Numbers sighed. “I have no idea who the man is. None of us saw him enter the club. If we did, we probably wouldn’t have let him in.”
She nodded as she pulled out a notepad. “I see. I need everyone that is currently here not to leave the premises. I need all the names and phone numbers of everybody in here. I also need to interview each and every one of you,” she stated. She seemed irritated that she had to come out and take on this assignment. “Let’s start with you, Nathan.” She smiled wryly as she looked him up and down.
He looked poised and ready for the questions.
I guessed he had no real reason not to be. He hadn’t done anything wrong. I wanted to be present when she asked the questions, so I hovered around Numbers as the others hung back waiting for their turn.
The whole club had now turned into a crime scene, and the dead man’s body was carried out with a sheet over the top of him.
“Did you see the man go into the bathroom?” she asked Numbers.
“No. A lady screamed and—”
Mandy interrupted him. “Which lady?”
“That one right over there.” Numbers pointed to the woman.
The detective swung her head around, taking note. “I’m going to need to talk to her,” she mumbled. “Okay, go ahead, continue, Nathan.”
“Like I was saying, she screamed and I ran over. She pointed to the men’s bathroom. She said there was a man in there who was dead. I looked in and found the guy slumped over the toilet bowl with the needle on the floor next to him.”
I stood beside Numbers with my arms folded, listening to the onslaught of questions from Mandy. I wanted to make sure she wasn’t asking anything to put him in a bad situation.
“Okay,” Mandy replied. “Are you aware that there are needles on the premises?”
Numbers’ face showed astonishment as she spoke. “Wait. What?” he said. “Where?”
“Right out front in the parking lot, we found a bunch of scattered needles on the ground,” she replied.
“No way,” he said quickly. “We don’t allow drugs in here. Bones—I mean, Gabriel is the owner and he can vouch for that. I don’t know where those came from.”
She raised her eyebrow at him, but her expression didn’t give much away.
I felt my stomach churning like a washing machine because again, I knew the truth. This was bad. Really bad.
“Okay, thanks, Nathan. Do you have security cameras in here?”
Numbers’ Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he spoke, “Yes. We do. Hopefully on the footage we will be able to see how the guy got in, because none of us have any idea.”
He seemed pretty relaxed from what I could tell. Maybe it was me that worried for him. The shame of the secret I was holding plaguing me. So far, the detective wasn’t out of line.
“Right. What time did this happen?” she asked.
“About an hour ago. I don’t remember the exact time. I wasn’t staring at the clock or anything.”
She nodded as she scribbled. “How did you identify that the man was dead? Did you attempt to do CPR?”
“No. He was clammy and dead. I took his pulse. Nothing. No heartbeat whatsoever.”
“Hmm. Yeah, we’re really going to need to take a look at those security cameras,” the detective reconfirmed. Mandy looked over at me standing next to Numbers and spoke, “You’re next up. Can you tell me what you saw...”
The interviewing went on for another two hours or so as Mandy collected information from all of the club members and patrons.
I’m not sure how long I was in the club, but by the time I looked down at my watch it was in the early hours of the morning. By the time it ended, most of the Rebel Saints were huddled around outside Wheelz, recapping.
Bones arrived back not long after the detective came through. “This is absolute bullshit. We take a few steps forward and now more steps back.”
Harper rubbed his shoulders as she stood beside him.