Chapter Two #2
“It was rather awesome, wasn’t it?” Hard to believe it had already been a year and a half since then. “I’d better get to it. I’ll be looking for your report.”
“I’m on it.”
Sam exited the morgue and took the winding hallway that led to the Homicide detectives’ pit where Detectives Cruz, Green and McBride were discussing the fire, the victims and next steps in the investigation. “Where’s Gonzo?”
“Not here yet,” Cruz said, meeting her gaze, his concern apparent.
“Give him a call.”
“Already did. No answer.”
What the fuck? It wasn’t like her sergeant to fail to show up at a crime scene or to check in with them if he was going to be late. She went into her office, closed the door and called Christina.
“Hi, Sam,” Christina said, her tone lifeless. “What’s up?”
“I’m looking for Gonzo. Did he get the call about the homicide this morning?”
“He left an hour ago,” she said, sounding concerned now. “He’s not there yet?”
“No sign of him.”
“Where could he be? He got the call from Dispatch and left a few minutes later.”
“I have no idea, but we’ll see if we can track him down. I’ll let you know if we hear from him if you wouldn’t mind doing the same.”
“Of course. Sam. I… Tommy, he’s…”
Sam waited impatiently for her to finish the sentence.
“Never mind. I’ll talk to you later.”
Before Sam could respond, the line went dead.
Now what the hell was that about? She hated when people left statements half-finished.
Nothing was more aggravating. Well, receptionists who tried to keep her from seeing people she needed to talk to during investigations were more aggravating.
They might very well be the most annoying people in existence.
Her mind kept going back to the despair she’d heard in Christina’s voice and the fact that Gonzo wasn’t where he was supposed to be this morning, not to mention how distracted and “off” he’d seemed in recent weeks.
She released the clip that held her long hair out of her way when she was working and ran her fingers through it while trying to figure out what to do about Gonzo.
Reaching for the extension on her desk, she buzzed Detective Cameron Green and asked him to come into the office.
When he knocked on the door and poked his head into her office, she waved him in. “Close the door.”
“What’s up, LT?”
She liked the clean-cut blond man who’d joined their team right after Labor Day.
He’d done an admirable job of filling the spot left vacant by their murdered colleague.
Though the rest of them dressed casually in jeans, Cameron came to work every day in a shirt and tie.
He was squared away in more ways than one.
“I have a delicate question to ask.” She gestured to her visitor chair.
Sitting, he said, “Okay.”
“How does Gonzo seem to you lately?”
“Um, fine. I guess.”
“I know I’m putting you in a bad spot asking about your partner and your sergeant, but he’s late today and hasn’t checked in, which isn’t like him, and well… I’m worried about him. Again.”
“I didn’t know him before, so I’m not sure what’s normal for him.”
Losing a team member in the line of duty firmly split life into before and after. “Fair enough,” she said, sighing.
“But lately, he’s seemed a little…distracted, I guess you could say.” Cameron chose his words carefully because it wasn’t the best career move to speak to the big boss about your partner, who was also your sergeant.
“How so?”
After a long pause, Cameron said, “I’d like to leave it at distracted, if that’s all right with you.”
“Of course.”
“I hope you understand. It’s been a bit of a delicate proposition to take his late partner’s place and…”
“Say no more. I get it.” Partners had each other’s backs on the street and in the house. Asking one of them to talk to a superior officer about the other was a dicey thing at best. “Thanks for coming in.”
“If I could say one more thing.”
“Please. Whatever’s on your mind.”
“I told you I worked for my family’s funeral home business when I was younger.”
She nodded. His connections to the Greenlawn Funeral Homes had come in handy during a recent investigation.
“One of my jobs was to set up for the grief groups that used to meet in our function room. I was in charge of keeping them in coffee and cookies, so occasionally I would hear some of what was said. I remember this one guy, who’d lost his young son in an accident, said how everyone kept watching him for signs that he was getting better when the pain was getting worse with every day that went by. ”
Sam absorbed this information, feeling a sense of shock and dread that her close friend and colleague could be getting worse rather than better, and she hadn’t noticed.
“Cruz mentioned this morning that it’s nine months today since Arnold died. Perhaps that might have something to do with what’s going on with Gonzo?”
Sam swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in her throat. It’d been nine months since Arnold died, and the new guy had to remind her of it? “Could be,” she managed to say. “I appreciate your insight.”
“I’ll keep an eye on him. Try not to worry.”
“Thank you.” Though he told her not to worry, Sam wondered how she would do anything but. And now she had reason to wonder if Gonzo could handle being in charge of the squad for three weeks if she took the trip with Nick.
Opening her phone, she placed a call to Gonzo that went right through to voice mail.
Now she was officially worried.
A loud NOISE woke Gonzo from a sound sleep. He opened his eyes to realize he was in his car, parked on a side street and a uniformed member of the Metro PD Patrol division was looking in the driver’s side window.
Gonzo reached into his pocket for his badge and found himself on the business end of the other officer’s service weapon. He put up his hands.
The door swung open. “Keep your hands up and get out of the vehicle.”
“I’m on the job. I was reaching for my badge.” With a department of more than four thousand officers, it wasn’t possible to recognize everyone, but most officers recognized him as the guy who’d let his partner get killed a foot from him.
“Let me see it,” the young Patrolman said, still holding the gun on Gonzo.
Gonzo pulled the leather billfold from his back pocket and flipped it open to reveal the gold shield he’d worked so damned hard to get, for all he cared about it now.
The Patrolman holstered his weapon. “My apologies, Sergeant, but when you reached for something, I had to assume it was a weapon.”
“I understand.”
“Are you all right?”
“I’m battling the flu and was taking a minute to regroup. I’d appreciate if you didn’t report this to anyone.”
“I won’t if you won’t.” Pulling a weapon on a superior officer wasn’t the best career move, even if it had been warranted.
“You got it.”
“Hope you feel better.”
“Me, too.” Anytime now. Gonzo got back in the car and glanced at the time on the dashboard.
“Holy shit,” he whispered, realizing he’d been asleep for two hours.
He checked his phone, which was full of missed calls from Cruz, Christina and Sam.
“Fuck.” Shifting the car into Drive, he pressed the accelerator and promptly crashed into a passing vehicle.
Slamming the palm of his hand hard against the steering wheel, he let out a string of curses, and then, ignoring the pain radiating up his arm, he got out of the car to see how bad it was.