“Cap!” I barked as my head whipped up.
He slammed the door open. “What?”
“You need to see this,” I said as I held out my phone to him.
He just gave me a shrug and a look before he came over and took my phone back from me. And when his eyes widened, I knew that I had the proper reaction.
“What the fuck? Was this in response to what you sent?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I literally sent off my response seconds before this rolled through. This is new.”
His eyes dropped back down to the email, his gaze scanning it once. Twice. Three, and even four times. He ran his hand through his hair as he dumped the phone back into my hand.
“Jesus fuck, what have we gotten into?” he grumbled as he slid his hands down his face. “I thought the last email said?—?”
I went back to the other email and just read the part out loud. “You and your crew have done your country a service, like most of you already have. We will begin the process of opening the proper channels and starting the proper files so that we can come take a look at things.”
Cap dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. “And what does the latest email say?”
I cleared my throat and read the first sentence. “On the back of what I said in our last email, until we can get the necessary files open and have a team assigned to your case, I am deputizing your crew.”
“Oh God,” Cap groaned.
I continued. “You have helped so far, so if you wish to continue helping, you have the full force of the DOJ behind you. Keep investigating, keep me up to date, and keep any kind of log you can.”
“Oh my God,” Cap hissed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
I continued with the email. “And until such time as you hear from me again, keep it above board and legal. Anything you gather, we want to be able to utilize in a court of law. You’ll hear from me again once a team has been deputized and is on their way. And until the meantime, this email serves as the deputizing of your crew. Good work, gentlemen. You should be proud.”
“Oh, gag me,” Cap grumbled as he turned away from me.
I slid my phone into my pocket. “Isn’t this a good thing, Cap?”
He sighed heavily and braced his hands on top of his head, linking his fingers together. “Yeah, it is.”
“You don’t seem happy about it.”
“I’m not.”
I tilted my head. “Why, Boss?”
“Just tired of doing this to the girls,” he groaned as he cupped his hands over his face. “Tired of keeping them cooped up. Tired of keeping them away from their lives. Jasmine already lost her job over this. Ariel’s isn’t looking too hot, since the school year is about to begin and she’s still not back at work.”
But then, just like I knew it would eventually, Cap’s brain kicked in. He turned back around to face me, his hands sliding from his face. “In the email, what was that line?”
“Which one?”
He squinted his eyes as he gazed off at the wall. “The one about above board and legal?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, they just need us operating by the book so that whatever we gather, they can use.”
He grinned at me. “You know what that means?”
I blinked. “That we’re officially an extension of the DOJ right now?”
He chuckled and placed his hands on both of my shoulders. “It means we get to fill the police departments in on what’s going on. Every single one that has been touched and governs the state park. How many police precincts reside over the state park?”
“I’m sure Ranger can figure it out.”
