Heels click against the floor, exiting the elevator and making her way out of the building. The outside of the building, busy as always. Even in the bright hours of the morning, the sun barely brushed against the solid ground those walked upon. That's how many mornings started, and yet the night ended differently each time.
Amelia takes her time arriving at the maximum security prison, parking her car in one of the empty parking spots. Walking with her bag over her shoulders, hands shoved into her pockets. Shades over her eyes as the sun beamed down on the people below it. The sway of her hips moves the loose fabric of her coat, hair brushing against her back. The golden hoop in her left ear reflecting on her shades.
She stops in front of the entrance, meeting two prison guards of the facility. Amelia quickly pulls her hand out of her pocket, she holds up her badge I.D in front of them.
"Agent Reston, B.A.U department in the Los Angeles F.B.I." The guards give her a nod, she flicks the badge closed and drops it into her pocket.
With no words exchanged, one of the guards turns to open the door. The loud squeaks and creeks of the old metal door fill her ears, as one of the guards signals for her to follow him into the maximum security prison. Amelia heads forward, following the first guard, hearing the door shut with a loud boom.
"Who are you here to visit, ma'am?" The guard behind her speaks, Amelia not bothering to make any sort of eye contact with the man.
She waves her hand dismissively, "Ricardo Lonade, mafia cartel case."
This had not been the first time she stepped into any sort of maximum security facility, so the surroundings noises by the prisoners within it didn't bother her. The screaming, flailing their bodies against the bars, against the confinement. With every chance they got, they had to be raucous. Knowing that their lives would end in a four by four cell, never seeing the light of day.
The three of them continue to walk single file down a long hallway, "Right this way, we have him in interrogation for you. As requested." Amelia adjusts her shades, not showing any sort of emotional reaction to the men's words.
"Thank you." Is all Amelia says.
Amelia had called the prison earlier within the hours of the morning to be able to get a place for her to speak with him one on one. The entire interaction with him in his little casino nagged at her, bothered her even. He knew something she didn't know, someone knowing something over her did not sit well. An advantage she would not let him keep for very long.
Reaching the end of the hallway, the guard turns to his right. Pulling out a chain of keys, putting one into the door. With a fast click, the man turned the doorknob and entered the room. Amelia follows suit, the dim light darkening the look in her shades. Yet she never takes them off, hands in her pockets.
A simple set up, a hanging light that barely lit up the center of the room. A mirror, no doubt made of glass to see through to the other side, and a metal table. Sat in front of a wooden chair, seated a man shackled wrists to ankles with cuffs. In front of the smiling tyrant, an empty chair.
Amelia sighs, placing her hand on the top of the chair and swiftly pulling it towards her, seating herself on the other side of the table.
Ricardo chuckles, pulling his hands together in front of him. The handcuffs clink against the metal. "Well, well, if it isn't the little agent Amelia." He starts, Amelia un-phased by his simple words. A taunt that never worked for anyone else.
"It's Reston to you, Ricardo."
He waves her off in dismissal, a long sigh leaving his lips. "Ah yes, always needing to keep up appearances now don't we?"
Small fingers finally pull the shades from her eyes, leaving the bridge of her nose to be folded shut. Amelia places the shades on the table, a light clink on their impact.
"The fearless detective who towers over her past and saves many people's futures." Ricardo continues, in a mocking tone. Smile stretched wide like a bobcat's. Eyes gleaming with anticipation towards her, with mischief of the endless possibilities. Amelia would find out what he knew, and he would not long have the shimmer of luck in his pupils.
She leans forward, elbows resting on the metal surface. "Enough with the bullshit mind games, Ricardo. I came here for answers."
Just as fast as Ricardo's smile had appeared, it was gone. The expression of glee turned into a cold, and stone face. Not a single expression painted across his features. "I already told you, I swore to secrecy." He states, with a light shrug of his cuffed hands.
A light chuckle, "You really don't think I am a man against my word, no?"
He was a crook, and always would be. Simply playing on his 'nobleness' was not going to get him off of the hook with her. It made her laugh inside, hearing him use the same phrase he had used at his casino: When he lost all of his power. Here he was now, in shackles. Never able to see the light of day again, body covered in the muddied shade of orange.
That alone was able to give her some sort of a smile.
"I think you may want to reconsider, as I can get you out of here early if you somewhat comply." She places her hand under her chin. "If you didn't already know your sentence seems to be a life term without parole. However, I can change that."
Amelia points her finger in the air, "If you tell me what I want to know." The man in front of her sits quiet, looking between his hands and her.
It was clear he was contemplating his options: what would be the better choice. To risk his maximum jail time by assisting her, or continue to rot in chains? The choice to a man in his situation would be obvious, yet Ricardo was no simple man. He would try anything to slip through her hands with ease, no matter how much wriggling it would take him to get through the holes between her fingers.
The flickering of his gaze comes to a halt, as their eyes meet once more. The color of gray, burning against the swirls of emerald and ivory green.
"I was.. Paid a large amount.Five-hundred thousand dollars to be exact." The start of his words pulls a smile onto her lips. He took her deal, and now would give her everything she wanted to know. All for a taste of freedom.
She tilts her head to the side, "To only change your cartel's name?"
He sighs, "I will tell you more, if you are giving me your promise to get me out of here." Ricardo's muscles seem to tense up in front of her eyes. Could a man as bold and boorish as him really need a silly little promise to proceed? "If so, you have my word. I am a man of promise, an agent like you respects honesty, no?"
Amelia would give him anything he asked for, even a silly little promise.
"After this interrogation I'll call up the prison to get the papers. Now, tell me what the person told you to do." With her words, it seems his muscles relax once more.
Ricardo clears his throat. "I was told to lure you, as a warning. Nothing more, I was told not to touch you nor harm you."
"Do you know who this person was, a male? Female?" Simple questions as these were more important now than ever. Amelia had to know every little detail to decipher who the person behind this was.
He shakes his head, "A male, however he didn't show his face when my minions and I went to meet him. He wore a mask."
Ricardo's statement brings her ears to perk up: a mask? In her daily life of catching all sorts of psychopaths, none had paraded themselves in a mask without her eyes being on them. Most did it for the show, the presentation. Why would such a person go through great lengths to disguise himself from his allies?
Eyebrows raised, she leans forward. "A mask?" Amelia parrots, Ricardo nods.
"A gray mask, almost like the shape of a bird's beak. I could only see one eye from it however." The older man leans back into his chair, groaning to get comfortable. "He paid me in cash as well, so I wouldn't be able to know his name if I wanted to."
Amelia's expression pulls back to nothing, she wasn't shocked now by the mystery person's actions. No face, no trace of their steps. Without anyone knowing their real identity, getting their hands dirty through others would be any easy task. She would give credit where it was due, so far they had the upper hand on her.
"How long has he been paying you?" Her question could shoot daggers from her tone, hands gripping in fists on the metal table. Even if her hands showed anger, the rest of her showed nothing but calmness and grace.
"Only for four years, as we'd been lying low for a point in time."
She pauses, "Did he..Say how he knew me?"
Amelia had to know this, if Ricardo wasn't informed of some reasoning behind his involvement he was a foolish man. Following blindly where large sums of cash would take him, he was already on a dangerous path to life. Look where he had ended up.
"Only that you had wronged him, and he wanted to make his wrongs right." Ricardo sighs, chuckling. "You must have done something pretty stupid to have a man paying such high prices for you."
The older man was getting a few kicks out of the words leaving his lips. "He said he wanted to do many things to you..Mostly painful, I digress."
He had given her something to work with, although not what she had hoped for. She was hoping for a full fledged confession: knowing who the person behind the mask was. Knowing what their intentions were besides wishing to wrong their rights. Amelia had wronged many people, it left an endless web of possibilities.
So many patterns, so many people to still cross off of the list.