𝗵𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲

𝗰𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘀...

"Thank you" he smiles wholeheartedly. Rakim returns it and they sit and eat in a comfortable silence for a few seconds.

"What happened after I left? With Carter?" Rakim asks relaxed.

Symere can feel his hands getting a little bit sweaty. He's the worst when it comes to lying.

"Nothing. We, uhm, ended the interrogation and then I left too."

"Hm. It drives me insane that we still didn't get a confession out of him. Do you have the camera here? Maybe we can go through the tape and try to find something useful" Rakim suggests.

Fuck.

"No. I left it at my office, sorry" Symere lies.

Rakim shrugs. "Whatever. We can do it tomorrow."

Symere is panicking slightly but trying to remain calm on the outside.

"Oh, I didn't tell you yet. We went through Bourne's laptop and found a guy named Miles McCollum in his Facebook contact list, who neither Bourne's nor Carter's friends and family ever heard of. He's not from work, college or highschool and seems to have no real life connection to either one of them."

"Oh really?" Symere asks interested and relieved about the distracting information.

"Yeah. Pi'erre has shared over a thousand messages with this guy last year. Jarad - you know, the IT-dude -" Rakim pauses and looks at him questioningly.

Symere nods. He remembers Jarad Higgins from previous cases where he helped them.

"He's trying to hack into Bourne's account so we can go through the messages. He didn't have any luck yet but he said he's gonna make it somehow, it's just a matter of days. Tomorrow I'm gonna try and call McCollum. Let's see if he's involved in this whole shit and can give us answers. Man, I really hope this is gonna shed some light on everything. Maybe Bourne had an affair behind Carter's back and he caught them cheating or something. What do you think?"

"That sounds plausible. It would give him a motive" Symere mutters.

"Right? I'm excited. Honestly, I can feel we're gonna solve this soon" Rakim is confident. "And I swear to god, when this fucking case is done and Carter's ass is rotting in prison, I'm gonna go on vacation for at least a week or so" he says and lays back on the couch while folding his arms behind his head.

"Do you think he's gonna get a life sentence?" Symere asks quietly.

Rakim laughs. "He could, if he's smart enough to take a plea deal. But let's be honest, he won't do that. And as far as I know, the prosecution is trying to go for a death sentence. I mean, this is Georgia and we're speaking of a black, young criminal. Not gonna lie, he would be a lucky motherfucker if he gets away with this alive."

_____________________________

"And?" Symere asks tensely.

He's sitting in Rakim's office and watching him while he's trying to call the number they found on Miles McCollum's Facebook profile.

Rakim is shaking his head wordlessly. Half a minute later, he breaks off the call and places the phone down on his desk frustratedly.