Before Had finished his list of dating prerequisite questions, they had arrived at the Police Headquarters on the corner of 8th Street and the frontage road for the 5 freeway. As frenetic as the ride getting there had been, Reggie was shocked to find that Nadira’s stop was gentle to the point of being unnoticeable. No abrupt, whiplash-causing stop. Just a slow glide to the side of the curb.
“Thank you for flying with the Austin Cab Company,” she said, turning around in her seat. “Please remove all bags from the overhead bins and enjoy your stay at the Austin Police Department, home of the local campaign against aggressive drivers.”
From what Reggie had just experienced, the campaign didn’t look to be all that successful. She glanced up at the strange, angular building and noticed a huge banner draped over the wall nearest them. It read TACT—Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks. She suppressed a laugh.
“Hey, can you pick us up later for lunch?” Had asked as they climbed out. Reggie tried to catch his attention to wave him off, but the young officer was oblivious.
“Sure thing. Just give me a call.” Another blindingly white smile and Nadira screeched off. A moment later, Reggie watched as a police cruiser left the parking lot and appeared to follow in her direction, its lights flashing. Maybe taking another cab ride with the fearless young woman wouldn’t be in the cards after all.
As they walked along the curb toward the entrance to the building, Reggie saw a bumper sticker that had been slapped across a street sign that listed hours for parking. The sticker read, Keep Austin Weird.
From what she could tell, in that area, at least, they were doing a pretty good job.
CHAPTER 3
Joshua moved through the hallways of the Austin Police Department Headquarters, Bella navigating along beside him. He kept her service dog vest on most of the time these days, at least when they were out on a case. It was just easier that way.
It was shocking to him how many people had issues with dogs. Joshua didn’t get it. With the occasional exception, and he admitted they were out there, dogs were so much kinder than their human counterparts. When you heard stories of dogs going all bat-shit crazy, it almost always could be tracked back to the owners.
So rather than deal with all the looks and the “you can’t have your dog in here” conversations in low tones, he would just point to the vest. Up to this point, only one person had asked for his paperwork, and Coop had jumped in with her badge like she was some kind of attack animal.
For whatever reason, once that vest was on, people either didn’t see her any longer, or they fell in love with her from the get-go. Now the problem was having people wanting to pet her all the time. Didn’t they know you’re not supposed to touch service animals? C’mon, people.
The real issue at this point was that now Bella got all weird when they went back to Quantico and he could take her vest off. She’d mope for days, scratching at the vest and whining. Strange dog. A smile came to his face at the thought.
He made the sign for I love you. It was one she’d seen many times before. Bella responded by making a sound back in her throat that was in between a sigh and a growl, an indicator that she was happy. The familiar noise settled into Joshua’s psyche and spread a warm glow. As far as he could tell, it was that and that alone that was keeping him sober.
“Hey, Joshua,” Reggie said. “I didn’t know you knew sign language.”
He chuckled. “That’s about the only sign I know. That and this.” Making the sign for sex with his two hands bumping into one another, he threw Reggie a lopsided grin.
She answered back with a leer of her own. That was one of the things Joshua liked about Reggie. His abrasive nature didn’t seem to faze her. If anything, she appeared to enjoy it.
They were making their way back to the detectives who had worked on the bombing case, after having a helpful receptionist point them in the right direction. Coop had called ahead to make sure the detectives were going to be there.
Joshua wasn’t convinced that they were in the right place. Yes, that note back in Pittsburgh had come from Humpty. Of that he had little doubt. But the whole bombing angle just didn’t feel right. Humpty didn’t want the world to burn. He just wanted to kill people and cut them into little pieces.
Well, that, and then ruining the lives of whoever happened to be on his tail and taunting them about it for the rest of their existence. That, too.
Humpty was one mean old son of a bitch.
They rounded a corner that led back to the detectives’ desks, and Coop, who was leading the group, stopped dead in her tracks. There, sitting in the lone chair in front of the detectives’ workstations, was Agent Salazar, with a shit-eating grin plastered all over his face.
“Hey, there, Agent Cooper. Surprised to see me?”
“Ah… No, I’m not,” she answered, clearly nonplussed.
“Well, I was surprised to see you. Especially since you didn’t reach out to me when you got here. You know, like agents are supposed to do when they’re working together and stuff?”
Joshua glanced over at the detectives, who were avoiding eye contact with anyone in their group. One of the agents, a young-looking Latina, was studying a file, and her partner, an older and somewhat grizzled African American, was picking at his nails. This was more than a little bit awkward.
“Can we take this conversation somewhere else?” Joshua asked, breaking the tense glare that had developed between Coop and Salazar.
This was not the first experience with Salazar that Joshua was having. When he’d first came on to the team, still drunk and stinking of homelessness, Coop had brought him in to Quantico. There, Salazar had ridiculed him in front of the entire office of agents. The only reason that Joshua had seen for the man’s behavior was the fact that he was associated with Agent Cooper.
No matter the actual size of the dark and over-suave agent, Salazar was a small man. Small and threatened by Agent Cooper’s competence and intelligence. Joshua peeked over at Coop. Well, at least she was still intelligent.
“Sure,” drawled Salazar, turning his reptilian gaze on Joshua. “Wouldn’t want to bother the natives, now, would we?” He pushed himself out of his chair. “Oh, and Joshua… you don’t clean up so good, man.”
Typical. The man was so focused on his perceived rivalry with Coop, and by extension Joshua, that he didn’t care about offending the local police force. And they were offended. Joshua could tell from the flaring of the woman’s nostrils and the set expression on the Black man’s face. Salazar was going to become persona non grata here soon, if he wasn’t careful.
The thought made Joshua smile to himself. Arrogant ass.
Back out in the hallway, all the smoothness of Salazar’s tone turned to acid.
“You do not come in here and try to take away my case,” he hissed at Coop, his face inches away from hers. To her credit, Agent Cooper didn’t back up, nor did she seem to even respond to his overt hostility. Her gaze was as steady as her voice as she responded without rancor.
“That was not my intent, Agent Salazar. I apologize for not contacting you when we arrived. My mistake.”
Salazar was now stuck. He had overextended himself, creating conflict where Coop was seeking to allay it. On some level he must have realized how ridiculous he appeared, as he backed away a couple of steps and put his smile back on, where it fit like some hundred-dollar polyester suit.
“Whatever. Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Joshua was proud of how Coop had handled the confrontation. She seemed to have taken in his earlier advice about how little Salazar mattered. He barked because his bite was made small by his lack of vision and creativity, and he could recognize in Coop someone who could devour major cases and still be hungry for more. She intimidated him, and the only recourse he could think of was to snipe.
Joshua’s pride lasted all of thirty seconds. In that thirty seconds, it became clear that Agent Cooper was not taking the lead. Bella barked, once, the sound loud in the
narrow hallway. The dog looked from Coop to Joshua and then back to Coop. They all sat there in the hallway, staring at one another, until Salazar finally broke.
“So, what’s the deal? What do you want? Why are you here?”
Still Coop didn’t speak.
Joshua felt a heat rising up his neck, building as it moved until it felt like the top of his head was on fire. She was doing this on purpose. Calling his bluff.
Making him lead.
Problem was, he knew he would break first. Because at the end of the day, he cared less about anything else than catching Humpty. Well, less than anything but Bella.
So, after another tense beat or two or three, Joshua stepped in, thinking murderous thoughts. He wondered if Coop was aware of just how much he wanted to strangle her right now. Bella nudged at his leg, picking up on the vibe, more likely than not. He took a deep breath before he answered.
“We are here at the request of Special-Agent-in-Charge Tanner,” Joshua answered.
“Duh. You think he didn’t call to give me a heads up?” Salazar sneered. “What I’m asking is why you’re here. You’re the Humpty freaks. Aren’t you supposed to be out chasing ghosts or something?”
“Hey, I hear you,” Joshua said, turning on the charm. “You don’t think Humpty’s still out there? Me neither.” Out of the corner of his eyes, Joshua watched as his teammates mouths gaped open all at once. He had a pretty good idea of what they might be thinking.
“You think Humpty’s gone?” Salazar said, rocked back on his heels. “Then why the hell…?” he asked, his voice trailing off.
“Am I with the FBI again?” Joshua finished his question. “Seriously? Think about it, man. Did you not see me when I first came in? I hadn’t showered in a week.”
“Yeah, I remember,” he said, his nose wrinkling. “That hallway stunk for an hour after you left.”
“Oh, that’s generous. I’m sure it stank for days,” Joshua said, turning ever so slightly and giving his team a wink. Their gaping mouths closed and the looks on their faces changed to ones of understanding. They weren’t too obvious about it, except for maybe Had, who had to cover his mouth to hide a smile. Oh, and Bella of course, who was wagging her tail like a lunatic, her tongue hanging out of her mouth.
Salazar had no idea how badly he was being mocked.
“Well, yeah, it kinda did,” the agent agreed, chuckling a bit.
“Anyway, I’m just here for the grub and the free housing. I do what they tell me to do, go where they tell me to go.”
“Fine,” he said, glancing over at Coop, who appeared to be biting her tongue. “Just make sure she stays out of my way.”
“Oh, sure,” Joshua said. “You got it.”
Salazar grunted and walked off in the direction of the vending machines that they had passed on the way in. Once he had turned the corner, Coop turned on Joshua.
“What was that all about?”
“Hey,” Joshua shot back. “Maybe if you’d step in for once--”
Coop held up a hand. “Don’t put this on me. What did you do back there?”
“I just figured that we were going to have to work with him. That wasn’t going to happen as long as he felt threatened.” Joshua shrugged.
“But you just… rolled over,” she pressed.
“Sure. Why not? Doesn’t cost me anything, and we don’t have to worry about being undermined or fought with at every turn.”
Coop gave him a long, assessing look, then turned on her heel and headed toward the detectives’ workspace once more. Joshua watched her go for a moment, then began to follow. As he moved in her wake, he sensed Reggie at his side. She glanced at him sideways and lifted an eyebrow.
“Homeless, huh?”
Joshua just nodded in response, reaching down to pet Bella. She was his go-to distraction whenever he had something he didn’t want to deal with in the moment.
He hadn’t really talked to Reggie much about his past. She knew he was an alcoholic. She knew about his family. But he wasn’t positive she had a clear idea of what had come during the in between period.
Her scent wafted toward him as she placed a hand on his arm and let it rest there for a moment. Joshua wasn’t sure which was more intoxicating, her touch, or the dark and exciting smell of her. He felt himself tremble under her touch. It was with a touch of both sadness and relief that she moved her hand before she seemed to notice his response.
She gave him one of her dazzling smiles and spoke once more. “That’s cool. You’ll have to tell me about it sometime.” Trotting off in the direction that Coop had gone, her hair swayed from side to side as it cascaded down her back. She was a vision.
A vision who seemed to think his past homelessness wasn’t off-putting. Joshua was marking this experience down in the win column.
Definitely.
* * *
Sariah sat opposite the two detectives, who were discussing the broad strokes of the bombing case with Joshua. The young Latina was playing with Bella, scratching her ears and making the Boxador’s leg thump against her side.
Joshua had leveled a glare at Sariah that could have burned through the trunk of a redwood tree in seconds when he realized that she’d waited for him to take charge.
He didn’t understand. She was tired of fighting. Tired of having to maintain the rigidity of right on a constant basis.
She had been a cog in the well-oiled machine that was the BAU. But she was corroded, her teeth were sticking. Maybe it had always been that way, she’d just been so busy pushing she hadn’t noticed.
Her entire life, her whole career, every relationship… fighting, forcing, beating down all obstacles. When it was clear what the universe had been telling her all along.
She was unworthy of success.
Didn’t matter what area of her life, the answer was the same. The resounding and resonant voice of what others called happenstance or just bad luck had spoken. And what it had told her was that she was destined for failure.
What surprised her was how much everyone around her seemed to be resisting her acceptance of that fact. Where before, back when she thought she could earn the life she wanted, all anyone around her seemed to want was her submission.
She was giving it now, dammit, and no one seemed to be satisfied.
Joshua rifled through some of the pictures of the crime scene that had been taken and then handed them over to Sariah. She passed them along to Had without so much as glancing. At some point, they would realize. They would realize and they would stop.
The look Joshua gave her was one of partially resigned venom. Drunk Joshua would have called her out on it in front of the detectives. But sober Joshua just pursed his lips before turning back to ask a question of the younger detective.
“Was there anything else? Any weird anomalies at the scene?”
The Latina… Detective Cruz, Sariah thought her name was… lifted her attention from Bella and started to shake her head, but then stopped. She glanced over at her partner and raised an eyebrow.
“Well, I guess there was one thing… but…” she licked her lips and shook her head. “It’s stupid.”
Joshua seemed to perk up at that. “No, please, tell us anything that might be out of place.”
“Hold on a sec. It was in here somewhere.” Detective Cruz rummaged through the file, looking for something. Sariah watched the interaction between the detectives and Joshua, noting again how good he was at what he did.
Did he not see that he was at his best when she was stepping back? It was so clear to her. He was better at this. So much better.
He knew Humpty, knew how the killer operated, knew how to track him, how to identify what was truly the killer’s and what wasn’t. If Sariah had listened to him last time, a good man wouldn’t have died.
The detective pulled a photo out of the file and passed it to Joshua. It was a picture of a note, folded up.
“We did find this there. It looked like a note one kid might pass to another during school
, but it was typewritten. That was a little strange.”
The older man, Detective Franklin, grunted. “It was just a goofy note. Nothing there to worry about.”
Cruz wrinkled up her brow at the comment. From what Sariah could see, it looked like the younger detective might have brought this up before and been shot down by the more experienced man.
Sariah knew how she felt. Seeing the set of Cruz’s jaw, Sariah wanted to tell her to just stop fighting now. It wasn’t worth the pain and effort she was putting in to it. At some point, Cruz would just break, same as any other female cop. Same as Sariah.
Bella moved over from where she’d been sitting at the detective’s side and placed her muzzle in Sariah’s lap. She pushed the dog away firmly. Why did everyone around her feel like they had to get close to her right now?
Joshua scrutinized the photo, leaning in so close at one point his nose almost touched the picture. Glancing up at the detectives, he pointed at the image in his hand.
“I can’t read it. Where’s the close-up of the content?”
Franklin shrugged. “I don’t think they took one.”
“They didn’t take a picture of what the note said?” Joshua demanded, his tone offended.
It was a breach of crime scene investigation protocol, and Sariah knew how important detail work was to the former agent. It was the detail work that had gotten him close to catching Humpty. Which had gotten his family killed. In retrospect, maybe not such a good idea. One more reason why caring wasn’t worth it.
“Hey, look,” the older detective pushed back. “It was just a stupid note passed at school. It wasn’t something that was worth stressing about.”
“Where is the actual note?”
“Down at the Crime Lab, along with most of the other evidence we collected,” Franklin said, waving a hand. “Go take a look if you think it’s worth it.”
“Do you remember what it said?” Joshua asked Cruz.
“Something about meeting over by the wood chipper.”
Joshua froze. “What did you say?”
Nursery Rhyme Murders Collection_3-4-2017 Page 43