She said, "Yes, I know about the others. They were small. Very little ammo."
"Ah, but, Agent Dance, the size of the shipment probably is of no consequence to the family killed by a single machine gun."
"Of course," she said. Nothing to argue about there.
"Yes, yes," said Overby. "Well, we'll look at the statistics, year-end. See the trend."
The commissioner stared at the webcam for a moment, perhaps wondering what on earth Overby was talking about. He said, "I have a meeting now. I will look into the situation. And I will look forward to hearing next month about a dozen interdictions. Adios."
The screen went blank.
"Testy," she said.
"Who can blame him? Over fifteen hundred people were murdered last year in his state alone."
Then Dance's anger returned. "You heard?"
"About what?"
"It was on the radio. The Solitude Creek unsub's description went out, after all. It's all over the press. Now he knows we're on to him."
Overby was looking at the blank computer screen.
"Ah, well. Yes. I heard too. I didn't know that's what you meant."
"How did it happen? I mean, did you release it?"
Overby loved any chance to chat with the press. But she doubted he'd directly undermine her, especially after he'd agreed to back her position--besides, if he'd done it, the story would have had his name featured prominently.
"Me? Of course not. It was, I'm not sure, but I think it was Steve Foster. It came from Sacramento. His turf." He did seem genuinely upset, though hardly as livid as she.
But she understood he was troubled for a different reason. She was concerned about spooking the unsub. Overby had been out-politicked. He'd brought Foster in to make sure the CBI got some credit for running the case, since Dance was sidelined. But Foster had taken it one step further and made sure the kudos would go to the main headquarters, Sacramento. Not the West-Central Division of CBI.
Why didn't that surprise her? "Whose case is it?"
"Well, technically, Kathryn, it's not ours."
"Oh, come on. We can play this fiction only so far. Foster's here on the Guzman Connection thing. He has nothing to do with my case."
"O'Neil's case. MCSO's case. I--"
"Charles! Never mind. I'll go talk to him."
"Do you think that's a good--?"
But she was already walking down the hall. And into the Guzman Connection task force room. Overby appeared a moment later.
"Hey," Jimmy Gomez said.
"Steve." Both of the men with that name turned but Dance's eyes were squarely on Foster.
"It was a misunderstanding," the bulky man said and looked back to his computer. Not even trying to deny it.
"We agreed we weren't going to release the description. We weren't even going to say it was a murder investigation."
He responded with a demurring tone, "I should've been more specific when I was talking to my people in Sacramento. Should've told them not to speak to the press."
"Who was it?" Dance asked in a brittle voice.