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Liz and Mike walked into the coffee shop and immediately saw Craig behind the counter, assisting a customer and handing the woman a cup of coffee. He was just as slimy now as he was the last time that they had seen him. They walked over towards the counter and watched him scope out the rear end of the woman he had just served coffee to. Liz clenched her jaw in irritation, this kid was so smug and she couldn’t wait to slap the attitude right out of him.
“Craig McDermott.” Mike said, walking up to the counter firmly, ignoring the three people that were standing in line waiting for Craig to take their order.
“Shit, what do you two want? Don’t you think you shook me down enough the other day?” Craig leaned over the counter threateningly, squinting his eyes at them.
“Mr. McDermott, we can either go talk somewhere private and then let you get back to work or we can drag you out of here on your ass in front of all your coworkers. The choice is yours, I suggest you pick wisely.” Mike lowered his volume and spoke in such a way that even Liz could feel the anger seeping out of him.
Mike pushed his coat to the side to put his hand on the top of his gun, an act of intimidation but also a gesture to flash everyone in the room the shiny badge attached to his belt. Craig rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated groan, then pulled his work apron over his head. He handed it to a barista working the espresso machine, pretending not to watch the interaction but straining to look out of the corner of her eye.
Craig came around the counter and Liz walked ahead of him out the front door while Mike made sure to box him in around back. The two escorted him onto the sidewalk and walked around the corner to the alley that was one shop over from the coffee store. They were purposefully making him uncomfortable and acting just threatening enough to get the information that they wanted, but not enough to cast disrepute upon their jobs.
“Craig, I think you should just come clean now. Save yourself a lot of time and hassle if you just admit to us what we already know.” Liz told him, crossing her arms and leaning against a wall of gray, concrete slab insulating them from the happy customers on the other side. She was bluffing of course, but Craig didn’t need to know that and Liz had plenty of years of lying under her belt. Growing up with a mom like she had, you learned to lie to everyone so no one suspected anything.
“You don’t waste our time, we don’t waste your time. Don’t you just want this to be over with, Craig?” Mike chimed in, his hands crossed in a military pose as he stood stoically in the center of the alley at the entrance, as if blocking Craig from leaving. Craig put his hands up in a defensive posture and looked back and forth between the two detectives.
“Listen, man, I don’t know what the fuck you guys are talking about. I don’t know why you are harassing me, I swear on my grandma, I ain’t done nothing. Now you all coming up in here and disrupting my job, making my employers think I’m some criminal. Well, I did my time and for nothing. This is total bullshit.” Craig stomped his foot, angrily but with the defiance of a child throwing a tantrum.
With one forward thrust of her hand, Liz shoved Craig backwards knocking him to the ground. She had had enough and wasn’t going to sit through his mindless antics anymore. This case was coming to a boiling point, The Photographer had followed her to her house. This wasn’t just Kate’s case anymore, this was hers too and she was not going to let some young college dropout screw around with her life.
“Don’t you fuck with us, McDermott! This isn’t a fucking joke! You know something and I want to hear it right now. This is a woman’s life we are talking about!” Liz shouted at him, waving her finger down at him as he was still sprawled on the ground attempting to get up on his elbows. She realized that at that point she wasn’t even sure that it was Kate she was talking about because her life could be on the line now.
“I am not lying, man! I never hurt that girl back in college and I never hurt no girl now! I ain’t even trying to get laid lately! Girls been nothing but problems, I don’t need that!” Craig stood up and shook the dirt off his clothes.
“Listen, I was a party kid, okay? That’s my only crime. But hey NYU is a party school! Well at least for some people it is! I drank too much and I am telling you I don’t remember what happened that night but I know I ain’t raped no chick because when I get drunk it don’t...you know, man, my, uh... you know what I’m saying right man?” Craig nodded at Mike, hoping to get some sort of male confirmation. Mike just glared at him, hands folded across his chest, not showing the slightest flicker of emotion. Craig rolled his eyes and pushed his hair back, groaning.
“My flagpole doesn’t fly.” Craig said lowering his voice, and looking around embarrassingly.