CHAPTER 17

The detectives stayed silent, letting the teenager examine the photographs. After almost a minute, Nate sighed and passed them to his mother .

"Can you tell us anything about all this?" McLough asked looking at Nate.

"I'm sorry but my client won't be answering any questions at the moment." Marcus jumped in before Nate could speak. 

The detective didn't push it. 

"You also mentioned something about a man disappearing." Nate's mother spoke for the first time.

"Correct," McKenzie confirmed. "A mile from all this," he pointed at the photos. "A car was found having crashed into a street light." He checked for the photos of the car and handed them to Marcus who looked at them then passed to Nate. 

"The car is registered to Matthew Lopez. On the driver's seat, we found lots of blood belonging to mister Lopez." He paused, allowing the three to absorb the information. 

"What does that have to do with my-" Marcus was asking and McKenzie jumped right in.

"Mr. Donotelle, your clients fingerprints were found all over Mr. Lopez's seat and on the back seat, the back door and the driver's door. All this evidence makes us believe your client was involved in both incidents." McKenzie finished.

"And if not, we hope he can be able to shed some light on who did it." McLough added. 

The two detectives leaned back on their chairs and watched the three in front of them. 

Mrs. Connor's eyes were wide in disbelief. What the hell had her son gotten himself into. Nate's face was expressionless, his mind raced, millions of thoughts flooding in and out. He knew exactly what happed in both incidents but didn't know what to do with that information. 

"Thank you for sharing all this with us, detectives." Marcus gave them a nod. "It is a lot to take in, as you can imagine, and we will need to examine the evidence thoroughly. My client will not be making any statements today. We hope to reschedule another meeting once we fully internalize this." 

The two detectives stood and collected all the photographs and the evidence bag.

"The evidence suggests a connection between Nate and the two incidents. To tell you the truth, it doesn't look very promising. Especially because of the many question marks surrounding Nate's own disappearance. That story of yours about how you disappeared will not hold up in court if this case gets to that point." The detective took a step back, pushing the chair.

"Nate, we are giving you an opportunity to cooperate. Your account of the happenings of that night will play a crucial role in uncovering the truth. Think about all this, think about your future." He reached inside his pocket and go his business card. "Feel free to call in case of anything." McLough handed the card to Marcus.

With a final nod, the two detectives exited the room. Leaving the three to process the allegations and the evidence brought forward. 

"It is important that we keep a calm head through this, we will fight it." Marcus said to mother and son with so much confidence. "I suggest we go somewhere and talk about all this."

The two agreed and together, they walked out the interrogation room and out of the precinct .

"Do you think we should bring in the girlfriend?" McLough asked as the detectives walked into their shared office.

"Amanda Hall?" McKenzie asked walking to his desk.

"Yeah. We found her fingerprints in Nate's car and Matthew Lorenzo's. Maybe she might be more willing to share info about what happened that night as compared to Nate." McLough explained.

McKenzie was silent for a while, thinking. "No, let's not bring her in. It'll be just like last time; she'll just bring in some fancy lawyer who will advice her not to say anything. We won't get any info from her." McKenzie told his partner.

"How do you wanna play this out then?"

"Don't worry, I'll handle the girlfriend."

McLough didn't ask any more about the matter. In the many years he had worked with McKenzie, he had learned to trust his partner. He always delivered whenever he tackled a task, and if he said he was going to handle Amanda, McLough had no reason to doubt him.

*-*-*

Ever since Amanda's breakup with Nate, Melanie had always dropped her home every once in a while. Amanda's home wasn't exactly on Melanie's way home but she didn't mind spending a few extra minutes dropping her friend off. On other days when she had things to do, Amanda would take the school bus.

That day, Amanda took the bus home which always dropped her off a few meters from her house. She alighted when the bus stopped and started to walk towards her house. In front of her, a man walked in her direction holding a folder. She wasn't alarmed, many people lived on that street, many people walked up and down that sidewalk.

It was only when the man neared that she noticed the familiar face of detective McKenzie. Her heart skipped a beat and she almost tripped. He stopped in front of her with a smile she could easily tell was forced. "Detective," she called in a tense voice.

"Amanda, how are you?" McKenzie spoke, trying to be friendly with the teenager. She gave him a nod in response. "I'd like to ask you a few questions about your boyfriend."

She gave him a puzzled look and he read it in her face. "Nate Connor." He added.

"He is not my boyfriend." She volunteered.

"Is that so?" The detective wondered. "That's not what he told us at the station earlier today."

"We broke up weeks ago." 

"He led us to believe that the two of you are together. I wonder why."

"You said you have questions about him." She reminded him.

"Yes, I do. He is a person of interest in an investigation we are doing. A man was killed and another is missing, we have damning evidence to prove he is connected to both."

"What!" She gasped, her face full of shock.

"We'd like for you to help us learn the truth about what happened." 

She wasn't listening to him. The idea that Nate might have murdered someone and was involved with the disappearance of another shook her to the core. 

"Amanda," McKenzie called, bringing her back to that moment. "Did you hear what I said?"

She remembered her sister had told her never to talk to the police without her or any other attorney present. "I'm sorry mister McKenzie, but I can't talk to you anymore."

She didn't give time to respond to that. She briskly walked past him and turned to their house, fumbling to get her keys from her backpack.

"He is going to prison Amanda." McKenzie dropped the bomb and she froze. 

What! What had he just said? Prison?

"And you might be too." He added and she felt all the energy drain out of her knees. 

"What!" She exclaimed in a whisper. She didn't turn to face him, she didn't have the energy. 

McKenzie walked around her and stood in front of her. "You heard me Amanda. Your fingerprints were found on Nate's pick-up truck, that's not a crime as you were her girlfriend at the time. " He paused and opened his folder and removed two photographs. One of Matthew Perez and one of Perez's car. "Your fingerprints were also found in this man's car." He handed her the two photographs. 

Her hands were shaking, same to her entire body, what was this man saying? She had never seen that man or that car in her entire life. For McKenzie to say her fingerprints were found inside his car was just outrageous. She just stood there, holding the photographs, staring at them. She tried to remember either the man or the car but she came out blank. She wasn't ready to deny being in the car or seeing the man. Two months ago, she had sworn on her life that she hadn't attended the party at Nicole Sorrenti's house but there was photographs of her at he party. Who is to say this incident was any different? Maybe she had seen that man before, maybe she had been inside that car but she just couldn't remember. Just like she couldn't remember anything from that night.