Chapter 39
SARAH BRIGHTWATER WAS at her desk and her mood was foul. She poured over the forensic report of the latest ‘Agrarian’ crime scene and muttered curses under her breath at the lack of anything usable. Malick was across from her at his own desk and he too was looking over the case files. He looked up every now and then to Sarah as she dropped obscenities on her desk.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Malick said finally and Sarah looked at him. “It’s not like we just missed him by a few minutes. That guy was dead for hours and hours before we arrived.”
“It may as well have been only minutes.” Sarah shot back, “The fact is we could have got him on this one and we didn’t.”
“I think you’re looking through rose tinted glasses Sarah and that’s what’s riling you so much.”
“What ‘riles’ me up is that he is still out there and he’s free to kill again. We were so close and now I think we might have lost him for good,” Sarah said. The feeling of helplessness just like she felt about her mother’s death rose up in her and she saw the sympathetic look in Malick’s eyes which made it even worse.
“It’s not over until it’s over,” he said in a vain effort to cheer her up.
At that moment the mail boy came in and as was customary, they stopped talking while he was in the room. He dropped a few letters at both of their desks and each thanked him before the boy left. Sarah glanced disinterestedly at her pile, there was nothing of importance there at first glance. As she looked up to Malick, though, she saw his eyes widen as he read one of the letters; she knew at once what his face was telling her- whatever was in that letter it was a break in one of their cases. How she wished she could have gotten a letter like it just now.
“What is it?” she asked eagerly, Malick looked at her, a wide smile broadening on his face.
“You’re going to love this,” he said.
“Just tell me!” Sarah cried out, the same smile started to twinkle on her own face.
“It’s anonymous, but it says Carson Lemond and ‘The Agrarian’ will both be at the old Saffron Clothing Warehouse on the docks in Baltimore tonight!” Sarah glanced at her watch and leaped up,
“It will be night by the time we get there!!” she said and Malick jumped to his feet too as they set off.
“I’ll call ahead and have the local PD in place,” Malick said as they ran along the corridors of the Academy towards the carpool. Sarah was glad to be rushing to the scene but she was worried about the Carson Lemond element to the story. Was there a possibility she could get in trouble with this? Could her secrets come out? If so, wouldn’t it be best if only she and Malick were there?
“No,” she said and he looked to her. “It’s an anonymous letter, we don’t know if there’s anything to it at all, and to be honest,” now she looked in this eyes searching for that old trust between them, "with all that’s happened lately, I need a win, just for us.” A look of understanding came over his face and Sarah was delighted and relieved to see it.
“Sure,” he said, “I could do with one myself.”
They raced on to the car and Sarah took the driver’s side,
“I’m driving,” she asserted, “You start looking up maps of the area and anything else you can find out about that warehouse.” Malick nodded and jumped in, firing up his laptop as soon as he was in his seat. This was a formula that had served them well in the past and it felt good to be doing it again.
They hit the highway soon after leaving and the dark was rolling across the sky in the east. Sarah glanced at Malick and was glad to see some of his old vigour back. Still, she was worried about him. This could be a dangerous situation they were heading into. If Spalding was here it could be especially dangerous. For a moment the idea of calling in backup flashed through her mind but she shook her head. If anyone with authority over her got wind of this she would be taken off the case at once. They were going to have to go it alone.
“Are you sure you're going to be okay doing this with just the two of us?” she asked. Malick looked back to her.
“I understand your concerns,” he said, “But to be honest I haven’t been this fired up in a long, long time, not since I've been back. You can count on me.”
“That’s all I need to hear,” Sarah answered him smiling at the road ahead.
Baltimore loomed in the far distance and night grew ever encroaching on the world around the car.
“Anything interesting about the warehouse?” Sarah asked.
“Not really. It went out of business about ten years ago. The whole waterfront is abandoned warehouses and storage units. It was all bought by a company called ‘Silverstone’ five years ago and they have been lobbying for rezoning rights since to turn it all into a waterfront mall and dining area.”
“Any notable names associated with the company?” Sarah asked, thinking of mob connections.
“Not to me,” Malick answered reading through another page on his screen.
“What about the physical premises?”
“Nothing spectacular. A rectangle box of a building backing out onto the water for delivery and shipping. Small alleys running between it and the buildings on either side, nothing you'd fit a car down by the looks of it.” Sarah glanced quickly at the
