Andi didn’t know if he should laugh or play along. On one hand George being a bit paranoid about Andi’sgeschenkwas a good thing; on the other it smacked a bit too much of teenage drama movie for Andi’s liking. Next thing he knew they would be meeting in secret somewhere in the woods where they would then stumble upon some werewolves, or was it vampires? No, Andi was sure he was mixing things up. Were they supposed to become a couple? At some point, probably. If thiswerea teenage drama movie, which it wasn’t. This was reality, in all its despicable glory.
He cast a quick glance around, only to find the other cops in the room paying them no attention at all. Most of them were genuinely busy, and those who weren’t knew better than to be nosy about his business. Having a bad reputation had its merits. He leaned a bit toward George, just to be on the safe side, before he spoke. “He’s our man. The mosquitoes say he’s got anemia, which would explain his pale skin and the circles under his eyes, and that he’s covered in the stench of the same drugs we found on the guys in the vans. He’s the Lion Man.”
“Are you sure?” George’s gaze said he already believed Andi, but he seemed to need the reassurance.
“Absolutely.”
George nodded. “Now for the fun part—how do we prove it? I’ve looked through those emails and they seem to be real. It’s not enough to completely exonerate him, but it casts serious doubts on his involvement. No judge is going to give us a warrant to search his house here in the city if all we’ve got is that the orgy was taking place at a house he apparently hasn’t been to in months. As things are, he’s nothing more than a victim himself.” George gave the papers an annoyed glance. “Same goes for his medical records. There’s no way we can legally access them, and even if we could, saying the mosquitoes told us it’s him won’t do us any good.”
Andi felt a grim smile tugging on his lips. “Welcome to my world. First of all, let’s get these emails to Shireen. I bet she can do some digging, and perhaps she can hack his medical records as well. As for catching him red-handed… I’m afraid we’ll have to be patient. He’s already proven how shrewd he is. I bet he’s got contingency plans for every kind of scenario, and he’s most certainly going to lie low for the next few weeks.” Andi furrowed his brows. Just thinking about all the pain innocent victims would suffer in those weeks made him angry.
“Do we draw him out?” George was closing the binder.
“I’m not sure. I assume the chief’s going to keep an eye on us, which means we can’t be too obvious.”
“But if we don’t act and things take too long, the chief’s going to breathe down our necks about solving the case.”
“A thin line to walk.” Andi shuddered. “Let’s keep an eye on him and see what CSI finds in his family house. That should take at least two weeks. Perhaps something will pop up. If not, we’ll have to get creative.”
“How often do you have to ‘get creative’ with your cases?” George looked curious.
“Depends. A bit of creativity is always involved. The more heavily I have to rely on mygeschenk, the more free-mindedness is necessary to get the results I need.” Andi shrugged nonchalantly. “I always try to throw in as much solid police work as possible to distract from the parts where I’m just winging it. You’d be amazed how easily IA gets derailed by well-researched evidence. Of course, placement in the report is also crucial.”
George narrowed his eyes. “You have this down to an art, haven’t you?”
“Oooh, yes. And if you’re a good boy, I’m going to share my secrets with you.”
“I’m not sure if I should be flattered or frightened.” The laughter in George’s voice was a welcome relief after the stress of interrogating Jake Castain.
“Go with honored. You’re the first I’m letting partake in my infinite wisdom.” Andi winked, and they both started laughing out loud, drawing surprised glances from the other officers.
THE NEXTtwo days were spent with following up on all kinds of leads, some to pacify Chief Norris, most of them to solidify their case against Jake Castain. They were baby steps, supporting evidence that would strengthen their case once they got the break they needed to go after Castain directly. The first break happened on the morning of the third day, when Andi found a stack of documents on his desk. Since the children they had saved from Castain’s house had been too traumatized to be interrogated in detail, experts from Child Services had taken over and finally provided a list with the full names and ages of all the children, as well as the places where they had been taken. When Andi went over the list, he found five more children had been kidnapped in Spartanburg, just like Lilly Cordon, while the others came from all over South Carolina, with a maximum of four coming from the same towns. Andi asked George to take a look.
“What do you think? Is this just a coincidence or are we on to something?”
George stared at the five names for a long time. Finally, he pulled up a map of Spartanburg on the PC, comparing the exact places from which the children had been taken. They all came from the same district as Lilly Cordon. George rubbed his forehead with both his thumbs, a habit Andi had already come to associate with George thinking very hard.
“It could still be a coincidence. I mean, it’s easier to prey on children from a poor district, and it doesn’t get much poorer than Church Street and the surrounding neighborhoods.”
“But….” Andi raised a brow.
George sighed. “As Gibbs would say, there’s no such thing as coincidence. Especially not in a case like this one.”
“Who’s Gibbs?” Andi asked.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know.” George couldn’t conceal the horror in his voice. Andi grinned broadly, telling George he’d just been played. “Asshole.”
“You asked for it. And I think Rule Sixteen is what we should take to heart here.”
George furrowed his brows, obviously in an attempt to recall it. “If someone thinks he has the upper hand, break it?”
Impressed, Andi nodded. “Castain and Harris think they have the upper hand, that they’re smarter than us.”
George mulled this over. “We were thinking about looking into Detective Harris. Perhaps now’s the time to dig a little.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Andi furrowed his brows. “I don’t want to alert him in case he tries to cover his tracks, so let’s start with his past and only touch his cases once we have solid leads.”
“You don’t seem to doubt that we’ll find something.”
