“I’m a loan officer who has helped a lot of people secure financing.”

Not according to his supervisor. “But you took a special interest in helping Troy. He’s your friend and when he needed financing and his numbers didn’t quite hit the mark, you went ahead and made sure he got the financing. Because that’s what friends do. And then when his daughter suddenly went missing, you didn’t miss a beat. You got a fund-raising page set up so quickly. In fact, once we look at your search history on your computer, I’ll bet you researched how to set up a site even before Emma Whitman disappeared.”

It was a wild-ass guess but A.L. was pretty confident he wasn’t far off when Hanzel seemed to sway in his seat.

“I don’t understand your point, Detective,” Hanzel said. He pulled at the collar of his nice white shirt.

“My point is, your job is on the line here. You know it. You’ve received multiple warnings about your job performance. If you were to have another big loan default, it might look bad for you.”

A.L. took a drink of his coffee and set the cup down hard. “I think that you know that your friend Troy Whitman is close to defaulting on his loan. I think you and Kara Wiese figured out a way to have his daughter disappear and get an influx of cash for Troy.”

“How would I know that his business is about to go under? Troy always tells me that everything is fine. That’s what he tells everybody.”

“Because I just talked to Travis Whitman, Troy’s older brother. The two of you are friends. Maybe even better friends than you and Troy. He confirmed with me that you did know, that he told you that Troy was borrowing money from the Savayanah brothers.” A.L. pushed his coffee cup aside. “Steven, you are under arrest in connection with the disappearance of Emma Whitman.” A.L. then read him his rights. He didn’t want the guy to lawyer up but he didn’t want anything to derail a conviction, either.

When Steven Hanzel didn’t immediately ask for representation, A.L. decided it was time to hit him hard. “Where is Emma Whitman?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t want to know,” he said. “I had nothing to do with taking Emma. Nothing. Kara took care of all of that. But it’s going to be fine. Emma is coming home today. This is all going to be over.”

Kara had likely acted to help her lover save his job. Now said lover was throwing her under the bus.

Rena reached for her phone. Texted a message to Chief Faster. By the time she and A.L. got back to their desks, Kara Wiese would be there, ready for questioning.

“How do you know that?” A.L. demanded.