by Kelly Shade
“We put the bug. It was my idea. I was worried you may do something stupid. Gray had to keep you under surveillance through the holidays because I told him to do it. Well, my idea wasn’t for you two to sleep in one house, but it worked. You had a nice time together as I hear. I don’t see the harm.”
“You don’t see the harm?” Jane laughed.
“I was right, wasn’t I? You had more info from Savela than you shared,” Hunt said defensibly.
“We have a lot in common.” Blake crossed her arms over her chest. “I didn’t tell you for your own safety.”
“I’m head of homicide, for God sake!” Hunt shook his head “You are worried about me? Why?”
“It doesn’t matter if you are the director of Homeland, we all bleed the same!” Jane was calm and cold “And if I remember right, you all have careers to worry about.”
“Yeah, and?” Hunt got irritated.
“If you want to help, you have to go off the books. And I think this may ruin your careers.”
“I can take that risk! Do you think Rose was killed because she was playing by the book?” Hunt shouted.
“All right then.” Jane took a deep breath. “The name is Michael Morse. Drug lord, I presume.”
“You knew the surname?” Ryan said through his teeth. “And you got mad about a bug?”
Jane and Hunt ignored him. She continued. “He lives in Tijuana. I went to his house.”
“Alone?” Hunt was getting more and more annoyed.
“Do you want to know what I know or not?” Jane asked irritably.
“Go on.”
“I went there, and I found Michael Morse. We talked.” Blake hesitated for a second. “And he is the one who ordered the hit. He wants me dead.”
“Why?” Ryan asked.
“Because of my biological parents. Especially my mother, in his words, a silly little girl who went too far. Don’t know with what. He said I was a mistake. I shouldn’t have been born at all,” answered Jane with a sad smile.
“And why he didn’t kill you then?” Hunt rubbed his head in confusion.
“He tried.”
“And?” Ryan was puzzled too.
“Do you remember the lipstick-detonator you saw in my house?” Jane reminded him, and he nodded.
“Well, I made him think if he kills me, his house will explode.”
“But there were no explosives?” Hunt suggested “What if he had called your bluff?”
“No one is risking on that kind of bluff.” Jane smiled widely. “Anyways, I’m sure Rose and Amber were killed under his orders.”
Hunt and Gray exchanged looks.
“I asked . . . his face went . . . the micro expressions showed . . . well, let’s say I kind of know.” Jane was tired of explaining her methods of reading people.
“You are sure?” Ryan found it hard to keep it together and he punched the desk. “Seven years I’ve been searching. Seven years we’ve been searching and you didn’t tell me! You went alone, Blake!” he shouted.
“It is him. Michael Morse is the person who ordered the murders of Rose and Amber. I am sure! That’s the man!” Jane stayed calm. “And what if you were there? You would kill him!”
“Of course, I would, Jane! He killed my mom!” Ryan yelled as loudly as he could.
“I need him alive!” Jane also raised her voice. “He knows who my parents are. I need to get that information before one of you two puts a bullet in his head! Yeah, Hunt, I know you want to kill the son of a bitch as bad as Gray. I can’t let that happened. At least not now!”
Connor and Ryan looked at her, and for a moment there was a tense silence. Then, both Hunt and Gray changed their expressions as though they realized Jane was also searching for the truth.
“We, and I’m sure Ryan, will agree with that,” Hunt started and glanced at Gray who nodded in agreement, “We would not kill this man. We will put him in jail. I assure you!” And he stared at Jane. She observed both of them for a minute, and when she decided they were telling the truth, she spoke softly. “One more thing. I had his DNA checked by Barbara.”
“You told her but not us?” Gray was offended.
“No. I asked Bradley for a favor with no questions asked. I’ll owe her big time,” Jane smiled.
“Okay. What now?” Hunt had hope now. After years of waiting. Maybe Jane could help for real.
“We need a plan. But my way,” Blake said seriously.
“So you’re staying?” Ryan asked nervously.
“It looks like I’m staying. For now!” Blake stood up and left the office.
Chapter 14
Professional liar
Jane Blake rushed to the lab first thing in the morning. Barbara Bradley had called her. The results were ready. Jane was eager to see them so she arrived at the station as fast as she could. She hurried down to the morgue where Barbara was working full time. It was cold and smelled like heavy disinfectant. Jane covered her nose and mouth. She hated the smell. It made her sick.
Jane was walking the long corridor to the morgue and out of nowhere, Mrs. Bradley showed up and invited Jane in her office.
“You won’t like it.” Barbara opened her drawer and took a thin file. “Michael Morse is, in fact, his real name, and that’s not the worst part. Take a look.”
Jane took the small dossier. The man she visited few days before had nothing in common with the man on the photo. This Michael Morse was young and smiling. The cold, green eyes were the same though. The picture must be thirty years old. The odd part was the man’s birth date, and personal info seemed accurate. Morse was a wild teenager. He had community service for fighting; his driver’s license was taken twice because of driving above the speed limit; and once he was caught for drug possession which sent him to juvy. Surprisingly, a year later he got out and vanished. Ten years later, maybe when the photo was taken, he was accused of drug dealing and human trafficking. But the charges were dropped because of lack of evidence.
“Did you check the other thing?” Jane asked. She wasn’t disappointed at all. That info was good enough for her.
“No, I didn’t see the point! Morse doesn’t have a family, never married, no kids under his name.” Bradley hurried to express her reasons.
“Would you please check if we are related anyway?” Jane smiled.
“Yeah, but I’ll be ready by the end of the day.”
“Works fine by me.” Jane stood up still covering her mouth.
“Why?” Bradley couldn’t stop the curiosity.
“Well. I just need to be sure.”
“I have no idea what are you talking about.” Barbara got even more curious. Her wide eyes were staring at Jane.
“He may have had kids, but someone with access deleted them from the file. And if you don’t know who they are, so you can search their files, there is no way of getting the truth,” Jane tried to explain.
“Okay, I won’t ask anymore.” Bradley laughed. “There is a reason why I’m here and not on the field, playing detective.”
“So, you will call me when it’s done?” asked Jane on the way to the door.
“Yep, I’ll let you know,” sighed Barbara.
Blake took the stairs up to the Homicide office. She found the team working on the serial killer case. Nick, Ian, Ryan and Hunt had copies of the poems and crime scene photos in front of them. Jane joined them.
“Hello, team!” a familiar voice came from behind Blake. She turned around in shock. Peter Burris was standing at the door. His black eyes focused on Jane from behind the thin glasses. The suit he was wearing made him look even shorter and older than he actually was. Hunt stood up and extended his hand.
“Welcome, Burris!” Connor said while shaking the psychologist’s hand.
“Thank you, Hunt! It’s my pleasure!” he said with greasy voice.
“Do you want to share what’s going on, boss?” Ian asked with evident dislike.
“Mr. Burris will help us with the Rewera case,” said Hunt with irritatio
n. “He volunteered and Abigail, I mean Chief Wilson, though we can use some help.”
Nobody was pleased by the news. Jane was extremely unhappy to see Burris again. It was hard enough for her to get through the sessions with him and now she had to stand him at work. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do at this point.
“Okay, Burris,” she gave him the files. “Make a psychological profile of our killer.”
Hunt glanced at her showing support. He didn’t like the idea of a new guy on the case either.
Burris looked over the files.
“I’ve read them already.” He threw them back at Jane “This killer is an intelligent person with strong beliefs that he is sent to fix the world. He is passionate, an artist, an actor if you will. He prepares every murder cautiously. Patient, careful, clever,” Burris said waving his hands “He may be a she also. The makeup and the hair braids are a sign of an aesthete. Vanity is more common with women.”
The team exchanged suspicious glances. No one trusted Burris.
“It’s like you are admiring him.” Jane said arrogantly and added “The killer is a man.”
“I’m just building a psychological profile. I don’t think that means I like or dislike someone.” Burris sat on the chair next to Jane. With an ugly smile, he continued “I can say a lot about you too, Ms. Blake.”
“Oh, can you?” Jane lifted the left eyebrow. “Let’s hear!”
This time everyone on the team turned to Burris. They were all very interested.
“You, Ms. Blake, are an unfortunate, lonely person. You had a difficult childhood, you had to take care of yourself. Your parents didn’t care about you. You were the rebel at school. I’m sure your teenage years were wild. You don’t have respect for authority, and you didn’t care about grades or teachers at school. You always think you are the smartest person in the room. You became a manipulative con artist, a professional liar. Highly intelligent, cunning. Charming. A person who needs action, danger, mystery. Fearless. You have lack of empathy; you have an impulsive and aggressive nature, but you have learned how to control it well. You look calm but inside there is a storm raging, and it’s driving you crazy. I believe you have meaningless affairs with men just for fun. You are beautiful, and you use that beauty to control men. I’m not sure if you, Ms. Blake, are just an excellent detective with spy-like training or a crazy psychopath,” Burris talked slowly and openly. The ugly grimace on his face turned into an arrogant expression.
“I’m flattered!” Jane said happily.
The rest of the team stared at Jane expecting some kind of explosion, but she smiled even bigger than before.
“I can tell you, Hunt . . .” now Peter Burris turned to their boss with a serious face, “I wouldn’t trust Jane Blake. I don’t know why this woman works for you, but as far as I’m concerned, she could be the serial killer.”
“Nice theory, but she was at the police station during the murders.” Ryan faked laughter.
Hunt wasn’t pleased by the psychologist’s behavior.
“Burris, if you want to be on the case, show some respect for my people!”
“I’m sorry, Hunt! I was just giving my professional opinion.” He stood.
“Nobody asked for it, Burris!” Nick also was annoyed. “Thanks to Jane we close cases in no time, thanks to Jane, Ryan is here with us, thanks to Jane this team is in its best shape ever.”
Burris looked at him, then he scanned the others, and when he saw they all supported Jane, he murmured, “Keep me in the loop,” and he got out of the office.
Peter Burris left everyone anxious and frustrated. At the moment he disappeared, Ian and Nick started to protest his involvement in the case. Hunt made it clear the idea wasn’t his. Even though he was head of Homicide, he didn’t have the power to refuse Burris as an asset. Ian was curious why Wilson let the shrink in, but since everyone was too annoyed to talk, he dropped the matter.
“I have to meet my cousin at the Royal Casino. It’s near Marcy’s pizza, so I’ll go buy lunch!” said Valdez after fifteen-minute silence. “I’m taking orders!”
The team was happy to hear the offer. They wrote what they wanted on a piece of paper and happily sent Ian to get it.
More than an hour had passed since Ian Valdez went to the pizza place. Nick started to worry about his partner. Ryan suggested Ian’s cousin was the reason he was late.
The phone rang. Jane was the only one who wasn’t interested in where the food was. She picked up hoping for some action. And action was what she got.
“Jane, the casino is about to be robbed. They disabled the cameras. Come ASAP. Tell the team.” Ian was whispering.
“Get out of there now!” Jane waved to the others to get their attention and turned on the speaker. The team surrounded her desk, waiting for news.
“I can’t. My cousin is here plus ten more people. I have to stay inside.” Ian was speaking so quietly they almost didn’t hear him.
“Okay, then remove the police badge, put your gun and phone somewhere hidden and ruffle your hair!” Jane was giving him orders.
“Are you mad? Why should I do that?” Ian muttered.
“Because they will kill you the moment they see you are a cop! Do as I say! Hunt is calling the robbery team. We’ll be there in twenty minutes. Don’t hang up but mute the microphone! Do it now!” Jane rustled.
“Blake, I’m a cop, it’s . . .” Ian whispered.
“Trust me, Valdez, please! Do as I say!” Jane insisted.
“Okay, I got to go.” Ian decided to listen.
“Gray, can you redirect the call to my mobile?” Jane turned to Ryan and put on the Bluetooth earbud. She wanted to hear everything in the casino.
“Yep, give me a second.”
After he did it, they hurried to the cars. The robbery team was right behind them. Jane was listening to the robbers on the phone. They were talking about fast, clean job with no cops or hostages. They wanted to get to the safe, put the money in the bags and run.
A voice sounded through the sounds of loading guns: “If anyone calls the cops, you all will be hostages with a low probability of getting out alive! If everyone stays calm, we will be in and out in minutes!”
Blake turned to Hunt and shared what she had heard.
“We have to withhold the robbery team!” she said.
“I can’t do that! Do you believe these guys?” Hunt answered irritably.
“I know that voice, Connor,” Jane said with a little embarrassment.
“You what?” Nick was worried and angry at the same time.
“They will do as they say. If no cops are involved, they will leave in ten-fifteen minutes with no victims.” Jane didn’t want to talk about her past, but in cases like this, it was necessary.
Hunt choose to believe her. He called the robbery team and told them to stay down. No sirens or lights. He told them to act like civilians. Jason Carter started to object, but their boss, Sam Klein, and his colleague, Mila Adkins, agreed on those terms.
“We can’t let them rob the casino. What should we do?” Nick Lee asked nervously.
“We can wait outside and catch them red-handed,” offered Ryan.
“No. They have a secret passage and a getaway vehicle. We won’t catch them like this,” Jane said thoughtfully.
“Okay, so what do we do?” asked Hunt.
They were in front of the casino. Nick spotted the robbery team. They were sitting at a table in the nearby pizzeria pretending to have lunch.
Jane, Ryan, Nick and Connor hurried to them.
“Hey!” Lee waved.
“What’s the plan?” asked Sam Klein.
“We double-cross them,” said Jane “We have to rob the casino before them.”
“We what?” shouted Jason. Everyone shushed him.
“How do we do that? They are already in!” asked Ryan.
“I’ll go through the roof, and I’ll pretend I want to rob the place too. They don’t choose random targets. They must have info a
bout more cash or something really valuable. When they see me, they will try to cut me a deal,” Blake explained. She prepared her weapon, put on black gloves and lifted her hair in a tight ponytail. She made a mask from Jason’s hat. Blake took it from his head, made holes with her pocket knife. It was a cap, so she had to improvise with her shoelaces to tie it to her head.
“Isn’t it better to shoot you?” Jason sounded like this was his dream.
“They won’t shoot me. They would prefer to share the money instead to kill me.” Jane said calmly.
“Why?” Jason continued. “No thief would give his part of the pie just to spare your life.”
“We will see,” said Jane ignoring the worried looks of her team.
Jane knew Ryan, Nick and Conner were terrified of letting her in there alone and she turned to them.
“Just trust me, okay?” she said.
Hunt nodded. Sam and Mila weren’t okay with the idea, but Jane persuaded them to give her a chance. She needed twenty minutes.
“If I’m not out by then, you may go in, okay?” Jane said to Sam Klein and Mila Adkins, and they agreed.
“Take this.” Ryan handed her a bulletproof vest, and Jason made a silly face.
“I can’t. Sorry,” Blake said and ran to the casino leaving puzzled looks behind her.
Blake went to the side of the building, in the alley. She quickly climbed to the roof, looked around and saw the lid of the ventilation system. She busted it and carefully went in. It was tight, but Blake was skinny, so it wasn’t a problem. After two corridors she finally heard the familiar voice. She kicked the lid in front of her and jumped. Four guns were pointed at her. She lifted her hands and the hat and smiled.
“Hey, guys, what are you doing here?” she smiled at the five masked men.
“Blake! Jane Blake! I’ll be damned!” said a man with a clown mask who apparently was the leader. “So you heard about the big transfer today?”
“Yep, Don, I did. I didn’t know someone else would dare to rob the casino in daylight, but I forgot about you!” Jane laughed and dropped her hands.
