Every Breath You Take
Page 52
Chapter 32
The team were all in before seven the next day, but Inspector Caruso was conspicuously absent. Wallace checked and re-checked the kid's phone, but nothing had come back from The Sandman. Pepper checked the website-that had turned into a dead zone too.
"Do you guys know what's up with Caruso?" McTavish asked as he came over from his desk, Chin trailing behind.
"No," Pepper replied, "but I have the feeling nothing good can come of the fact that's he's not here."
"Yeah," Wallace added, "you heard him last night. He expected all of us to be here first thing. There's no way he'd show up late for no reason."
"Yeah, you're right. Something must be up," McTavish said, sipping his coffee as he walked back to his desk.
An hour later, Caruso finally walked in, taking off his jacket and throwing it into his office before striding across the room. Pepper knew things weren't going well with the Inspector. As usual when he was stressed, his limp was more pronounced than usual.
"Well, it's already happening. Chief Dakin called me even before I left home this morning. I've just been in his office for the last hour and a half. Drummond's lawyer decided he'd do us the courtesy of personally letting us know beforehand that he'll be filing a lawsuit against the department first thing this morning when the courts open."
"Ah shit," Wallace muttered under his breath.
"Of course the Chief tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't budge. He stood there in his expensive Italian suit and basically said we'd fucked up and had to face the consequences. And then after he took the keys to Drummond's car and left, the Chief and I talked. He asked if we had anything other than circumstantial evidence when it came to Drummond. I had to tell him no. He said the department just can't take the risk of this lawsuit escalating even further." The Inspector paused. "Starting immediately, we are leaving Drummond alone as far as the surveillance is concerned. Now get back to work. And don't bring me anymore of this circumstantial evidence shit. Get me something concrete so that we can nail this guy." He walked into his office, closing the door behind him.
"What a goddamned mess," Wallace said to Pepper as the rest of the team all went back to their desks. "Why couldn't that car have had one strand of blonde hair in it?"
"I know, partner, I know," Pepper replied, feeling like he'd just taken one of Chin's punches to his gut.