“I didn’t. I had somewhere to be.”

“And you just happened to have somewhere to be when you heard cops were asking for you?” She leaned in, making eye contact with him. “Here’s what I know, Richard. Innocent people don’t run from cops.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“I just talked to Kyle Atkins.”

Richard flinched.

“You know what he was surprised to hear? That your real name is Richard Kent, and you’re on probation after doing time for dealing drugs. He was positively shocked to learn you lied to get the job at his restaurant.”

Richard dropped his head into his hands. “I need that job. I have kids to support.”

“Tell me what you know about the bad dope sold or given to Morgan Newell and Angelo Diaz.”

His head whipped up. “What?” He looked and sounded genuinely shocked, or he was doing a good impression of shock. “I don’t know anything about that. I had nothing to do with it.”

“Here’s the thing, Dick, I don’t believe you. Consider the facts. We’ve got a convicted drug dealer working with two people who turn up dead within a week of each other due to overdoses, and you expect me to believe you had nothing to do with that?”

“I didn’t!”

Sam sat back and crossed her arms, staring at him without blinking.

He stared right back, also not blinking.

“Why’d you run from us?”

“Because I’m on probation, and any time cops show up, it freaks me out.”

“When have cops shown up before today?”

“After Morgan and Angelo died.”

“Who was it?” Sam asked, flabbergasted to hear that someone else had investigated their deaths, but she’d heard nothing about that.

“I can’t remember who it was. Some big, bald dude.”

“Cooper?”

“Yeah, that was it.”

Sam was outraged to hear that the Narcotics lieutenant had investigated their deaths and did nothing to alert the public or the department that someone was possibly selling laced pills. That information could’ve saved Spencer’s life—and Mary Alice’s, among others. She felt sick all over again as she processed that news.

“Can I go?”

“Do you know anything at all about where those laced pills came from?”

He squirmed in his seat. “No.”

“You’re lying.” She leaned in again. “This is a Homicide investigation. You can be charged for obstruction if you don’t tell us what you know. Do you want to end up back at Jessup? What good will you be to your kids then?”

To her immense frustration, he began to cry. “I’m trying so hard to go straight. Do you know what that’s like when you’re used to making the kind of money I made before? It’s really, really difficult.”

Sam stayed quiet, hoping he would say more.

“The people in that world… They’re bad dudes.”

“I assume they must be if they’re selling pills that they know will kill people.”

“They don’t always know that. Sometimes, they get stuff from others and only find out it’s bad when they hear someone dies.”