Cruz’s eyes widened, something about Joshua’s reaction causing her to react. Her tone as she answered was a mixture of her apparent concern as well as a possible desire to reassure him.
“There’s an area over in the courtyard in the school where a construction company’s been tearing out some trees. They’ve got a chipper over there.”
“Thank you, Detectives,” Joshua said, standing up. He turned to the rest of the team. “We’ve got to go. Now.” Bella jumped up, her ears perking and an excited whine slipping out from her mouth.
“Where are we headed?” Had asked, pausing to nod a thanks to Detective Cruz, who blushed and smiled back. That young man never seemed to lose his charm. Sariah wondered for a moment what it would feel like to be able to interact with people on that level. She had never had the experience, herself.
“Not sure,” Joshua answered Had. “We need to see that note, but the danger’s at the school, and it might be immediate. Coop?” He turned to face Sariah, and it was clear he was wanting a decision out of her.
She shrugged her shoulders. “I have no idea what this is about, so…”
Joshua glared at her. “Really? You didn’t see it?”
“See what?”
“A typewritten note passed at school?”
Sariah snorted. “Times have changed a bit since you went to elementary, Joshua. Kids sometimes do that now. Right, Had? Reggie?”
The two officers glanced at each other then back to her, apparently not wanting to get in the middle of whatever was happening with Sariah and Joshua. Mommy and Daddy were fighting and the kids wanted no part of it.
“I dunno,” Had muttered. “I grew up in Michigan, so it might be different there, but I never did.”
“Forget the typewriting,” Joshua growled. “That’s not the point. Didn’t you hear the part about the wood chipper?”
Oh. There it was. If Sariah hadn’t been so concerned about her own sense of worthlessness, she probably would have picked up on it.
Joshua’s family had been brutally murdered by Humpty and then put through a wood chipper. Of course he would make a connection there.
“Just because there happens to be a construction crew on site at the school, it doesn’t mean--”
“It’s worth checking out, and you know it,” he snapped back at her.
“Fine. Let’s go. By all means.” Sariah waved her hand toward the hall through which they had entered.
“That’s the thing, Coop,” Joshua said, his brow furrowed. “I need your help. I don’t know if we should go and read through the note, or head straight out to the school. This could be time sensitive.”
Sariah sighed, frustrated with his insistence that she make this choice. “It’s a fifty-fifty choice. Do whatever you want.”
“Fine,” he muttered, then turned to Reggie and Had. “What do you two think?”
Had’s eyes shifted back and forth between Joshua and Sariah. Whatever else might be going on, he was clearly conflicted about how to handle the situation. Sariah knew how that felt, and for a moment there was a twinge of conscience. It was her indifference that was causing his reaction.
But it didn’t take much to push that prickling down. She’d had to learn to get over it. Had could too. He was a big boy.
“Uh, well…” Had said after a moment. “It seems like if there’s a chance of another explosion or whatever, we want to go to the school.”
“That was my take on it, too,” Joshua agreed. “Let’s go to the school. Call that driver.” Bella let out another whine, and Joshua reached a hand down to pet her.
Had grinned and pulled out his cell phone. Sariah might have been imagining it, but did it seem like Reggie’s face had just gone pale? Probably just a trick of the light.
But there was something else that was bothering Sariah. A thought that was bubbling up from that wellspring of instinct deep down inside her. The decision to head to the school seemed like it might be a good idea, but she didn’t agree with it. Rushing out to the site of the danger was all well and good, but didn’t they want to have a better idea of what they might expect? It felt like they were running off half-cocked, just to then search for a needle in a haystack.
That note could give them valuable insight into what they might find there. If it wasn’t all just a colossal waste of time, that was.
That was the most likely scenario. They really had no idea for sure that Humpty was even involved in this whole thing. Sariah trusted Agent Tanner, but the choice to send them out here was based on a coincidence so tenuous that it didn’t make much sense to her. Bombings didn’t happen every day, but that didn’t mean when two went off in different states that they had anything to do with one another.
And if it were Humpty, she still wasn’t sure that was a reason to follow the trail he was leaving for them. The more they went off chasing after clues, the more Humpty would have them dancing like puppets on a string.
Sariah stopped. This was ridiculous. She was starting to get back on that short bus to crazy town.
Shoving her instincts back down, she followed Joshua, Had and Reggie back out of the police headquarters. She was content to follow. Her feelings hadn’t helped her in the past. Why would she think they would start now? Sariah was irrelevant.
Whatever. It was no longer her call, right?
Joshua would take care of it.
* * *
The trip over had been even more harrowing than their ride to Police Headquarters. Reggie hadn’t thought that was possible, but when Had suggested that time was of the essence, Nadira had turned into some kind of an Indy driver. Reggie still wasn’t positive she’d made the drive intact, and continued to touch each of her limbs to make sure they were all there. That woman was insane.
Had, on the other hand, had seemed to enjoy the whole thing. There had been one point, when they’d gone over a bump and gone airborne for a heart-dropping instant, when he’d lifted his hands in the air and screamed like he was on a rollercoaster.
Thrill seeker. Had might not have seemed like the type, but Reggie was beginning to wonder if one of the items on his perfect-woman-list was must enjoy risking life. Whether or not that was true, he was looking at Nadira like he’d gone through some kind of religious experience.
The other member of their group that had seemed to enjoy their drive over was Bella. She’d managed to get her nose out of a crack in the window, and her tail had wagged the entire drive over. Reggie’d gotten whacked in the face a couple of times, but it was hard to get angry at the excitable dog. She was still mostly a puppy, no matter what her size was.
The school was like any other elementary. They always seemed much smaller than they should be. Reggie’s memories of her grade school days were filled with huge halls and classrooms, a lunchroom the size of a football field and acres of playground.
Going back as an adult, everything seemed strangely miniaturized. The halls made her want to hunch over, the lunchroom cramped and the playground downsized. The difference in her own size didn’t quite seem like it could account for the amount of change in her perceptions.
They stood out in the courtyard, Joshua staring at the wood chipper. There had been a long moment of awkward silence when he first encountered the machine. The whole team knew at least part of the story, and trying to imagine what must be going through his mind right now had been more than a little unsettling.
Once he started moving, the tension had eased a bit, although it had seemed to Reggie that he’d spent an inordinate amount of time circling the machine, peering under it, climbing up to stare at the top, analyzing every piece of what appeared to be just another piece of equipment.
Bella had spent most of the time right at his side. Reggie had noticed that the more upset Joshua seemed to get, the more attentive his dog became. She was a remarkable creature, and Reggie thought to herself that if the puppy were to disappear, she would leave a huge gap in her wake.
While the rest of the team fanned out, searching around
the surrounding courtyard for any clues that might pop up, Joshua stayed close by the chipper, staring at it with an intense expression on his face. It was almost as if he believed that through his sheer powers of observation, he could force the hulking piece of machinery to divulge its secrets. So far, it hadn’t seemed to help.
The school remained empty of children and teachers, with only the crime scene investigators still hovering around, continuing to make assessments, take pictures, look for evidence. The juxtaposition of the large adults and the small proportions of the school, Reggie found to be unsettling.
She could only imagine what was going through the minds of those kids who had been out on the playground when the bomb went off. No one had been killed, but the act was violent enough that the memory would remain seared on their impressionable minds for the rest of their lives.
“Hey, Joshua, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything here,” Had said, after making what Reggie would have sworn was his fifteenth circuit of the courtyard. Bella looked up at the young officer and barked, wagging her tail.
Joshua continued to stare at the machine, his gaze appearing unfocused and distant. A crease had found its way onto his forehead, and Reggie watched as it deepened. He was hearing what Had was saying, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything other than causing him distress.
Had placed a hand on Joshua’s shoulder, and at that point the former agent seemed to shake off whatever lethargy had possessed his limbs. He glanced around at the rest of the team, all of whom were staring at him with varying levels of concern, including Coop.
“All right. Let’s go to the Crime Lab, then,” he said. “We’re not accomplishing anything here.” Joshua glanced up at Had. “Call Nadira.”
As Had pulled out his cell phone, Reggie could see that the furrow in Joshua’s brow remained, and seemed to be growing even deeper. Bella looked up at her master and whined. Something about this scenario was bothering him, and Reggie didn’t believe that it was just the wood chipper.
The sense of impending doom seemed to be catching. Reggie felt her heartbeat race in her chest.
For the first time since she had stepped into Nadira’s taxi, Reggie thought that maybe that amount of speed was justified.
* * *
Had found riding in Nadira’s cab akin to a religious experience. You never knew what it was going to look like going in, but you came out uplifted. Or, at the very least, wanting to be a better man.
Stepping out of the taxi, he handed over the fare with a generous tip and grinned at Nadira. Her responding smile stretched so wide it seemed like it might split her face in half, and Had felt his stomach do a pleasant somersault. He cleared his throat and watched out of the corner of his eye as the rest of the team staggered out of the taxi, pale and gasping.
Well, everyone except for Bella. She was prancing around, her tail acting like a fan it was wagging so fast. Had could almost believe he felt a breeze coming from the big dog. After a moment, the team all turned as one to look at their destination.
The Crime Lab was a box with three protrusions jutting out of it. Had peered up at the building, a sad mixture of tan and gray and brown with tiny little windows in neat little rows across its face, and found that he was excited.
Every time he entered into a new law enforcement building, no matter how ugly, he was entering into the personality of that town’s police force. And every one was different. Sometimes those differences were extreme.
Had supposed that for some people that would be depressing, but for him it was kind of awesome. All of these separate cities, each one trying to do the same things, but every one of them going about the process in a different way.
It was both inspiring and comforting. Inspiring because they were all on the same team, fighting the bad guys. Comforting because it made his own oddities an asset rather than a source of shame.
There was little time to observe the exterior of the building, as Joshua was moving fast, almost sprinting. Something was off with the former agent. He’d been on edge ever since that detective had said something about the note. And when they hadn’t found anything at the school, he was almost buzzing, he was vibrating with so much impatient energy.
Most often, Joshua was the laid-back, cynical part of their team, but since Coop had gone all glassy-eyed, he’d gotten more and more tense. Had wondered if maybe it was just part and parcel to feeling responsibility for those who died on your watch.
Maybe it wasn’t such a surprise that Joshua had gone face down after Humpty had gone after his family. It was one thing to lose victims you had never met. Another significant level up when it was comrades in law enforcement. Losing a wife and kids? Had couldn’t even imagine what that would look like.
He jogged to catch up to Joshua and Bella, Coop and Reggie panting along behind them. Joshua had called ahead and seemed to know where he was going. But since no one else on the team had been a part of that conversation, they were all just following along behind him in the dark. Okay, it was a hallway filled with bright fluorescent lights, but still, they would have been lost without him.
Making a mental note of that, Had looked over at Coop, who seemed to be avoiding eye contact with everyone. That was her state these days, more often than not.
This wasn’t Coop. Had knew her. She had pulled him out of his local precinct there in Michigan, where he’d been languishing. And now, just as it felt like they had the chance to do something amazing together, she was checking out.
Joshua was getting more and more pissed off about it by the day, but Had wasn’t angry. Not at all. He was just sad.
They arrived at their destination, and Joshua pushed open an office door without knocking. A woman in a lab coat glanced up from her work.
“You’re the one who called?”
Joshua nodded, and the woman, an Asian lady with a streak of magenta through her shoulder length hair and hipster glasses perched on her nose, pointed off toward a table to her side. On top of the table was a box.
“It’s all over there,” she murmured, then caught sight of Bella.
“You can’t have that dog in here.”
“She’s a service dog,” Joshua answered back. “See the vest?”
The woman looked closer at Bella, then turned up her nose and went back to what she’d been doing when they arrived. Whatever it was, it seemed to involve what looked like someone’s spleen.
Rushing over to the table, Joshua rummaged through the box until he managed to locate the note. It was on standard white printing paper, and in addition to the typewritten words that were hiding in the folds of the missive, there were pink hearts and flourishes drawn all around the borders.
“What’s it say?” Reggie asked.
Joshua bent down to stare at the message, his nose almost scraping the page. He straightened up, a puzzled look on his face. Bella pressed in closer to his side, but Joshua pushed her back out of the way. Her tail drooped, and a whine escaped her.
Had wasn’t used to seeing Joshua respond that way to his beloved dog. Whatever he was seeing in the note must have him really worked up.
“Take a look,” the former agent said.
J.W.,
You are pretty awesome, for a boy. I watched you out there playing the other day, and you were totally beating that one girl, S.C. She was, like, clueless, and you were, like, all over it. But sometimes you’re still so dumb.
I want you to meet me over by the wood chipper during recess tomorrow at 1:37, okay? I don’t want to, like, kiss you or anything, so you don’t have to be afraid. I don’t like you like that. Gross.
But I do want to show you something cool. It’s seriously, like, the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. But it’s, like, down inside the machine, so we’ll have to, like, open it up and stuff. Sound cool?
Wanna know what it’s gonna be like? Have you ever watched that show the Big Bang Theory? It’s gonna be like that, only in real life.
Like, but not like-like and definitely not love,
/> H.D.
PS You better hurry and get there, or else you’ll miss it.
“It sounds just like any other note that might get passed in elementary school,” Reggie muttered, staring at the note. “I sent one just like this to a boy I liked in fifth grade. You know, minus the wood chipper.”
“One thirty seven seems late for recess,” Coop said, and then backed away from the note, her expression going flat again. “But that might just be me.”
“No, you’re right, Coop,” Reggie said. “I was thinking the same thing.
Agent Cooper flashed Reggie a grateful smile that turned into something much more guarded and neutral within seconds. It was like any attempt from the team to engage her was something she viewed as a trap.
Joshua was scanning the note again, his finger hovering over the page when he froze, the furrow in his forehead starting to look like a crevasse. He pushed the note back at the group.
“Look at the initials.”
Had looked without seeing anything for a moment, but then it appeared. And when it did, his blood was ice in his veins.
“You, Coop and Humpty,” Had said. “It’s your initials.”
Glancing up at the clock, Had saw that it was 1:25. They might have just enough time to get back to the school if they flew there. Maybe.
Had pulled out his cell. Good thing they had their own personal pilot. He waved the phone at Joshua to get his attention, and then started texting.
Joshua saw what Had was doing and nodded, then turned to the Asian woman at the desk. “Do you know who’s in charge out at the school site?”
“Sure,” she replied, her eyebrows touching as they were pushed together. “It’s Harper. But…”
“We need to get them to clear out,” Joshua barked. “Now.”
The woman’s lips went into a prim line at his harsh tone. “You don’t have the authority to make that call. Agent Salazar is the one who’s authorized to liaise with this office, not you. I only let you in because he put you on the list.”
Hey, score one on the plus side for that relationship. Had was pretty sure that wouldn’t have happened before Joshua pulled his Jedi mind trick on the guy.
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