"Shit!" Derek yelled.
A gunshot went off.
Ken didn't think. He just ran right into the trailer. If Nicky got shot on the job, he'd never forgive himself. Maybe he hadn't always been her biggest fan--the woman could come across as too cocky and self-assured for her age, but since working closely with her, Ken had come to realize that there was a lot more to Nicky Lyons than her hardened exterior.
He wasn't about to let her die. Not on his watch.
Nicky was standing in the middle of the trailer, her gun pointed at Derek Mills. The barrel was smoking--and she had his shotgun in her hand.
Derek was on the ground, holding his arm. He was a scrawny-armed kid with bad tattoos and a rat tail. Blood leaked between his fingers. Clearly, Nicky had grazed him with the bullet, caused him to drop the weapon, and seized the shotgun.
Ken was impressed. He could see now why Nicky was considered the top agent in their office. She wasn't just competent--she was ballsy.
"You shot me!" Derek shouted, his voice shrill. "You can't do that! I'm an American! I have rights!"
"Put your hands behind your head, Derek," Nicky said. "And don't you dare move. You're under arrest."
"Oh yeah?" he said, still on the floor. "For what?"
This guy was a real piece of work. Ken leaned over him and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, picking him up. "You did something to you wife, didn't you, Derek?" Ken said. “Tell me what you did to Sarah."
There was no way Derek would reasonably react the way he did and start shooting at federal agents if he were innocent. Clearly, he had something big to hide, and Ken was going to find out what.
Nicky came over, still holding her handgun. She'd thrown the shotgun off to the side, where Derek had no hope of reaching it.
"Walker, let's interrogate him on record, right here and now," Nicky said.
"I couldn't agree more." Ken dragged Derek to his feet, although his arm was still bleeding. He retched in pain. Ken threw Derek onto the couch, which was half-covered in garbage. Clearly, it'd been a long time since a woman had been in here. Based on Sarah's file, Ken didn't believe she would've lived like this, and he felt a pang of sadness for this missing girl and the messy life she’d left behind.
Nicky took out her phone and began recording. "This is Agent Nicky Lyons of the FBI, here with my partner, Agent Ken Walker, also of the FBI. We're here with one Derek Mills, age twenty-four."
Ken nodded at Nicky, then refocused on Derek. "Okay, Derek, tell us. What did you do to your wife, Sarah?"
"I didn't do anything," Derek said. "That bitch left me. I'm better off without her."
"But she was your wife, right? You two were married?" Ken said.
"Yeah, but she didn't deserve me. She didn't appreciate me."
"So you killed her?" Ken said.
Derek was shaking. "No! I didn't kill Sarah."
"Then where is she?" Nicky said. "Why can't we find her?"
"I don't know, okay? Maybe she's run off with someone else. Maybe she's dead. Maybe she's alive. What do I care? It's not like she ever loved me."
"That can’t be true,” Ken reasoned. “She married you, Derek. She must’ve loved you once. But maybe living out here took a toll on her. Did you kill her because she said she was gonna leave?”
Derek was quiet for several long moments. The trailer creaked around them as wind gusted outside, sending a warm breeze through the open windows that carried the scent of the woods. "I... I..." Derek broke down, running his hands over his eyes and through his hair. "Okay. Fine. I didn't mean to do it, okay? I didn't mean to kill her."
Ken’s stomach dropped. Damn. He’d been hoping for a better outcome. But unfortunately, when a girl was missing for that long… this was almost always the true cause. Ken had seen too many violent husbands in his life, too many who’d gone too far, and it made him sick.
Nicky leaned in close. "What did you do, Derek?" she said. "Tell me what happened."
"Sarah... she was... she was so fucking perfect. I couldn't stand it. Such a know it all. Always saying how she could ‘do better’ than living out here with me. Well then why’d she even marry me, huh?”
"What did you do to her?" Nicky said, her expression hard. Ken wasn’t in the mood for Derek’s sob story either—he just wanted answers.