Page 99 of Five
“Hey, Oz.” Oberman detaches himself and walks towards me, the couple hot on his heels.
“Are you in charge here?” The woman demands before Stan can apprise me of the details. “Are you going to get this heap out of the way? Call yourselves a police force? You ought to be ashamed, leaving us without access to our off-street parking.”
I give her a withering look. Traffic violations are way below my pay grade, so I wouldn’t be here if it was something as simple as that.
“Officer Oberman, if you’d care to give me your report?” I turn to Stan, ignoring her completely.
“Certainly, Detective Hunt. We’ve located the stolen car you put out an APB for…”
“And it’s blocking our drive! When are you going to get it towed?” It’s the guy interrupting this time.
“I’m sorry, sir. This vehicle is a crucial piece of evidence in the case of the small child who was abducted recently. We need to treat it with care in case it can provide us with any leads.”
“I don’t care if it belongs to the damn president,” the man blusters. “Get it out of my way!”
What the actual…does this couple think the world revolves around them and owes them a favor, or what?
I glare at the middle-aged man and pull Stan away from them so I can get the details, but the pair of them still follow.
Finally, I stop and swing around so abruptly that they startle and step back. “Do you mind? This is private police business. You’ve interrupted and attempted to interfere with an important investigation twice now. If you do it again, I’ll be forced to assume that you’re trying to pervert the course of justice, and I’ll have you detained.”
“Harrumph.” The woman appears distinctly unimpressed, and marches over to the car, ready to take matters into her own hands.
She’s about to grab the door handle of the abandoned vehicle, but before she can, three firearms are aimed at her. My own, Stan’s, and the other officer on the scene.
“Freeze!” I shout, breathing a sigh of relief when she automatically puts her hands in the air, well away from the door handle and any valuable fingerprints that might be on it.
What the fuck is wrong with people?
My opinion of the general public has never been very high when it comes to matters of crime, but these two take the prize.
The husband has hit the deck, and I wave the accompanying officer toward his wife. “Cuff her and sit her in the patrol vehicle, please.”
He nods once and hurries to comply. Surprisingly, this time there’s not a peep from the guy.
I resume my conversation with Stan, giving him the authority to get the vehicle removed after I’ve looked over it carefully.
“What about the woman?” Stan asks, glancing at his patrol car with a grimace.
“Read her the riot act. Give her an official warning, and maybe she’ll be a little more cooperative if something like this happens in the future.”
I can already see rubberneckers and curtain twitchers. I suspect the old busybody might become the recipient of her neighbor’s brand of social justice when word gets out. And it will.
Cooperation would have been so much easier all around.
I return to my own car before I ring through to forensics at the station and tell them to expect the stolen vehicle.
“We’ve got a partial update on the laptop you brought in,” the technician tells me, and I pause before starting the engine to give him my full attention. “We didn’t get any usable prints, but there were multiple attempts to hack into the owner’s personal information—social media, banking, things like that.”
I frown at that information and the implications of it. “Thanks, bud. Let me know as soon as possible if you get anything useful from the stolen vehicle. The perp was caught off guard and in a rush, so he may not have had the time or the opportunity to be so careful.”
As soon as I hang up, I log into the location app. Giving Neve space is one thing, but if her life is in danger, that puts a completely different spin on things.
Before I can open it, a text pings in from my brother.
Oliver:We’re on Stock Island. I think we might have found the building.
A string of curses leave my lips, and I gun the engine, checking the location app as I do. Swinging my car around with a screech, I open the window and shout for Stan.
