I Will Find You(37)

“Please send the warden and his son in. I want everyone else out of the room.”

They cleared out. Five minutes later, Sarah opened the door, and Philip and Adam Mackenzie entered the room. Max did not glance in their direction. His eyes remained on the computer monitor.

“Tough day, huh, guys?”

“You can say that again,” Philip Mackenzie said. The warden stepped toward Max and stuck his hand out. Max pretended like he couldn’t see it. He bounced bumper-pool-style between the television screen and the map.

“How did he get the gun?” Max asked.

Philip Mackenzie cleared his throat. “He took mine when I wasn’t expecting it. You see, I had brought the inmate—”

“Inmate?”

“Yes.”

“Is that what you call him?”

Philip Mackenzie opened his mouth, but Max waved him off. “Never mind. Detective Semsey filled me in on all this. How he took your gun and forced your son here to give him his uniform and then he made you take him to his car at gunpoint. I got all that.” Max stopped, stared at the map, frowned.

“What I meant to ask is,” Max continued, “why are you lying to me?”

The silence filled the room. Philip Mackenzie stared at Max, but Max still had his back turned. He turned his furious glare toward Sarah. Sarah shrugged.

Philip Mackenzie’s voice boomed. “What did you say?”

Max sighed. “Do I really have to repeat myself? Sarah, didn’t I make myself clear?”

“Crystal, Max.”

“Who the hell do you think you’re talking to, Agent Bernstein?”

“A warden who just helped a convicted child killer escape from prison.”

Philip’s hands formed two fists. His face reddened. “Look at me, dammit.”

“Nah.”

He took a step closer. “When you call a man a liar, you better be ready to look him in the eye.”

Max shook his head. “I never bought that.”

“Bought what?”

“That look-me-in-the-eye stuff. Eye contact is so overrated. The best liars I know can look you straight in the eye for hours on end. It’s a waste of time and energy, maintaining eye contact. Am I right, Sarah?”

“As rain, Max.”

“Warden?” Max said.

“What?”

“This is going to be bad for you. Very bad. Nothing I can do about that. But for your silent son here, there may be a sliver of daylight. But if you keep lying, I’ll bury you both. We’ve done that before, haven’t we, Sarah?”

“We enjoy it, Max.”

“It’s kind of a turn-on,” Max said.

“I sometimes tape moments like this,” Sarah said, “and then I use it as foreplay.”

“Feel my nipples, Sarah,” Max said, jutting his chest out toward Sarah. “They’re hard as pebbles.”

“I don’t want to get written up by HR again, Max.”

“Ah, you used to be fun, Sarah.”

“Maybe later, Max. When we throw the cuffs on them.”

Philip Mackenzie pointed at Max, then Sarah. “You guys finished?”

“You crashed the car through the gate,” Max said.

“Yes.”

“I mean, you slammed your car through a half-closed gate at full speed.”

Philip grinned, trying to look confident. “Is that supposed to be proof of something?”

“Why did you hit the gas with such enthusiasm?”

“Because a desperate inmate was pointing a gun in my face.”

“Hear that, Sarah?”

“I’m standing right here, Max.”

“Big Phil was scared.”

“Who wouldn’t be?” Mackenzie countered. “The inmate had a gun.”

“Your gun.”

“Yes.”

“The one that your secretary says you never wear and never keep loaded.”

“She’s wrong. I keep it holstered under my jacket, so people don’t see.”

“So discreet,” Sarah said.

“Yet,” Max continued, “Burroughs managed not only to see it, but to pull it free and threaten you both with it.”

“He caught us off guard,” Philip said.

“You sound incompetent.”

“I made a mistake. I let the inmate get too close.”

Max smiled at Sarah. Sarah shrugged.

“You also keep calling him inmate,” Max said.

“That’s what he is.”

“Yeah, but you know him, right? He’s David to you, no? You and his father are old buddies. Your son here—the so-far-silent Adam—grew up with him, am I right?”

A flash of surprise hit the warden’s face, but he recovered fast. “That’s true,” Mackenzie said, standing up a little straighter. “I’m not denying it.”

“So cooperative,” Sarah said.

“Isn’t he though?”

“And that’s why—” Philip began.

“Wait, don’t tell me. That’s why Burroughs was able to get close enough to get a gun your secretary swears you never wear—”

“Or load,” Sarah added.