Page 61 of Overstaying His Welcome

Pratt stormed out of our boss's office when I approached. I’d had to end my call with Archie from the NightShade offices since the pair was yelling loud enough to draw attention.

That wasn’t the sort of thing we did here.

Calm and collected were the best way to be heard.

Too bad Pratt didn’t understand that.

I let the asshole go cool off as I knocked on our boss’s door. Director Luther was a decade older than me, though you wouldn’t know it. Aside from the bits of gray in his beard, the man looked to be in his late thirties. It often made people think they could take him on due to a lack of experience.

“Sir?” I said as I waited to be let in.

He waved to show me I could step inside. “Get the door.”

Closing it behind me, I took a spot in one of the empty chairs across from him. He watched me as if he were waiting for me to blow up too.

I raised my hands. “You won’t hear me complaining about this. I came to check on you. Pratt can be a lot to handle.”

“That he can,” Luther admitted. “He’d come so highly recommended before this. I feel like the man we got isn’t at all who they told us about.”

My brow dipped at his words. It was definitely odd for anyone to suggest he come to our division if he wasn’t a good fit. Everyone knew everyone’s business in the bureau. It made transfers easier, and also, when promotions came open, we liked to keep it in the family, if you catch my drift.

But a transfer with this much out of whack didn’t sit right.

“Did he tell you why he was complaining so much? He wouldn’t give me a reason other than to say it was ‘utter bullshit’ we have to take on a case this old.”

“Idiot doesn’t understand that the cases aren’t old. They cover more than two decades, some of which are rather recent. There’s more to this than we’ve uncovered. I just know it.”

Part of the reason Luther was in the position he had was because he had the ability to solve cases like no one else. His ability to read between the lines or pick up when something was amiss was almost always right. The guy had an error rate of like .05% from what I recall.

I wasn’t one to argue with those kinds of numbers.

“Even if he doesn’t want to work on it, I’ll take a look.”

An alert went off on his computer. He turned to read it, which made me believe it was rather urgent. Then again, as the director, he had an important duty to keep up with everyone and everything. I did not envy the man.

“Detective Pratt just requested emergency leave starting immediately. He’ll be gone for three days,” he read aloud.

“Hopefully the emergency isn’t too bad. I know he only has his father left, so heaven forbid something has happened.”

Luter nodded absently at my words. I could tell he was only half listening.

I rose from my chair, which had the effect of stealing his attention. “I’m going to head back to my desk now if you don’t need anything else. I want to go over those case files.”

He opened his mouth to speak, only to have his phone ring. With a wave of his hand, he told me I could leave. I barely made it out a few steps when he yelled for me to come back.

When I stepped inside his office this time, there was a look of anguish on his face.

“What happened?” I asked him.

“That set of cases I told you to look over? Well, we’ve got a set of bodies who were hurt in the same manner. It’s definitely looking like a serial killer.”

My mind reeled with the new information. What kind of luck was that for us to pull out these files without realizing another case would come our way?

Though luck was a terrible way to think of it. Two people were dead. It wasn’t lucky at all.

“What do we know so far? Do I need to head out to the scene?”

He nodded as he wrote down the information. “I’m going to forward you what I have. You need to go to this address. Thevictims are Chelsea and Brock Lind. An elderly couple living in a small town. They don’t appear the type to have any enemies, but you’d think they did by the way this went down.”

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