Page 9 of Girl, Reborn

‘I am, sir.’ Liberty Grove was a town inpurgatory. A country town to the bone, but some people wanted to drag it intothe 21st century and give it a suburban makeover. Liberty Grove wasa man who couldn’t decide if he wanted to retire in peace or dye his hair andgo full mid-life crisis. And that made for some big disagreements amongst theLiberty Grove faithfuls.

‘Good. And not only was Ricky a senate inthe making, but he was a buddy of mine.’ Edis retained a straight face, evendelivering the details of his so-called friend’s demise. What a lifetime in lawenforcement did to a man.

‘I’m sorry to hear that, sir,’ Luca said.

Edis waved off the sympathy. ‘We’ve alwayshad a great relationship with the councilors in Virginia, and Ricky was mynumber one.’

Ella looked up, fixing Edis with a hardstare. ‘Not to be blunt, sir, but this seems like local PD's problem. What'sour angle?’

‘Ricky wasn't just some PTA blowhard,’Edis rumbled. ‘Boy had his eye on a Senate seat and probably the White Housesomeday. Local PD alerted me this morning, and because there might be apolitical angle here, I promised them I’d send my best.’

Ella went back to the case file andflipped to the 8x10 glossy photos paperclipped to the inside cover. There hewas. Ricky Toledo. Sprawled face-down in a muddy field. Limbs akimbo, headlolling at an unnatural angle. She held them closer, looking for abrasions,bruises, bullet holes – anything that might suggest how this man died.

Nothing jumped out at her, apart from thefact that Ricky Toledo was soaked from head to toe.

Luca beat her to it. ‘What's with thewater damage?’

‘PD don’t know. Ricky was discovered in afield, nowhere near any bodies of water.’

‘Rain water?’ Luca asked.

'It's August in Virginia, too,' Edis said.He aimed for stern but it came off comical. Ella benched the few ideas thatcropped up. She wanted to hear Luca's thoughts before she penciled in anylikelihoods of how this dead man ended up soaking wet.

‘This case is political dynamite, and Ineed my A-team on it. You two up for the challenge?’

And just like that, the focus shifted. Thebait dangled, and damned if they weren't hooked like a couple of prize bass.

‘I want you two on the next flight. Hitthe ground running, start pulling threads. Rick’s got enemies, and they’ll beall too happy to shut this investigation down if it doesn't fit theirnarrative.’

‘The feds coming to the rescue, is thatthe play?’ Luca asked.

‘The play is justice, Agent Hawkins. Iwant the son of a bitch who did this squirming on a hook for all to see. I oweRick that much.’

Ella closed the file with a snap. Topbrass playing hot potato with a headline-grabbing homicide, a tale as old astime. But orders were orders, and the faster they cracked this case, the soonershe could get back to her regularly scheduled dumpster fire of a life.

She pushed to her feet, Luca rising withher like they were attached by strings. ‘We'll jump on it, sir. Anything elsewe should know before we hit the road?’

Edis pinned them both with a beady glare,his mouth puckering like he'd bitten into a lemon. ‘Yes. You two have both seenthe memo about the updates to your cells?’

Ella froze, fighting the urge to side-eyeLuca. She glanced at her email daily but usually deleted a lot of it,especially the ones with legal-sounding subject titles.

But Luca just nodded, smooth as ever. ‘Ofcourse, sir.’

‘Miss Dark?’ Edis asked.

‘Uh.’ She patted her cell phone in herpocket as though it might jolt the answer into her brain. ‘I have not.’

Edis harrumphed. 'Well, the new update toyour cells comes with GPS tracking. Your phones will now broadcast yourlocation at all times to select personnel.'

Ella's hackles rose, but she tamped downthe knee-jerk indignation. ‘GPS tracking? Why?’

'It's nothing to concern yourselves with.It's a legal measure to help us confirm your movements, so lawyers and defenseattorneys can't dismiss our evidence.'

It was no secret that the higher-ups had ahard-on for micromanaging their grunts, so she guessed GPS tracking was justthe latest leash they'd cooked up to keep their dogs in line. As if tappingtheir phones and reading their emails wasn't bad enough, now they wanted totrack their every move like wayward toddlers in a mall.

But she bit her tongue. It was probablyfor the best, all things considered.

She gave Edis a tight nod, alreadymentally cataloging which burners to swap into rotation should she need to.‘Got it loud and clear, sir.’

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