The virtual meeting room was silent.
“Nick?”
“All over it, ma’am,” Nick said.
“Go get ‘em, tiger,” Peterson said. “Dismissed.”
Ames volunteered to scout out the employment records while Ashton tried to contact Gorski in VR from his office, in private.
“Oh, hi, Nick,” Gorski finally responded – though it was voice-only. “You got anything for me yet?”
“Not yet, Stefan,” Ashton said. “Cally is trying to pull up Medved’s records now, while I contact you. She and I will go over ‘em as soon as I’m done here.”
“Good. I don’t have a lot for you yet,” Gorski said. “I’m watching the Guard’s forensics team put together the crime scene right now. The husband’s upset as hell, of course. It seems the victim was afraid of something like this, back when she was offered the job of advising the Empress, and he recommended she take the job.”
“Aw, damn.”
“Yeah, poor bastard. He’s laying the blame on himself, and pretty much a wreck at this point. There was an attempt by IPD to usurp the crime scene, but the Guard headed it off.”
“I feel for the poor guy, and yeah, the Colonel told us about the attempt. Listen, Stefan, you know who did it.”
“I know who you think did it.”
“Let me send you some of the stuff I’ve put together over the years I’ve been watching the guy,” Ashton suggested as he requested the VR system provide a classified channel for the two of them. “Yes, I know we still have to prove it was him. And I know it’s gonna be a pain in the ass to do. But just have a look. You can at least keep an eye out for anything that fits the profile I’ve constructed.”
“All right, Nick. Lay it on me,” Gorski capitulated.
The older man’s avatar appeared in the small gray room that Ashton had requested in VR, and Ashton’s avatar handed Gorski’s avatar a folder full of papers; this represented the transfer of the electronic reports and profiles that Ashton had compiled over the years, since he first started investigating Joey Bronze in the police academy. Gorski flipped through the first few pages, scanning them, then began to read.
“Hm. You do have something here,” he decided. “And yeah, this gives me some ideas about where to start looking. If I actually find something in those places, then I’ll take it even more seriously. And I’ll let you know immediately.”
“Good. That’s all I wanted you to do, Stefan. I’ll let you get back to it, then, and see what Cally and I can dig up on Medved’s ex-boss. Then we’ll go bring him in for questioning.”
“Excellent. And Nick? Thank you. I know you’ve been frustrated by our inability to pin anything on Bronze. But this one? You might have pointed me exactly where this investigation needs to go. Right on time to discuss it with Imperial Guard Major Dunham, too.”
“Terrific, Stefan. Like the Colonel just told me, ‘Go get ‘em, tiger.’”
Gorski laughed.
“The old tiger and the new. I wonder which is more dangerous?”
“I dunno, but when you team ‘em up, don’t take ‘em on in a dark alley at night.”
This time, they laughed together.
“Nick?” Ames said from across Ashton’s desk, when he emerged from VR. “That was pretty straightforward. I’ve already got the name for you.”
“Oh? Let’s hear it, Cally.”
“Her old boss was one Bruce Peter Fairfield, Manager of the Small Weapons Test Plan Design Group in the Department of Defense. According to records, when she got unhappy about the way things were going, she told him off and quit. Um, she told him off pretty effectively, too. And in no uncertain terms.” She flushed.
Ashton grinned; Callista Ames could be a bit prim and proper with him, for a fellow police officer, though she was pretty straightforward in the field, and could cuss with the best if the situation called for it. He could imagine the sort of language she was referencing, and Screw you! probably didn’t go nearly far enough. Maybe it’s because we’re putting together a private relationship that she’s shy around me about stuff like that, he considered, then got back to business.
“All right,” he said then. “We need to go down to the DoD complex and see about picking him up.”
“I got the address and building name, as well as his office number,” Ames declared. “It’s too late now to go get him, but it gives us plenty of time to plan for tomorrow.”
“Good. Let’s go put a team together.”
“That’s excellent,” Peterson said, as she watched Ames and Ashton put together a team. “Because word just came down – all the way from the Empress – they want this guy brought in to the Guard.”
“So it’s official-official now,” Ashton confirmed.
“About as official as it can get, Nick,” Peterson averred. “It’s late, and per feedback from Major Dunham coming through Stefan, Her Majesty prefers we do it tomorrow, after he gets off work. That way, he sort of vanishes in between work and home, hopefully with nobody in the conspiracy the wiser about where he went, and plenty of time to vanish him. Adrian is undercover, keeping watch on him, to make sure nobody else gets to him before we do.”
“That works,” Ashton agreed.
“Hey, Nick,” Peterson said as he came through the door the next morning. “I’m sending you over to work with the Imperial Guard and the Palace staff to see what’s going down there. Per the Guard’s request, they’re making an attempt to locate the hit man on the street cameras we have providing security around Imperial Park.”
“Right,” Ashton said. “But if they’re already doing that, what do you need me for?”
“Stefan wants you there, to see if you recognize Bronze in any of the imagery. You’re the one that has studied him the most,
