Page 53 of Aftermath
“It’s a cold case, so why bother?” Sheriff Graham said.
“Doesn’t matter. The FBI needs a completed case file,” he said, his voice steady with patience.
The sheriff’s eyes flicked over to me. “Why is she here?” he asked, and I heard the disapproving tone.
I opened my mouth to answer but fell short of words.
“She,“ Beck started firmly, “is here as a supervisory agent. I expect you to treat her with the same respect.” Beck leaned forward, his elbows on the table. Graham stood over us, trying to maintain some semblance of authority and power over us. I tried to keep my face neutral, his eyes bearing into me.
“Is something wrong?” Beck asked, raising a brow.
At this point, he was just pushing him to see how far he’d allow. I felt myself turning into pure heat, a mix of frustration and embarrassment filling me. I wanted as little attention as possible, and now, Beck made that impossible. No one had recognized me, but that didn’t mean I was safe yet.
“My apologies,” he muttered. “What do you need? I can grab whatever it is so you can be on your way.”
I finally let myself breathe.
“What can you tell us about the case? You’re the one who was in charge, correct?” Beck asked.
“I can tell you the case is a waste of time. There’s no reason to waste more time and research looking for a killer who completely vanished,” he grumbled.
My frustration and embarrassment slowly melted into anger. This was the person in charge of protecting our town, and he was treating this case like it was nothing. If he wouldn’t find justice for the victims, who would?
“I disagree,” Beck stated, and I turned to listen. “There’s still a serial killer out there. They’re worth catching.”
“You can keep wasting tax payor dollars,” the sheriff groaned. “But this is my department, and I won’t help. You can have whatever records you want to look at, that’s all.”
“Fine. We will take the final case file your station has,” Beck said. “And then we will be on our way.”
That was it?We’d gone through all this just to access a few records the FBI likely already had?
“I’ll grab you the file,” the sheriff said and turned away.
“And pull any files on other crimes that took place at the pub,” I cut in before the sheriff could go.
“Excuse me?” he said, turning back.
I took a deep breath,pushing my shoulders back as I raised my chin. “If you missed the connection about the pub. I want to be sure we didn’t miss anything else,” I said as evenly as I could.
I watched the small movement from his nose and knew I’d struck a chord.
“Do you know how many calls we get from that place? Every little bar fight or unpaid tab,” he hissed.
I shrugged. “I still would like to look at them all. Pull anything from the time the Coastal Killer was actively killing,” I said. “Actually, make that a few months prior to the killing starting.”
I gave him a sickly sweet smile, and the sheriff looked to Beck, but he refused to give him the satisfaction of undermining me.
“Fine; it’s going to be a bit,” he muttered and left the room.
As he walked out, I noticed the slight limp he had as he walked.I folded my arms and sat back, glaring at Beck.
“What?” he asked, raising his brows.
“Supervisory Agent?” I asked.
“I wasn’t going to let him treat you like that,” he muttered.
“I didn’t want any attention on me,” I pointed out.
