“Who invited you specifically?”
She kept her hands clasped together.
The detective was looking down at them.
“Nathan invited me to come down to Wheelz.”
“Ah I see. Is this the first time you have been invited to a gathering by Mr. Briggs?”
“Yes, it is. I don’t see what this has to do with the overdose in the Wheelz bar,” she cut back, unblinking, at Mandy.
I wanted to jump in and say something, so I did. “She is our representative for the club, so of course I invited her down to Wheelz. We are social folks.”
Mia smiled at me in appreciation for clarifying.
“Thank you, Mr. Briggs. Can you tell me what the security cameras displayed?”
“You can see for yourself. Mia, you have the tape?” I asked her.
She pulled out the tape I gave her before the interview.
“Are you sure the security tape hasn’t been tampered with?” she detective asked in a cunning voice.
I sat up with a fireball of rage rising.
Mia held her hand out to stop me. “Detective, that’s absurd. Check the time and date stamps of the camera footage please. There is no gap,” Mia rectified that pretty swiftly.
Damn, it was a real turn-on watching her work.
“Fair enough, but it’s not absurd,” the detective stated. “We’ve had two separate anonymous tips that dealers are operating near the Wheelz club.” She put up two fingers aggressively. “I’m getting tired of having to sort this out. This is not far-fetched by any means. The substance found inside the needle was cocaine. It was laced with harmful cleaning agents which caused the man to overdose.”
“Okay, here’s the tape. Please play it, Detective.” Mia handed it to her.
The detective pulled a remote control out of a slot holder on the wall. She turned on the mounted TV behind us and popped in the tape. The footage was in black and white and picked up the club patrons from the start of the night.
“If you fast forward you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for,” Mia told her.
She sped up the tape and stopped as the cameras highlighted a man entering the bathroom from the back door. There wasn’t anybody around him as he entered the men’s bathroom. Not a single soul. He entered the bathroom alone. The detective then rewound the tape.
Both Mia and I sat silent, waiting for her to come back with something.
She didn’t. She sat back in her chair with a pensive look on her face.
“As you can see from the two times you rewound the tape, the man entered the bathroom alone,” Mia added in a proud voice. “If you have no evidence of foul play, then this is a moot point. I’m aware that the club has been swept and no drugs were found on the premises. Is that correct?” Mia defended.
“No. That doesn’t mean that coke is not being sold out of the club,” she pointed out. Detective Shepherd smirked at Mia.
I wrestled with myself about the plate information I had from the motorcycle I saw flee the scene. “I have a confession to make,” I released hesitantly.
Mia’s eyes met mine in confusion.
I exhaled and kept going, “A couple of nights before the incident at the Wheelz club ? Wednesday night ? a patron told us someone was dealing on the corner across the road. We ran out to stop the guy and he rode off on his bike. I have the plate number in my phone. I meant to bring it down to the station but—”
“But what? Mr. Briggs.” Mandy interjected.
I felt the searing heat from Mia’s annoyed gaze. “I didn’t bring it in because I didn’t see the guy doing anything, and he rode off. Given our track history, Ms. Shepherd, I assumed you wouldn’t be receptive to anything I had to say. Is it Mrs.?” I asked. I was attempting to get her to ease up, but from the very beginning she’d been sniffing around to find where she could draw blood.
“It’s Ms., thank you. If anything, you should have brought the plate ID to me. It would have helped you in this situation.” She paused.