Page 48 of Crosshairs
“I was hoping to see Cindy Tavarez. I don’t have an appointment. I just wanted to say hello.” The woman led me to an inner office that held six more analysts.
Cindy stood up and greeted me as I approached her desk. She said, “Detective Bennett? I thought I recognized you from all the newspaper articles over the years. Glad to meet you in person.” She had a warm smile.
“Just wanted to make sure no one was upset we were verifying Joe’s alibi. I told him we were just trying to eliminate anyone with his kind of skills.” Cindy seemed okay with my explanation and invited me to sit for a minute.
As we were chatting, a younger man walked by, and Cindy said, “Darnell, this is Michael Bennett with the NYPD. He knows Joe.” She looked at me and said, “Detective Bennett, this is Darnell Nash. He was Joe’s spotter in the service.”
I shook the young man’s hand. “Joe said he had a friend who worked over here.”
Nash said, “I would’ve followed him on to the NYPD if I hadn’t gotten a little careless and stepped on an IED.” He lifted his left pant leg to display a titanium prosthetic. Then he said, “If it wasn’t for Joe and Cindy, I never would’ve landed this job. I thank God every day for them.”
“You got a lot more analysts in one place than us. The NYPD tends to scatter them among the squads.”
“The FBI does too. I’m still new to this, and they thought it would be best if I worked down here in intake until I was up to speed on everything. Cindy makes sure I don’t get in too much trouble. Plus, I like the 4/10 schedule. Do you ever work joint cases with the FBI?”
I hesitated, then said, “Occasionally. I used to work with an agent named Emily Parker.”
Nash said, “I’m sorry. I heard about her murder. It’s shocked all of us to the core. I didn’t know her personally, but I’ve heard great things about her.”
“She was great. She made working with the feds easy. Sometimes it feels like a lot of your agents didn’t get that memo.”
Nash handed me his business card. “I’d like to work with otheragencies. Especially the NYPD. I met one of your guys working on a task force. Rob something.”
“Trilling. He’s working with me for the time being.”
“We vets tend to stick together. I hope he’s doing well.”
I just nodded.
Cindy Tavarez excused herself.
When she was gone, Nash asked me in a quiet voice, “Working anything interesting right now?”
“That depends on how you define ‘interesting.’ I met a man with a pet rat named Nigel. That was interesting.”
“I meant case-wise.”
I shook my head. “I never think of people being murdered as interesting. Just a job that needs to be done.” A job I needed to get back to right now.
CHAPTER 58
THE NEXT MORNING at nine o’clock, I was surprised when Rob Trilling still hadn’t come through the office door. I had a lot I wanted to discuss with him. Some of it was professional, some was personal. All of it was starting to eat at me badly. I couldn’t be around anyone else. I pretended to be going over reports at my desk so I didn’t have to hear any of Walter Jackson’s corny puns. Even if they usually made me smile. On rare occasions, I don’twantto smile. I want to be grumpy. I think that’s in the Bill of Rights for fathers. Certainly for fathers of more than three children.
Trilling rolled into the office about 9:30, carrying a stuffed equipment bag and an armful of notebooks. He dropped it all at the desk he’d been using next to mine.
He didn’t wait for the question. Trilling said, “Sorry I’m late. The FBI’s rotating cars and I had to return my Ford.”
“Did they give you a replacement?”
“They said I get a new one when I come back to the task force. I only had about five minutes to clean out the car. I don’t like to turn in equipment that’s not spotless.”
That was definitely a military attitude. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen it as a police attitude. Sometimes it felt like the goal of some detectives was to see how much garbage they could leave in a car they had to turn in.
Trilling looked at me and asked, “Something wrong?”
I looked in every direction to make sure no one had wandered into the squad bay. It was empty, aside from us. Trilling took the chair next to my desk.
I said, “Were you going to tell me about your date with Juliana?”