“You know I just started as a homicide detective in Charleston.”
“What? Already? I thought it was still a few weeks…. Man, I got my dates mixed up again. Sorry.”
“No problem. I don’t keep track of where you’re stationed either. Anyway, I had an appointment with the chief three days ago, and she told me my intended partner had to leave for a family emergency and that she would pair me up with another detective who usually works alone.”
“Ooh. Let me guess, he’s a grumpy old idiot who’s mean to you. Shall I come and kick his ass?”
“No!” George hurried to derail his brother from this train of thought because he knew he was only half joking. “Andi is about my age. Though heisgrumpy. Anyway, Chief Norris told me she wants me to keep an eye on him and his methods, unofficially, of course. If I do so, she’ll help me with the next step in my career.”
“And you agreed, didn’t you?” Daniel sounded a bit disappointed, which hit George harder than he had expected. His older brother’s approval was important to him.
“Of course I did. It sounded like a no-brainer. This guy’s crime-solving statistics are what freshmen see in their wet dreams after their first classes on criminology! They’re so good, it’s almost unreal. The chief is just wary of him because she doesn’t know how he’s doing it. I thought I’d watch him a bit, realize he’s just that good, and have her indebted to me.”
“And then something happened.”
“What makes you think so?”
“BecauseA, you wouldn’t be calling otherwise, andB, it’s enough to freak you out, as I can hear in the tone of your voice.” Daniel sounded almost bored. “Oh, andC, Iknowyou, George.”
George huffed for a moment. “Fine. Something has happened. I mean, I didn’t expect him to be super happy about our partnership, considering he’s apparently always worked alone, but he took it better than I feared. Then we were called to this body. The crime scene was outside a storage unit, and everything looked like either a drug deal gone south or some kind of spat between lovers or hooker and john. I was already running possible scenarios through my head when Andi gets this absent expression and declares we have to take a look inside the storage unit. He was real insistent too. So we go in there, me and the officer who reported the body both thinking Andi is slightly bonkers, and what do we find? Two more bodies in one of the units. I mean, how did he know that? And he definitelyknew. No guessing on his part as far as I could see. I would have never suspected anything like that. I mean, I would have surely come back at some point to take a look around, but nothing indicated that anybody had been inside the building.”
“Did you ask him?”
“Of course I did. He clammed up faster than I could say the word ‘hunch.’ Claimed he’d had a ‘feeling.’”
“Well, his feeling was right. Or is there any possibility he could have known about the bodies beforehand? Even killed them himself?”
“If he did know about the first one, he should get an Oscar for his acting skills. He was surprised and annoyed about the call, and when he saw the first body, there was absolutely no indication of recognition. Nobody is that good.”
“His hunch paid off. You know some people are gifted in that department. Their instincts are way better than their ordinary senses. When he’s truly in tune with them, I don’t see why he couldn’t have had a hunch like that.”
George wiped his face with his left hand. “That’s not all. One of the leads brought us to Spartanburg today. We inspected a possible crime site, and it was practically the same, sans the bodies. He stared into nothing for some time and then declared our most likely scenario to be valid. And he’s so convinced I’m tempted to go with it.”
“So do it. Aside from the fact that it’s absolutely wrong to spy on your brand-new partner without probable cause, you might learn a thing or two from him. If he really is gifted, you can become a better detective just by watching him work. Don’t get me wrong, you’re good at what you’re doing, but you’re also very much the son of our mother, just like Griffin and me. We tend to cling to the facts, leaving no room for—other options.”
Daniel was right. They had inherited their mother’s rigid belief in facts. Feelings and hunches were for dreamers and underachievers. The Donovans followed cold hard facts, no matter the cost. Aside from the lack of the aforementioned facts, George had another problem as well. “And if there’s indeed something wrong with him?” Even though he’d only known Andi for three days, George didn’twantanything to be wrong, no matter how irrational that feeling was.
“Then you learn something else from him and you get that favor from your chief. Win-win.” Daniel was being pragmatic now for his sake.
“I guess you’re right. It just feels wrong, spying on him, I mean. And I think he has some kind of condition. He looked like shit when we drove home today, as if the whole trip had exhausted him, but he’s fit. No body fat as far as I can tell.”
Daniel made a hooting sound. “And you know that because—”
“Because I’ve got eyes, dummy. He’s my partner. Temporary partner, but my partner.”
“You’re such a stickler for rules. Boring.” Daniel laughed. “The way I see it, you need to man up and start trying to be a real partner. Forget about the temporary thing. Forget about spying on him. Try to get closer, to learn how he ticks. He’s probably just freakishly good at combining small clues to form a bigger picture. You know, kind of like a hawk who does all that incredibly complicated math in his head when chasing a dove, without even noticing it.”
Comparing Andi to a hawk was not something George would have ever contemplated. A rabid raccoon perhaps, or an old growly badger on its evening round. That was more like it, though he didn’t know how good a badger’s dove-hunting mathematical skills were. Probably nonexistent. What did badgers eat anyway?
Even though the discussion with Daniel had been kind of anticlimactic, George did feel better. Daniel was right. He had to forget about all the baggage that came with this partnership and concentrate on the important stuff—finding the killer of the three girls.
“Thank you, Danny This really helped.”
“It was my pleasure, little bro. You know you can always call me.”
“Yeah, I do. Good night.”
“Night.”
