Guilty By Association

Chapter 37 - Catastrophic Intentions

“I have the phone, Alex.” Dylan said, and Alex could hear the smile in his voice. He really did have it. “It’s a prepaid one, I think. It’s a Nokia. It was in the hall, just where Rona said it would be. I’ve put it in an evidence bag and I’m bringing it in right now.”

“Hurry up.” Alex said. “And drive safe.”

“I will.” Dylan responded.

As his phone call ended, the elevator doors opened and Alex stepped out with happiness surging through his veins. This was probably what being consumed by happiness felt like. Alex was probably one wrong phone call away from falling into depression. He’d never been so emotionally involved in a case and in his work field failure was something he’d grown accustomed to. In this case though, Alex just couldn’t make himself adjust.

The logical thing to do would be to forget that Kelsey was kidnapped, to forget that he ever met Kelsey and treat her just like another Jane Doe, but he couldn’t do that. He was worried that if he tried, he might not try as hard as he wanted to, and he wanted to give this case his all.

They say that there’s always one case in an agent’s life, one above all others, that leaves an impact in a person’s life. Alex genuinely believed that this case was the one that was that case for him.

Shay was already waiting for him when he arrived.

She attacked Alex as soon as he was in her sights. “I’m tracking that last number called on the phone as we speak.” Those were her first words.

Alex was shocked, then he realized, “Dylan called you.”

“Yes he did.” Shay said, her eyes sparkling the way they normally did whenever she got excited about anything progressing in a case. “This is brilliant. I’m trying to get a hold on that number. We might actually be able to track it. It has GPS.” She added.

“That’s great.” Alex said, though the happiness he felt was dying down a little bit, replaced with betrayal.

How could Dylan call Shay before calling him? How? Dylan knew Alex was waiting for his report. Did he trust Shay more? Not only that, he’d spoken to her long enough to explain the whole situation and he’d done all of that before feeling the need to contact Alex. Alex would definitely question him about it as soon as he arrived. He wasn’t just hurt, Alex felt betrayed.

“You don’t seem happy.” Shay remarked, cocking an eyebrow.

“I’m happy.” Even Alex could hear the fakeness in his words, so then he just sighed. “I’m just a little offended.”

Shay cocked her head to the side. “Huh?” She asked, as if she could see no reason as to why Alex would feel offended.

“Dylan reported to you before he reported to me.” He explained.

Shay’s eyes widened in understanding. “Oh,” She muttered. “I didn’t know…”

“He just called me right now, when I was coming up the elevator, and you were waiting outside and you already knew.” He said. Did his team believe he was no longer capable of being in charge of them? Had everything Alex worked for in the past ten years been ruined because of this one case? Did his crew no longer trust him?

“I’m sorry.” Shay said. “But I don’t think Dylan was trying to undermine your authority, Alex. Maybe he thought calling me would get things moving faster. He knew you were at the hospital with Verona and probably thought that if he called me, I could start tracing the last number sooner. Every second counts, right?”

Shay’s words did make sense, but Alex still felt betrayed. “I guess.” He said, grumpily.

His job meant everything to him. He hadn’t worked so hard for so long for nothing. He’d built respect, confidence, authority, and trust. These were four things that could be taken from him in a snap. One wrong move and everyone will lose all respect for him. On wrong action and he wouldn’t be able to trust himself. One order and he’d lose his whole unit. And trust? Trust was fragile as it was. His team had trusted him, and now…they didn’t, did they?