Page 15 of Fallout

Twenty minutes later, she entered the office door from the same floor, not that back stairwell. He’d circled the room twice and made some observations.

“What have we got?” She hung back by the door, leaning against the doorjamb. The hall behind her was filled with partygoers, and the uniformed officers were doing a good job keeping them back and out of this room. Sooner or later, he was going to have to talk to his uncle about all this, but that would come after they’d gone over the scene.

“You good?”

Detective Jesse said, “CI of mine didn’t check in. I’m sure she’s fine, though.”

“The damage makes it look like someone was trying to make a statement.” But it still didn’t seem right. “They weren’t looking for something. This is just chaos and randomness.”

She glanced around. “Was it preplanned or just a crime of opportunity?”

Destiny had practically led him to it, so he was more concerned aboutwhoseplan it had been. “That’s what I’m worried about.”

“How did you stumble across it?”

He explained how he’d followed Destiny from the ballroom, mostly trying not to sound like a stalker.

“Detective Reed’s sister? The one that got kidnapped in Africa?”

“Now she’s the executive assistant to the CEO of Vanguard.”

“I guess she found out something through all that, and they gave her a sweet gig to compensate for keeping her mouth shut.”

Considering Destiny had mentioned an NDA, Jesse might not be too far off the truth. But he still didn’t like that.

“What we need to know,” Jasper said, “is how it relates to this incident.”

“True.”

“And the paper conveniently left for us to find on the desk.”

“You’ve been holding back the punch line?”

Jasper grinned. At the desk, he scanned the transactions on the paper. “This indicates the company paid a large sum of money, in the hundreds of thousands range, to a shell corporation we know is fake and connected to this kingpin we’re trying to ID.”

“So, this guy that took out a hit on the whole department, who has been killing dealers and absorbing their territory, is also leaning on corporations in Benson for protection money?”

That was certainly an option. “We should go to speak to Rammington.”

His uncle needed to answer uncomfortable questions about what his company was into.

Jasper walked to the door and then to the cordoned off area down the hall where the officers held people back. Everyone wanted to get a look at the scene of the crime.

Jasper just wanted to see Destiny. Even if there was a niggle at the back of his mind as to what she had gotten involved in tonight. He spotted his father. “I need to speak to Brent. Can you find him?”

His dad nodded.

Jasper turned back to the office.

Detective Jesse said, “You’re different than I expected, you know.”

“Good or bad different?”

“Case in point.” Samantha shrugged. “I’d have pegged you for a people pleaser.”

“I figure they’ll make up their minds regardless. What’s the point in trying to please everyone?”

“I don’t know if that’s sad or wise.” She continued moving around the room, looking over the scene.

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