“ Any leads?”
Richard finally exploded with, “Yes indeed, we're canvassing all the perverts in the city at the moment, beginning with your relatives. Do you think you can concoct a story around that?”
Jessica laughed, but O'Brien, picking up on Richard's English accent, only frowned, turned, and left, defeat written into his step.
Some four hours had passed since she and Richard had eaten at St. George's Potato, and since then, they had again walked the scene for anyone or anything that might shed some light. Jessica now paced the ready room where all pertinent information for the task force flowed, and she didn't like the fact that the river of communication had log- jammed.
She dropped into a chair, exhausted, others watching her, reading a certain defeat into her body language, when Chief Eriq Santiva briskly walked in and came directly to her. He stared down at her, shook his head, frowned, and then slapped down an evening edition of the Washington Post with a front-page story by Tim O'Brien. “Who wrote this? You or O'Brien?”
Jessica only had time to glance at the headline: “FBI Pursues Sex Pervert in DeCampe Disappearance.”
“ Where do you get off, Agent Coran, in doling out information like this to the press before I get it? I have to read about the case in the papers?”
“ Chief, it didn't happen that way,” began Richard, coming nearer Jessica, attempting to defend her.
“ Then enlighten me!” he shouted.
Everyone's eyes now riveted on Jessica for an answer. More than one on the task force sided with Santiva. But Eriq continued rampaging, not allowing her a word. “Jess, it says here you are hot on the trail of a sexual pervert who has Judge Maureen DeCampe at his mercy. You know what this will do to the family?”
“ I had nothing to do with O'Brien's fictional concoction.”
Santiva didn't hear her or chose not to. “Says here you are following leads to every sex pervert in the city. Is that true? No one's shared this with me. I thought this was an abduction for revenge motive case, so tell me, just what the fuck's going on down here?”
“ What can I say, Eriq? O'Brien's misrepresented what I said.”
Jessica gave Richard a stem look to tell him to keep out of it.
“ What precisely did you say to the press?” Eriq pursued.
“ Nothing, I tell you.”
“ All the same, now Sex Crimes at WPD wants in. Captain Halstrom in Sex Crimes is all over my head about this and-”
“ I told O'Brien nothing. Two words to shut him up.”
“ Oh, I see, and let me guess what those two words were.”
“ Man, this sucks,” Jessica roared while scanning the story. “He's managed to blow everything I said out of all proportion. Tim must've been on 'ludes when he wrote this shit.”
“ Any truth in it? This has got to sting the family, Jess. This is just thoughtless and insensitive.”
“ You can't blame me for O'Brien's actions.”
“ Are you and your team chasing a sex-lust-murderer here or not?”
“ Who knows? Maybe, maybe not. Frankly, I think not. We're of the same opinion as Richard. This creep is out for revenge-murder not lust-murder.”
“ Gene Halstrom is sending over a shrink-cop from his Sex Crimes Division at the WPD. Is that what I tell her?”
'Turn the whole damn case over to them, Chief. They're a special unit. You can wash your hands of it quite easily, if that's what you want.”
“ Don't test me, Jessica, or I just might do that.”
“ It's not about sex,” shouted Sharpe, who came to stand beside Jessica, defending her. “We all know it.”
J. T. joined in, standing behind Jessica. Others in the task force now did the same. It was a silent show of unity and conviction.
Santiva replied, “So you are all of one mind now?”
“ We are,” said Sharpe.
“ That's good… good.”
“ And it's not all over the press,” Jessica replied firmly.
“ Thank your lucky stars, Jessica. Someone always runs interference for you. But this time, all our heads are on the block if we don't deliver and deliver quickly. So how do we know for certain that it's not a sexually motivated abduction?”
“ You tell him, Richard,” suggested Jessica. The others remained silent “Well? Give it to me straight.” Santiva stared into Sharpe's eyes. We believe there's… there was some history between Judge DeCampe and her abductor. It doesn't on the surface warrant the label of a sex crime. We are leaning toward a revenge or hate motive, and that the perpetrator carefully premeditated the abduction. We believe she's been targeted for some time out of revenge, hate.”
“ Hate… revenge… but no perversions of a sexual nature?”
“ We don't know enough yet, Chief,” J. T. confessed.
Jessica offered an apology of sorts, lifting her shoulders. “I'm sorry for whatever I may have said that set O'Brien off, but at least our true investigation isn't being laid out in today's headlines.”
“ But they may well be in tomorrow's,” countered Santiva.
“ I have a full profile on the abductor,” Sharpe told him. “Sent a copy to you via interoffice a half hour ago. It has taken into account all we have, and the profile attempts to make sense of it.”
“ Look, Eriq,” said Jessica, her hands in the air, “I'm sorry if I screwed up, but my words were taken out of context, as usual.”
Richard's stare at Jessica told her in no uncertain terms that he did not like it that she had assumed the brunt of Santiva's accusation when in fact it had been Richard who had chosen to throw the reporter a bone in order to get rid of the pesky fellow. Still, it was a rarity to hear her apologize for anything, and now she'd gotten herself in this deep, he held back.
“ I hope it doesn't hurt the family,” Jessica added.
“ Hers or ours?” he asked, referring to the FBI's reputation.
“ Theirs, of course. Please, tell them it's just to get a dig in at the abductor, maybe stir him to some foolish action, like perhaps contacting us or the newspaper.”
“ It already has hurt the family, Jessica,” replied Santiva. “It already has.” Santiva stared about the room, did a bit of pacing and rampaging, mostly muttering to himself. “So now you're all dug in here?” He didn't wait for a reply. “I just got heat from the police commissioner who just got the mayor off his back. Everyone upstairs wants results yesterday, people.” He lifted the newspaper and slapped it down again with a rifle shot result. “And this kind of crap can only worsen our public appearance, unless we're all in agreement on content that goes out of here. Is that clear? Say not a word to the press that isn't cleared through channels. Repeat it back, both of you.” His eyes settled on Sharpe and Jessica, even as murmured yes sirs wandered the room like so many blind birds.
Jessica remained silent; Richard almost broke the silence, but Jessica jabbed him in the ribs. Santiva stormed off, a section of newspaper taking wing in his wake. Sharpe exchanged a long stare with Jessica before J. T. got between them, saying, “Gee willikers, you handled that well, Jess.” J. T. lifted the newspaper and began scanning the story for himself.
Jessica laughed lightly, but it was a hollow laugh at best. Sharpe put an arm around her, bolstering her and saying, “All in a day's work, sweetheart.” She tilted her head upward and they kissed while J. T. gave them a firm frown. “Are we absolutely sure it isn't some sex pervert with sexual intentions on his mind?” asked one of the other agents. “Maybe we locked down on the notion of revenge motive too soon.”
“ Yeah? How do we know?” she replied. “Maybe that asshole O'Brien-the Newly Established Irish Anti-Sexual Perversion League-can define sexual perversion for us.”
“ What kind of game are you playing, here, Jess?”
“ Is that the best you can do, J. T.?”
Now it was Sharpe's turn to frown at Jessica.
