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Charlie stood. “I can’t watch that anymore,” she said. “It’s infuriating and seeing that asshole drug me over and over sucks.”
“I’m sorry. I should have stopped it before then.”
“No. We needed to see the entire thing. If anything, I’m glad to know it’s that simple. I might invest in some sort of beer cover if I ever go out again.” She sat down at the table and started looking at the papers.
Antony leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for a second. “I asked Jeff, the bouncer, to let me know if anything else happened,” he said.
A bell sounded, and Simon went to his desk. “There’s dad. He’s gotten in touch with the locals. The police chief has some files we might be interested in.” Simon’s father was the JAG commander at Ft. Huachuca and had a lot of pull in the area.
“Good. I don’t like that the weekend is almost here again, and we’ve got fuck all to go on.” Antony punched stop on the computer and stood up. His back cracked as he stretched backwards, and he twisted his leg uncomfortably. He’d been sitting for too long, and his prosthetic was feeling a little itchy. He grabbed a stack of papers and walked to the hallway closet, where a shred bin was stowed. After he dumped the papers in the bin and twisted back and forth before bending over to touch his toes.
When he walked back in, Simon and Audrey had finished rolling out the large dry erase boards from storage and had set them up along one wall. Charlie was busy digging through a box for erasers and packages of markers.
“Hey Ramos,” she called. She frowned at him limping. “You okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Sat for too long.”
“Need me to kick your ass a little?” she said, smiling.
“Probably. I’ll give you some more time to get back on your game, though. Would hate to take advantage,” he said, setting some papers from one of the boxes down on a table. Charlie winked at him, and he cuffed her lightly on the shoulder.
“Nope,” Audrey called, waving her hand at him. “Other table, please.”
He frowned at the woman and picked the papers back up.
“Sorry, Top’s bringing in the stuff from the local PD and wants to keep it away from the rest of our shit.”
“Ah, okay. Makes sense,” he said. Three trips later, and he had all the paperwork transferred over, each pile on a separate table. The group soon settled in, each person sorting, highlighting, annotating, and shuffling work around. Occasionally, one of them would hand something over to another, and the process would begin again.
Hours later, a cricket sound came from Antony’s phone. He picked it up, smiled, and stood.
“I’m out,” he said.
Simon looked up at him. “Heading to lunch?”
Antony nodded as he walked to the door. It closed with a soft click behind him.
“Okay. What’s the scoop? Who is she?” asked Audrey.
“Intel chick,” Charlie answered, ignoring Audrey’s raised eyebrows. “Pretty sure she’s an instructor or helps design one of the courses.”
“What’s she like?”
“Pretty. I didn’t talk to her,” said Charlie. “Never seen her out, so can’t say much more.”
Simon stared hard at Charlie and laughed. “Madden, you are a shit liar. You looked her up, didn’t you?”
Charlie flushed. “Yes. She’s been in for almost 16 years. One of those cyber intel geeks. Keeps to herself from everything I can see. Smart.” She paused. “And, she’s Oliver’s sister.”
“Prosser? Really?”
“Yep.”
“Who’s that?” Audrey asked.
“Counterintel guy. He’s helped us out before.”
Audrey looked at her friend. “I’m sorry, Charlie.”
