Lost and Found

Chapter Forty-One

Hank's POV

Wu and I walked into the room to talk to Dwaine. He looked up at us anxiously and probably understood from our expressions that we weren't about to tell him he was free to go.

"We have some more questions for you," I announced.

"Are you serious?" Dwaine asked grumpily.

"Deadly serious," Wu warned.

"Guys, I already told you everything I can," Dwaine promised. "You've got to let this thing go." His expression was begging us to believe him. I wasn't sure if I could. Of course, he had been more upfront than the others, but that wasn't saying much.

"We're cops, and we need answers," I told him. "Complete answers as to what is going on. And you can give them to us."

"I can't give you anything," Dwaine said grumpily. "I've already done more for you than I should have."

"And why did you?" Wu asked curiously. He had a point.

Dwaine paused, deep in thought. When he finally looked up at Wu, he said, "Trubel... She's a cool person. And despite what she's telling everyone, I think she likes you guys."

I was kind of surprised to find that she had been telling others she didn't like us. I wondered how Trubel really felt about us these days. Just like Nick, Wu and I wanted so badly for Trubel to be on the right side of things somehow, despite all she had been doing.

"So helping us is like helping her?" I clarified.

"Yeah," Dwaine said. He got a strange expression on his face like he was worried he said too much. "Can we stop talking about her?"

"I have just a few more questions," I said calmly, hoping my tone would make him more willing to answer. He could shut down at any moment and start ignoring us.

"I can't-" Dwaine began to explain.

"If you care about her at all, you need to help us figure this out," I warned him.

He said, "And if you cared about her you'd stop trying to figure this out."

"Where did you get the gun?" I asked.

He sighed. "It's Trubel's," he said defeatedly. "You guys probably already know that, don't you?"

"We do," Wu admitted.

"Is it the one that Andre used to shoot her?" I asked.

"No, he just used the magazine from it. You know, put it in Nick's gun and all that dramatic crap," Dwaine said. That was right! I remember Nick saying something about that... It was good to know he was still being honest with us. "But, obviously she was wearing body armor which is why she's not dead," Dwaine said.

"Where'd she get the body armor?" Wu asked.

"She had a friend bring it to Andre," Dwaine answered. Wu and I exchanged a look. What friends could Trubel have contacted? Who would have access to her things like her body armor? Why wouldn't they help her out of her situation?

I didn't have any of those answers.

"What friend?" I asked.

"I don't know, okay," Dwaine said. "Look, Trubel's a cool chick. I don't want anything bad to happen, so can I just go? Please?"

"You were in illegal possession of a firearm, not to mention you were in the car that was at the scene of the murder last night," I said.

"Or should we say 'scene of the murders,'" Wu corrected.

The interrogation room door opened and Nick was already walking in.

"Let him go," he said.

"Nick-" I objected. "We have evidence-" Wu said at the same time.

He raised his hand up to signal us to stop talking and we did. "In the interest of keeping people from dying, we have to let them go."

"Can we talk to you for a minute?" I asked him, pointing to the door.

He nodded and led the way out. Wu and I went after him, leaving Dwaine alone in the interrogation room again.

"Nick, are you crazy?" I asked.

"Hear me out," he requested. "If we take them down now, the ones on the outside could start killing people in retaliation."

"Nick, we're cops. We have evidence. We can't just let them go because we're worried about what they might do," I told him. What was he thinking?

"The Captain will understand," Nick promised.

"Will he?" Wu asked.

"When we explain to him what we're going to do," Nick finished. What was he talking about?

"I'm listening," Wu said with a tone that questioned Nick's sanity.

"We're going to find Trubel in two days," he said, pulling the note out of his pocket. "And she'll be able to tell us what's going on. But until then, it's not safe to risk making a move."

"So what's your plan?" I asked.

"We're going to let these guys go, and you're going to follow them. I doubt they're stupid enough to drive back to their safehouse, but it's worth a shot," he explained.

"What about the gang war? Are we supposed to let that happen?" I asked.

Nick shrugged. "Both sides are murderers, drug dealers, criminals. They've been slowly picking each other off one by one, and I can't say I want to stop that. And as far as the precinct is concerned," he said, waving around the note. "We don't know about the gang war. This is a Grimm thing, and I'm getting Trubel back."

"I'm not sure about this, Nick," Wu said.

"Give me another choice," he challenged. Wu and I didn't say anything. It was true that we didn't have any better ideas, and we both wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery.

"Then, I guess we'll let these guys go," Wu said uncomfortably. He went into the interrogation room with Dwaine, leaving Nick and me alone.

"What are you going to do?" I asked him.

"I'm going to HW. I have a feeling that's where I can find Trubel's friend," Nick announced. "And maybe they'll be willing to help me this time."

"Good luck," I told him. HW hadn't been the most supportive of our efforts to find Trubel so far. Nick was going to need all the luck he could get.

"You, too," he said before he started walking in the direction of the garage.