Page 25 of Missing Justice
At least Matt had redeemable qualities.
Yeah, like using me for my body instead of my mind.
She kinda liked that about him.
Once upon a time, she’d believed the biggest competition she’d ever have would be at Quantico. She figured once she made it into the Bureau, she’d proven herself. That she deserved to be here.
The reality was completely different. As a new agent, she’d had to prove herself time and time again, and the competition for the attention of the higher-ups had been fierce. Once she’d been placed in charge of the cold case unit, she’d encountered competition from the other supervisors and team leaders, everyone vying for funding, more staff, and/or a promotion.
Cutthroat and competitive. It was similar to that Survivor show on TV that she never had time to watch.
Everyone wanted to be a star inside these walls. Leo had done a mighty fine job of that, but now she wondered how many backs of his counterparts he’d used to get to that spot.
And now he wanted a lift on her rising star.
Screw that.
Taylor ignored the groan from her feet as she stood, grabbing her stack of files. “Have Janiece call the senator’s office and see why he’s been detained. We’ll have to reschedule. There are 90,000 missing people out there waiting on me to find them.”
That statistic made the green tea in her stomach turn to acid, but it was true. There were easily 200,000 cold cases in the United States and not all were unsolved homicides. Many involved missing persons, unidentified remains, and wrongfully convicted persons whose names might be cleared using new methods of analyzing evidence that had been developed after those crimes had been tried.
Not all cold cases were federal, but even one was too many in her book. At that moment, her team had 52 missing persons cases alone. Nearly half involved children. There were plenty more nonactive, unsolved cases in her file cabinets, just waiting for her team to take another look at them and find a new lead or witness.
Beckett jumped up and handed her the cup. “Maybe we should pay a visit to the senator’s office. Bring a little heat on him. I volunteer to be your muscle.”
Taylor would have loved to do exactly that. “I’m not chasing Walt Jarvis. If he thinks he can dick me around, I’ll get a subpoena and drag his ass in here one way or another. He’ll be breaking the law if he doesn’t show up and give us his interview. I’m sure that will go over well with his constituents when he can’t do his job because he’s in a jail cell for impeding a federal investigation.”
Beckett touched his tie again and grinned. “I think you just found your balls, TayTay.”
“Donotcall me that.” The nickname was harmless, but he was forever teasing her, and part of the game was for her to act like she hated it. She didn’t. Isabel had always called her that.
Now, Taylor’s team was her family—her only one, really. They had nicknames for each other and they knew some pretty deep stuff about one another. That camaraderie was priceless, especially when working cases that sucked the life out of you. It kept them all from going insane. “Any word from the techs at the scrapyard about the bones? Have they found any that might be the baby’s?”
Beckett shook his head. “Not that I’ve heard. I’ll follow up with a call to the ERT.”
Evidence Response Team. “Cora’s in charge,” Taylor told him. “See if you can get hold of—”
“Taylor.”
The voice interrupting her came from the doorway. Taylor looked over to find Meredith standing there with a grim look on her face. “I know, Mer, the senator blew us off. I’ll have Janiece check with his assistant and—”
Meredith cut her off again. “Come with me.”
Definitely a summons. “Yes, ma’am.”
As Mer took off down the hallway, Taylor exchanged a look with Beck. She handed him her files and cup. “I really should have worn my comfortable shoes today.”
And maybe avoided that meeting with Grey and Mitch this morning.
Consternation showed in the lines on Beck’s forehead. “Maybe they found the baby’s bones.”
She liked that guess better. A sinking feeling in her stomach, she took off to follow her boss to her office.
Only, Meredith didn’t head to her office. She beelined to the elevator and was already inside when Taylor caught up to her. Mer pressed the button for the top floor and the shiny metal doors slid closed with a heavythunk.
The top floor. Where the director of the FBI played God.
“What’s up?” Taylor dared ask. She never liked being blindsided. “Is everything okay?”
