All The Way Down

Chapter 18

Sandy followed me over to the car rental agency. I dropped the car off, charged the bill onto my credit card, and climbed back into the police cruiser with her. She didn't say anything on the ride back over to Brick's house. Maybe she was talked out from our conversation in the motel room, or maybe she was trying to decide what to do about having a commanding officer who destroyed evidence. There was occasional chatter coming from the radio and I listened to it, trying to interpret what was being said. She turned the volume on the radio down when we got close to Brick's house.

"When you talk to Bullard, don’t mention our conversation this afternoon," she said.

I watched her face in profile for a couple of seconds. Her jaw was set in grim determination.

"Okay."

We turned the corner onto the street Brick had lived on. I saw Brick’s car in the driveway and felt the anger flooding through my blood. Bullard was part of what I hated now. I didn't know if he was responsible for Brick's death, but he had wiped down the house after Sandy and I got out of there, which meant that if the house had been broken into and searched like I suspected, we would never find any fingerprints. He'd seen to that.

She pulled the cruiser to a stop at the curb, facing oncoming traffic. I could see gray dusty spots on the door handles and the trunk of Brick's car. Sandy shifted the cruiser into park, leaving the engine running.

"What are you going to do about Bullard?" I asked.

"I haven't decided yet," She said. "I need to know more about your brother's death. What Bullard's team has found so far, leads anyone has. I was just called in to do the fingerprinting. Bullard and Collins are working the investigation."

"Will you tell me if you find anything out?"

She sighed quietly. "That depends. If Bullard's dirty and I can prove it, I'll turn it over to the state Attorney General and let him clean up the mess. Maybe he was just trying to piss me off by wiping down the prints. Who knows?"

"I mean about who killed Brick."

She gave me an appraising look. "Are you asking for a chance to settle the score?"

I thought about it for a couple of seconds. The prospect of revenge on whoever had killed Brick gave me a little jolt. I knew that if I had the chance to get even I would do it without hesitation.

"No. I just want to know if it's a hopeless case or not. I want to feel like someone's actually trying to find out what's going on."

I hadn't been paying attention to the radio chatter, but Sandy must have heard her unit number called because she snatched the microphone off the clip on the dash and responded to a call.

"I've got to go," she said. "My advice to you is to keep a low profile for a while. Whoever shot up your car may try for you again. That must have occurred to you, right? You've been square with me so far, so I'll tell you what I can about your brother's investigation. Don't get your hopes up, though. It might take a while. Some cases take months or even years."

I opened the car door to get out, and she called to me before I shut the door. "Hey," she said. "Will you be staying here tonight?"

"Yeah. I'm moving my stuff over. I've had it with motel living."

"Just wanted to know where I could find you. Bullard says you’re a one man crime wave. I need to keep tabs on you."

"I’ll give the crime wave a rest for a day or two. Drop by any time."

"I just might."

I closed the door and watched the black and white accelerate down the block to the stop sign. She slowed for the sign, and then she hit the lights and siren and kept right on going. I stood there in the street for a minute looking at the house and listening to her siren recede.