Chapter 11
11
“ W ho the fuck do you think you are?” Kaelie didn’t bother to close the conference room door before laying into Edwin. “Not only are you jeopardizing this case, but I have half a mind to take you right off it and suspend you for insubordination.” Actually, that is exactly what she intended on doing, only she wanted to see how Edwin would respond to the threat.
“Hey, I’m not the one screwing our best suspect,” Edwin said loud enough for the entire office to hear. She suspected that included Buddy, who sat in the hallway with a police officer. At least it wasn’t in handcuffs.
She ignored the jab and still left the door open. Dealing with Edwin and his mishandling of the case needed to be done in public, even if it meant a few whispers about her love life behind her back. She had the upper hand, only she was the only one who knew it. Well, her, Gunner, and Darius. They had been the ones to suggest outing Edwin. At first, she didn’t want to do it, but then Gunner took the ‘trust me’ tone, and that meant he suspected more than the intel he handed her but didn’t have the proof yet. “The second someone came forward as a potential witness, you should have informed me. Instead, you went behind my back and made a judgment call that should have been made by me, the officer in charge.”
“We needed to vet her story,” Edwin said. “Time is of the essence in a case like this. I did what you would have done, had you been doing your?—”
“I wouldn’t finish that statement if I were you. You took it upon yourself to question the witness and deem her story credible without doing a full check.” She tossed a file on the table.
“That’s not true. I followed standard?—”
“Did you ask me to sign off on an official statement regarding Buddy West?” She folded her arms and tapped her foot, waiting for an answer.
Edwin stared at her with pursed lips. “You weren’t here, and when you are out of the office I’m in?—”
“Only when I’m on vacation are you in charge. You made this decision last night. You interviewed a potential witness without my knowledge. Not even a phone call or text. Standard procedure would have been to contact me with all aspects, and this wasn’t a situation where you needed to act so fast you took me, your superior, right out of the loop. We’ve got one of our own dead. Murdered. And you’re accusing a decorated firefighter. That is not something this office takes lightly.”
Edwin went to close the door, but she put her foot in the way. Darius had found out that Edwin had been up for this job, but he’d been passed over, for the second time, partly because he often went rogue, doing things his own way, and twice he’d mishandled a case, though each time, he got nothing but a reprimand.
This time, things would be different. Being a go-getter was one thing, but she needed team players, not cowboys who wanted to make headlines.
“We have an eyewitness that puts Buddy West at the scene?—”
“Your witness saw nothing because she wasn’t even there.” She flipped open the folder, exposing a picture of a woman named Ronda Young driving her car through a parking lot across town.
“What is this?”
Kaelie tapped the photograph. “That’s your witness fifty minutes away at the time she said she saw Buddy West.”
“That’s impossible.” Edwin shoved the papers away. “You can’t even tell that’s her, and she did tell me she let her daughter borrow her car this week.”
“That’s funny, because her daughter hasn’t shown up for work since the fire, which is odd since she was sleeping with our dead fireman.” Thank God for Gunner and his buddy, Darius. She needed a man with Darius’ skills in her office.
Edwin opened his mouth, then snapped it shut.
“You didn’t know that piece of information, did you?” She picked up the image and shoved it in front of Edwin’s face. “That’s your witness. Clear as day. And the time stamp. Her story doesn’t fly.”
Edwin held the picture in his hands, his lips drawn in a tight line.
She wasn’t going to wait for him to try to fumble his way out of this one. “You had me bring Buddy West in after you officially named him as a suspect before doing due diligence with the witness. You’re lucky I got wind of it before the statement left this office. I’ve scheduled a hearing for next week regarding this matter, so until then, consider yourself on paid leave. You are not to come near this case, or any other one for that matter. Now, I could have you escorted out, but I’m not going to do that to you.”
Edwin stood tall, his jaw tight. “You’re making a mistake. There is history between Keith and Buddy. A dangerous one. Not to mention Buddy is a conv?—”
“That’s enough.” She stepped closer, raising up on tiptoe and keeping her voice so low only he could hear. “I know what is behind those sealed records, you don’t. So, say something like that again, and I will bring you up on so many charges, it will make your head spin. Now get the fuck out before I have that officer slap handcuffs on you.”
Edwin visibly swallowed, then turned on his heel. She waved to one of the other officers she’d brought in to make sure Edwin left. A full investigation was officially underway into his practices as an investigative officer.
She took in a few deep breaths as Arthur and Buddy made their way down the short hallway.
“Wow,” Buddy said as he stopped two paces away. “I wish you could have told me all that on the way in.”
“I didn’t know all of it until I got to my desk,” she admitted. She’d been overwhelmed with information the second she entered the office. Between what Darius had found and the reports on Buddy’s adolescent adventures and what the general had forwarded, her head spun like a toy top.
She pinched the bridge of her nose, hoping to hold back the headache threatening to render her utterly useless.
“There is a lot to process, and I need some time to go through everything,” she said. “In the meantime, Buddy, I need you stay clear of firefighting for the time being.”
“His shift is covered,” Arthur said with a nod. “Besides, he and I have some paperwork to cover before he takes over as lieutenant.”
“Thanks.” She gave Buddy a weak smile, knowing that everyone in the office had been stealing a glance here, a stare there, all wondering if they were indeed sleeping together.
Well, it was none of their damn business, but she needed to keep things professional while in her office. Letting Edwin go off was a means to an end, though she wasn’t quite sure what that end was just yet.
“I’ll be at the station doing administration bullshit until tomorrow morning,” Buddy said.
“Thanks for coming in, and I’ll be in touch.” She wanted to reach out and touch him, but that would just add fuel to the office gossip chain.
Thankfully, Buddy didn’t need any extra prodding and understood her concerns.
She watched him waltz down the hallway in his fire protection specialist boots, pants, and mock T-Shirt, filling them out like a perfect wetsuit after it’s been molded to your body in the water.
“Louis, follow me,” she said to the newbie investigator. Talk about green. This was his first assignment after going through training and instead of starting as an MP, he’d worked as a clerk in the legal department.
“Yes, ma’am.” Louis was barely twenty-five, but he seemed eager to learn the ropes. She’d only been working in the office for a couple of days, but she’d seen the way Edwin treated those below him, and she for one planned on changing how things worked in the office.
“How familiar are you with this case?” she asked as she stepped into her office. The stacks of files next to her computer didn’t help the pounding between her ears.
“Honestly, other than what you told me this morning, I don’t know jack shit, ma’am.”
One thing she valued more than anything on the job was honesty. “Are you afraid of hard work and long hours?”
“No, ma’am,” he said with such enthusiasm it made her heart flutter a little faster.
She rifled through the papers covering her desk until she found the information she was looking for. “Here is access to all the files on Edwin’s computer. I want you to go through his work email, his?—”
“Ma’am?” he stared at her with wide eyes.
“There shouldn’t be anything personal on his work computer. If there is, ignore it, but I’ll need you to notify me, okay?” If Edwin had used his work computer for anything personal, she’d have more to toss at him, and at the very least, she wanted him removed permanently from her team.
“Yes, ma’am.”
She really wanted to tell Louis to cut the ma’am crap, but she knew he wouldn’t. Not on his first week under her tutelage and certainly not on his first case. She needed fresh eyes and a keen sense. Not someone who worried about what to call her.
“Focus on everything Edwin gathered on the murder of Keith. I want you to prepare a report for me in a couple of hours, and then we can discuss and create a plan moving forward.”
“I can do that.” He stood, taking the stack of papers she offered.
“I’ll get someone to bring you his laptop and files.”
“Thank you,” Louis said as he stepped from the office. “I won’t let you down.”
“I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please shut the door.”
Once in the privacy of her small office, she let out an audible sigh, but it was interrupted by the phone.
“This is Kaelie Star,” she said.
“Star, this is Sergeant Derek Armond of the Jacksonville Police Department. We’ve got something for you that changes everything.” Derek rushed the words so that they blended together in an almost incoherent pattern. “You’re not going to believe this, but the body found in the fire isn’t firefighter Keith Jones.”
“What?” She rubbed the inside of her ear. “Who is it, then?”
“His brother, Archer.”