Page 27 of Missing Justice
And there was no way Taylor was backing down. He wanted to up the stakes and try to make her look bad? Tough shit. She lived to put bad guys away. All he’d done was make her more determined than ever to bring him to justice.
In order to do that quickly and quietly, Taylor was going to need some major resources, and by the looks on the faces of the two people who could give her those, she was shit out of luck.
The only card she had up her sleeve was a certain PI who could play outside the lines and also just happened to be in good graces with Senator Jarvis.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Taylor said to Cunningham. “I thought the senator was going to play nice, but obviously, he’s not. I’ll—”
“Shut up, Sinclair.” Cunningham rose from the chair and toyed with the remote for a moment before he set his sharp, unforgiving gaze on her. “You have embarrassed the Bureau and royally fucked this up after a day. One fucking day.”
What? How was thisherfault? She’d tried to interview the senator and he’d lawyered up, then blew her off to play victim to the press.
She started to respond and Meredith shut her down. “I put you in charge of this because I knew you could handle it, Taylor. Was I wrong?”
Having Cunningham jump on her was one thing. But Mer? The woman had been present at the Jarvis house and seen what had gone down. She’d always had confidence in Taylor’s abilities.
Don’t argue. Not now.Meredith was trying to save face in front of her boss. Later, they could have a heart to heart.
She’ll throw you under the bus if it serves her purpose or the Bureau’s,Grey had said. Taylor hoped he was wrong, but at the moment, she could feel the wheels of the bus bearing down on her.
“You were not wrong to put me in charge,” she assured both of them. “Iwillhandle this. The Bureau is going to receive plenty of good press, I promise, when I solve this case, just like the last three my team has closed in the past month.” She couldn’t help throwing out a reminder of why she was in charge of the cold case unit.
“I don’t give a shit about what you’ve done up ’til now,” Cunningham said. “I want the Jarvis case closed immediately and I better not hear or see one more negative press report, courtesy of the senator, am I clear?”
Plastering on a confident smile, Taylor looked her boss’s boss in the eye. “Crystal, sir. I’m on it. I promise you, I’ll figure this out. Whatever it takes.”
Whatever it takestranslated to asking Matt for help.
“You have 72 hours, Sinclair.” The AD was no longer looking at her. He played with the remote, switching news channels. “Seventy-two hours. If you haven’t cleared this case off my desk by then, I’ll hand it over to Leo. Him, I can count on.”
Ouch. Hustling out of the office before the lynch mob strung her up by her designer heels, Taylor went to work on damage control, dialing Matt as she hit the elevator. The red satin bra and panty set she had picked out that morning might get some action yet before the day was over.
“Hello, beautiful,” Matt answered. “Honest to God, I was about to call you. And before you take my head off, I didn’t know Walt was doing the press conference.”
The elevator dinged and Taylor stepped inside. “I need to see you. Now.”
“What’s up?”
She punched the button for her floor and rubbed her forehead where a headache poked at her. “I don’t want to get into it over the phone. Can I meet you at the food truck in fifteen?”
“No can do. I’m tied up until after six tonight. How about dinner?”
Shit. She couldn’t wait that long. “Matt, I’m serious. I need to see you now. It’s important.”
“Listen, sweet cheeks, there is nothing more I’d like to do than meet you for—eh-hem—lunch, but I’m on a case for the sisters. I’m also helping out a friend with another investigation. As soon as I’m done with this, I’ll come by your place and take you anywhere you want to go. Or we can stay in. I’ll bring the food to you.”
Taylor kicked off the shoes and rolled her toes, sighing with relief, but also with annoyance. “Fine. Tonight. I’ll see you then and bring Thai.”
“You got it.”
Thirty minutes later, Taylor and Beckett scanned the scene past the yellow crime tape at the scrapyard. Four CSIs were working a gridded area, while their leader, Cora, shook her head at Taylor’s question. “No bones small enough to be an unborn child’s, but we’ve recovered over 200 of the mother, so she’s nearly intact.”
All of Felicity. None of her baby.Yet. “Thanks, Cora, keep me posted. The wolves have their teeth around my neck, so I’d appreciate any info you can get me as soon as possible, especially in regards to that baby.”
The CSI leader nodded and walked away. “You’ll be my first call if we find any bones.”
Beck eyed Taylor. “You’ve got that look, boss.”
Taylor’s fingers tingled with the adrenaline of a fresh angle on an old case. “No bones for the baby.”
