Chapter Fifty-One
My head was aching, but I spent the next four hours questioning Irwin Snyder in a bare, white-washed claustrophobic room at a jail in Charlotte. For the first hour or so, Kyle and I interrogated him together, but it didn't work out. I asked Kyle to leave the room. Snyder was shackled, so I felt safe being alone with him. I wondered how he felt? My arm and hand were beginning to throb, but this was more important than my flesh wounds. Irwin Snyder had known I was coming to Charlotte. How had he known? What else did he know? How was a vicious young killer in Charlotte connected to the rest of this mess? Snyder was pale and unhealthy-looking, with a scruffy goatee and sideburns. He stared at me with eyes that were dark, very active, intelligent enough. Then he laid his head down on the Formica table, and I lifted him right out of his chair by his hair. He cursed at me for a full minute. Then he demanded to see his lawyer. 'Hurts, doesn't it,' I said. 'Don't make me do it again. Keep your head off the table. This isn't naptime. It isn't a game either.' He gave me the finger, then put his head back down on the table. I knew he'd been getting away with this type of shit at school and in his home for years. But not here, and not with me. I yanked him by his greasy, black hair again, even harder this time. 'You don't seem to understand the King's English. You murdered your parents in cold blood. You're a killer.'
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JAMES PATTERSON
'Lawyer!'he screamed/Lawyer! Lawyer! I'm bein'tortured in here! I'm being' beaten by a cop! Lawyer! Lawyer! I want my f*ckin' lawyer!' With my free hand I grabbed his chin. He spat on my hand. I ignored it. 'Listen to me now. Listen! Everybody else from the house is at the station in the city. You're the only one out here with me. No one can hear you. And you're not being beaten. But you are going to talk to me.' I yanked his hair again - as hard as I could without actually pulling out a clump. Snyder shrieked, but I knew I hadn't hurt him much. 'You killed your mother and your father with a claw hammer. You bit me twice. And you stink to high heaven. I don't like you, but we're going to have this talk anyway.' 'Better see somebody about those bites, pig,' he snarled. 'You been warned.' He was still talking tough, but he cringed and pulled back when I reached out for his hair again. 'How did you know I was coming to Charlotte? How did you know my name? Talk to me.' 'Ask the Tiger, when you two meet. It'll happen sooner than you think.'
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