“Good morning, detective,” Riverton said, its voice calibrated to an appropriate tone for an occasion like this. “I am very sorry for your loss. Detective Caine will be sorely missed.”
“Thank…” she cleared her throat. “Thank you, Riverton. Request update on any of our cases.”
“I have an update on the Kelto’s Diner case, detective. A point of interest is that Joseph Delroy’s cleaning business has contracts with several high-profile clubs in the Sensation. Given the Sensation has been a hot zone lately, I thought this should be flagged for your attention.”
“Which clubs?”
“Little Minx, Dynamo, Bounce, Club Den, and Floor to Ceiling.”
Salvi paused.
“Wait. What? Did you say Floor to Ceiling?” she said, recalling the image of the women in Barker’s studio. “There was an image in–”
“Yes, detective,” Riverton cut her off. “I downloaded the footage from your holo-badge and my analysis reasons the phrase on that particular image you looked at may be linked to this case. The phrase ‘Dancing on the Ceiling’ does appear to refer to this club, Floor to Ceiling.”
Salvi submerged in thought. Was this a coincidence? Or could there be some kind of link between the Barker case and the Kelto’s Diner case?
She reemerged from her thoughts as Beggs walked in. He paused upon seeing her, his nose looking a little swollen. Hernandez straightened, watching, wondering whether he was going to have to jump in the fray again.
“Thank you, Riverton,” Salvi said. “End request.”
Beggs stared at her. His face looked old, his eyes tormented. “Something come up?”
She nodded, eyeing him. Apparently they were going to pretend he hadn’t said those things to her, and that she hadn’t slugged him one.
“We may have a link between our cases. Barker photographed one of the clubs Delroy’s cleaning company tended to,” she answered, then looked at Hernandez as her mind turned over. “In fact, the more I think about it, I think if we look hard enough we might just find links between more of our cases.”
“How so?” Hernandez asked.
“They’re all centered in or close to the Sensation. In many of the cases, security footage has been hacked and wiped. Nothing stolen. Some appear to be targeted hits, others seem to be random acts of violence possibly linked to this new drug Narcotics warned us about, but…” Her mind turned over. She couldn’t join the dots yet, but her gut was telling her there was something here. Thanks to her old partner, Stan, she knew she had to trust her instincts. “I don’t know what it is, but I think there might something linking all of this.”
“And Caine’s murder?” Beggs asked.
“I… I don’t know,” Salvi said quietly.
Ford came out of her office and scanned the bullpen. “Get Grenville and Bronte here now. The Chief of Police is on his way.”
“The chief?” Hernandez asked.
Ford nodded. “We’re setting up a joint taskforce with the Narcotics and Cyber Crime divisions. Shit just blew open wide.”
Salvi gathered in the briefing room with her colleagues from the Homicide division, waiting for the other two divisions to show. Ford had given them no more information as to why Chief Garrett was paying them a visit, nor what the joint taskforce with Narcotics and Cyber was about. Mitch had been the last to arrive and everyone felt the tension in the room as he and Beggs stared at each other. Though Salvi noted Beggs was the first to look away. She wondered if she saw regret on his face for his earlier outburst?
Still, Salvi wasn’t concerned about Beggs right now, she was worried about Mitch. When he’d first entered the bullpen, they’d locked eyes, but then he’d looked away again. They were both grossly aware that everyone would notice every single move they made now. They couldn’t afford to glance at each other too long. At least, no longer than they looked at their colleagues. Salvi winced inside as she realized that by punching Beggs she’d all but confirmed his accusations. Why hadn’t she kept her cool like Mitch?
Soon enough the door opened and Kara Shadid walked in with the Narcotics team. Salvi saw Hinde and an another pair she’d interacted with before, detectives Farrugia and Burke, with a handful of others she didn’t know as well. Kara met eyes with Salvi and gave her a solemn nod, then stood on the other side of the room, folding her arms. Salvi studied her. Kara looked even more tired and edgy than the last time she saw her, and if Salvi wasn’t mistaken, she saw guilt on Kara’s face.
Why had Kara been so keen to talk to Caine yesterday?
The Cyber Crime division entered next, including Belle, who was ashen-faced and red-eyed. Salvi felt her chest tighten a little with pain. Every face in the room displayed grief at Caine’s murder, but none more so than Belle’s. Salvi wondered whether Belle had still been seeing Caine at the time of his death, or if he had moved on to Kara and broken her heart.
Still, right now none of that mattered. One of their own had been killed, and everybody in this room was going to do what they could to take his killer down.
The heads of each division arrived. Ford led the way, followed by Eli Sorensen from Narcotics, then Josef Noble from Cyber. They took their places at the front and spoke among themselves quietly. Salvi studied them, trying to lip read. Sorensen looked like he’d just rolled out of bed, but he always looked like that. He often took part in undercover stings, so the three-day growth, longish hair and pierced ear were just part of his uniform. Noble was more clean-cut, but he rarely wore a suit like Ford. His attire sat somewhere between the other two, and he was rarely seen without his comms gear on, haptic gloves or data pane close by. Except that, of course, being from Cyber he always had the latest tech at hand, unlike the other departments. Whatever Noble and his team used, Salvi could
