Page 44 of So Sinister
The officer was still frowning at him, but she no longer looked suspicious, just annoyed.“Make sure you do that.I’ll get my ass handed to me on a platter if I let someone look at our records without an authorized request.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.I’ll make…”
But she was already gone, stalking back to her desk and muttering to herself.David turned around and made his way out of the building and back to the Suburban.When Jeff pulled the SUV out of the lot, he whistled.“Oh, boy.That was close.”
“Yeah?”Greg asked.“What happened?”
He related his story about the near miss with the request, expecting the two agents to react in consternation and shock.Instead, they grinned knowingly at each other and chuckled.
Heat climbed David’s cheeks.“What?”
“Nothing,” Greg said, stifling laughter.“You did good.”
David reddened further.“Was I worried for no reason?”
“No, it would have been bad if they figured out you weren’t supposed to be there,” Jeff said.“It’s just funny that you thought your goose was cooked because the desk officer didn’t have a request for access.Shit like that happens all the time, and they don’t even flag it.She was probably just having a bad day and wanted to take it out on you.”
David wasn’t sure that was the case and was even less sure what the joke was supposed to be.He guessed he would have to be an agent to understand.“Well, anyway, I got the record.”
He opened his laptop and plugged it in.Greg cursed and pulled up the privacy screen on the window next to David.“Jeff, get the other one, will you?”
Jeff did, cursing softly in exact mimicry of his partner.“Man, don’t look at stolen data with the windows open like that,” he scolded David.
“Oh.Sorry.”
“Man’s worried about a secretary having a bad day, and he’s committing a felony in broad daylight in front of God and everybody,” Jeff muttered.
David’s cheeks heated again, and he shrunk down a little as he began reading the report.
After a few minutes, he sat bolt upright.After a few more minutes, he whispered, “Oh no.Oh, shit.”
“What?”Greg asked, instantly alert.“What is it?”
“It’s accurate,” David replied.“Damn it.”
Greg frowned.“What?Dude, you need to start making sense.”
David closed his laptop, tossed it on the seat next to him, and leaned back, rubbing his forehead.“The report is accurate.The autopsy was thorough, and the evidence proves without a doubt that Richard Fenniman died as a result of his vehicle crashing into a guardrail on I-95, rolling over, and bursting into flames.The crash is believed—probably correctly—to have been brought on by Dr.Fenniman’s excessive consumption of alcohol that evening.”
“They could have doctored it,” Jeff offered.
"Maybe, but even if that's true, there's no way to prove it.And they had pictures too not just of the accident but also of his liver and kidneys.He was definitely suffering from alcohol poisoning.I had to learn how to tell because sometimes assholes make their dogs drink beer.It's extremely unlikely that they managed to fake those physical symptoms and definitely impossible to prove it."
The two agents shared a look.Greg put to words succinctly how David felt.“So we just wasted our time.”
“Yep,” David said.
“Ah.”Greg reached back and squeezed David’s shoulder.“That sucks man.I get it.But don’t be too down on yourself, okay?That’s how this game works.We follow leads, and they don’t work out.But eventually, we follow a lead, and it does work out.Keep working at it.We’ll figure it out.”
David managed a brief smile, but he wasn’t encouraged by Greg’s words.Those dogs were still suffering, and everywhere David looked, he ran into a wall.He felt like a rat in a maze while Colonel Chastain and Sergeant Whitaker watched and laughed as he ran in circles, never finding the exit because there was none.They had blocked it without telling him and were now watching him exhaust himself to death.Meanwhile Sierra and her comrades continued to suffer abuse at their hands.
If they were still alive at all.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Good evening, ladies!Welcome, welcome!”
Faith accepted the speaker’s handshake and braced herself for a challenging conversation.“Thank you.”
