“Daley, here.”
“Hey, it’s Calvin. I got Intel to run Gabe’s name through Themis and cross-reference it with our victims like you asked.”
Dex was surprised. He hadn’t expected the results so quickly. Looked like his dad had gotten tired of waiting and busted a few balls. “And?”
“The first two victims have connections to Gabe.”
“What?”
“When we ran Isaac through Themis, we got nothing but Maddock’s initial entry, and then the video from The Styx. When we ran Gabe, we hit the mother lode. Victim number one: Bennett? He went to the same college as Gabe. They took several HumaniTherian courses together throughout the four years. Victim number two, Chambers, ran the Brooklyn Therian Youth Center. It was Gabe’s first job after college.”
Shit. “What about Ortiz?”
“No hits there.”
“Thanks.” Dex hurried toward the car and quickly climbed into the passenger side.
Sloane gave him a questioning look, and Dex filled him in. He sat silently as Sloane soaked up the new information. He’d been expecting Sloane to get pissed off at him for putting in the request without telling him about it, but he’d wanted to be sure his hunch had merit before bringing it up with Sloane. Instead of getting annoyed, Sloane gave him a nod.
“Good work.”
“Thanks.” Dex buckled up. “Did you get the notes from my interview with him?”
“Yep. So what are we thinking?”
Dex gave it some thought. “I don’t get it. Let’s say Murphy’s out for some payback for his cousin. He finds two HumaniTherians connected to Gabe. He’s been to The Styx on more than one occasion. Only this time, he transfers some of the sand onto Ortiz when he kills him. He visits his favorite bar again, but this time he runs into Gabe’s brother, recognizes him and makes a run for it. Aside from the fact we don’t know why he would kill the first two victims, at least we know they’re connected to Gabe, but what about Ortiz?” Dex pulled out his tablet and brought up Tory Murphy’s police record. “This guy’s an informant, or was. How does he murder three Humans without leaving any evidence behind, without being spotted, without a trace he’d been in the vicinity? And if Murphy wanted revenge, why not someone closer to Gabe? Why not the team? Why not you? According to Themis, Gabe hadn’t spoken to Bennett or Chambers in years.”
“Goddamn it!” Sloane slammed his hand on the steering wheel. “None of this makes any fucking sense. We need to find Murphy. He saw Isaac and bolted, and we need to know why. Right now all we got is theories.”
The communication system in the car beeped, and Sloane hit the speaker button. “Agent Brodie speaking.”
“It’s Maddock. We’ve put an APB out for Tory Murphy. We can confirm he’s a jaguar Therian, which puts him in the right classification. He’s got motive and means. We need to bring him in. Themis is getting us a list of known locations for him as well as cross-referencing him with our victims. Also, Hudson confirms there was black sand found on Gabe at the time of his death, but that doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know—that he’d been inside The Styx before ending up outside in the alley. Head back to HQ. We’re sending out all of Unit Alpha’s Recon and part of the Defense Department to find this guy. Unit Beta’s going to take our lower risk cases off our hands until this thing is solved.”
“Yes sir.” Sloane sat back and started the engine, and Dex couldn’t help but notice how worn out his partner looked. He reached over and put a hand on Sloane’s arm.
“Hey, we’re going to get to the bottom of this.”
Sloane gave him a weary smile. “Thanks.”
They headed back to HQ with Dex mulling over his predicament. He was eager to get this case solved. Having other agents do the legwork for him was something he wasn’t accustomed to. It would take time. He knew as much. Still, he wished he could do more. He’d been tempted on more than one occasion to go off on his own, but he quickly stamped down the urge. This wasn’t the HPF. He was part of a team now. They all had their part to play and any agent that failed to do his part would let down the rest of his team. Dex didn’t want to let his team down. What’s more, he didn’t want to let Sloane down.
They spent the rest of the day divvying up the city among their unit’s agents and transferring their low-risk cases to Unit Beta. At a unit briefing held in a small auditorium on the tenth floor, Dex got to see Lieutenant Sonya Sparks for the first time. Dex had been so busy getting used to his new position, he hadn’t given any thought to the lieutenant who had hired him. Until now, she’d been in Washington, fighting to
get their unit the priority and clearance levels needed to get this case solved. It was the toughest one the THIRDS had faced in a long time. The big wigs wanted it solved ASAP, but like any other government organization, they balked when the words “additional funding” made an appearance.
Lieutenant Sparks resembled a classic Hollywood pinup. In her refined white pantsuit, her curves were impressive. She was tall and intimidating, with bright red locks, big green eyes, and scarlet red lips. She had perfectly manicured nails painted in a similar shade to her lipstick and according to Tony, half the Defense Department in DC was scared shitless of her. The interesting thing was, she never raised her voice, and she smiled. Her eyes marked her as being Therian, her classification a cougar. Any agent who was stupid enough to make a joke about it would end up wishing he’d never been born. Dex liked her already.
The briefing ran for hours. There were several occasions when some of the Intel guys were yammering on about algorithms, forcing Sloane to nudge Dex awake. Cael on the other hand seemed enthralled. Nerd. By the end, Dex couldn’t wait to get out of there. In the showers while the rest of their team was washing away, Dex sneaked a few glances at Sloane. His partner had been pensive since their return from Pearce’s workshop. Dex lingered, washing up slowly while the rest of the team finished up and headed out into the locker room to dress, leaving Dex and Sloane. He leaned over the thick frosted glass partition.
“You okay?” The longer this case remained unsolved, the more Sloane seemed to retreat into himself.
Sloane blinked and looked up at him. “What?”
“Are you okay?” Dex put his hand to Sloane’s arm. This case was taking its toll on everyone, especially his partner, whose shaky smile pulled at Dex’s heart.
“No, but what can we do but move forward, right?”
“Listen, why don’t you come over to my place tonight? We’ll chill, have a couple of cold ones and watch dumb people doing dumb things on TV. How about it?”