It was blunt as far as confessions went, very much in the same tone in which George had started this conversation. Andi couldn’t keep the hint of aggression out of his voice; he was simply too tired in combination with adrenaline pumping through his system from the chase. In this state, it was a miracle he hadn’t bitten George’s head off.
George dragged his hands over his face. “We’ve been partners for less than a week and you… we….” He sighed. “I talked with my brother about you. He thinks I should roll with whatever ‘instinct’ you have. See it as a way to learn something. And even though you’re a grumpy asshole most of the time, you’re also a good cop. I’m tempted to take his advice. It just feels strange, having talked to you about it, knowing about this silent truce, wondering what your secret is. I’m not sure how this is going to play out.” The look in his eyes was almost pleading, as if he wanted Andi to help him solve this—admittedly crazy—puzzle.
Andi sighed, felt the aggressiveness slowly subsiding into mere exhaustion. This whole partner thing had been a bad idea from the start.
“You’re right. It’s strange. I had a few partners before, now and then, never for long. None of them ever picked up on things the way you did in just three days. I usually managed to get rid of them before they got too suspicious. Perks of being a grumpy asshole. People tend to focus on the bad and ignore the strange.”
“Lucky me. I had myself almost convinced it was some kind of eerie instinct when you found those two other girls. But today? I was extra vigilant because we were going after a potential human trafficker. There was absolutely nothing hinting at our guy being in the building next door.”
“If it helps, I didn’t know it was him. I just knew there was someone in there. Could as well have been a junkie.”
George looked at him intently. “And you knew nobody was in the house we were approaching.” It was a statement. “Believe it or not, I can live with that.”
George sounded almost convincing. Almost. There would be more questions coming, now that he knew Andi was indeed hiding something. It was only natural for a cop. But for the moment, things had calmed down, or so Andi chose to believe.
He somehow managed to tug the corners of his mouth up. This situation was completely new to him as well. He’d had the last partner at the beginning of his career as a detective, and that partnership had lasted only until Detective Amber Lowey had successfully convinced the chief back then that Andi was impossible to work with. As a beat officer, he’d of course had partners, but his field of responsibilities during that time had made it easy for him to mostly hide his strangeness. He’d never been a social butterfly.
All of a sudden, he felt the urge to keep the fragile closeness he had established with George. Tentatively he held his hand out.
“Partners?”
George hesitated just long enough for Andi to feel insecurity creeping in. Then he grabbed Andi’s hand.
“Partners.”
They shook on it.
“How do we proceed? I can hardly ignore your strange hunches.”
Andi thought about it. “You don’t have to. I mean, you know I have a way of finding things out; you just don’t know what it is. I know you know, so I don’t have to waste time finding ridiculous excuses for my findings. In fact, nowyoucan help me find those excuses for the reports.” It was a rather weak attempt at a joke. There hadn’t been a need for him to keep his social skills polished because everybody kept their distance from him, just as he liked it.
George grinned nevertheless. “You think I’m going to get creative for you? What’s in it for me?”
“An immaculate solve rate that will help you propel your career.” Andi was half-serious. He was pretty sure Charleston was just a stepstone for George. The man hadambitiouswritten all over him.
“Deal. I could use that.”
Andi winked at him. “Wonderful. Let’s see if Vance’s lawyer has showed. We need the information he can give us.”
George nodded, serious all of a sudden. “I want to get those fuckers. All of them.”
“You and me both.”
They left the room, and for the first time Andi felt a sliver of the connection partners on the force were supposed to have. It was rather nice.
Chapter 13—Small Rats
AS ITturned out, Vance’s lawyer was delayed. They used the time until she showed to talk to the tech guys about the cell they had found on Vance. Cracking his phone had been a bit of a hassle, but now the information on it was flickering over a huge screen, making George wish he could go down to the interrogation room and punch Taylor Vance to death. He didn’t know what repulsed him more—the pictures of countless victims, all of them painfully young, or the cold manner Vance talked about them. To him and the people he was connected with, the victims were just merchandise, nothing of worth or importance apart from their ability to make the traffickers money. George glanced at Andi. His jaw muscles were so tense, George was afraid he would break the bone if he didn’t relax them soon.
“How long will it take to go through everything?” Andi looked at Shireen, the queen of the tech geeks in the precinct. She shrugged, causing the countless pendants hanging from her neck to jingle.
“A few days, probably. The good news is, your perp is an idiot. He kept everything he did on his cell. Hell, he even put his meetings with Ronald Wallace and others on his personal timetable. It may take some time to run them all through the database, but I can guarantee you we’re going to find some more pimps like that Wallace guy.”
“And the bad news?” George kept his gaze on the screen where Vance’s calendar was now displayed.
“The bad news is his superiors aren’t half as dumb as him. All those other numbers are for prepaid cells. Old models as well, which makes them even harder to track. Not that it would do any good.”
“You’re saying?” Andi lifted a brow.
