The Narrows - Michael Connelly [54]
She glanced around the room. She had their eyes but she could tell she was more of a curiosity to them than a respected colleague. The silence was broken by the television.
“I think Rachel is probably right,” Doran said. “We have been manipulated from day one on this. Why not with the gum? It does seem like an incredible mistake for such a well-planned action.”
Rachel noticed Doran wink at her.
“One piece of gum, one mistake, in eight graves?” said Gunning, one of the agents from Quantico. “I don’t think that is such a long shot. We all know nobody’s ever committed the perfect crime. Yes, people get away but they all make mistakes.”
“Well,” Alpert said, “let’s wait and see what we get with this before we jump to any conclusions one way or the other. Mary, anything else?”
“Not at this time.”
“Then let’s go to Agent Cates to see how the locals are doing with the IDs.”
Cates opened a leather-bound folder on the table in front of him. It contained a legal pad with notes on it. That he had such a nice and expensive holder for a basic legal pad told Rachel that he was very proud of his work and what he did. Either that or the person who gave him the folder had those feelings. Either way, it made Rachel like him right away. It also made her feel like she was missing something. She no longer carried that kind of pride in the bureau or what she did.
“Okay, we started sniffing around Vegas Metro on their missing persons case. We’re handicapped by the need for secrecy. So we’re not going in there like gangbusters. We’ve just made contact and said we’re interested because of the state line thing—victims from multiple states and even one other country. That gives us an in but we don’t want to show our hand by blasting in there. So we’re supposed to have a sitdown with them later today. Once we reach the beach, so to speak, we’ll start back tracing these individuals and looking for the common denominator. Keep in mind these guys have been on this for several weeks and as far as we know don’t have shit.”
“Agent Cates,” Alpert said. “The tape.”
“Oh, excuse my language there. They don’t have anything is what I meant to say.”
“Very good, Agent Cates. Keep me informed.”
And only silence followed. Alpert continued to smile warmly at Cates until the local agent got the message.
“Oh, um, you want me to leave?”
“I want you out there working on those victims,” Alpert said. “No sense wasting time in here listening to us hash things around to no end.”
“Okay, then.”
Cates got up. If he had been a white man the embarrassment would have been more recognizable on his face.
“Thank you, Agent Cates,” Alpert said to his back as he went through the door.
Alpert then turned his attention back to the table.
“I think Mary, Greta, Harvey and Doug can all be excused as well. We need you guys back in the trenches, I’m afraid. No pun intended.”
There was that administrative smile again.
“Actually,” Mary Pond said, “I’d like to stay and hear what Brass has to say. It might help me in the field.”
Alpert lost his smile at the challenge.
“No,” he said firmly, “that won’t be necessary.”
An uneasy silence engulfed the room until it was finally punctuated by the sounds of the science team’s chairs being pushed back from their tables. The four of them got up and left the room without speaking. It was painful for Rachel to watch. The unchecked arrogance of command staff was endemic in the bureau. It was never going to change.
“Now, where were we?” Alpert said, easily morphing past what he had just done to five good people. “Brass, your turn now. I have you down here for the boat, the tape and bags, the clothes, the GPS device, and now you have the gum,