He paused for a moment, giving her a hard stare. “And I can assure you that they would want to make the Bureau understand the full measure of their unhappiness, too. Especially with respect to the enterprising young agent who was responsible.”
Izzie stood up straighter, hands at her sides. “With all due respect, sir,” she said, in a tone that was far from respectful, “let’s assume for the moment that I did discover something that we missed five years ago. Some crucial bit of evidence that would mean that the Fuller case did need to be reopened. Are you suggesting that I should ignore it? Are you attempting to order me to do so? Because I would have to check the chain of command to be certain, but I’m pretty sure that you would be—”
“Hold on, hold on.” He put his hands up in front of his chest, palms forward, in a defensive posture. “I’ll go on record as saying that the last thing I’d do would be to suggest that you conceal evidence of a crime. Okay? That’s not what I’m saying.”
Izzie arched an eyebrow suggestively, inviting him to continue.
“What I’m saying is that Nicholas Fuller is dead, the families of his victims have found whatever peace with that they’re going to find, and the city has done its level best to move on. Anything that you find, whatever detail about those killings that you uncover, isn’t going to bring Fuller back so we can take him to court again. The man’s dead. So unless you’ve found that he wasn’t acting alone, and that there’s another suspect out there . . .”
He trailed off, an expression blooming slowly across his face.
“You haven’t found evidence of an accomplice, have you?” he asked, horrified.
“No, no,” Izzie answered, shaking her head furiously. “Nothing that Lieutenant Tevake and I have found contradicts the established conclusion that Nicholas Fuller carried out the Reaper killings on his own.”
Not exactly, anyway, she thought to herself.
“Good.” He breathed a literal sigh of relief.
“In fact,” Izzie continued, taking on a more conciliatory tone, “the bulk of our investigation has been focused on the production and distribution of a new street drug, and the inquiries into Fuller’s background and the background materials we’ve gathered from his former colleagues have primarily been gathered in support of the RPD’s ongoing narcotics investigation. It’s true that we have uncovered some information about Fuller that didn’t come to light in the taskforce’s original investigation, but it’s all in line with what we already knew.” She paused, and then managed a wan smile. “No surprises.”
Agent Gutierrez seemed somewhat mollified. He nodded slowly, and then went to pick his racket up from the desk. As he turned, his gaze landed on Izzie’s go-bag sitting in the chair across the room, and he straightened back up, leaving the racket where it lay.
“Planning on leaving us soon, Agent Lefevre?” he said, giving her a quizzical look.
She looked from Agent Gutierrez to her bag and back again, thinking fast. “I’ll be joining Lieutenant Tevake on an extended stakeout,” she said matter-of-factly. “It’s not clear how long we’ll have to remain in position, so I figured I’d bring along my things to keep as comfortable as possible.”
He nodded. “My first stakeout was down in Biloxi, back in ’98,” he said, a little wistfully. “We thought we’d be in and out in a couple of days, but ended up having to stay in position for an entire month. And then the hurricane hit and it all went to—”
“Are you decent in there, Izzie?” a voice from the hall outside shouted. “Because I’d be okay if you’re not, because then maybe we could—”
Daphne stopped short as soon as she stepped through the open door and saw the Senior Resident Agent standing there.
“Oh,” she said, quickly regaining her composure. “Agent Gutierrez.” She glanced at the racket case. “How’d the match with the Deputy Mayor go?”
“I let him win,” he answered, and then gestured to the overnight bag hanging off Daphne’s shoulder. “Going somewhere, Agent Richardson?”
“I, um . . .” Daphne clutched the strap of the bag, and Izzie could almost see the thoughts racing behind her eyes.
“I’ve requested that Agent Richardson assist me in the surveillance team,” Izzie quickly put in. “Lieutenant Tevake’s vice squad has already committed so many resources to this narcotics investigation that they’re a little short-staffed, so I suggested that we might be able to offer some backup.”
“And it won’t interfere with my current workload,” Daphne hastened to add, following Izzie’s lead. “My caseload is pretty light at the moment, and what little I do have on my plate I can handle remotely. And I’ll be close enough that I can get back to the office quickly if needed.” She paused, studying Agent Gutierrez’s expression. “I was coming in to write it up for your approval, sir.”
He chewed it over for a long moment before answering, giving them each a hard stare in turn.
“All right, I don’t have any strong objections to that,” he finally answered. “So long as I don’t end up having to pick up your slack.”
He picked up his racket, and then crossed the floor to his office door. Pausing in the open doorway he turned and gave them a curt nod, and then shut the door behind him.
“Stakeout, huh?” Daphne said in a low voice, turning to face Izzie.
“I had to improvise.” Izzie shrugged. “But it’ll cover us if we need to go to ground.”
Daphne glanced over at the door to Agent Gutierrez’s office. “There’s a chance he could follow up on it. Not saying he doesn’t trust us, but he’s a
