AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Are you kidding me? This is about me and you want to talk privately? No.” She stamped a foot. “I’m not leaving.”
I groaned. “Please, don’t make this difficult. I promise, I’ll tell you every detail later.” I crossed my office to her side, and using her elbow, guided her to the doorway. “I promise.”
Her only response was a growl that I swear I’d heard Seven make before, but she finally relented and stalked down the hall to her room. She didn’t miss the chance to let her displeasure at being dismissed known and shut the door soundly behind her.
My shoulde
rs sagged in relief as I shut my office door and rushed to my desk. Pulling up the case file, I turned to Pieters excitedly. “We’ve cracked it.”
Disappointment washed through me when he didn’t return my exuberance. Instead, he pulled up the extra chair in my office next to me and patted my shoulder. “Look, I know you want to solve this problem for your girl. But”—he thrust the papers onto my keyboard—“this doesn’t prove anything.”
If he had grown a second head I couldn’t have been more surprised. “Of course it proves something.” I jabbed a finger in the direction of the best piece of evidence we’d gotten in months.
But all Pieters did was shake his head. “No, all it proves is that Piper’s got a big heart and some assholes took advantage of that.”
“It links The Children of the Ministry to Piper and to the prescriptions.”
He sighed the kind of sigh that was usually reserved for petulant children. “No, Reed, it doesn’t. Where’s the link between them and the prescription pad?” He looked around the room. “I don’t see any busted windows. Did someone break in and steal the pad from her? You got plenty of surveillance here. Catch anyone on tape going through her stuff?”
I shoved a hand through my hair. “Well, no. But I don’t need that stuff.”
“You shittin’ me right now? You don’t need that stuff? What exactly do you need then?”
I pushed to my feet. “I need you to call McAvoy in.”
The bark of laughter was so loud it echoed off the bare walls. “I’m not calling anyone in. Have you lost your fucking mind?”
I glared at him. “No, but I’m about to lose my cool if you don’t listen to me.”
Pieters launched out of his seat. “I am listening to you. I’m listening to you grasp at straws. I’ve been listening to you try to link Piper to this case for weeks now. Look, is Piper in danger?”
“She hasn’t received any threats that I know of.”
He shrugged. “Then she’s not in danger.”
I thought I knew Pieters well, but the more he argued against me, the less sure I was that he was the man I thought he was. The Pieters I thought I knew wouldn’t question my judgement. It had never failed us before.
“I’m calling in a supervisor.”
“You are not.”
“You can’t keep me from talking to McAvoy. I bet he’ll see the connection between it all.”
“Even if there is a connection, what is it? Where is the connection? Who is the connection? All you have is some circumstantial bullshit that’s been contrived by your feelings for your girlfriend. And look, I’m not saying I wouldn’t be chasing the shit out of every lead I could find if I had her in my bed at night too. But you’re reaching, and you fucking know it. You call McAvoy, you better make damned sure you don’t even think my name while you’re talking to him.”
My blood was boiling, the sound of it pounding my ears. “You watch your fucking mouth when you talk about her.”
Pieters at least had the courtesy to look sorry as he took a step back. “You know I’m right, Reed. You fucking know you’re overstepping here.”
I checked my watch. “Think it’s time for you to go home. You can show yourself out. Do me a favor, don’t bother checking in with me in the morning. Wouldn’t want your name to cross my mind while I’m talking to McAvoy. It’d be your own fault, not that you’d take the blame for it anyway.”
Pieters’ cheeks reddened further. “That was a low blow and you know it.”
I didn’t respond, just scowled as my chest heaved. I didn’t bother watching him leave, instead slid in front of my computers and began combing through the security footage again.
I knew there was a link.
I just had to find it.
