Night Falls

Thirteen

Scott stands behind the two-way glass, arms crossed as he watches Vine and his lawyer talk–with the intercom off, of course. There was no way Scott was risking any tricks with this case. One slip up and Holomen would have a mistrial so fast it would leave Scott's head spinning.

This one had to be done by the books; no throwing punches, no hot-headed remarks. Just pure, clean police work at its best.

"You ready for this?" Avi approaches Scott from behind and settles next to him, both men staring into the small interrogation room.

"I've been waiting for this since the day he killed my mom, Avi." Scott's eyes don't leave Vine, watching every single move, memorizing every twitch and tick as he prepared to go in with everything's he got.

Avi lays a hand on Scott's shoulder, getting his attention.

"I know, son." Avi smiles sadly at Scott. "But if you're going to go in there, you can't let your emotions get the best of you." Avi's fingers give a squeeze and Scott takes a deep breath. "That's exactly what he and Holomen are hoping for. And you can't give it to them."

"Every sensible part of me is telling me not to let you in there and send in someone else." Scott's head snaps to Avi, his blue eyes finding his mentor's. Hell, Avi was practically a second father at this point. He was there for Scott a hell of a lot more than Rick was or ever would be, and not just because he was dead.

"But I would never take this away from you." The uncertainty fades away from Avi's smile. "You go in there, and you nail him."

"Thanks, Avi." Scott swallows hard, his breath catching in his throat, a tight-lipped smile all he can manage.

"Hey, Scott!" A voice calls from behind and Avi's hand falls away from Scott as both men turn to face their visitor.

The bright-eyed Candice Lambert hurries into the room with a file waving in her hand.

"Fast-tracked this one for you." Candice hands the file over to Scott who begins flipping through the pages, this time, taking a moment to absorb the information. Candice smiles up at Avi who just responds with a twitch at the corner of his lip, causing Candice's grin to falter.

"The gun matches the bullet from Sam Hein?" Scott's head shoots up, staring down at Candice.

"Yep!" Candice perks back up. Scott closes the file and slaps it against his hand, biting down on his lip as he's unable to contain his smile.

They now had the murder weapon and Mitch's positive witness ID. They had him. Even if they get no other information, this was more than enough to convict Vine for Hein's murder.

"I seriously owe you, Candice."

"No problem," Candice waves him off. "And we're working through the rest of the weapons we found to see if they match any cold cases we have, so we should have that information within the next few days or so." Scott nods, looking back into the room where Vine sits, having no idea that Scott is about to steal his entire world away.

"Anything else you can give me before I head in there?" Scott looks over his shoulder back to Candice.

She lolls her head back and forth.

"Not yet." Candice squints. "We're working through some files he has, but we're still trying to figure out what they're all connected to."

Scott looks over to Avi.

"He won't know that." Avi shrugs and Scott nods.

He makes his way for the door, but before Scott can even turn the nob, Avi calls out to him.