Heads Will Roll – Chapter Eighteen

NOT EDITED

Bridget sat down in front of Rick’s desk, arms crossed over her chest. “I called Jamal. He wasn’t aware Kathy had even left LA, let alone come here. So far, she’s not answering any of his phone calls. But once we deduce where she went, she’ll be sent home, and Bo’s notebook will return here to the station. He’s gone through everything and confirmed she couldn’t have taken anything else from the evidence room.”

“Including the evidence itself?” Rick asked. “I… I don’t know how true it is, but I always heard rumors of her swiping evidence before it was logged to be the only one who could solve the case.”

“He checked, believe me. Everything’s accounted for.”

“Good,” Rick whispered. He grabbed his baseball cap from his desk, fiddlign with it for a moment before pulling it down over his head. “You ever had to work with Kathy before?”

“Not directly, but I’m still well-aware of her and everything about her. She usurps any high-profile cases from our department if her case isn’t as ‘important’ as ours. It’s just… all about whichever case is going to get her in the press. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that Bo was here, she wouldn’t want to be anywhere near here. It’s not high-profile in the slightest, and by the time it’s a ‘small town murder’ episode of a crime show, she’s going to have forgotten all about it, and the potential air time from it won’t matter at all.”

Rick shook his head. “You know, I always wonder how the hell she’s the detective Jamal raised. I just… I grew up around him, since I grew up around her. I was at his house all the damn time, and he’d play hide and seek with us. Board games, bad mitten, catch, tag. He’d take us to laser tag sometimes. I even got to tag along for horse trail riding a couple times. I just…” He cleared his throat. “I know there are rumors about Jamal, about the things he’s involved in and what he does outside of the police station. But he’s a decent man, you know? At least, he was when I knew him in person.”

“He still is. Decent, I mean. Los Angeles is lucky to have him as Chief. He’d just probably be better off if he could ditch Kathy once and for all,” Bridget said with a soft laugh and a shake of her head.

“Probably,” Rick agreed. “He made a promise to her dad that he’d take care of her if anything happened to him. That’s all I know, but… that promise is why he lets her get away with most things, I think. Even if it’s a bad thing.”

“That, I didn’t know. That she was adopted, yeah, obviously. But not the secret promise to her bio dad.”

“Yeah, just one of those things, I guess. I was always jealous of her for getting to have Jamal as a dad, and she didn’t even want him. Didn’t respect him, didn’t love him. Didn’t anything. My old man, see, he was a son of a bitch, took out whatever his parents did wrong on me and my mom. All I ever wanted was a good dad, and Kathy got him instead. She doesn’t know about that jealousy, and she still acts like… she’s the smartest person in the world. The best person. The greatest. The most talented. The most impressive. She doesn’t even know how many people would kill for the childhood he gave her, the one she took for granted at every turn.” Rick chuckled, scrubbing his hands over his face. “Lack of sleep really does make you feel drunk. Makes you loose-lipped like one too.”

“My dad was kind of a piece of shit too. Explains my usual taste in men.”

Rick snorted. He dropped his elbow to the arm of his chair, tilting his head to the side to rest his temple against his fist. “You do that a lot, you know that? Shift the focus to someone or something other than yourself. Usually men. Your men.”

One corner of Bridget’s mouth lifted. “What can I say? Sexuality and what I do with it is my comfort zone. Bo’s probably one of the only people alive that knows much about me. Keep my inner circle small.”

“Seems like you and Jeff might actually make a good piece of that inner circle.”

“He is pretty cute,” Bridget agreed.

“I can’t say much on that. He does like you, though. Never seen him get all… flushed and blushy with a gal before. Thinks they must make ‘em different in California.”

Bridget chuckled. “Maybe they do. They sure make the lads different here in Ellepath. Jeff is a… homecooked, small-town country boy. He’s a sweet guy, despite that ego you warned me about.”

“I give him shit, but he doesn’t live up to most of it these days. He used to be a ‘peaked in high school’ kinda guy. He’s outgrown it, but I haven’t yet outgrown beating him up for it.”

“He enjoys it. You’re the best friend he’s ever had. He wants nothing more than for this to be over and for you two to go back to hunting down who stole the lawn Santa.”

A little smile tugged at one corner of Rick’s mouth. “Yeah, me too. I left California to get away from all of this, you know? I never wanted to see anything like this ever again.”

“I know. I… I know about your last case there. I’m sorry you had to go through it then, and I’m sorry this is bringing everything back for you.”

“Thank you.” A pause. “How, uh, how much do you know?”

“Enough to know that you shouldn’t blame yourself for it the way that you do.”

“I was right there, and he still managed to kill those two girls before I shot him,” Rick whispered. “I was there. How am I not supposed to blame myself for that?”

“He almost completely severed your shooting arm. From what I heard, it’s a miracle you can you your left arm at all. How the hell were you supposed to recover from that wound quickly enough to draw your gun with your opposite hand?”

“You sound like the shrink Jamal set me up with before I left.”

“Sounds like a smart shrink who knew what they were talking about.”

“I don’t know. You ever watched someone kill two kids, Bridget?”

“No, I can’t say I have,” she said, her voice soft. “I’m sorry that you had to, truly.”

Rick shook his head. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy,” he whispered. “And now he’s… I don’t know. It seems like he’s back, and I don’t know how I can survive this a second time.”

Bridget leaned forward in her chair to lay a hand over Rick’s. “This time, you don’t have Kathy Baker to work the case. This time, you have Jeff and Bo and me, and we’re gonna kick this guy’s fuckin’ ass before he ever gets the chance to lay kill any kid. We’re a crack team, Rick, I promise. We’ll have this guy behind bars before it ever gets that far again. I promise.”

***

Rick came down to Bo’s ‘office’ with a Casey’s pizza box. Bridget and Jeff had left for their own ‘lunch break’ around the same time he had, though Rick was relatively certain their break was more so code for sex than for food. As long as it kept them both functional and working the case, he didn’t mind. Whatever brought Bonnie home. Whatever kept this bastard from beheading any children. Whatever it took.

He set the box on the table beside Bo’s laptop. “It’s just you and me now,” he said as he opened the lid of the box. “It’s time to tell me everything Kathy stole out of your notebook.”

“Bo lifted his gaze to Rick’s face for a moment before grabbing a slice of pizza. “There are three reporters that reported the heaviest on the kidnappings and murders. They were usually the first to the crime scenes, they were known to sneak beneath the scene tape to try and get up-close photos and videos, and they always made sure their stories were on the front page of their respective papers. They’re all missing.”

“What?”

“I’m… not done.” Bo took a small bite of his pizza, chewed, swallowed, and cleared his throat. “Of the standard patrol cops that responded to the scenes before they were confirmed to be homicides, before the detectives were called in, three of them left the force shortly after you did. All three of those cops are missing. The psychologist that gave you the okay to go back to work after the shooting? Missing. I have no doubt there are more. Those are just the ones I looked into in between logging evidence and scanning prints and blood results and…” He let out a breath. “You and I are arguably on the list. I think I only survived LA because I didn’t leave the station the way the others did. The psychologist had retired, the reporters had moved on to different papers, the officers had left. He knows that if they were still in Jamal’s city, their disappearances would be well-known. At the forefront. He’s smart, in that regard.”

Rick was entirely speechless for what felt like an eternity. Finally, he swallowed roughly. “I-if this is about me, he’s toying with me. Did he toy with them before they went missing?”

“To be frank, I don’t know. I don’t know if their disappearances were truly investigated or not. I just know their names are in the missing persons’ database.”

“And all those names were in the notebook?”

“Yes.”

“Which means Kathy knows all of them.”

“Unfortunately.”

Rick let out a breath. “If… you could get me that list again?”

“Yes?”

“Then I’ll call Jamal and see how many potential files he can get his hands on for us. If Kathy has already contacted police stations about them, as long as they haven’t sent the files to her yet, Jamal can easily override that.”

Bo nodded. “Yeah, I can get a list written out for you.” He set the rest of his slice on a napkin and wiped his hands before pulling a pad of sticky notes over to himself. As he handed the list over to Rick, a voice came through the radio on the deputy’s shoulder.

“Rick, are you on?”

Rick closed his eyes for a moment before pressing the button on the side of his radio. “Yeah, Georgia. Rick here.”

“There’s another body on the lake.” Bo pushed himself to his feet long before Rick found the strength to reply again. “Ten-four. Headin’ out.”

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