X-Mas in Milwaukee: Ways of Making You Talk

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Hollis is taken into custody, but proves a tougher nut to crack than they originally thought.



"So, what you're saying is that you didn't rob the customs secure storage facility?"

"Agent Kane, I wouldn't rob anyone. It goes against the code of a hero. See, right here." Craig Hollis said, pointing to a spot on a document that he'd produced while in custody. It was over fifty pages of clauses and sub-clauses that outlined the code of a super hero. Hollis proudly admitted to writing it. "Our actions have only been against criminal enterprises connect to Leather Boy."

"Right, Leather Boy. Let's get back to him." Kane bit back a sigh. "He's another superhero?"

"Leather Boy is our arch-nemesis. A diabolical villain who controls the underworld of Milwaukee in his slightly damp grasp!" Hollis' voice rose as he spoke. "He must be stopped before he can put his final plot into motion."

"Final plot?" Terry asked from her seat near him, her hand curled against and bracing her cheek. "And what final plot might that be?"

At the name 'Leather Boy', Brand had snorted, holding a hand over her mouth to hide the laugh. She was leaning against the wall near the door of the small interview room, mostly looking irritated since Kane had been very clear about how this interview was going to proceed, especially given what had happened at his arrest.

"With Leather Boy, you never know. Is he planning to pour mind control chemicals into the Great Lakes and take over all of the inner-coastal cities? Steal all of the world's great monuments and bring on a cultural apocalypse? Or will he try and steal the moon again?" Hollis' excitement went up with each ridiculous plot, and the look on his face was as good as a polygraph for Kane. This idiot believed what he was saying, with a doubt.

"Fine. Leather Boy is trying to take over, you're trying to stop him. What about your friends?"

"My fellow heroes are as committed as I am to stopping Leather Boy. Unfortunately, Agent Kane, until I can be sure that you or this station isn't corrupted by Leather Boy, I cannot reveal their secret identities."

"Hollis, if you don't talk, you're going to go to jail for at least twenty years in a federal penitentiary. We're talking hard time, not some upstate low security community centre."

"At what price do your principles come, Agent Kane? I assure you, mine are much higher than a prison sentence can buy." Hollis said, obviously rattled by the thought of prison, but hanging on to his courage. Disgusted, Kane got up and walked out the door, followed by the others, to let Hollis stew.

"He actually believes this garbage. Leather Boy?"

Terry hesitated a moment, glancing at Hollis with a mixture of exasperation and pity in the hopes of rattling him a little further. She followed the others outside the room, arms folded, and turned. "He needs a psych evaluation," she said bluntly.

"And possibly sectioning. Why else would someone dress up in a costume and fight crime?" Brand arched her eyebrow slightly. "And we're not much closer to figuring out his connection with the robbery. It seems a bit more than this clown can handle, to be honest. Even if he has the ability to rise from the dead."

"You know, the burned truck full of drug paraphernalia almost makes sense." The blank looks he received were clear indicators that they weren't following him. "Think about it. The drugs and supplies that got burned were worth a decent amount of money, but they are bulky; hard to store, hard to move quickly and quietly. So what if you send Hollis and his friends after a 'drug lab', and while they're causing all the noise, you send real professionals in from the opposite direction to get the more valuable and easy to move goods?"

"You would have to know their plans. Not that Hollis is not as transparent as a pane o' glass," Terry mused with a glance at the door to the room where he sat waiting. "Would be easy enough to be pointing him in the right direction. Does not seem the type to question things too closely..."

"Or the type to be able to plan his way out of a paper bag." Brand caught the thread of Terry's musings. "It's possible there's someone else in charge, who plans for these clowns."

"Maybe a member of his team that we haven't seen yet? We're not going to know until we find out who else is part of his group. I'm sure we can track them down eventually, but if he keeps stonewalling us, whoever is behind this could decide to disappear once they hear Hollis has been arrested."

"Getting information off his computer and phone records will take time," Terry agreed in a round about way. "We have to find a way to break him. I do not think trusting us is going to happen."

A slow smile appeared on Brand's face. "Give me ten minutes and I'll have him eating out of my hand," she suggested, in a way which did not bode well for Hollis. "He's a pussy - it wouldn't take much."

"We're not going to torture a suspect in custody. Or any other completely illegal ideas you have about making him talk." Kane suddenly paused and looked at Terry. "I think that the best thing we could do is take him over to the prison, let him see what he's looking forward to. Maybe something happens that will make him feel like he can tell people about his friends."

Terry's eyes widened in response to Brand, though the expression transferred to Kane as she tried to follow his train of thought. "Sometimes a practical demonstration has more force," she agreed slowly, head tilted slightly and brows furrowed. "Maybe he would be talking to people not us? If they were... sympathetic?" Her expression reads uncertainty quite clear.

"And if not, the threat of being gang-raped in prison ought to make him talk." Brand shook her head. "Don't pretend you're any better than me, Boy Scout. You know as well as I do what would wind up happening to the little schmuck in general population."

"Yeah, but at least it doesn't sound like my idea of a fun vacation."