Page 30 of Wrecked By a Devil

“You should still be careful,” he says. “I don’t know if we can trust anyone at this point.”

We arrive at the bar where the detectives are waiting for us, so I don’t say anything to my brother, even though I agree about not being sure if we can trust anyone at this point. The two detectives are seated at the VIP booth in the corner and I notice each has a glass of club soda in front them.

“We appreciate you taking the time to speak with us, we know how busy you are,” the female detective says. She looks to be in her mid-thirties, and wise for her age.

“Not a problem at all,” I respond as my brother and I sit across from them.

“I’m detective Burgess, this is my partner, detective Salvatore.”

“We appreciate you coming all the way here,” Malachi speaks. “We should get this solved as fast as we can. It’s in our best interest that you find Diana as soon as possible.” His voice is cold and put together.

“And for that to happen, we need your full cooperation,” the male detective, detective Salvatore says. “It’s come to our knowledge that miss Diana was last seen here.”

“You can see how this doesn’t look so good for either of you, or the club,” Detective Burgess adds. “This is the third girl who worked here that has gone missing.”

And this is exactly what I feared, them showing up at Eden and starting to ask questions. Even though they’re being polite, it’s not a secret that the reason they came here is because we’re on the radar as suspects. The moment the word gets out, we’re screwed. Our family name is and Eden are screwed.

“We’re shocked,” Malachi responds, as always being the one keeping it together even if his blood is boiling with anger. “And we’re willing to do everything in our power to help you find the girls. Hopefully unharmed.”

“That’s the goal,” Detective Salvatore nods.

“What can we do to help?” I ask.

“When was the last time you two saw Diana?” Detective Burgess asks.

“It was yesterday.” The memory of her performing the routine on stage with Riley is blurry in my head. My full attention was on Riley, but I don’t remember seeing her after that. “It was during the dance rehearsal.”

“Did she act strange, or maybe make some comment that was unlike her?”

“I don’t think so,” I shake my head. “She was with Jena, the one in charge of the performances, and the rest of the girls. It was a normal day at work.”

“What about you?” Detective Burgess turns to Malachi.

“I saw her maybe a week ago,” he explains. “I spend most of my time at the office downtown, so I rarely cross paths with any of our employees at Eden.”

“I see,” Detective Burgess nods. “Would it be okay if we speak with the other employees here? Maybe someone will know something that could be useful.”

“Especially since it’s not the first disappearance,” Detective Salvatore adds.

“Of course,” Malachi says. “Not a problem at all.”

“Is there anything else that we can do?” I ask, impatient about getting the hell out of here and starting my own investigation.

The previous times we managed to bury everything since they didn’t have enough to tie the missing girls to us, and we kept the police away. My family has enough power to perform just as good of an investigation as the police, if not better, so we didn’t need them. We don’t need them now either, if anything, they’re going to slow us down. But this time, we can’t avoid them.

“Since you asked, it would be of great help if you could share the security footage from the last couple of days,” Detective Salvatore leans in, probably used to people falling for his intimidation tactics.

“When it comes to the footage from inside the club, such as the private spaces, we cannot share it without a warrant,” Malachi copies his pose and leans forward. “Even though we want to find Diana and the other missing girls, we also cannot compromise the trust that our clients have put in us.”

“However, we can share the footage from the bar and the club entrance,” I add and my brother nods in agreement.

“Those are good enough for us,” Detective Burgess smiles politely.

“So, we’ll have someone bring the footage over to the police station by the end of the day,” Malachi says. “If that’s all, we have a meeting soon.”

“Of course, go ahead,” Detective Burges replies. “We’ll stick around for a chat with the rest of the employees and then we’ll be out of your hair.”

“Sounds good,” I get up, ready to get the hell out of here and my brother follows. “Thank you, and I hope you find the girls.”