I was slightly disappointed. I wanted to look my uncle straight in the eye and ask questions. Granted, the glass was clear, but it still created a barrier—a barrier I didn’t want right now.

Finally, a guard escorted Larry down the walkway to the desk in front of me. We were separated only by the glass. I picked up the phone.

Larry picked up the phone as well. “What the fuck do you want now?”

“Nice to see you too, Uncle Larry.”

Again, Larry looked like he had aged. His face had healed, but he had lost weight, and his forearms were bruised and battered. Clearly, he was still getting into some trouble behind bars.

“Just here to ask you some questions,” I said. “I hope you’re feeling more talkative today.”

“Can’t say that I am.”

“The offer still stands. You tell me what I want to know, and I’ll hire the best lawyer in Colorado to represent you.”

He said nothing.

“So…I’m going to ask you again about Nico Kostas. Does that name ring a bell?”

“Nope.”

“How about Milo Sanchez?”

One of his brows lifted. Nearly microscopically, but I noticed. I again cursed the glass between us. If only I could get a look straight into his face, with no barrier, not even a clear one.

“Recognize the name?”

Larry cleared his throat. “No.”

“Theodore Mathias.”

Again his brow lifted, just slightly.

“Nicholas Castle?”

Nothing.

“John Smith?”

Nothing again. Either he had trained his eyebrows to stay down, or he didn’t recognize the names.

“Is it possible that all those men—Nico Kostas, Milo Sanchez, and the other three—are all the same person?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Larry said.

“Some of them even sound similar. Nico Kostas and Nicholas Castle. Don’t you think those names sound similar?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care.”

“I understand that one of your fellow abductors had a phoenix tattoo on his left forearm.”

Larry cleared his throat.

“Interestingly, both a man named Nico Kostas and a man named Milo Sanchez have the same exact tattoo. I’m talking identical, on the left forearm, and both got the tattoo at a shop in Snow Creek. Do you find that odd at all?”

“Can’t say that I do.” He cleared his throat again. “Listen, I don’t have to talk to you.”

“No, I suppose you don’t. But I’m not done here, so you stay seated.”

“Why should I? What will you do for me?”

“How about this? I don’t talk to the guard over there, and you don’t get murdered in your bed tonight.”

Larry widened his eyes for a moment, but only a split second. A-ha. That got to him.

“I see you’ve already been having some trouble with your fellow inmates. Trust me, it could get worse. Much worse.”

He pursed his lips into a thin line.

“So you will sit here and talk to me until I’m done.”

He nodded.

“So far you’ve been a huge help,” I said sarcastically. “Are Nico Kostas and Milo Sanchez the same person?”

“And I told you I don’t know.”

“Was Milo Sanchez one of the abductors?”

His mouth remained closed, his lips set.

“How about this? Whose idea was it to take Talon?”

“Talon was never meant to be taken.”

“So you say, but we’ve come into some new information. From Wendy Madigan.”

His brow lifted slightly again.

“Wendy seems to think Talon was taken on purpose, for ransom, by enemies of my father. Tell me, Uncle. Who were these enemies of my father?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He sounded genuinely confused. “Talon was never meant to be taken.”

“That’s your word against hers, then. You’re a psychopathic child molester, and she’s a respected newswoman. Who should I believe?”

“She’s not who you think she is.”

I’d already decided that for myself, but now my uncle had confirmed it. “Who is she, then?”

“Nobody. She’s nobody.”

“What was her role in all of this? Was she my father’s lover?”

Larry’s brows nearly jumped off his forehead. But he said nothing.

That was all the proof I needed. I’d be investigating Wendy Madigan further. However, I did know one thing for certain. Wendy was not one of Talon’s abductors. They were all men. So this line of questioning wasn’t going to get me any closer to the two we hadn’t caught.

Time to try a different avenue.

“The last time we were here, you had some advice for my friend Bryce. And also for me, I believe. You said not to go searching for the truth, that it was overrated. What did you mean by that?”

“I think that speaks for itself.”

“Perhaps, but I want to know why you said it.”

He glared at me. “You know why, don’t you?”

Yes, I did. And now Larry knew that I knew. “Tom Simpson, the mayor of Snow Creek. Bryce’s father. Is he one of the abductors?”

“I won’t roll over.”

“I know about his birthmark. Talon remembers it, just like he remembers the phoenix tattoo, and he remembers that you were missing a little toe. It’s amazing what therapy can do for repressed memories. Things you thought were long gone come screaming back into your head. That happened for Talon. And that’s what helped us catch you. Believe me, we will catch the other two. However, if you help us, we can help you.”

Larry said nothing for several seconds. Then, “They’ll kill me.”

“What makes you think they won’t kill you anyway? They already tried once, didn’t they? After you let Talon go. Remember? You ended up in the hospital, on the brink of death.”

“See what I mean?”

“Look, you’re in here. They’re out there. They can’t get to you in here. But I can.”

“Believe me, they can too.”

“What are you saying? That the reason you’ve been getting gangbanged is because of them?”

He nodded.

“Then what does it matter? We get them into custody, and they can’t make any more trouble for you from the outside.”