Stolen - The Devereaux Case Files Book 4

Chapter 17

Karps was actually a little impressed when his blindfold was taken off just outside the gates of the secret prison facility the Waynflete agency had established. Seth and Sammy signed their paperwork, handing over all responsibility for him to the prison. Then they got back in their car and headed home to Ashfield, hoping to enjoy their three days holiday together. He was taken directly to a decontamination area, where he was stripped of all possessions, which were searched and then given a gray jumpsuit as his new prison uniform. He felt surprisingly clean and safe in the prison. The search hadn't been in any way a violation of his person or his privacy. He had been given a small shower cubicle, with a door that locked and told to scrub himself until the water stopped. Once that stopped, he was handed a towel, and then his jumpsuit over the top of the locked door and told to change. It was surprisingly civil.

By the time he was taken from the decontamination room, he was informed that he had various contraband in his outside clothes and they would be held in a secure box until the time of his release. If that time ever came. And since Karps knew for a fact that Raidon had already searched him before leaving his house, he began wondering what the prison termed contraband. But his thinking time was cut short as he was led towards his cell, with shackles keeping his ankles together and handcuffs on his wrists. It wasn't he most comfortable way to walk. But the moment he set eyes on Rudy sitting inside his cell, reading a magazine, he didn't care. He smiled at his old friend and realized that he might just be getting out of there sooner than he thought, if he knew something valuable about his pal.

"Hey Rudy, what got you in here?" He asked with a laugh, hoping that the man leading him to his cell, who was in a suit and not a guard uniform, might like to hear what he had to say about Rudy. And true enough, he ordered the guard on his left to halt and watched as the old friends stared at one another.

"What are you doing here?" Rudy asked, throwing his magazine onto his cot as he approached the bars of his cell. There was a look of sheer panic on his face, along with confusion as he looked between Murray and Karps, wondering what was going to happen now. Just his very look told Murray that he was scared of what Karps had to say about him. So he gave his old nemesis a smile just to add to the shock value.

"Guard, take this prisoner to the interrogation room. It seems he might be of use after all." Murray gave the order and was pleasantly surprised that just a moment later, Karps began talking.

"Oh yeah. You wouldn't believe the stuff me and Rudy got up to in the old days." Karps began. It seemed that he was eager to talk and although he loved seeing the abject look of horror and murderous rage emanating off Rudy, Murray really wanted everything down on official record.

"Well, that's nice that you're cooperating but let's leave the talking for the interrogation room, shall we? Where it can be recorded for posterity." He suggested with a sigh. He followed the guard as he led them both out of the building and across to the interrogation wing. At least this interview would prove productive. Joe still hadn't made up his mind about whether he was going to talk and it irritated him. He had used his best speech and everything.

Murray waited until they were alone in the interrogation room before taking a seat and extracting a fresh pen and pad from the drawer in front of him. He made a few notes at the top of the first page and then asked Karps to continue. "So how do you know Rudy and what do you have that might be useful to me?" He wondered if Karps was simply making it up or hoping to get Rudy into trouble, and himself out of prison, by providing false information. He was too cautious to fall for it, but he would soon find out the truth. One way or another, they would know what Rudy had been up to.

"Well, we met a few years ago when he was drifting through my town. My boys are real dedicated to keeping our monopoly on the area and they heard that Rudy was trying to squeeze in on my work. So they picked him up, brought him to me and we made a deal to divide my territory in return for some high class weaponry he could get me a deal on." Karps sat back in his seat and talked freely. He was more comfortable with Murray's flexible attitude than he had been with Raidon's. In front of Raidon, someone he had been suspicious of, he had kept mum about most things and barely spoke a word until he was finally caught. Now with Murray, he didn't have to worry what he was saying as long as he kept himself from getting into any worse trouble.