“Hello?” Laura called out, and the door opened fully. Behind it, a petite female detective with her hair twisted into Bantu knots emerged, looking them both over cautiously as if to check she wasn’t interrupting anything.
“Hi – you’re the FBI agents, right?” she asked, even though it had to have been obvious that the pair of them were not part of the normal employees of the precinct.
“That’s right,” Laura replied, trying to be kind. She recognized the woman’s voice from somewhere.
“Um, I’m Detective Thorson,” she said. “Captain Ortega sent me to give you these results.”
Thorson – then it clicked. They’d spoken on the phone before, on their first day on the case. That seemed like it was about five weeks ago, even though it was actually only yesterday. “Oh, yes,” Laura replied, getting it now. The detective had been very helpful, before. The way she had answered the phones, her size, and her unusual hairstyle made Laura think that it was very likely she was on desk duties – whether officially or not.
“You asked for someone to look into wholesalers or dealers of mannequins in the local area,” Thorson said. “I just finished making calls.”
“And?” Nate asked, leaning forward excitedly. Laura could almost hear the thought in his head. Maybe this was the lead they had been waiting for.
“There’s no reports of theft from any of them, and they all maintain that the only clients purchasing more than two mannequins for the same address have been the kind of businesses you would expect to need them,” Thorson reported. “Department stores, clothing manufacturers, that sort of thing. Actually, even though there are a few businesses based locally, the majority of their business is done on a wider scope. Out of county, out of state, even out of the country.”
“Right,” Laura sighed. “Well, thank you. At least we can rule out that area of investigation.”
“Um, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” Detective Thorson said, hesitating in the doorway still instead of leaving. “It’s just, as I was coming in, I heard you say something about tailors.”
“That’s right,” Nate confirmed. “Why? Do you know something?”
Detective Thorson nodded. “I handle a lot of – well, a lot of incoming paperwork,” she said, all but verifying Laura’s assumption. “I’ve seen a few reports about a tailor who lives locally. He’s been reported a few times for odd behavior.”
“There aren’t any logs in the system,” Nate said, frowning.
“No, there wouldn’t be,” Thorson replied. “Every time, it gets dismissed. I only know about it because I’ve seen the same name come up a few times. He’s kind of a loner, I think. I’ve driven by his store, but it’s just an empty storefront with a couple of mannequins in the window – he works on his own and you have to place an order ahead. When he is there, he often ends up scaring people on the street. That’s where the reports come from.”
“Where is the store?” Nate asked, getting up from behind the computer already.
“Well, that’s the thing,” Thorson said. “The business shut down recently. His erratic behavior had been running over onto the work he delivered to his clients. We actually had someone report him for ruining a jacket of theirs by sewing it up all weird. We referred them to file a suit since it wasn’t exactly within our remit.”
“So,” Laura said, making a careful summary of the situation to be sure she was getting it right. “We have a tailor, who works locally and almost certainly with mannequins, who is already known for erratic and increasingly strange behavior, who also recently had a trigger event in the form of losing his business?”
“Yes,” Detective Thorson said, and blushed slightly. “I’m sorry, I should have put it together earlier. I just didn’t think of him until I heard you mention tailors.”
Laura couldn’t blame her for not thinking of it. From the way she talked about it, she hadn’t had much personal involvement in the case – she’d just handled the paperwork briefly. If she did that for all the cases that came through the precinct, or even just the majority, that would be a lot of cases to try to remember.
“We’d better pay him a visit at home,” Laura said decisively. “You know where to find him?”
Thorson brought her hands out from behind her back, revealing a sheaf of paperwork. Some of it evidently related to the searches she’d done on wholesalers, but the paper on top held what Laura could clearly see was a handwritten address. “Yes, ma’am.”
Laura considered it for a moment. She usually hated working with new people – especially since it forced her to hide her abilities even deeper and start the usual old lies all over again. But today, at least, she had something of a confidence boost. Maybe it was being with Nate again, having her partner back on her side. Either way, she was feeling generous.
“Would you like to come along with us?” she asked.
Thorson’s eyes widened almost comically, and she nodded faster than Laura had seen a person nod before. “Yes, ma’am,” she said.