Page 26 of Lau Ahi
“Funny how you’re conveying to someone in the new administration the details of a case that we didn’t realize was a murder investigation until a few hours ago. I see where yourpriorities are.” Alec laughed off his statement to keep it light but we all knew the implications of his words.
“What. What do you mean?”
“Seems like you shouldn’t be involved in this if you can’t keep case details in-house the way they’re supposed to. I’m sure Cochran would be interested in hearing this.” I had no issue letting this bitch know I was about to tattle on him. Because I was without hesitation.
Anderson’s hands flew up. His face now panicked since he’d tried to call our bluff and failed.
“Hold up. O-C, tell your boy—”
Alec turned around and was about to stalk back toward Anderson before I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “First, bitch, stop calling me O-C. My name is Agent Ortega-Castillo and I never gave you or anyone else permission to shortchange my lineage by calling me something else.”
Anderson tried to laugh it off and I was about to let Vega’s ass go since he thought shit was funny. “It’s not that deep—”
“It is to me. Further more Agent Nakoa ain’t my boy and that’s not a term you should ever use with a grown-ass man. Especially one that doesn’t mess with you like that.”
Anderson frowned as if he found it offensive that Alec was calling him out on his micro aggressions. “Y’all really trying not to play ball—”
“Hell no. Because the last thing I ever have to worry about is you thinking of some shit before me. Hate it as you might you don’t have seniority over anyone here and we all know how you got this position. Keep your head down and try not to get in our fucking way. We don’t have to check in with you. Neither of us could give a fuck less about who your family is. Put in the work if you want the rewards. If you’ll excuse us, we have more to do than sit here and waste time with you.”
I spoke my piece and Alec and I turned back and headed to the car. Like we told him, we had more important shit to do.
“It’s not my call.”
When she said that I knew we were in for some bullshit I just didn’t understand the gravity of what she was going to say to us. We’d barely gotten in the door before both of our work phones were lit up with a text from Cochran with the directive to come to her office. The last thing I wanted was some additional assignment that was going to prevent my ass from heading home but protocol being what it was and the respect I had for my superiors meant I wasn’t going to ignore her text.
Now I wish I had.
I just knew that Anderson’s weak ass had put in some type of complaint and Vega and I had already started about how we were going to beat his ass and ruin his life on the ride up to her office. But when she started off trying to brace us for what she was about to say, I knew it didn’t have shit to do with Anderson because she didn’t give a fuck about him either.
“What’s going on?”
When she looked at me and Alec before speaking I knew she was gauging just how badly we were about to cut up. “They’re wanting to pull in a profiling expert.”
“Since when do we do that?”
I’m glad he spoke first since he could do it without raising his voice. I didn’t want some know it all to tell us how to do our jobs.
“Since the people who are now getting their jobs say that they want to clean house if we don’t play nice. They want us to bend over backwards to ensure we find out who did this. Again, it doesn’t look good because of the current political climate and I’m not about to have someone hollering we didn’t do everything we could to find out who did this. Especially if this becomes more than a one-off and more missing persons become bodies floating in the Potomac.” She gave us a look that conveyed we weren’t about to not follow the rules and have people getting on her nerves. I could understand that but the shit was still annoying.
“Shit, don’t even put that into the atmosphere, boss. The last thing we need is a damn serial killer.” Alec shook his head as he sat back in his chair his brain heading in the same direction as mine. It was the only reason they would want us to bring a profiler from the outside. They either had a clue something was going on or they wanted to head it off before it started.
“With the way the world is going, it seems like that’s not too far-fetched.”
I ran a hand down my face because I didn’t feel like dealing with this but there was no stopping it.
“Where are y’all headed next?”
“We’re going to wait for the autopsy.”
Cochran nodded her approval of Alec’s answer before she gave us both a sympathetic look. “I know that’s not what you wanted but make the best of it. Let me know what y’all find.”
The use of Vicks was no longer needed to keep the smell of death out of our noses. We were so used to the scents that came when bodies were pulled out of water, uncovered after years of being buried or charred that it no longer turned our stomachs. It was a shame when you got used to death.
We watched as the pathologist finished what they were doing before coming out to speak to us. Despite saying we wanted to leave as soon as possible, we hadn’t left the building. This meeting we had to take with the person who’d be working with us closely was set to happen tomorrow morning first thing but when we learned that Natalie Rawlins was having a special autopsy done because of her connections neither of us was willing to leave without hearing what they had to say. It was close to two in the morning and we knew that reporters would be waiting to hear the official word from the police or the director. We weren’t officially on the case but it was clear to anyone that we were involved. Local PD didn’t have the capacity to handle the hell that the government was going to inflict on them in order to get this case solved. It hadn’t officially been turned over to us despite our helping with the manhunt and our people doing the autopsy but we were to work it like it was one of ours.
The way privilege clings to them even in death.
There were dozens even hundreds, of Black girls that went missing from DC every year but no one searched for themthe way all effort had been put into the Rawlins case.The Consortiumdid as much as we could to help with recovery efforts and to stem the tide of trafficking that was happening in this country but even we couldn’t be everywhere at once. I hoped that the network I was building in DC, once I took my place, would be able to put more people in place to do good.
