“Detective?” Chen asked. “What is it?”
“I think our victim just got out of jail. The hundred-dollar bill was probably what he had in his prison inmate account, and the rest of the personal effects were what they confiscated when he was booked.”
“Oh, right.”
She looked over her shoulder and saw the tech lab guys entering the scene. “Thanks for your help, Officer. Let’s give the crime lab guys space to do their work.”
After the coroner took the body away, Sofia headed back to the police station to do more digging on Thomas Dixon. Sure enough, he came up in the police database. He went to prison twenty years ago for kidnapping, assault, and aggravated murder, but he’d already had a rap sheet a mile long before then. Shoplifting when he was a minor, robbery, drug possession, domestic battery … it went on and on. He’d been in and out of jail, but didn’t do anything for more than a year until the kidnapping case.
Apparently, he and a bunch of other guys kidnapped two rich kids as they were leaving their private school. They shot the kids’ bodyguard, then took the children. A private security firm had discovered them hours later. The kids were unharmed but the kidnappers had all been seriously injured in some kind of car crash, leaving most of them injured.
Huh.
No wonder Dixon had a colostomy bag. The records came with a couple of photos of the guys after they had been brought to the hospital. Jesus Christ. They looked like they had been shredded to ribbons. Dixon himself had a nasty scar down the front of his face and had lost an eye.
Hmmm. It was strange how the two children escaped with no injuries. When she tried to access the files from the case, she found herself locked out. Probably sealed from public access. Not an unusual thing with minors. Being a part of law enforcement, she could easily access the files. She tapped in her password and waited for the records to download to her computer.
A few minutes later, the case file was on her hard drive. Clicking on the folder, she opened the document, scanned the names and—
Motherfucker.
Chapter Three
“I thought we talked about you not bringing your work home.” Sergeant Winters gave her a reproachful look.
Sofia barely glanced at her. “I didn’t.”
“No?”
“That’s because I didn’t go home.”
“You what?” Winters walked around, then looked down at her desk. “Detective, are you all right? What are you doing with all those files?”
Piles and piles of folders and envelopes littered her desk. Since every inch of space was taken up, so she put some of them on the floor. “Working. What does it look like?”
“And you haven’t gone home yet?”
She thought for moment. “I did. I think it was around two in the morning on Saturday when I went home to shower and change.” She sniffed at her shirt. It was still okay, but she should probably change it today.
“Saturday? But it’s Monday morning!”
She checked her desk calendar. “So it is.”
“What’s going on, Detective?” The sergeant had her hands on her hips.
Sofia sighed and leaned back in her chair. “It’s this case I’m working on.” She rubbed her eyes with her fingers.
“The D.B. from last Friday?” Winters frowned. “From what I heard, the guy’s a scumbag.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve justice.” The more she read about Dixon, the more she hated him, but he was still the victim of a crime.
“But still, why all this fuss?” Winters asked.
Why indeed. This whole thing was like a fucking Pandora’s box. The moment she opened those records, more and more things came out. Things that didn’t make sense. “I’m still working on it,” she said.
Winters shrugged. “All right. But you should know, the captain wants to see you.”
“Huh?”
She jerked her thumb toward Bushnell’s office. “Yeah. He wants you to come to his office. Now.”
Sofia blew a tendril of hair that had come loose from her messy bun. “All right.” She stood up. “I’ll head over there now.” A pain in her neck made her wince and she stretched out, feeling her muscles protest. How long had she been sitting there? She fell asleep sometime after midnight last night and took a quick nap in the break room. It had still been dark when she sat down at her desk.
“Sir?” she said as she poked her head into Bushnell’s office. “You wanted to see me sir?”
He looked up at her from where he was sitting behind his desk. “Detective.” He gestured to the seat in front of him.
“Will this take long, sir?”
“It might.” He cleared his throat. “Two things. The first one, you already know about.”
Ah. Maybe he had heard about the rat. She made sure to get rid of the evidence before anyone saw it, but people here were fucking nosy. “All right.” She sat down on the chair.
“Let me cut to the chase, Selinofoto.” He clasped his meaty hands on top of the desk. “We have a court date for the Bianchi case.”
Her entire body went rigid. “Good to know. When?”
“Seven weeks. I want to make sure you’re still testifying.”
“Yes,” she said quickly. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
His eyes briefly darted behind her, probably scanning the bullpen. “I know no one’s made it easy for you here for the past couple of months. Hell, I haven’t done anything to help you out.”
“I wasn’t expecting you to coddle me, sir,” she said.
“Still, I know things have been tough. Plus, I still can’t find anyone who wants to take you on as a partner.”
“That’s fine, sir.” Her cases were piling up, but she had managed them. “Wait, are you trying to convince me not to testify?”
“What?” His eyes narrowed at her. “Of course not. I mean, not if that’s what you want. Listen.” He got to his feet and walked around his desk, sitting on the chair next to hers. “I really admire what you did. It takes guts to take down a corrupt police officer. Especially
