“Perhaps it would be a good idea to take pictures of the pages and send them to Shireen? Before Agent DeCapristo gets her hands on it?”
Andi grinned. “I love how your mind works, partner.”
Talking to the agent and the chief was about as fun as getting a root canal. Andi knew on an intellectual level that his preconceived mindset didn’t help. He also knew it was more than justified and backed by experience. After the disastrous start to their working relationship, George did his best to maintain at least the illusion of peace, though DeCapristo and Savalle didn’t make it easy for him.
“You’re telling us these cases are somehow linked, but you have no tangible proof for it. Just your ‘gut instinct’.” Chief Savalle sounded so condescending, it made Andi’s tongue itch to tell him exactly what was on his mind. Only years of keeping his geschenk a secret kept him from lashing out.
“Chief, as you obviously haven’t the clearance to know any details about how we work, you have to accept the term ‘gut instinct,’” George had no problem whatsoever to infuse the two words with as much sarcasm as he had in his reservoirs, which started a nervous tick in Savalle’s left lid, “as a substitute for the things you are not entitled to know.”
Savalle threw DeCapristo a scalding look, but for once she didn’t attack. Instead, she shrugged. “This is probably the only time we can both agree on something. It’s hogwash. But as my boss has explained to me so eloquently, these two are the best we’re going to get, so I’m afraid we have to suck it up.” She stared at Andi and George with an expression of pure contempt.
“I’m almost sure your boss chose different words,” George protested mildly. Despite the tension in the air, he was enjoying this drama to some extent. It was what his mother had raised him for, and his man thrived in the face of adversity. Which was, no doubt, one of the reasons he hadn’t been deterred by Andi when their partnership had started. Giving up was not part of George Donovan’s vocabulary, nor was it in his DNA.
“Could be, but so far I haven’t seen anything to prove those words true.” DeCapristo was as vicious as an ant colony whose nest had been disturbed.
“The agent is right. All you have is a vague idea that these murders are connected. I hope you have some solid leads to follow?” Apparently, the old saying about the enemy of one’s enemy was true. Savalle leaned back in his chair, his fingers drumming a rhythm on his desk.
“We do have some leads. As for their solidity, we can’t say anything yet. We’re still waiting for some additional information from our IT specialist.”
“Who, I don’t know. Why couldn’t you use our IT specialist or one from the FBI? Those surely beat somebody working for a precinct?” Savalle asked.
George shrugged. “What makes you think we’re working with somebody from the police?” They did, but Shireen was better than any hacker from the FBI. Andi knew this because she had hacked the FBI more than once and had always gone undetected. The question was simply meant to throw Savalle and DeCapristo off. The chief huffed.
“Fine. So, you’re working with somebody highly qualified. Do you have anything else for us?”
George put the folder with the stolen items on the chief’s desk. “This is a list of everything Suzie Monahan stole at Paradise Home for the Elderly. We already have Officer Kaustrowitz going over it to see if anything stands out.”
Savalle grabbed the folder before DeCapristo could reach it and leafed through it. “It’s mostly knick-knacks. Worthless.”
“In a monetary sense, yes. We don’t know yet if somebody may have placed a more imaginary value on one of these things.”
DeCapristo snatched the folder from Savalle. “I’ll have a look at this as well. To make sure you don’t miss anything.” The implied insult was so childish, George didn’t acknowledge it.
“You do that. It’s always good to have as many eyes on evidence as possible. If you’d excuse us? We have some phone calls to make.”
George didn’t wait for either Savalle or DeCapristo to say anything. He turned and followed Andi out of the chief’s office. “Let’s get back to the hotel. We need to talk to Shireen.”
Andi was very much on board with this suggestion and led the way to George’s Escalade in the parking lot of the precinct.
Back in their hotel room, they got rid of their shoes, made themselves comfortable on the bed and called Shireen.
She accepted the call on the fourth ring, meaning she’d been doing something but didn’t mind being interrupted. “Hello! Just the men I’ve been meaning to call. I assume it’s both of you, George?”
“Yes. And hello, Shireen.”
Andi added his own hello then snuggled into George’s side to hear what Shireen had to say.
“I’ve finally managed to get my hands on the closed files of Judge Dunhill and Trevor Asten. I know it’s not nice to speak ill of the dead, but these two deserved every single hornet sting they got, and I hope they burn in hell forever.”
“I take it they were even worse human beings than we thought?” George started stroking Andi’s cheeks with a feathery touch.
“Oh, much worse. They were the most obnoxious teenagers you can imagine. They did everything from shoplifting to harassing women to shooting pets for fun. When they were seventeen, they beat a Black man so badly, he lost the use of his left hand. And they never ever had to face the consequences for their actions because their daddies made it all go away.” Shireen snorted. The judge and his buddy were the kind of people she hated with a passion. “Eventually, the files were sealed after they turned twenty-one, even though they didn’t contain a lot of information to begin with. Like the names of their victims. All blacked out. By then, they had found other ways to live out their sick proclivities, or so I assume, because I couldn’t find anything about them on the wrong side of the law after their birthdays. It’s of course also possible that the judge had it all erased and not just swept under the carpet once he was in a position with enough power to do so. Their juvenile files were so well hidden to begin with, it’s entirely possible the person doing the erasing simply didn’t find them. If the whole thing weren’t so disgusting and depressing, I’d say it was lucky for us.”
“It was lucky for us, and the judge and his buddy have paid for their sins, at least a little bit.” George was usually very firm on the entire concept of due process and innocent until proven guilty, only there was no doubt about the guilt of these two men. There was also no doubt that they’d gotten away with their crimes until the hornets had spoken their verdict. Andi could see a certain poetic justice in it. Dying of anaphylactic shock or choking due to swollen airways or drowning weren’t the easiest ways to leave this planet.
“It’s all we’re going to get, so I’m taking it.” Shireen sounded determined. “I’m sending you the digitalized copies of the files. Be prepared to puke. There are also some pictures, though not the best quality. I’ll keep on digging. Perhaps I can find out more about their victims. It’s a pity that digitalization didn’t exist back then. But I’m going to send the photos through every accessible database, and maybe a friend of mine is able to find out the names of the victims.”
“Is that even possible after all these years? I could imagine the paper and ink aren’t in the best of shape anymore.” George looked skeptical.
