“Me, who else,” he spat. “Now like I said, just calm down.”
“And your brass?”
“Yeah, some of them too. Jeezus, you oughta be happy you got a few friends in high places for a change.”
Felicity, who had remained conspicuously silent as the discussion turned to an argument, now spoke up. “Aye, Ben, I have to agree with Rowan. Something doesn’t feel right about this. We’ve had our fill of hidden agenda’s today. What aren’t you telling us?”
“Dammit, where the hell’s the doc?” he muttered as a response.
“Okay, if you aren’t going to tell me what’s going on, then I’m done,” I announced. “Come on, Felicity, I think we can probably still catch that movie.”
“Jeezus, Row, give it a rest. Nobody’s out ta’ get ya’.”
I took my wife’s arm, and we headed toward the exit. We made it to the door before my friend gave in.
“Okay, stop! Just stop right there,” he barked, struggling to keep his voice at a reasonable volume. “Sonofabitch… I told ‘em somethin’ like this would happen.”
“Are you going to quit jerking us around?” I asked as I glanced back toward him.
He huffed out a heavy sigh then reached up and smoothed back his hair. He closed his eyes and hung his head for a moment as his hand slid down to his neck and came to a rest.
“Goddammit…” he muttered before bringing his gaze to meet mine. “Fine… Okay… You win… Ya’ happy?”
“I will be when I know what’s really going on here,” I appealed.
“Maybe… Maybe not,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter. Truth is I know it won’t make any difference as far as you helpin’ goes.”
“So someone thought it would?” I asked, confusion wrinkling my face.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Which is exactly why I’m under orders not to tell ya’.”
“What the hell is it?” Now I was thoroughly perplexed.
Finally, he simply blurted out, “The missin’ woman’s name is, Judith Albright.”
“Albright,” I repeated the name back to him. “As in…”
“Yeah,” he said, cutting me off. “Albright as in she’s Bible Barb’s niece.”
The revelation definitely gave me pause.
I stared back at my friend and he at me, neither of us uttering a word. Even Felicity remained silent, which was a shock because I was fairly certain she despised the woman even more than me. Still, Ben was correct. I wasn’t about to withhold my help on this case because of a grudge against a victim’s relative, although I was fairly certain the same would not be true if the tables were turned.
To say Captain Barbara Albright and I had a turbulent history was the understatement of the century. I was a Witch and she was a fundamentalist Christian with a badge-obviously not a good mix. Still, it shouldn’t have been an issue, and to be honest it wasn’t, at least not for me. However, she decided otherwise before we’d even met, and the rest was downhill from there.
Live and let live simply wasn’t a part of her credo. If you didn’t share her beliefs you were damned to hell. To that end, she was more than happy to use her position within the department to cram Christianity down your throat and then find a way to legally harass you if you dared to gag and spit it back out.
Behind her back the majority of the police force simply called her Bible Barb, or BeeBee for short. She definitely had her share of lackeys and supporters interspersed throughout the ranks, but among the cops on the street they were few and far between. Still, you had to watch what you said if you weren’t sure where someone else’s loyalties might lay because it would definitely make its way back to her ears.
If ever I’d had a nemesis who just happened to be on the correct side of the law, she was it. Our first run in had come when she was a lieutenant and had unceremoniously taken charge of an investigation with which I was involved. From that point forward she’d been on a mission to sever my ties with local law enforcement as a consultant. While she had eventually been promoted out of any direct contact where I was concerned, I never felt as though I was fully out of her sights. Even as recently as the debacle with Felicity’s false arrest, Albright’s fingerprints were all over some of the harassment and bureaucratic stumbling blocks we had faced.
And now, here she was again.
“So that’s what you were all nervous about?” I finally asked.
“I told ya’ I wasn’t nervous. What I was, was pissed off about havin’ ta’ lie to you.”
“That seems to have become a theme lately,” I agreed. “The lying thing I mean.”
“Tell me about it,” he huffed. “It’s been givin’ me a friggin’ ulcer. But, like I said, you’re the one who blew this all out of proportion.”
“You’re right,” I said with a nod. “Sorry… It’s been a bad couple of days. And then the whole thing with the FBI… I know that’s not much of an excuse, but it’s all I’ve got.”
“Yeah, well I probably shoulda just blown off the orders and told ya’ anyway.”
I pondered the situation for a moment then let out a bemused snort. “So your brass actually thought I was so shallow that I’d refuse to help because of Albright?”
“Actually, no. She’s the one who thought you would say no.”
“She knows I’m helping?” I could hear the incredulity woven through my own voice.
“Yeah, she knows all right,” Ben told me as if he was having trouble believing his own words. “Believe it or not, as soon as her niece went missin’ she started demandin’ you be brought in to consult, even if Major Case had to arrest you ta’ make it happen.”
“Not exactly subtle, is she?”
“Listen, Row,” Ben continued. “You won’t have to deal with ‘er. After she threw that fit, the chief put ‘er on administrative leave.”
“Like that’s going to stop her?” I replied.
“Yeah, I know, but I’m tellin’ ya’ you won’t have to deal with ‘er. I’ll make sure of it.”
I waved him off. “It doesn’t matter. You can tell your higher ups I’m not a complete ass. I’m not going to walk away from this just because of my history with Albright.”
“Yeah, I told ‘em that already, but they wanted to play it safe.”
“Well be sure to let them know that playing it safe almost did cause me to walk out.”
“Oh yeah. Believe me, that’s right at the top of the list.”
“And, do me another favor, okay?”
“What’s that?”
“Can we try remembering that we’re friends and stop with the tiptoeing around the truth? I think we’ve established that it’s not helping either of us.”
He nodded. “Yeah, definitely. I don’t need the stomach problems.”
“Good. Now that we have that settled why don’t we see if we can find out what’s keeping Doctor Sanders. I’m ready to get this over with…”
CHAPTER 21:
“How was lunch?” Ben asked the medical examiner when she finally arrived in the autopsy suite. The acerbic aura surrounding his words was anything but subtle.
“A little rushed,” she replied, no less caustic in her tone.
“Yeah, don’t ya’ just hate that?” my friend quipped.
“How was your wait?” she returned her own verbal stab.
“Long. And a bit chilly.”
She nodded and shot him a wry grin. “Really? Don’t you just hate that?”
“Havin’ a bad day, Doc?”
“I wasn’t until about twenty minutes ago.”
“Well then you’re already doin’ better’n me because mine started yesterday.”
She ignored him and gave me a quick nod. “Mister Gant, Miz…ummm…O’Brien, isn’t it?”
