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“‘Make the call.’ That’s all he said.”
“Meaning the decision or an actual call?”
“I don’t know. My memories of that time are less than reliable.”
“You were extremely lucky.”
“I guess that depends on how you define lucky.”
“You lived.”
“Did I?”
28
Friday, April 16
8:30 a.m.
Birmingham Police Department
First Avenue North
The LT wasn’t buying the scenario that Sue Grimes was dead because the BPD had a leak.
Kerri wanted to scream. Right now, this minute, she should be working the Kurtz case with her partner. Falco was handling this high-profile damned case alone. Because Kerri was terrified for her daughter.
Actually, at this point, Kerri was beyond desperate. “You are the only person besides Falco I told about Sue’s story.”
The accusation hung in the thick-with-tension air. Brooks stared at her in a sort of stunned silence.
“Are you accusing me of something, Detective?”
Kerri refused to back down. “No, sir. I’m accusing someone you may have spoken to regarding the situation. Sue Grimes is dead. I can’t believe her murder, less than twenty-four hours after telling me that story, is a coincidence.”
The LT had offered her a seat the moment she’d entered his office, but Kerri hadn’t been able to sit. She stood there now, hands on her hips, waiting for his reaction like a prisoner about to be executed. She felt exactly as alone as a prisoner on death row. Her entire career, this was the one place she had never felt alone or out of place.
Until now.
“You see, that’s the problem, Devlin,” he said, leaning forward to brace his forearms on his desk. “What you told me was a ‘story.’ Hearsay from the librarian at the school where a tragedy occurred. If your friend had proof of what she said, why not go to the police? Why allow this dangerous girl to go to another school, unfazed, and hurt someone else? What kind of person was this friend?”
Fury erupted inside Kerri, but she held it back. Now he was just trying to make her angry. “She was afraid for the other girl. The girl begged her not to tell.”
“The girl that might be missing now?” he tossed back.
“She disappeared shortly after I shared the information.” Kerri held his gaze. “With you.”
Her boss took a breath. “This is what I can tell you, Detective. I shared this information with exactly three people. Sykes and Peterson because they are working the Myers case. I also briefed the chief in a private meeting. Are you prepared to accuse one of those three people of leaking this information?” He held up his hands. “Better yet, which of the three do you believe would have wanted to harm Sue Grimes and this missing child, Violet Redmond?”
No matter that she knew in her gut she was right, his words made Kerri’s face burn with something besides anger. “I am not accusing anyone, sir. What I am suggesting is that someone along this loop may have unknowingly shared the information with someone else who allowed a leak—either accidentally or on purpose.”
Brooks hit the intercom on his desk phone. His assistant responded immediately with a “Yes, sir.”
“Get Sykes and Peterson in my office ASAP.”
Another “Yes, sir” echoed in the room.
The LT gestured to a chair in front of his desk. “Sit, Devlin. We may have to wait a bit.”
