Tares City

76. Partners In Crime

"You and me both!" Dean replies. 

"But Captain's trying to look good and he's trying to make this precinct look good. If he hands this case over to the task force he could put us on another. Call it being efficient."

"That's most likely what's going to happen. Especially if Brooks has a say in it."

"What do you mean?"

"Just that she has a way of always getting what she wants," Dean says dismissively. "Until then, we're here and it's still ours so how about you take the bedroom and I'll take her office?" Dean suggests.

"Yeah, sure." Kim-Lee agrees, and the two of them split up. 

Dean begins looking through everything, going through the files and records stored in the drawers and bookshelves - Combing through every inch of the office, finding nothing of significance. Deciding to move on to another, he heads into the hallway, and the room adjacent. An art room as it turns out. Dean wastes no time, looking through the contents of the room for anything that could be useful. 

Opening the large wooden chest off to the side, Dean begins rummaging, pulling out a small pocket-sized leather-bound journal. Inspecting it, Dean found that the journal seemed out of place. Although there were other small books in the chest, this was the only one whose condition was pristine. Unlike the others, there were no dog ears or pencil marks - No evidence of continuous use, but it was written in. Looking at its side profile, Dean sees that many of its pages were ripped out, making the book slim in width.

Opening the journal, Dean finds himself instinctively catching the small object that fell from it as he pulls the cover open - A  small silver flash drive. With the flash in his hand, Dean flips through the pages of the journal his eyes opening wide as he skims over its contents. 

Without a second thought, Dean shuts the book and stands up from his crouched position. Holding the book in flush against his palm he begins to push it into his pant pocket, only then realizing he wasn't alone in the room. 

Cursing his rash carelessness, Dean slowly turned to see who stood behind him, witnessing what he'd attempted to do. 

"I hope you can explain, but I don't think I see how any explanation could exempt you from what I saw," Kim-Lee says firmly, watching Dean with disappointment and suspicion. 

"Kim," Dean begins slowly trying to think of a way out of the situation, standing with the book halfway into his pocket. 

"Don't try lying to me, detective. There's no way you can spin this. I've caught you red-handed." She says to him. "Why are you pocketing evidence? I know it's not to get one up on the task force."

Dean opens his mouth to speak but the sound of footsteps and voices coming up the stairs has him shoving the book fully into his pocket as he walks to Kim-Lee. With his now free hand, he grabs her arm, using the cover of his movements to place the flash drive into his other pocket without her seeing.

"I can explain, I can! I'll tell you the truth. But, please Kim-Lee, I need you to trust me right now," He says in a hurry as the voices get closer. 

"Tampering with evidence, Dean. That's-"

"No, no it's not like that I swear! Look, just trust me. I know it looks bad but believe me, I -"

"Straken, Chen." A voice interrupts, Dean looks up to see two fellow detectives coming their way. "We got the news, Captain just green-lit a handover. Since the Rockwells are on our radar, it just makes sense for us to handle this one. You two cool with that, right?"

"Yeah, Quimby. We-" Dean starts only to be cut off.

"Really? Ha! I'd thought you most of all would have opposed it!" He says to Straken.