The CEO Above My Desk (Mckenzie Shinabery) novel Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Violet

The police station smells like old coffee and disinfectant.

It’s not dramatic. Not cinematic. Just tired walls and flickering fluorescent lights and a front desk that looks like it’s seen too many people walk in hoping for answers they aren’t going to get.

I give my name to the officer at the desk. He looks me up and down once, then gestures toward a row of plastic chairs.

“Detective Calder will be with you.”

I nod and sit.

I don’t check my phone. I don’t fidget. I don’t rehearse what I’m going to say, because that never helps. Men like Detective Calder don’t respond to

rehearsed. They respond to cracks.

I don’t plan on giving him any.

It takes twelve minutes before he appears. I count them without meaning to.

He’s taller than I expected. Broad shoulders under a wrinkled jacket, dark hair starting to gray at the temples. His expression is neutral in the way men learn

to make it when they want you to project your own guilt onto it.

“Violet Pierce,” he says.

“Yes.”

He doesn’t shake my hand. Just turns and walks.

I follow.

The interrogation room is small. One table. Two chairs. A mirror on the wall I don’t bother looking at because I already know what it’s for.

He gestures for me to sit.

I do.

He sits across from me and sets a thin file on the table between us. My name is written on the tab in black marker.

He doesn’t open it.

“You work at Ashcroft Industries,” he says.

“Yes.”

“Front desk.”

“Yes.”

00

THE

5

O G

O

<

1/6

09:49 Tue, May 5

Chapter 7

“Big company,” he adds.

“Yes.”

He watches me carefully. Waiting for something. I don’t give it to him.

“You’re very composed,” he says.

“I have a job that requires it.”

“That job,” he continues, “puts you in proximity to powerful people.”

I tilt my head slightly. “Is that relevant to my brother being missing?”

He smiles faintly. It doesn’t reach his eyes. “Everything’s relevant when people disappear.”

He finally opens the file. Slides out a photo.

My stomach tightens, but I keep my face still.

It’s Drew.

Not recent. Not new. Just the same picture I’ve already given them. The one where he looks alive.

“You said your brother didn’t have enemies,” Calder says.

“I said I wasn’t aware of any.”

“You said he didn’t have debt.”

“I said none that I knew about.”

“You said he wasn’t involved in anything illegal.”

“I said I didn’t believe he was.”

He looks up. “You notice the pattern here, Ms. Pierce?”

I meet his gaze. “That I answered honestly based on what I knew at the time.”

“Or,” he says mildly, “that you left yourself a lot of room.”

Room.

I almost smile.

“What do you think happened to him?” he asks.

“I think he’s missing,” I reply.

O

5

OIG

|||

O

2/6

09:49 Tue, May 5

Chapter 7

He leans back. Studies me. “You don’t speculate.”

“Speculation doesn’t help.”

“No,” he agrees. “But people usually do it anyway.”

I fold my hands on the table. “I’m not most people.”

“No,” he says slowly. “You’re not.”

He slides another paper forward. A printout. Phone records.

“Your brother’s phone pinged two nights ago,” he says. “Near the industrial docks.”

My chest tightens.

I don’t move.

“That area,” he continues, “isn’t exactly known for late-night strolls.”

“Did you find his phone?” I ask.

“No.”

“Then a ping doesn’t tell you much.”

“It tells me he was near a place where people go when they don’t want to be seen.”

“Or,” I counter, “when they’re meeting someone.”

O

TUE

5

OIG

O

r

4/6

09:49 Tue, May 5

Chapter 7

“And Ms. Pierce?”

“Yes.”

“If you remember anything-anything at all-call me.”

“I already have.”

He studies my face, then nods once. “You’re good at this.”

“At what?”

“Not breaking.”

I don’t respond.

I walk out of the room, past the front desk, back into the night air. The city hums like nothing in the world is wrong.

My phone buzzes.

A missed call.

Ashcroft Industries. Avery.

Of course it’s her.

I inhale slowly, steadying myself.

The detective was cold. Calculating. Suspicious.

Just like Rowan.

Different uniform. Same pressure.

I can handle men like that.

I always have.

What I don’t know yet is which one of them is more dangerous-

The man who watches from behind glass.

Or the one who waits in the dark for me to slip.

5

OIG

|||

པ

90

r

5/6

09:49 Tue, May 5

The CEO Above My Desk