Page 53 of Fighting for Brielle
“I need you and Luca to work together on the Anderson angle. River, you’ll be keeping a close eye on Carson now that he’s been assigned your partner. Chat him up. See if you can get him talking. Dooley, I want you to hit the military surplus stores in the area. Show Carson’s picture. In the meantime, I’ll find out if he has a military service record. And, um, my girlfriend Sergeant Brielle McAdams with the LAPD and I will be checking things out on Mayor Gage’s yacht on Saturday while we attend his wife’s birthday party.”
Dooley’s eyes grew wide a moment, and he muttered under his breath, “Fuck me.”
Justice heard him and hid a small smile. Dooley would be lucky tomorrow morning if Brielle didn’t kick his ass!
“Okay, team, you know what you have to do. Tawny is my eyes and ears, and my second-in-command. You need anything go through her. She runs this place, anyway.” He tossed a grin at her. “One more thing. We’re working on a cold case. The murder of Dooley’s sister, Hayden. We’re gonna get this guy, dead or alive. Luca, that’s a top priority for you. Understood?”
Luca glanced at Dooley’s red face. “Understood, Chief. I’ll pull the case files right away.”
Chairs scraped against the tiled floor as they rose to their feet.
“It goes without saying that complete confidentiality is required. What is shared and discussed in this roomstaysin this room.”
“Copy that, Chief,” they repeated one after the other.
Alone in the conference room, Justice sent Brielle a text giving her the heads up about Dooley training with her.
She sent back a perplexed emoji.
Brielle: If that’s what you want. By the way, got word today my final eval is next Monday. I’ve got one week to prove myself.
Justice: Don’t worry. I’ve got you. You’ll be ready. See you later.
Thinking about contacting the ME’s office to find out when the bodies of the Dewitts and the Swifts would be released, the last person on his mind this morning was the mayor, but he found him pacing outside his office.
“Mr. Mayor,” Justice acknowledged him with a slight nod of his head and closed the door behind him. “Care to sit?”
“No, I don’t care to sit!” Gage fumed. “Do you know how much backlash I’ve faced since your screw-up on Saturday? You’ve got plenty to explain, Chief McQuaid!”
“I don’t give a damn about your issues with the media or your public image, if that’s what you’re griping about. My concern is for the families of two dead teenagers and a ten-year-old little girl who will never get over what her brother did. And, furthermore, I’d like to know how I or this department screwed up. As far as I’m concerned, every officer who worked those crime scenes followed procedure. We took Arnold Dewitt down. Will we ever know why he snapped? Depends on the ME’s report and eyewitness statements which we’re still sifting through.
“Later today I’ll be visiting Theo’s and Pedro’s parents. Concerned about your image, Mr. Mayor? Why don’t you come with me? It’ll be a perfect photo op.”
Fury poured off Mayor Gage in waves. Their eyes clashed in a battle of iron wills. Justice had no intention of backing down. In fact, it took every ounce of his self-control not to demand information from Gage about the movement of arms on Laguna Beach. He stood firm with his powerful arms crossed over his chest, daring the mayor to further criticize him and the department. His body language and the hardness of his eyes must have convinced Gage he didn’t hold any sway over Justice because the mayor physically backed away from him.
“I’m sorry, Chief McQuaid. What happened shocked me. Shocked the community.”
Justice wondered if the mayor truly realized he’d gone too far or if he was just playing a game with him. “If you’re truly shocked, Mr. Mayor, then do something about it. Go talk to the community. Spend some time on the beach. Eat lunch at Pop’s Diner. Do something other than giving me a hard time about it.” He made a point of glancing at his watch. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have phone calls to make. To the morgue, for one.”
Without another word Mayor Gage left the office.
Justice spent twenty minutes getting an update from the ME on the progress of the autopsies. Satisfied with the information he’d been given, he called Tex to ask him to check into Carson.
“McQuaid, hi. How’s it going?”
“A lot better than when you saw me two months ago.”
“Glad to hear it. So…you and Brielle McAdams, huh?”
Justice grinned. “Yeah. She’s quite a woman.”
“Uh-huh. I could be wrong, McQuaid, but I don’t think you called me just to shoot the breeze. What’s up?”
“Something that Brielle and I are looking into. Will you run the name Nash Carson through your system and tell me whether or not he’s ever been in the military?”
“Sure. Hold on.”
Justice heard Tex typing furiously on his keyboard and a couple of minutes later he said, “Nah. No record of anyone by that name being in any branch of the service. And by the way, your guy is nearly a ghost. He doesn’t have much of a digital footprint.”
