She glanced at him.“Hoo-hahs?”
“Would you prefer I use the medical terms?”
"Genitals are fine," she replied drily.
He lifted his hands in an exaggerated apology.“Okay, fine, but my question still stands.Why such brutal torture?The killer did that before the Carltons died, remember.”
“Cox burned people alive, cut out their tongues, and nailed their hands to the desk.Extreme violence is definitely something he preaches.”
“Okay, fair enough.I still want that guest list, though.Maybe the killer’s not on the list, but I’ll bet anything they know someone on that list.For the record, I still think the killer was a guest.I’m just saying that even if they aren’t, I think we should pursue that angle.”
Kate frowned.He looked tense, almost jumpy.And he was coming pretty close to being defensive with her when she wasn’t saying anything that justified him being defensive.“Are you okay?”Then, because she knew he wasn’t, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he said.“I’m just frustrated.”
“And again, we’ve been here for a few hours.Even on my most optimistic days, I’ve never expected to solve a case on the first day.”
“Yeah, I know, I just don’t like lawyers.”
“You’ve never liked lawyers.You still don’t get all grumpy and growly on the first afternoon of an investigation.”
He sighed.“Kate, drop it.”
A knife stabbed her chest.She pursed her lips and looked away.That wasn’t good.Marcus was being an asshole, but in the past, that kind of behavior from her partner would have just been worth an eye roll, a snappy retort, and an encouragement to shape up so they could get the job done.Since she and Marcus were more than partners, or trying to be more than partners, it stung Kate a lot more deeply than it normally would.Was this going to be her new normal?Walking on eggshells around him because they were dating?
“Sorry,” he mumbled.“Look, I… There’s a lot going on.”
Ah.“Cheryl?”
“Yeah.It’s no big deal.Just frustrating.”
That eased some of her concern.Marcus wasn’t with Cheryl anymore, but they were technically still married.Knowing what she did about Cheryl, disentangling himself from that relationship was going to be a long, frustrating process.“I understand,” she said.“Do you need to talk to her and let me run with things for a while?”
“No,” he said curtly.Then, softer.“No.No, I need to think about Cheryl later and the case now.”He took a deep breath, then smiled apologetically at her.“Sorry.”
Now she wasn’t upset anymore.She smiled and kissed him on the cheek.“No worries.Let’s talk to a judge and get that subpoena.Then we’ll take it to the Miami field office and start digging.”
“Right,” he said.“Sounds like a plan.”He nodded at the cipher.“You want to keep working on that while I handle the records?”
She shook her head.“No, I’ve hit a dead end.I’m gonna give my mind a break and come back to it with fresh eyes later.”
“Fair enough.We’ll grab some dinner after we talk to a judge.All this relationship drama has me starving.”
Kate raised an eyebrow.“Was that supposed to be a joke?”
“Yeah.How’d I do?”
“Not well.”
“I figured.I’ll buy dinner as penance.”
***
Two hours later, they found themselves in the Miami Field Office munching on Cuban sandwiches (roast pork, ham, dill, and Swiss on toasted bread) and drinking Cuban coffee (coffee but with brown sugar instead of white sugar) and looking at a screen with records that put the FBI to shame.
The Miami Field Office continued the trend by putting the Portland Field Office firmly in its place.No poor high-school faded red-brick here.The Miami office was a six-story glass and steel structure with gleaming white tile floors and computers that actually looked new.Their breakroom had a full kitchen, which was where Marcus had made the sandwiches and coffee after hearing from Rivera that the restaurant stop wasn’t necessary.Perhaps most telling was the fact that a single call from Rivera to the Eleventh Judicial Circuit had netted them their subpoena with an hour, and the Carltons’ estate lawyer had meekly turned it over within another hour rather than filing an appeal and making the Bureau slog it out in morning court.
The FBI had power here.Miami was a hub for trafficking of all sorts: drugs, weapons, humans, you name it.To address those systemic issues, federal agencies were afforded an almost unlimited leash.That boded well for their case, but it still bothered Kate a little to notice the difference between the big-city office and her little podunk regional office.
