The Depth of Darkness (Mitch Tanner #1) (15 page)

“It’s Huff,” he said.

“Guess we should start back,” I said.

Sam hung up and confirmed that Huff wanted us
in his office now. We walked back the way we came. The halls still
buzzed with energy. I still fumed over the fact that I hadn’t
gotten the chance to question McCree. I hoped the opportunity would
arise after meeting with Huff. If Bridget wouldn’t make the
argument, I would.

We turned the final corner and nearly
collided with Chief Warren.

“Chief,” I said.

“Detectives,” he said, stepping around us.
The look on his face could be classified as disdain. He didn’t stop
and make small talk. Fine by me.

Huff was waiting for us outside his office.
The entire room was empty otherwise. Even Old Man Flores, who
typically remained perched behind a desk answering the phone all
day, was out.

“Come on in, guys,” he said.

Sam stepped into the office first and sat
down. I took the seat next to him. The door closed behind me. I
glanced back and saw Bridget standing. I rose and offered her my
chair.

“No thanks,” she said. “I’ll stand.”

I nodded and sat back down. “What is it,
Huff?”

He refused to make eye contact with us.
Instead, he stared at his desk calendar. He held a number two
pencil in his hand and doodled in the space underneath September
twenty-eighth.

“Huff?” I said.

“Warren wants Major Crimes to take over the
case since it involves homicide and kidnapping.”

“Shit,” I said.

Sam agreed.

Huff continued, “They think that they can
push back on the Feds by doing so.”

“Who’s they?” Bridget asked. Her movement
created a breeze that blew past me carrying a lavender scent. She
placed one hand on my shoulder and aimed the other one at Huff.

“Mayor Piolazzi and the Chief.”

“Like hell,” Bridget fumed. “You tell them
they can—”

Huff held up his hands. “Not my battle, Agent
Dinapoli. You’ll need to take it up with your chain of command. I’m
sure they can pull the right strings, if those strings exist. It’s
all posturing. I’m aware of that. But no matter what happens here
on out, it doesn’t change this next fact.” He leaned back in his
chair, interlaced his fingers behind his head and stared at a spot
in between me and Sam.

“Which is?” I asked after a prolonged moment
of silence.

He snapped forward and placed both elbows on
his desk. His gaze flicked between both of us. “You two are off the
case.”

“Who ordered this?” I demanded.

“It comes from Warren.” He sounded
subdued.

“Yeah, but who told him to do this?”

Huff shrugged. “No telling. Could be the
Mayor, could be that prick Townsend.”

I had no reason to believe that Lieutenant
Townsend was behind this. I’d never had any run-ins with him and
couldn’t think of any reason why he’d want me off the case. That
only left two people. Either of them could have been behind it.
Huff or the Mayor. For all his misgivings, Huff wasn’t that bad of
a guy. We disagreed at times, but things worked out. The Mayor on
the other hand, let’s just say words had been spoken in the past
and there’d been no kiss and make up session.

“This is garbage, Huff,” Sam said. “We’re the
two best detectives you’ve got. We’re better than any of those
jackasses in Major Crimes. We’re already vested in this, too.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Huff rose out
of his chair and slapped his desk with an open palm. His face was
red and veins stuck out of his neck and on the side of his
forehead. His voice had risen by a couple decibels. “Dammit, I
fought them tooth and nail just now to keep you guys on.” After
several seconds of heavy panting, he returned to his chair. His
head drifted to the right. The window there gave him a view of the
rear parking lot. I noticed five pigeons sitting on top of my
car.

I had a feeling he wasn’t through. In as
gentle a tone as I could muster, I asked, “What else, Huff?”

His head turned toward us, moving slower than
before. He glanced at me, then Sam, then Bridget. He stopped on
her. I would have too.

“I know there’s something else,” I said.

“They’re keeping Horace and Fairchild on
board.” His gaze remained fixed on Bridget.

That must’ve been why Fairchild was in there
with McCree. This had been determined some time ago, otherwise they
would have waited until after the Chief had left. I wondered if the
Chief in Huff’s office had been a show for our sake. Something to
make us feel a little better.

Or perhaps to redirect our anger.

I thought about raising the point, but bit my
tongue. The truth would come out in time.

“I expect you guys to have a report turned in
by the end of the day detailing the investigation up to this
point,” Huff said.

I stood and leaned over his desk, stopping
when my face was mere inches from his. “You smell, Huff.” With
that, I turned and left the office. I heard someone come after me.
The delicate touch on my shoulder told me that someone was not Sam.
I didn’t look back.

“Mitch,” Bridget said. “I’m going to do
everything I can to get you back on board.”

“They might negotiate you out of this, too,”
I said, staring down at the floor.

“They’ve got no reason to do that.”

I looked over my shoulder, at her, then at
Huff’s office. “You’re giving them one right now.”

She smiled and turned around. A moment later
she was on the other side of the bureaucratic barrier. Sam rose and
left the room as she took a seat. He walked toward me, shaking his
head.

“This is ridiculous, man,” he said.

“Don’t have to tell me.”

Escalated voices erupted from inside Huff’s
office. His face turned red again. He rose, sat, then rose again.
Fingers pointed in all directions. Knocked down and dragged out. I
hoped that I’d have both of them on my side when the time came. I
sure as hell didn’t plan to give this case up without a fight.

I reached inside my desk drawer for my keys.
They were on top of the folder containing Dusty Anne Miller’s
pictures from the crime scene. It seemed like years since that
happened. I remembered that the autopsy was to take place in a few
hours. Perhaps I’d attend.

As I started toward the door, Sam said,
“Where you going?”

“To the hospital to check on Lana. Then
probably to my mother’s to see how Ella’s doing. I’ll get in touch
with you at some point.”

I expected him to try to tag along. He
didn’t. “Okay.”

I exited the room near Huff’s office. I
stopped in front of the window and stared at him for a moment. He
glanced over at me, then looked away.

Chicken.

I’d almost made it through the building to
the exit when I saw Fairchild approaching. He had a smug look on
his face. Not unusual for the guy. But this time there was
something more behind it. He had advanced knowledge of what went
down. He got within a few feet of me and said, “Say hello to that
girlfriend of yours for me, Tanner.”

The look on his face and the sound of his
voice and the words that he used caused me to snap. I reached over,
grabbed him by the shirt and nailed him with a right cross.

 Fairchild fell to the floor, landing on
his right side. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. A few
drops splattered on the floor, creating a tiny dark red pond. He
scooted back to the wall. The heel of his shoe dragged through the
pool of blood and created a zigzagged line on the tiles. He wiped
his face with the back of his hand. The cuff of his shirtsleeve
turned crimson. He looked down on it and muttered something, then
slowly got up. He palmed his lip once more.

“Hey, you’re a real asshole. You know that,
Tanner?” He leaned forward, like he contemplated charging me.
Instead, he let his words do the fighting. “Maybe you and that
whore belong together.”

I started toward him again. He took a few
steps to the side, keeping me in view. I kept moving forward.

“Mitch!”

I stopped, arm cocked, and looked past
Fairchild. Sam stood at the end of the hall. There were probably
five or six other officers between him and me, not counting
Fairchild. Horace was heading our way and had just passed Sam. By
the time I readjusted my gaze, Fairchild had moved back another
five feet. I unclenched my fist, dropped my arm and waved him
off.

“You’re not worth it,” I said.

His smile had returned, despite the red
trickle from the corner of his mouth to his chin and down his neck.
His shirt collar had turned red on the right side. “I’ll send you
my dry cleaning bill along with a transcript of the interview. I’m
sure you’ll find it helpful.”

“About as helpful as you finding a
vagina.”

Sam headed toward me, but I turned away and
kicked the door open. By the time he made it outside, I was
slipping behind the wheel of my car. I started it up and drove to
where Sam was standing. He waited for me to roll down my
window.

“What?”

“I was gonna tell you that Huff’s going to
give one last push for us.”

“Think that’s going to matter to me now?” I
asked. “You know Fairchild’s going straight to Huff to file a
complaint. And Horace saw it, too. No one’s going to back me on
this one. No matter what Huff wants, he has to move the complaint
up the ladder. He’s not risking his neck for me.”

Sam nodded. He opened his mouth to speak, but
said nothing.

Then my phone rang. I looked down at it.
“Huff,” I said, tossing the phone onto the passenger seat. “I’ll
call you in a bit, Sam.”

I pulled out of the lot and drove to the
hospital. The clock on my dash said it was almost two p.m. Wouldn’t
be long before the traffic became too heavy to get anything done.
Luckily, I didn’t have that far to travel so long as nothing came
up. I had a feeling it wouldn’t. Not for me, at least.

My phone rang again. I pulled to a stop at
the traffic light and reached across the car. Huff again. I set the
phone on the center console without answering it. He could wait. I
knew how the conversation would go anyway.

A young woman pushing a stroller walked in
front of me. She had white cords dangling from the side of her
ears. Probably didn’t hear the car that honked at her.

A few minutes later I reached the hospital.
The lady behind the information desk directed me to Lana’s room. My
heels clacked against beige linoleum tiles. The fluorescent lights
gave the hallways a yellowish tint. It felt like I was coated with
disinfectant by the time I reached the end of my journey through
the hospital. When I reached Lana’s room, the door was open, so I
stepped inside. The bed was missing, though. I went back to the
hall and stopped the first nurse I found.

“Where is Lana Suarez?” I asked the young
woman.

She looked at me for a moment, disinterested,
like she was thinking of a way to get past me. She said, “Who?”

“The patient in that room.” I pointed toward
Lana’s room.

The nurse walked over and grabbed a clipboard
hanging by the door. “Let’s see,” she paused to run her finger down
the chart. “They are performing a CAT scan right now.”

“Why? She’s here for a broken leg.” I
recalled Lana saying something about a concussion a few seconds
later.

She shrugged. “I can find out, but it will be
a while before I can get back to you.” She faked left and went
right. I didn’t try to stop her.

I shook my head. Said to no one in
particular, “No, that’s all right. I’ve got a few things to take
care of, then I’ll be back.”

I stared at the floor as I walked back to the
main entrance. It was lined with scuff marks. I figured a team of
people spent all night waxing and buffing those floors. Several
questions ran through my mind. The question of ‘why’ remained
present always. Why the kids? I still had no idea. Why had Miller
changed his name? Everything had moved so fast we hadn’t had an
opportunity to find that out. I hadn’t seen Brad McCree’s criminal
record yet and didn’t know if we could put him together with that
Farrugio character. Was it a coincidence that he stole a van
belonging to another criminal? Or was this thing bigger than I had
originally thought?

I wondered what my punishment would be for
belting Fairchild. As I exited the hospital, I pulled out my cell
and took it off the silent setting. Seven more missed calls. They
were all from Huff. I bit the bullet and called him back.

“Are you friggin’ stupid, Tanner?” he
asked.

I didn’t respond. I’d learned there was
little point to answering a question like that.

“You know you’re going to be disciplined for
this, right?”

“I’d imagine so.”

“I can’t back you up, Tanner. Warren is going
to come down hard on you over this.”

“I expect he will.”

“How can you sound so calm over this?”

I wasn’t sure. “I just am, Huff. What’s done
is done. If you can’t back me up, so be it. I’ll man up and take my
punishment. After all, you guys already neutered me today. Now, you
got anything else to tell me, or are we done here?”

He stammered for a minute, and then said,
“That’s all, Tanner. Keep your phone close by in case Warren wants
to talk with you.”

I hung up and unlocked my car. By that time,
I simply wanted to get home to Ella. First I had to go take care of
Lana’s cat, Envy. The little guy had no idea what had happened.
Hopefully I wouldn’t raise any suspicion with him.

The drive to her place took me past the
school again. The parking lot looked empty except for a dozen or so
squad cars and a couple of forensics vans. I wondered if Sandusky
was down there. The major news channels were still parked along the
road, joined by some of the national news networks. I figured they
all wanted in on this story. Perhaps they’d like to interview the
former lead investigator on the case. The thought brought a smile
to my face. How pissed would Chief Warren be then?