Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
CHANCE
By the time we got back to the office, it was late evening and moving into night. Not that this really meant anything. NightShade’s security division worked all hours. There wasn’t a clock for the kind of shit they dealt with.
Tank was exhausted. I only knew this because he didn’t argue when I asked someone to get a wheelchair for him to ride upstairs in. Without any of the normal staff around, it wasn’t a big deal for him to come in this way. I knew he’d have hated it during normal business hours.
Once we were upstairs, I tried to steer him to his room so he could rest. Instead, he grabbed the wheels outside of the war room. The men walking with us laughed at the heated glare he shot my way.
“You want to be stubborn? Fine then. Go check it out.”
As he rolled himself through to the door Arick held open, Orion approached me. “Don’t be mad at him. He’s trusting you with lots of stuff, but he’s still the stubborn bull we all know and love.”
“I get it. I only want what’s best for him.”
“We all do,” he replied as he patted my shoulder.
I stayed in the hallway for another moment as they shuffled inside. Today had been a lot to take in. My heart ached for the experiences Tank had to go through, as well as the loss the Linds had felt when he ran away. Life wasn’t fair. What should have been a happy home was tainted by grief and a need for justice.
Still, I couldn’t help but be thankful for how it turned out. If it had gone any other way, I wouldn’t be here now. I wouldn’t have been able to see how a real family supports one another.
Watching the guys with Tank at the Lind home only furthered that knowledge.
Shouting tore me from my thoughts and drew me into the room. Tank’s arms wove through the air as he yelled at Memphis.
“Why the fuck didn’t you call to tell us? That’s something we should have known. It changes everything.”
Memphis huffed, crossing his arms. “We had other shit to take care of. I was deep in it trying to find out more about this guy. It’s hard considering how buried his life is.”
“We called Stabler to warn him though he didn’t have time to talk. He’s supposed to call when he can get away,” Archie added.
Just then, Tank’s phone rang. I approached from behind. “Is Stabler psychic?”
The room tensed as if everyone was holding their breath. Tank answered the call, then immediately put it on speakerphone.
“Stabler? We were just talking about you.”
“I wish I was calling with better news, Tank,” the man said in reply.
There was remorse in his tone. I could hear it, and I suspected the others could too. Except it made no sense why he would have bad news for us. All the men were here. Everyone was accounted for, and unless there was more we didn’t know, it didn’t add up.
“What’s going on? Why are you calling?”
“Because when they tried to call you, I stopped them. I had to be the one to tell you. FUCK!” he bit out the word, hissing over the line as he took quick breaths. “Dammit, Tank. Something happened.”
And that’s when he told us what he knew.
Murdered.
Chelsea and Brock.
In their home.
Violent attack.
Neighbors called it in.
Similar to other murders.
Suspected serial.
Cases reopened.
“And your partner? Where is he?” I asked when everyone else remained frozen. “Archie said he called you. He said you didn’t have time to talk.”
“Yeah, he did. Things aren’t going well with my partner. He wasn’t happy with some decisions the director made. Took an emergency leave earlier today right before the call came in.”
“You think there’s no way he could have done it?” Memphis asked.
“No. He was with us in the office at the time of death. Can someone explain why you suspect him? He’s an asshole, but he’s not a serial killer.”
Tank sat silently as the rest of the team took over explaining the connections between Pratt and the case. Stabler admitted that wasn’t his partner's name, though Memphis argued that he could have changed it.
“There’s no telling what all transpired before he got assigned to work with you. All we know is that facial recognition matches. We can all tell it’s the same person. The fact that he took leave right before this case came to light, and only shortly after Tank left there…” Ronan spoke.
“You were here today? We wondered why your business card was left out on the table. The way it was positioned… Let's just say it made it clear the card was important in some way. How do you know the Linds, Tank?”
“They were my parents,” he answered in a neutral tone. “Today was the first time I’d seen them in decades. It was the last —”
I wrapped my arms around him, burying my face in his neck as I comforted him. Fuck anyone who expected him to keep it together right now.
How could he? He found out the couple who wanted to adopt him, the people who loved him enough to try to track him when he ran away, were murdered by someone out to get him.
I doubt anyone would be ok with the news.
“The scene is not something you want to see then. I can reach out to Memphis to get him the photos if you guys want in,” Stabler commented.
Memphis hummed. “I want all the files you have, Stabler. Everyone on these serials. If what I think is going on is true, this is bigger than you think.”
“Don’t fucking tell me it’s the damn Gilded Ones again?”
“One and the same,” Cohen said sarcastically.
More curses came over the line. Stabler hated the Gilded Ones as much as the rest of us did.
Stabler calmed enough to speak again. “I’m going to skip over protocol this time because I can’t fucking deal with more of this shit. If my partner is your guy, or he somehow knows who it is, then I need to have a good reason to stop him. His leave is for a few days. Can we wrap this all up by then?”
“I fucking hope so,” Memphis declared.
Tank gripped the sides of his chair. “We’re going to find him, and we’re going to make him pay.”
“I’ll send the files over as soon as I can. Keep me updated on the case. I’ll need to know if we can close this out — meaning I’ll need a body. Remember that part, ok?”
The group grumbled some sort of noise as if to go along with his plan, though I doubted there will be much left to whoever is behind this. How can there be when we’re all empathizing with Tank’s loss?