16. Relieved of Duty
Relieved of Duty
Another thud. This time, more forcefully.
It sounded hollow yet heavy. As if it came from deep within the warehouse.
Salsbury looked at me and I nodded back.
At that moment, with the nozzle of the gun still pressed to the hinge, the door swung open vigorously, almost knocking the shotgun out of his hands.
“Freeze! Don’t move!” Berry said, her gun pointed at the doorway. I was shocked. In disbelief, almost, at what I was seeing.
“I recommend you lower your weapon before you find yourself working the crosswalk at the local school for a month,” Belle said with a smirk.
“What? Let me see your hands!” Berry ordered. Belle opened her jacket, displaying her FBI badge.
“Is this good enough for you?” Belle said obnoxiously.
“Special Agent Sarfati? What are you doing here?” I said. Berry and Salsbury lowered their weapons; I holstered mine.
“Alex, didn’t I tell you to call me Belle?” Belle said.
“You know her?” Berry said.
“We are working on a case together. It’s interagency.”
“And classified,” Belle said. She took a step forward and dug her heel into the dried blood. “This crime scene is under our jurisdiction. We do not need local help at this time, but I’ve been assured by your captain that you will secure the perimeter and let us do our work.”
“The perimeter?” Berry said. I turned to her and urged them to go. Salsbury and Berry headed back to their patrol cars, irritated but relieved.
“So, what’s going on?” I said, peering inside. She had entered through the loading dock. I could see her team, three cars, and even an ambulance in the back of the warehouse. But the blood, the origin was still a mystery until I stepped inside.
“Come look,” Belle said. She led me towards the center of the warehouse and stopped short of the table at its center. “We found our thieves.”
Belle raised her hand and pointed at the pile of corpses that had been festering in the warehouse heat for some time now.
“Shit. Is that?” I said, before taking a step toward them.
“Our thieves. The van outside, the clothes they’re wearing, and the tattoos match the video,” Belle said.
“Have you identified them? What are their names?” I said, covering my nose.
The smell would come in waves towards me like the rising tide.
The bodies were left festering inside a metal tin can with no ventilation or air conditioning; it was one of those old style warehouses that had fans all across the roof for air exchange and to keep the temperature agreeable for those working inside; but they were all off.
“We are working on that as we speak. The crime scene tech already got samples of their fingerprints and facial pictures to run across all the databases; we should get a hit soon,” Belle said.
Another SUV pulled into the rear loading bay with more men in tactical gear; and then behind them a large white coroner’s van arrived.
“Did they have the drive on them? Who killed them?” I asked, flustered by it all.
“Who else? Their employer, obviously,” Belle said, directing her men to collect evidence. Her partner, James Brown, walked over with a crime scene technician. The man placed a large case on the table and carefully opened it.
“Employer? You mean they were hired by someone. But why kill them? A deal gone bad?” I said.
“Cutting loose ends, more likely,” James Brown said. He handed a phone over to Belle and whispered in her ear.
“Thank you. I’ll speak with him in a moment,” Belle said. Then he turned to me and said, “you’re free to go.”
“Come again?” I replied. “Free to go where?”
“You’re relieved from this case. You can leave.”
“Wait. What about the drive? And the ones responsible for —” I said.
“No longer your concern. This is a federal matter now, a homicide, and it’s beyond your jurisdiction.
Thank you for your help, but it’s no longer needed,” Belle said dryly.
She didn’t hesitate to end our partnership.
The moment she no longer needed me; she pushed me out of the case without hesitation.
Foolishly, I thought we had bonded. Well, bonded as much as you can with someone with such a frigid demeanor.
“I can’t just walk away. I still haven’t found the stolen hard drive or the jewelry,” I replied.
I was indignant. They brought me into the case, blocked me at each turn, and now were discarding me like a used wet wipe; this time was no different from my previous run-ins with the feds.
And why I vocally opposed working with them time and time again.
“I’m still working on an active homicide investigation, and those three are the prime suspects. You can’t just usher me away.”
“Actually, I can send you away. As for the murder investigation, you can continue your investigation at the morgue; they’ll be arriving shortly.
And the jewelry doesn’t concern us nor is it here, but the drive—” Belle said as she approached with her hand on her service weapon.
“Is in the possession of someone else and possibly on its way to another country. This is over your head. Do you understand? I’ve already spoken to your captain, and the decision has been made.
He’s expecting your call. Goodbye, Detective Hernandez. ”
And just like that, I was escorted out of the warehouse by several agents in full tactical gear.
Meanwhile, the crime scene technicians went to work, snapping pictures and taking samples.
The front of the building had been cordoned off and part of the intersection closed down by more federal agents.
A bittersweet end to a case I’d been working on for weeks.