Vélez shook his head. “Like six to eight months maybe?”
Something pricked at the back of Atticus’s brain but he couldn’t say just what it was that rang false about the statement. “What happened to the first detective? Is there any way we can talk to him?”
Vélez snorted. “Not unless you’ve got a ouija board. He’s dead.”
Huh. That was interesting. “Oh, shit. When did that happen?”
Vélez shrugged. “Right before my transfer. That’s why the spot opened up in major crimes.”
“Why’d you leave narcotics? Seems like it would be a lot more exciting than major crimes, no? Got tired of being undercover?” Atticus asked, keeping his tone as casual as possible. He needed Vélez to think they were just talking, just making conversation, killing time to make Jericho think he was getting information.
Vélez’s eyes shifted to the left, then back. Atticus could practically hear him attempting to carefully craft his answer. Finally, he said, “It was just time for a change. My mom was worried I was getting in too deep.”
It wasn’t totally a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth.
Atticus nodded as if that made perfect sense. “And you’ve never heard of this Carlos dude? Not even in your UC narcotics days?”
Vélez shook his head, gaze floating away from Atticus once more. “This wasn’t my jurisdiction. I was working West End back then.” He looked over to where Jericho was sitting in the truck. “Look, I like Jericho. We were friends once…I think. But we’ve run down every lead, did our due diligence.”
Atticus frowned. “Was there anybody in particular who stood out? Like maybe somebody you just couldn’t put your finger on?”
Vélez’s eyes went wide, but he recovered quickly. “Nah, man. Just the same junkies and burnouts you always see.” Atticus was prepared to take that as face value, especially since he didn’t believe a word the other man said, but Vélez wasn’t done. “Some cases just never get solved. His sister got involved with the wrong people and, somehow, ended up tossed in the river. It sucks but she’s not the first. Hell, she’s not even the first this month. She’s what we call a high risk target.”
“High risk? She wasn’t a sex worker or homeless. Jericho said his sister wasn’t into hard drugs.”
He leaned in like he was sharing a secret, his voice a conspiratorial whisper as he said, “The track marks all over her arms tell an entirely different story.” He looked back over his shoulder at the building. “I gotta get back to work. If you oryour fatherhave any more questions, you can take it up with my boss.” He gave another fleeting glance at Jericho. “Tell him I’m sorry. Truly.”
He didn’t give Atticus a chance to ask another question, just turned and jogged away.
Atticus slid into the passenger seat, fully prepared to have to defend what he’d done. But as soon as the door closed, Jericho said, “What’d you get?”
“You knew—”
Jericho snorted, cutting him off. “That you didn’t just suddenly decide you wanted to be the dominant one in this relationship? Yeah, I don’t need to be a psychic to figure that out. It was interesting watching you do what you do.”
“Do what I do?” Atticus said, frowning.
“Yeah, this is the first time I’ve seen your mirror bit in action. It’s impressive. So, what did you get?”
Atticus wouldn’t exactly call it a bit. It wasn’t something he practiced, just something he innately knew how to do. “Your ex is hiding something. He definitely knows who Perez is. Also, did you know the original detective on your sister’s case died?”
“Yeah. Car accident. Drove his car into one of those guardrails on the highway. Practically split his car in half. Gruesome.”
“That doesn’t strike you as weird?” Atticus questioned.
Jericho frowned. “Why would it? People die in car accidents every day.”
“Let’s just think about this logically. Bryan said they were ghosts. That they had reach. What if the cops are in their pocket? It wouldn’t hurt to have a man on the inside.”
“But why? The original detective hadn’t gotten anywhere on Mercy’s case,” Jericho said.
“How do you know?”
“Gabe told…” Jericho faltered. “Gabe told me when he first picked up the case.”
“Exactly. Vélez said they gave him the case because they always shove the cold cases onto the new guys, but a case isn’t considered ‘cold’ until a year has passed, so that was a lie. How long after he took over your sister’s case before you two started dating?”
Jericho’s frown became a full blown scowl. “We hooked up about four weeks after he took over the case. Began our brief on-again, off-again thing until I learned he had a boyfriend. After that, we only talked about the case, then we didn’t talk at all.”
