That was how, because of his stubbornness, Kankri forgot to question Cronus about his family's enemies, to think of possible culprits. So far he didn't have enough pieces to clearly see the full picture, so every single bit of information counted. It was already too late to undo his hard-headed tracks once they had arrived at wherever Cronus had brought him to.
"Ok, I should probably warn you beforehand, chief", the taller one stopped on his tracks, and Kankri almost collided against him. Cronus turned around to give the amateur detective that look he had shown back at the cafe: he was being serious about something. "This guy is one of Eridan's, uh, closest people. They are close. Like, really, very close".
A silence took place for a few seconds, and Kankri guessed he was being expected to ask. Sigh. "How close?".
"REALLY close", he seemed satisfied now, "and he still doesn't know about the whole... You know, kidnapping business". That made Kankri think of something that probably should've ocurred to him before. He almost wanted to facepalm over how careless he'd been.
"Ampora... Are you trying to keep the full length of the matter undercovered? Because I do not know how much I will be able to ask this person in a natural way, if I can't mention the fact that his 'really close friend' has gone missing", not to mention, he wasn't very happy with having to keep information a secret.
"No! Ok, let me tell you this, in a very clear way: NO ONE can hear a THING about this, capice? I don't even wanna /think/ about what would happen if the word got around, no", he was shaking his head in a way that made his hairstyle look unnaturally still.
"But if I can't tell /anything/ to /anyone/, then how am I supposed to convince the suspect to tell me about the day of the events?".

"A robbery at the mall!? That day!?", Sollux Captor was quite the energetic young man when faced with unusual situations. He was tall and skinny, languid even, but he had his own peculiar attractives. For one, he was a prodigy at computer science, not to mention an over-all mathematical genius, and quite the funny individual. But, as many with a priviledged mind, he was cynical and mostly terribly bitter. It had been hard to convince him that Kankri was looking after 'the robber' ("But aren't you Karkat's older and more annoying brother?", Kankri himself wasn't sure how he had gotten past the first instance), but he wasn't the only one with a special talent, and once Kankri understood what his mind reacted to with the most strenght, it was easy to manipulate him towards opening up.
"I'm afraid so, mr Captor. As you may imagine, and because of the incredibly strange circumstances this was achieved under, the police is keeping the matter hushed for the moment. After all, it's not every day a jewerly store of that size is robbed of its most precious gems without anyone to account for their loss. Such being the case, and to keep the robber under the false belief that he is safe for now so that he lowers his guard, I would appreciate if everything we discussed here would remain under your most sacred silence. Can we count on that, mr Captor?".
"Yes of course", he swore with a slight lisp, nodding with energy. Kankri could feel how proud he felt of being considered an important enough part of the investigation to be asked for a vow of silence, and that let him double his bet. "Wonderful. In that case, let us begin, shall we?".

"I picked ED from his house at two o'clock, so I'd say we got to the mall he wanted to visit at like three. Of course we /couldn't/ go to the closest one because /there/ they don't have that stupidly /expensive/ brand of scarfs little Ampor-ass wanted, but you know, whatever", he rolled his heterochromic eyes and sighed in exhasperation. Evidently, Eridan and him were close; though it seemed their relationship was a little more complicated than just 'friends'. "Like, I really didn't want to go, cause I don't like malls and all, but ED insisted until the point of absolute ridiculousness", that last word sounded very particular with the young man's subtle lisp on the 's'.
Kankri limited himself to listening like he actually cared, and guiding the conversation towards the right path when needed.
"Why would you say that was?".
"Fuck if I know. He's always like that", he shrugged, "what do you care though?", of course, manipulating a smart man was never an easy task.
"Curiosity", Kankri shooed the topic away with his hand, and continued before Captor could voice his objection, "was it just the two of you, or did more friends come along?".
"Hmm... Right! We met up with KK there. He and Strider were waiting for us", Kankri had no idea what those aliases meant, and Sollux was quick to catch on to the fact, "your brother, Karkat. He was there with Dave Strider. You know, his friend from who-knows-where".
Uh, no, Kankri /didn't/ know who this Dave Strider was, in fact. But he made sure to leave a mental note deep inside his brain to find out everything he could about this new character. From how flustered Sollux had felt when he mentioned his name, he could tell there was something else going on there.
Finally, it was time for the important questions.
"Did you see anything abnormal there? Did anyone seem suspicious? Is there anything you would like to mention about that day? Every little piece of information helps, mr Captor, no matter how insignificant you may assume it is". He brought up his hand to scratch his pointy chin, thinking. "I don't think so, no".
However, lying was not his strongest forte.

After some more chit-chat, Sollux walked them to the door, impatience surrounding his whole being. He felt agitated about something, and Kankri could swear it was because of thought he'd had during the last part of the interview.

Now, please understand that Kankri Vantas considers himself a fair man. He understands how important privacy can be for everyone, especially the privacy of one's mind. And he would like for all of you to know that, hadn't a life been on the line right that moment, he would have never done what he found himself doing on that doorframe. He would like to also announce that a trigger warning goes here for conscious invasion of a person's brain, and memory browsing. Thank you.

Sollux waved at Cronus at the entrance, but Kankri followed his detective game and offered his hand. Hesitantly, the younger took it, and that's when Kankri could see something else.
He was at the mall, Eridan by his side. He could hear Karkat yelling about something behind him, and another voice, a calm voice he didn't recognize. Just as they all walked outside and past the parking lots, Eridan stopped. He looked at him thinking of insulting the guy for being so slow, but he suddenly seemed pale. Something was said, but, as per usual in another person's memory, sound seemed to be coming from very far away, and words didn't entirely make sense. Next thing he knew, he was shrugging as Eridan ran back inside for something.

He blinked, and he was back.
"Vantas, are you ok?".
"Hm? Oh, yes, sorry, I think I spaced out for a moment. My apologies. Shall we?", and, with that, they left.