Before leaving the station to go home, Nik stopped by the captain’s
office. The light was on, but the door was closed. He knocked lightly.
“Come in!”
Nik opened the door to see his boss poring
over reports, piles of them. “Long night?”
“And getting longer!” the superior officer
replied testily. “What are you doing here? I thought you were catching up on
sleep.”
“My partner asked me in, he has a theory on
the case.”
“And what does he think?”
“Well, he has pretty good evidence that the
victim on the yacht wasn’t that much of a victim in life.”
“Oh?” The captain put down the report he was
reading, hoping for a good story to distract him. “Do tell.”
“Seems he was a former mob hitman, long
retired but maybe doing work on the side.”
“And maybe, just maybe the man’s profession
had to do with his murder.”
Nik sat down. “Is my partner crazy? Or am I
crazy?”
“I think spending time with you will do that
to anyone. And you’ve always been crazy. My question: is he getting what I want
him to get from you?”
“Remind me what the hell is he supposed to
get from me?”
“Your tracking skills.”
“Oh. I don’t know yet.”
“If he’s chasing this case down at this time
of night, my guess is he’s learning something.”
Nik shrugged. “Maybe. I just chase people.”
“But he does it using his brain, you do it
with your legs and car.”
Nik grinned slyly. “You implying I don’t
use my brain?”
The captain stood to get himself some
coffee. “Oh, you’re smart, don’t get me wrong. But a lot of people wanted to
work with him, despite what you told him. And because he was a new detective,
he was the only one I could spare to work with you.”
“I know. I had to tell him he wasn’t all that
trusted.”
“When the truth is 180 degrees off.”
“I know. I told him he had two days to prove
his theory.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“Then we close the case as unsolved.”
“I don’t know about it, either. None of it
makes sense. If the guy was an assassin, my guess is that someone found him and
got their revenge.”
Nik
shook his head. “It usually doesn’t work that way. Assassins are hired guns,
nothing personal about what they do, most of the time. Dwayne seems to think
the killing involved some law firm down in Vegas, or at least a lawyer who
works in that firm. It’s all sketchy, but he’s called in for a search warrant
for the victim’s home.”
The captain sighed and nodded. “And he has
it, it just got faxed in an hour ago.”
“I can make it disappear so we can forget
about it.”
“Why do you want it to go away?”
“It just seems dead, not worth looking into.”
The boss looked sternly at Nik. “No, it’s
you avoiding a case where you have to use those deduction skills that you don’t
think you have. Quite frankly, I think you have them.”
“Is it worth using them if I don’t plan to be
around much longer?”
“It’s called bettering yourself. Try it.”
“Is the lecture over?”
“Yeah. You gave him time, right?”
“Right.”
“Make it useful for him.”
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