MAHONEY DROVE. SAMPSON SAT IN FRONT. I TOOK THE BACKSEAT WITH Glass, who was as high as a kite by now. His eyes occasionally rolled up into the whites.
I waited until we were out on the Beltway. Then I reached over and pulled the silver tape off his face.
“Wha’ the hell’s goin’ on here?” he started right in, running his words together like a drunk. “You assholes are in so much trouble—”
Sampson reached right across the seat and popped Glass hard, upside the head. It must have hurt because it immediately stunned him into silence.
“You listen first, dumbass,” John said with a finger in his face. “Then you talk.”
Glass hunkered down, trying to get away, but he seemed more pissed off than scared. That was the scopolamine, doing its thing.
“Rodney?” I said. “Listen to me. I’m going to ask you about Ethan and Zoe Coyle. That’s our only subject here. Do you know where they are?”
He smacked his lips a few times. His eyes fluttered. “Wha’d you gimme? Is this thiopental? My mouth’s like a sandbox.”
“Glass! Where are Ethan and Zoe?” I said. “They’re in a basement somewhere, right? There’s a dirt floor. What else?”
“I dunno know… what you’re talking about,” he slurred.
It’s not that scopolamine is a truth serum, per se. But cognitively speaking, lying is a lot more complex than telling the truth. The drug just makes it that much harder to do. My best bet was to keep coming at him with simple, direct questions. Eventually he might slip up.
“Ethan and Zoe are in a basement somewhere,” I said again. “Isn’t that right, Rodney?”
His head lolled back and he swallowed several more times.
“Why should I tell you?” he said. John reached for him, but I put up a hand to stop him.
“Are they in a basement, Rodney? Or is it some kind of a cave?”
“I, um…”
“Are they? Tell me. Right now.”
“Nah,” he finally said, and my heart lurched. “I mean… yeah. But not a basement. It’s a, uh… you know. More like a root cellar.” His head fell back again, and he let out a bizarre, low chuckle.
“What the hell’s so funny?” Sampson asked him.
“You are, man,” he said, and laughed again. “I mean… you’re all cops, right? But now you’re the ones who’re goin’ to jail. That’s funny, man. That’s fuckin’ classic.”