CIRCULAR CRIME

Chapter 15

It seemed logical for Mitch to meet Joseph in the city before going into the office. The last thing he wanted was Dan breathing down his neck, and getting more death stares from their co-workers. This news from Joseph was just the break they needed. Mitch knew that he could not afford to wait another day to get the information from Joseph. Aaron would have to wait. Besides, his little night time escapade of breaking into the records warehouse was not the way Mitch wanted to conduct his business. The search had turned up nothing. Nothing, except for the fact that Mitch had noticed that Aaron had moved one of the boxes. Aaron's inexperience in the field was obvious. Mitch always had an eye for detail. Of course, he couldn't take the box with him while Aaron was around. But he had taken note of the code on the box so he could get it requisitioned properly. Mitch figured he could find someone who would be able to get him the box without questioning him too much. Aaron probably did not have those boxes logged in the computer system. Whatever he was hiding, Mitch was going to find out.

When Joseph had confirmed which officers were involved, he would get Brandon to take him off the grid for his own protection. Once Greg could identify which one of the officers was at the scene of the girl's murder, he would run their DNA against the splinter that Angel found on the fire door. If all of the evidence lined up, he will have solved one case; possibly two; three, depending on what extra evidence turned up from the subsequent investigations of the accused officers. At the end of the day, it was going to cause quite a stir. One of the all time shake downs, thought Mitch. Dave, Dan and the PIC would have to be notified before any action was taken. All Mitch had to do was get the evidence.

For now, he finished off some cereal and got dressed in time before Brandon and Thomas picked him up. Every muscle seemed to ache simultaneously in his body. A bit of physiotherapy and some mild workouts at home should help, he thought. Still, there was a fair amount of cleaning up to do. Kate had not picked her spirits up. It occurred to Mitch that he still had to explain about what had occurred between Nathan and himself. Neither had Nathan contacted Mitch to let him know how he was going; just another task that he had to write into the notes section of his iPhone. Mitch knew that his family was more important that an item on a list, but he knew he had to solve these cases as well. 

The sound of a horn from outside indicated that his lift had arrived. Mitch grimaced as he put his jacket on, and closed the front door behind him. Waving as he walked up the path, Mitch was concerned to see the serious faces of Brandon and Thomas within the car.

"What's up guys? Did someone else die?"

A slow nod of Thomas head and their serious stares were enough for Mitch to know the truth. "Who?" he asked as he sat in the front seat next to Brandon.

Brandon drove away from the gutter as he answered. "Joseph."

"Joseph? What? How? When?"

"Kath just let us know. The word is spreading fast around the offices. Two of the guys from the station found him early this morning. He was shot, and had apparently been pushed off the elevated train line at the Quay," replied Brandon.

Mitch was furious. "How come we weren't told of this earlier? If someone found out about your discussion with Joseph and got to him already..."

"According to Kath," added Thomas, "the word is they already have a suspect in custody, and are even insinuating that Joseph was one of the corrupt cops that the PIC was chasing. What bollocks!"

Mitch's level of furious went up another notch. "So they've already dealt with what should have been our crime scene? No doubt, in order to hide something from us. It looks like we may be being hung out on a stake for the vultures to get us boys. I'll be damned if I'm going to let this go without a fight. Who on earth do they have as a suspect?"