Dawn of Evil_FBI Flashback

by Morgan Kelley

  There was no way they could bring him in with that.

  “She will tell you that I couldn’t possibly be killing Mirel. At the time she was being killed, I was getting off with her.”

  Interesting.

  How did he know what time she died? Elizabeth didn’t mention it, and she didn’t think the cops did.

  Add to it that she didn’t trust prostitutes. Hookers had been known to lie.

  For enough money, they would do or say anything. She’d learned that working the streets.

  PLENTY of times.

  “And I should trust her why?”

  He closed his eyes and began crying.

  “We made a video.”

  “Of?” Max asked.

  “Her and me. It got rough. Really rough.”

  Well, this was new.

  It looked like clean-cut Professor Prince was getting his kink on and not only with the dead woman, but a hooker too.

  And it was recorded for his viewing pleasure.

  And now hers too.

  Chapter Nine

  Boston

  Police Department

  W hen they finished interviewing the sexually wayward professor, they had every intention to head back to the morgue. Unfortunately, it looked like their day was not quite over. The police commissioner wanted a meeting, and there was no way she could escape it.

  Her.

  Detective Bronson.

  And even the missing Detective O’Brien.

  Great.

  It looked like her day was about to get longer. What she wanted to do was think about the whole twist with the professor offering up a hooker as his alibi.

  Instead, she was going to be going to the police commissioner’s office to play ‘show and tell’.

  She had to show what she had, and they got to tell her they didn’t want to help.

  Perfect.

  How could that possibly go wrong?

  As she climbed the stairs in the old brick building, she was lost in her thoughts. That’s when she heard her name being called from behind her.

  Elizabeth turned.

  There was Chris, and he was jogging up the stairs behind her. Honestly, this was the last place she was expecting to see him, but she was glad. It cut down on the morgue trip.

  “Hey! What’s up?” she asked, smiling at him.

  “Well, I got a message at the morgue that I was to report here. I’m going to guess that you didn’t leave that message?”

  She shook her head.

  “Apparently, I’m being called to the principal’s office with you.”

  That pissed her off.

  No one got to boss her ME around but her. That was crossing a line. His job was to find her something to use, and this was a waste of his time.

  Oh, and hers.

  “Uh, I wouldn’t leave a message for you. I would have just called you personally.”

  “Well, it looks like they want to talk to us. I’m sure that can’t possibly go well.”

  Yeah, she agreed there.

  Chris stuck close to her and tried not to notice that the detective was checking out her breasts.

  It made him want to be irrational.

  What did he have to do? Lick her so no one else would try to touch her?

  He wasn’t above that.

  “Yeah, this can’t be good,” Detective Bronson offered. “No one gets called there for a good reason. All three of us? The shit storm is coming.”

  She didn’t give a rat’s ass.

  Honestly, the person calling them in wasn’t her boss, so she didn’t really care. It wasn’t like the guy could reprimand her. She was doing her job, and so was Chris. They knew how to do their thing.

  His cops…

  Well, that was questionable.

  As they entered the commissioner’s office, the man was already standing there. Levi McAllister was an imposing man and he reminded Elizabeth of someone she knew.

  Gabe.

  He didn’t take shit either, and this was going to be an interesting meeting. She had a knack for handling ‘The Dragon Slayer’, and she could handle this man too.

  When in doubt, irritate the shit out of them.

  Immediately, he offered Elizabeth his hand. “Special Agent, thank you for coming to Boston to work on this. I’m sure it wasn’t your choice. Gabe and I go way back, and he told me he’d send me his best.”

  Detective O’Brien laughed.

  Then covered it with a cough.

  Oh, she had news for him. She’d dealt with plenty of jerks who thought she was nothing but tits with a badge. This was a cakewalk. If this detective thought he could rattle her…he had another thing coming.

  “Actually, sir, you’ve been misinformed. As an agent, I don’t get the luxury of deciding if I want to go to a location or not. It’s my job to protect and serve. I get the assignment, and I do the job, unlike some local cops I know.”

  She directed that right at the cop.

  Then laughed and covered it with a cough.

  The man flushed red when he realized she’d just handed it right back to him.

  “As for your fine city, it’s a pleasure to be here,” she said. “Your detective has been nothing but helpful. Not the smarmy fat assed one. The one actually helping me find a killer.”

  That wiped more of the smug off Detective O’Brien’s face.

  Fast.

  Chris nearly laughed.

  Yeah, he loved when his girlfriend caught everyone off guard. She had a way of doing that. She looked like an angel but had the mouth of a sailor.

  It was pretty impressive.

  And hot.

  “So, anyway, let’s discuss this case. I hear you’ve been digging around and found some good stuff.”

  Elizabeth hated a few things in life, and they were always going to piss her off.

  First, men who thought she was just made to be their eye candy and arm candy.

  Next, people who talked about her behind her back.

  And finally, cops who were douchebags.

  If you fell into any of those categories, you were destined to be her verbal punching bag—or her physical one. It was a toss-up as to which. It depended on her mood.

  In the back of her mind, she could hear Gabe telling her to be nice as he bitched about the paperwork.

  So, she left this one up to the detective beside her.

  “Yes, we have. Detective?”

  He understood that she was letting him handle it since this was his turf. So, he began his oral report to his boss’s boss.

  “Something disturbing happened today, sir. As we were attempting to interview a neighbor of the deceased woman, we were shot at.”

  He took a seat behind his desk.

  “I was told, and that disturbs me, detective. You’re set to begin handling the mob task force on Monday. This doesn’t bode well for it, or you.”

  Oh, he was aware.

  Taking on this kind of mob-related thing in Boston was like painting a bull’s-eye on your chest. He was a walking target, and he knew it.

  Still, he had a son growing up in this town, and he wanted to make him proud. He’d left his mother, unknowing he was having a child, and he missed the first ten years, or so, of his life. This was about making sure that his son grew up safe, protected, and knowing that his father made a difference.

  He needed to do this for his kid.

  “I also hear that you were saved by the agent,” the commissioner stated.

  Elizabeth didn’t speak.

  She let the men do all the talking. You could learn a lot by just watching, and she was going to do just that.

  Watch.

  “Yes, sir, she did. Elizabeth jumped into the line of fire and saved me.”

  Chris looked over at her. Well, this was news to him, and it scared the crap out of him.

  Gently, he placed his hand on her back, and that action made her glance over at him.

  She saw the concern.

  Elizabeth winked at him to reas
sure him. She was perfectly fine.

  “Well, Agent LaRue, thank you for saving a cop’s life. We always appreciate that.”

  “No problem, sir.”

  “Now, what else did you find?”

  “Nothing yet, sir,” Max stated.

  That denial told her everything she needed to know. It was proof enough that the man didn’t trust the commissioner. Even if Gabe knew him, something was up. He was holding his cards close to the vest for a good reason.

  His cop gut was telling him not to trust someone in that room. Since she and Chris were privy to everything, that narrowed it down considerably.

  His partner.

  The commissioner.

  Well, this was interesting. Elizabeth was going to narrow it down even further. She wanted to know who the rat was in the hole.

  “Nothing at all?” Patty O’Brien asked.

  “Nothing,” he stated.

  The commissioner didn’t look pleased.

  “Well, because this has become a high-profile case, we have a few things to discuss.”

  They didn’t like the sound of that. Elizabeth hated when upper management threw ‘high-profile’ around. It never ended well for the schlub doing the legwork.

  Her.

  The commissioner focused on the only non-cop in the room.

  “Doctor, have you found something?”

  From the way he said it, there was no doubt that someone had been talking to the man about Chris’s findings. There was no doubt he was well aware of what Chris dug up.

  Playing the game, Chris gave his report—the exact same one he gave Elizabeth earlier on the phone. When he was finished, the commissioner mulled it over.

  “Yes, Doctor Julliard stated you were questioning her findings. Is it possible that the killer dropped her while carrying her and that’s how she got the damage to her skull—post-mortem?”

  Was he questioning the findings of her ME?

  Hers?

  Really?

  Chris, as calm as ever, took a second to rerun the facts through his mind. He weighed that option against what he and Tony had discovered. When he’d made sure he couldn’t have been wrong, only then did he speak.

  “Here’s the situation, Commissioner. We will never really know since your ME took the remains and destroyed them before I was able to see them. She refused to give me access. That to me, speaks louder than any conclusion I can come up with.”

  “I doubt it was intentional.”

  Elizabeth laughed.

  “Oh, it was intentional, just like your cop here withheld half the interview information from the file. This, from the start, has been about failing, which I don’t get. You’d think you’d want to find a killer, who is preying on your citizens. Then again, who knows. Boston is a hot mess.”

  Patty tensed and gave her a dirty look.

  She gave it back.

  “I assure you that my employees would never intentionally do that, now would they, Detective?”

  Since this wasn’t directed at Max, he kept his mouth shut.

  “No, sir. I love working with the agent. She’s a delightful lady. In fact, I admire her assets.”

  She knew he wasn’t talking about her skill.

  Chris tensed beside her, but he managed to keep his mouth shut. In cases like these, it would only make it harder on Elizabeth, and that was not the way he rolled.

  “I’ll discuss this with the ME,” the commissioner stated. “No garbage like that will be tolerated.”

  Yeah, right.

  “Doctor, I’m sorry for any issues that came up.”

  “I don’t exactly enjoy putting my name on shoddy work, Commissioner. It is an issue when the case goes to court. I hope it won’t happen again.”

  He nodded at the doctor.

  “We have another problem on the horizon,” the commissioner stated.

  “We do?” she asked.

  Oh, she couldn’t wait to hear this. Elizabeth was sure she was going to hate it. Patty O’Brien looked a little too smug for his own good, and that meant he was aware of what was coming.

  “Yes, since it’s mimicking the ‘Boston Strangler’, we’ve picked up a reporter who will be tagging along to help spin this in a positive light,” he said.

  Elizabeth had to actually blink and look around.

  “Pardon? Did you just say ‘reporter’ and ‘positive light’? That’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one.”

  “I did say that,” he clarified. “The local paper has given us Alex O’Malley, and he’s going to be specializing in the mob beat. He’s written some good articles, and we can use him to help keep our police department in a positive spotlight. As you know, this can go ugly fast.”

  Oh, she was aware. It just had.

  For him.

  Elizabeth began laughing as if someone had told her a joke. It wasn’t that funny laughter, but more like a lunatic finding something amusing.

  Even Chris looked at her.

  Oh, and this meeting had been so calm—up to that point. It was about to go bad.

  “Oh, Commissioner, you’re funny. I have some seriously bad news for you. I’m not sharing case information with a reporter while it’s an ongoing investigation. That’s total bullshit, and PR is not my issue.”

  All the men looked at her.

  “I wasn’t asking, Agent. I was telling you what you’re GOING to be doing,” the commissioner stated as he stood. “I want open lines of communication from me, to you, to you, and to the citizens. This is the ONLY way that will happen. It’s decided. You have no choice.”

  She crossed her arms.

  Apparently, Gabe hadn’t told this man everything about her. If he thought she’d play games with a reporter, he was out of his damn mind.

  “Respectfully, nope. You can kiss my ass. In fact, if that’s your plan, I’m handling this on my own and all lines of ANY communication have just been shut down. Maybe you’ve heard the saying, ‘loose lips sink ships’? You know, since you’re on the harbor and all?” she stated with a Bostonian accent.

  “You’re being insubordinate. I don’t like your attitude, honey,” he said, derogatorily.

  “I don’t like when men I don’t know call me ‘honey’ like I’m some woman they need to ‘handle’. You can take your insubordination and put it away. I’m not worried or scared by it. You aren’t my boss.”

  “You’ll be leaving.”

  She laughed even more.

  Chris noticed the southern was coming out, and that was a surefire sign that it was on.

  “Well, Commissioner McAllister, let me give you a little heads-up. I’m more subordinate than a sheep. I like to use my brain instead of following dumbass orders from men who ride a desk all day. If you think I’m going to give our killer a heads-up by allowing a reporter to chase me around Boston, you’re out of your damn mind.”

  “I’ll call your boss.”

  Detective O’Brien smiled like she was in trouble. Clearly, he was enjoying it.

  Oh, she had news.

  Elizabeth pulled out her phone and did him the service of calling her boss on his personal line.

  After hours.

  “Oh, by all means, let’s go there,” she stated, hitting the icon to call Gabe.

  “Yes, Lyzee?” he asked when he came over the line.

  “Deputy Director, I have a problem.”

  When she used his title, he knew they were having a joint conversation.

  “What’s up?”

  “The commissioner just called me into his office, and he’s listening to you, as are his cops. They want me to share my intel with a reporter so the local police look good to the citizens. We’re talking information that is important to the case and detrimental if it gets out.”

  He actually started laughing.

  “I’m being serious.”

  He stopped.

  “Are you kidding me? They seriously asked you to play tour guide to a reporter? Are they crazy?” he asked.

  “I’m asking m
yself that same question since they couldn’t solve this on their own, and I’m making headway.”

  Gabe sighed.

  “Levi, are you there?”

  She smiled and held the phone up so he could really hear what was coming.

  “Well, Commissioner, you threatened to call him if I didn’t comply, so have at it. There’s Gabriel Rothschild, my boss.”

  She smiled at the cop who thought she was screwed.

  Check.

  Mate.

  This had gotten ugly, and fast—for them.

  “Yes, Gabe, I am. I need your very belligerent agent to comply. This is our town, and she’s going to do what we asked of her.”

  “It’s not happening. My agents are Feds. They aren’t on loan to you. They are here in a federal capacity and run by my rules—not yours. Her belligerence, in this case, is warranted. She answers to me, and they are there to do a job. They aren’t there to be public liaisons for your citizens. They are there to catch a killer not play nice. If you want to play ‘kiss me fuck me’ with a reporter, have at it. I’m not allowing my agent to give some media mongrel important details of a case.”

  “I’m asking she do this to make this easier for us. She’s being difficult.”

  “No. Agent LaRue is one of my best. She’s smart, she’s capable, and she’s not going into this with her hands tied so you look good.”

  “We go way back.”

  “Yeah, so you should have known better. If you think I’d allow a case to be played in the court of public opinion, you forgot who I am. I don’t play kiss ass. That’s not how I roll, and not how she rolls. Elizabeth, it’s denied. You are to carry on. There will be no reporter.”

  The commissioner was going red.

  “Detectives, out.”

  They hustled out as the man looked like he was going to blow.

  Chris and Elizabeth remained for the show. If it came down to this man or Gabe, they already knew who would win.

  Gabe.

  It would always be him.

  “You’re clear, Gabe,” she said, giving him the heads-up that they were alone.

  “What the bloody hell, Levi?”

  “My hands are tied, Gabe. I have an infestation of mob going on, and I need to play this carefully.”

  “I don’t care. If you have mob issues, then you should have told me. I would have sent more agents. I’m not stringing up one of my best to play the piñata for your city, citizens, and mob! I’m the only one who takes shots at my people. Got it?”