As we moved down the hall, panicked voices reverberated from the holding area. “Get an ambulance! He’s in cardiac arrest!” A uniformed policeman rushed past us. “I need a bus!” he shouted into an open office door.
The holding area had been cleared of prisoners. There on the floor, eyes glazed and wide, greasy hair askew, lay Norman LaReau, his face a gruesome shade of gray. Dalrymple knelt over him, his thick arms stiffened and his back hunched as he compressed LaReau’s chest again and again, counting softly.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Justice,” Captious said, shielding me from the grisly sight with his little round body.
I grudgingly followed him out into the street. The night air was cool but refreshing after the stench of the police station. Captious appeared to be lost in smug thought. We walked for a few minutes in silence. Then I asked again, “What happened to that guy?”
“I’d like to think a slow, agonizing death, caused by implements you only read about in Tortured Weekly, but I’m afraid it was just a heart attack. I’m surprised Dalrymple tried to save him. He hates child slavers.”
“Child slavers?”
“Criminals who kidnap children and sell them into the overseas child labor industry as farm workers.”
Human traffickers. So he knew. “I take it you’re not fond of them, either.”
“If there is a Hell, I would like to personally send every one of them there.”
Okay, things were getting weird. An hour ago, I wanted to batter Captious, because I was certain he was taking Christie to LaReau. Then he rescues her right out from under me, and almost dances the Macarena when LaReau goes belly-up in the police station. Now, he was walking me home like he was my nanny. If I could say, “Curiouser and curiouser” without sounding like a complete dweeb, I would.
What was up with this guy? I wasn’t surprised that Dalrymple knew him, because of his war on drugs at the high school. But it was like everybody at the police station knew him, too. And showing up at the Shadow Passage just when Christie was there? That was no coincidence. Dalrymple even seemed perplexed about it. Lack of sleep had made me cranky, and I revisited the idea of beating Captious to a pulp. Purely for informational purposes.
“Out of curiosity,” he asked, “why were you out on a school night in this part of town?”
“Studying with Kathryn. Don’t we have a test tomorrow? Why were you out?”
“Rinnie, I’m being honest with you tonight. Please show me the same respect.”
“You want to talk about honest?” I spun to face Captious, my patience suddenly gone. “You told me you found Christie wandering the streets. I saw you come out of that arcade with her.”
“I’m sorry I lied to you,” Captious said simply. “Things are getting very dangerous.”
“Huh?” An honest liar. The man was a living oxymoron. Beating him to a pulp was definitely sounding attractive.
“Mason Draudimon knew about the Jasmine girl’s disappearance before we told anyone at school. That made me very suspicious. I knew he would be at the Shadow Passage, so I stopped in to talk to him. When I got there, I found Christie. We got lucky.”
“Who is we and what does Mason have to do with this?”
“You heard Dalrymple’s announcement at the assembly.”
“Yeah.”
“He’s keeping tabs on Mason. Everybody knows Mason is bad news, but he’s the mayor’s precious son, and we have to be careful.”
“If he broke the law, they should arrest him. Arrest his dad, too. And his dog.”
“It’s not that simple. This town is completely corrupt. I don’t know whom to trust, even on the police force,” Captious admitted. “Rinnie, I know your father consults with the police, so I want to tell you something…in case anything happens to me.”
How did he know Dad helped the police? I never talked about it to anyone. Not even Kathryn. “How do you know these things? What do you have to do with the cops?”
Captious drew a deep breath and gazed up at the full moon as though it was the last time he’d ever see it. His eyes glistened with tears. “They already got to Munificent. After the stunt I pulled tonight, they’ll be after me. I upset some very powerful people in the Shadow Passage when I left with Christie.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Mason is backed by a group called the Walpurgi. They’re behind the corruption. Their leader is…” He shuddered. “Things happen in the Shadow Passage that nobody sees. Munificent was right when he said the drug ring is just a cover-up for something much more significant. He stuck his nose where it didn’t belong. Once he learned of the man in the skull mask, well, look what happened. With him dead, I’m not sure how much time I have. Munificent assigned me to watch Mason and his gang from the inside. My job is to gather evidence against him so even his father can’t save him. But now, my cover’s blown. There are police involved in the cover-up. I don’t know which side Dalrymple is on.”
“You’re the police informant?”