right, but worse yet, Perry sensed things were worse than he thought.
“I’m heading down to Lucy’s for a drink and to stare at the big screen in the company of strangers,” Natalie said, wrapping her arm around Perry’s. “Dare to join me?”
He hadn’t been to Lucy’s in ages but had dared enter the club since taking Natalie there on their date. He smiled down at her knowingly. “Sounds like a challenge.”
“Never,” she said, looking shocked. “Just more fun to zone out on the boob tube with a crowd around than alone in my apartment, unless I know that company will be showing up soon.”
“I hear you,” he said, deciding not to fall for the bait.
“I might head down to Lucy’s after a shower,” Carl offered.
Natalie turned the same welcoming smile to Carl. Possibly she was simply looking for company during drinks and watching the prime-time lineup. Or maybe she was horny and didn’t care who she took home with her as long as he fell into her criteria of “decent.” Either way, Carl’s offer was good enough for Natalie.
“Both of you come down. I’ll see you there.” She let go of Perry and took off around the duplex toward the parking lot.
Carl tossed the football into the air a couple feet and then caught it, heading toward his back door. “You going to head down there?”
“Wasn’t planning on it,” Perry told him honestly. “I really showed up here to talk to you for a few.”
“No problem. Come on in.” Carl pulled his screen door open and held it, allowing Perry to enter first. “You want a beer?”
“Sounds good.”
“Rad come pay you a social call, too?” Carl pulled a couple cans out of his refrigerator and handed one to Perry. “Are we being written up on some bullshit or something?”
“I doubt it.” Perry followed Carl into his living room and reclined on the comfortable couch, relaxing into the corner and watching Carl do the same on the other end, kicking his shoes off before resting his sock-covered feet on his coffee table. Perry felt like doing anything but relaxing. “Something’s going on, though. If he came to see you and me, I’m betting he visited a few other cops on the force as well.”
“What the fuck for?” Carl gulped down a fair bit of his beer and belched.
“What exactly did he say to you?” Perry decided to ask the question before Carl could. He would rather form his conclusions after hearing what was said, and knowing nothing Carl told him would be altered based on anything he heard from Perry.
“He told me to start working with you, that we were partners and to start acting as though we were.”
“Said the same thing here.”
Carl frowned, staring at his beer for a moment without saying anything. Perry allowed the silence to grow, wanting to make sure Carl said everything on his mind, or that he had to share, before Perry added anything to it.
“If you came over because you think I complained about us not working together, I didn’t do that.” Carl looked at Perry, searching his face as if needing to see his reaction to his comment.
“Actually, that never entered my mind,” Perry told him honestly. “You’re the best partner I could ask for,” he added, guessing Carl needed reassurance and not minding giving it to him. Carl was a good cop, quite a bit younger than Perry but molding well and learning the ropes quickly. “You’ve never bitched that I head out on my own, and are always there when I’ve asked you to run with me.”
“Hey, whatever works, man,” Carl offered, shrugging and returning his attention to his beer. “Maybe his ass is on the line for something. It might not even be us. Could be that he got his butt chewed and wants us all prim and proper to save his own hide.”
“Could be,” Perry said, leaning forward and watching his beer can perspire. “What else he tell you?”
“Not a lot. He came over unexpected-scared the crap out of me. It was late last night and I was about to crash. To tell you the truth, it wasn’t so much what he said but how he acted.”
“Like he was checking your place out?”
Carl looked at Perry, his black eyes not blinking as he stared at him for a long moment. “Yup. Exactly what he was doing. He was checking the place out, searching for something. Flynn, you think we’re under investigation for some bogus charge?”
Rad didn’t chase ghosts. Perry had worked with the Chief long enough to respect the man. Something was going on. Whatever it was, he wouldn’t figure it out sitting here bullshitting and speculating with Ramos.
“I honestly have no idea what the Chief is up to.”
After leaving his partner’s house, Perry did a drive-by past Kylie’s house, not surprised but feeling a bit frustrated when she wasn’t home. He hit the mall, bowling alley, and library and didn’t find her car at any of those locations. Then heading over to the station, he decided to see if Rad was pulling some overtime. Perry was on edge, needed to burn off some steam, and returning home wouldn’t help him find answers.
As he entered the station and then walked down the hall toward the “pit,” the large room where all their desks were lined in rows, paired off and facing each other, the smell of coffee hit him, which didn’t alert him as much as the whistling. The “pit” held onto way too many smells from years of exhausted cops working overtime. He paused, though, listening as someone tried carrying a tune.
Goddard stopped in his tracks, quickly raising his cup and holding it away from himself so the steaming brew wouldn’t spill. “You scared the crap out of me,” Goddard said, and then blew on his coffee.
“Anybody here?” Perry asked, heading toward his desk and passing by Goddard’s. His computer was booted up, but he’d been away from it long enough that the screen saver had kicked in.
“What? I don’t count?”
“It depends on what you’re doing.”
“Looking for pussy on the Internet.”
Perry stared at Goddard, who returned the serious look for a moment before laughing easily. “Goddamn, Flynn. Look at me like I’m serious. Shit.” He rolled his eyes and then slumped into his chair, moving his mouse and then focusing on his screen. “What brings you down here, anyway?”
“Have you heard anything new on the Olivia Brown case?”
“You get assigned to the online predator case?” Goddard clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back, studying Perry. “And no. I don’t know a thing.”
“Nope. Not assigned to anything. I tried to get Rad to let me head it up, but no dice.” He’d get the Chief to agree to him having the case, though. No one else would take it. His nieces’ lives were at stake with the bastard hunting girls in Mission Hills. That didn’t sit well with Perry. But even more so, he wouldn’t stand for the Chief giving the case to one of several cops on the force who would love to have it just for the publicity. The case wasn’t about publicity. It was about putting one of the lowest forms of life behind bars, or killing him. Perry would love to be the one to pull the trigger.
“No one is assigned to those cases. And you would think someone should be, yes?” Goddard didn’t wait for Perry’s response but leaned forward, playing with his mouse again and then typing. “Seems to me if someone was assigned to play around online a bit, they could find the guy.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Perry booted his computer up and waited for the icons to appear on his desktop. He wanted to read over the reports of all the cases they had on file so far. And to hell with anyone if they questioned him researching a case not assigned to him. Data needed to be gathered. The sooner he learned as much as there was to know about each teenage girl, the faster he could create an MO on the perp who was stalking them. If he was going to be written up for doing that, then someone had too much damn time on their hands.
Olivia Brown had disappeared the other day, not showing up at her car at the mall and leaving her friends stranded and in need of rides home. The police report didn’t offer anything he didn’t already know. Olivia’s parents were panicking, calling the police department hourly. The notes after the report stated that the parents had hired a private investigator. All of Olivia’s friends were interviewed. Two of her friends knew she had been chatting online with a guy she had the hots for. Neither interview offered anything conclusive that could be followed up on.
Perry pulled up Maura Reynolds’ file next. She had disappeared over three months ago and there were no new leads. Interviews conducted right after she disappeared confirmed she had talked with her friends about meeting a boy who went to school in Independence, a town over thirty minutes away and across the state line into Missouri. The police had her hard drive from her computer as evidence, and chats were documented showing she’d arranged to meet a boy named Peter. They were going to see a movie together. Maura never came home, and
