The Executioner

Hundred and Twenty

‘Wait a second, captain.’ Hunter shot to his feet. ‘You can’t suspend us. Not now.’

Captain Blake chuckled. ‘I can do what the fuck I like, Robert. You’re the only two people who don’t seem to have noticed that I run this division.’

‘Captain, you can’t do that.’ Hunter tried to calm his voice. ‘There’s no time for any other detective to hit the ground running with this case.’ He paused. ‘The killer will strike again tonight.’

The captain’s gaze held Hunter motionless. ‘You better start talking to me, detective. And you better come as clean as morning rain.’

This time Hunter told Captain Blake everything.

‘And this phone you gave her – is it still switched off?’

‘Trevor told me he’d call the second it came back on the grid.’

The captain paced the room as she considered what to do. ‘We can’t even mobilize units, Robert. This girl could be anywhere. And I don’t even know if I should believe any of this shit you just told me. All I have to go on are crazy visions from a seventeen-year-old girl who I never really met.’

‘You have our opinion to go on, captain.’ Hunter shook his head gently. ‘She’s not a fake.’

‘Why should I believe you, Robert? You’ve been everything but straight with me.’

‘OK captain, I admit, I screwed up, but not because I wanted to piss you off or undermine your authority or show disrespect. I did what I did because I wanted to protect a seventeen-year-old girl from the destructive circus she was about to be thrown into. Interrogations, people doubting her, the press, the mockery… Most people would crack under much less pressure. Mollie doesn’t deserve that. She just wanted to help, and in her heart she believed she could.’ Hunter paused for air. ‘You can do whatever you like, captain. You can bust me down to traffic duty when this case is over if it pleases you, but you can’t pull us off this investigation now. This killer’s on a revenge mission. He won’t keep on killing. After he gets his revenge, he’ll disappear, I’m certain of that. We’ve only got seven days, captain. And he’s only got two more names on his list.’

‘Three if he’s really going after Mollie tonight,’ Garcia noted.

‘Exactly, but Mollie wasn’t part of his original plan.’

The captain narrowed her eyes as a hint of confusion crossed her face.

‘By going after Mollie, the killer’s breaking away from his own schedule, his own rules,’ Hunter clarified.

‘And when they deviate from their original plan, that’s when they make mistakes,’ Garcia complemented.

The captain looked unsure. ‘We’ve got protocols to follow, Robert.’

‘With all due respect, captain, fuck protocol. I’m not putting a set of bullshit, bureaucratic rules over anyone’s life,’ Hunter said firmly, to Barbara Blake’s surprise. ‘Captain Bolter told me you were a great cop. You had great instincts. You always followed your gut feelings. You must’ve withheld information from your superior officers for one reason or another at least once in your career. We all do it – including the chief of police. It doesn’t make us bad cops, captain. It actually makes us real cops.’ He studied her. ‘What’s your gut feeling telling you now?’

Captain Blake closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. ‘Let me ask you something, detective. Do you think that reporter from the LA Times, Claire Anderson, knew where to find Mollie? Maybe knew you’d taken her to a hotel?’

Hunter tilted his head, reflecting. ‘Possible. Reporters have their own sources, their own investigative team. Claire is certainly ambitious enough. Why?’

Barbara Blake faced Hunter. ‘She was found murdered this afternoon.’

‘What?’ Hunter cocked his head forward as if he hadn’t heard it correctly.

‘Her throat was cut open.’

‘No way?’ Garcia murmured, his eyes wide.

‘That’s all the information I have at the moment. Detectives and forensics are still at the scene. But if our killer is really after Mollie, and Claire Anderson had any information that could’ve led him to her, the possibility he killed her for that information has suddenly become very real.’