Page 36 of Carter

He pauses a moment, then says, “There was a clean out a few months after the Kinsley case. It was a big thing around here because it should have been solved. The whole thing is part of the reason your position was made.”

“Oh, so I wasn’t hired to just solve cold cases but to clean up others’ messes?”

Covering it all up, basically. No one will look into it, or dig deeper, if these cases get solved. Motherfuckers.

“What do you want me to do, Nash? Should I have put that in the job description?”

“Yeah, maybe. Then I’d know what the hell my days would look like. Because I’m starting to get a real taste of it lately.”

“I’m sorry, all right? But if I didn’t think you weren’t good for the position, I never would have hired you. This doesn’t change your job or what you’re doing.”

“No, but it makes more work for me. It’s impossible to redo entire investigations by myself because nothing in these files is reliable. These people deserve justice, and you have one person on how many cases? How am I supposed to comb through all these files myself? I’m doing it for the first time all over again.”

“What do you want, Nash?” he asks, sounding tired and defeated. But also prepared like he knew this was coming. My answer is simple.

“A team.”

He chuckles. “A team? What do you think I am?”

“I need more people.”

“You just started.”

“Yeah, and you’ve been here for years, so you should know the messes I’m trying to clean up. Make it work, or these cases will never be solved, and we’ll both look like idiots.”

I end the call, feeling only a tinge of guilt for talking to my boss that way. I’m not insubordinate and I’m not usually rude to my superiors. But I’m pissed. Who allowed this to happen?

When Monday rolls around, I have two people sitting in my office, waiting for me. A man and a woman, both who look capable and experienced. Not rookies, but not almost retired either. Wow. Did my bitching actually work?

“Apparently, we work for you now. Congratulations.” The woman smiles. “I’m Bea Gendreau.”

“Kristoph Weber,” the guy says, his eyes shining with laughter.

I don’t understand what’s so funny about the situation, but I put them both to work anyway.

Chapter fourteen

Carter

The street is dark, the bright headlights hitting my vision just right every now and then so I can’t see a thing. Snow mounds sit on the edge of the sidewalk; some cars still covered in snow on the other side. The ground glistens from the melted snow.

Ryan laughs beside me, reaching to take my hand. He brings it to his lips to kiss. They’re warm against the cold air.

“You need to wear the mittens I bought you,” he scolds.

“I don’t like things on my hands. It’s… containing.”

He laughs again, squeezing my hand. “You don’t mind this.”

“Nope,” I say with a smile. “And I never will.”

We pass by many people on the sidewalk, even this late at night. New York is always busy. It’s called the city that never sleeps for a reason. Ryan and I are out late at night often, so wesee a lot of this crowd. A lot of times it’s calm, just people like us, getting from point A to point B.

“Come on, let’s cut through here.” Ryan gestures to the alleyway we’ve taken a hundred times before.

There’s a heavy ball in my chest at his suggestion though. Something about tonight feels different.

“Let’s just go around.”