him to "trip" and bash his nose against the table. Forcing herself to smile, she said, "I think we both know that's not true. Now, tell me about the people you sold the list to."