Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [50]
“Great. Tell Agent O’Dell, would you please?”
“Where do you want me to put them?” She skipped alongside him as he made his way to his office.
“Can’t you just give them to Agent O’Dell?”
“All five boxes?”
He stopped so suddenly she bumped into him. He grabbed her by the elbows as she teetered on her two-inch spiked heels.
“There’s five boxes?”
“You know Max. She’s pretty thorough, so everything’s labeled and cataloged. She said to tell you she also included copies of all the evidence that was entered and logged, as well as affidavits from witnesses who didn’t testify.”
“Five boxes?” He shook his head. “Put them in my office.”
“Okay.” She turned to leave, then stopped again. “Do you still want me to tell Agent O’Dell?”
“Yes, please.” Her distrust, contempt—whatever it was—for Maggie was beginning to wear thin.
“Oh, and the mayor’s holding on line three for you.”
“Lucy, we can’t afford to hold up any of those lines.”
“I know, but he insisted. I couldn’t just hang up on him.”
Yes, he was sure Brian Rutledge would have insisted. He was a royal pain in the ass.
Nick retreated to his office. Behind closed doors he plopped into his leather chair and uncinched his tie. He wrestled with the collar button, almost ripping it off. He dug a thumb and forefinger into his eyes, trying to remember how much sleep he had gotten since Friday. Finally, he grabbed the phone and punched line three.
“Hi, Brian. It’s Nick.”
“Nick, what the hell’s going on over there? I’ve been on hold for goddamn near twenty minutes.”
“Don’t mean to inconvenience you, Brian. We’re a little busy.”
“I’ve got a crisis of my own, Nick. City council thinks I should cancel Halloween. Goddamn it, Nick, I cancel Halloween and I look like the goddamn Grinch.”
“I think the Grinch is Christmas, Brian.”
“Goddamn it, Nick. This isn’t funny.”
“I’m not laughing, Brian. But you know what? I have a few more serious things to worry about than Halloween.”
Lucy peeked in from behind his door. He waved her in. She opened the door and motioned for the four men following her to set the boxes in the corner under the window.
“Halloween is serious, Nick. What if this nut ends up pulling something when all those kids are out running around in the dark?”
Rutledge’s whiny, tin voice grated on Nick’s nerves. He smiled and mouthed “thank you,” to Maxine Cramer, who had hauled in the final box. Even at the end of the day and after hauling a box halfway down the hall, her royal-blue suit held its sharply pressed seams. Her blue-gray, salon-permed hair matched her suit, not a strand out of place. She smiled back at Nick and nodded, then made her way out the door.
“Brian, what do you want from me?”
“I want to know how goddamn serious this thing is. Do you have any suspects? Are you making any arrests in the near future? What the hell are you doing over there?”
“One boy is dead and another is missing. How goddamn serious do you think this is, Brian? As far as how I handle the investigation, it’s none of your fucking business. We need this phone line open for more useful things than reassuring your sorry ass, so don’t call again.” He slammed the phone down and noticed O’Dell standing in the doorway, watching him.
“Sorry.” She seemed embarrassed to have witnessed his fury. Twice in one day. She must think he was a madman, a raving lunatic, or worse, simply incompetent. “Lucy told me the transcripts were in here.”
“They are. Come on in. Close the door behind you.”
She hesitated as though assessing whether it was safe to be behind closed doors with him.
“That was the mayor,” Nick explained. “He wanted to know if I’m going to have an arrest made by Friday, so he won’t have to cancel Halloween.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Pretty much what you just heard. The boxes are here under the window.” He rolled his chair around to point to them, then kept it there to stare out the window. He was tired of cloudy weather. Sick of rain. He couldn’t remember the last time there’d been a full day of sunshine. It was as though