Double Cross

Chapter 53

PISSED OFF AT THE WORLD in general, and at Braden Thompson in particular, the three of us showed up at the Daly Building. We didn’t get very far before Superintendent Davies headed us off. “Over here,” he barked, then turned and walked back to his office. “The three of you, now.”

We looked at one another, not liking the vibe.

“Why do I feel like I’m about to get detention and miss football practice?” Sampson muttered.

“Yeah,” Bree said, “and cheerleading practice too. Oh, wait, I wasn’t ever a cheerleader.”

Bree and I wiped the smirks off our faces before we went in.

“Can you explain this?” Davies flipped a newspaper around on his desk.

There was a story above the fold in the Post’s metro section, “Audience Killer Copycat Theory Surfaces.”

I wasn’t surprised by the headline so much as reminded about how fast these stories can spread and get out to the press.

Bree answered for the group. “We just learned about it this morning ourselves. Even right now we’re coming from -”

“Don’t give me a lot of explanations, Detective Stone. In my book, that’s only a step up from an excuse. Just do something about it.” He twisted his neck a few times, as if he were trying to undo the pain we’d put there.

“Excuse me, sir,” Bree said. “This isn’t the kind of information we can control. Not once it’s been -”

Davies cut her off again. “I don’t need a lesson in damage control. I need you to take care of the mess. This is Major Case Squad. Your superiors aren’t a safety net. You need to respond to the problems before I ask you to respond to them. Do you understand me?”

“Of course I understand you,” Bree said. “I don’t need a lesson in damage control either. Apparently, neither does DCAK.”

Suddenly, Davies smiled, and it was totally unexpected. “You see why I like her?” he asked Sampson and me.

Yeah, I was pretty sure that I did.