Page 24 of Unhallowed Murder
“No. Do I get a ride back home?”
“Up to you, but the ride home will be in a cop car.”
She sighed and shook her head. “I’ll call someone. Can I have my phone back?”
Procedure dictated Ronnie should leave, and then a deputy would show Mariah to the property area and return her things to her, but Ronnie had just given her horrible news, so she walked her to the property area and told them to turn her loose.
“I’m sorry I had to give you bad news, but now you know.”
“You ain’t bad, for a smurf.”
Ronnie grinned. “You’d think I’d at least get to be Smurfette.”
She smiled, and Ronnie turned and made the trek back to her murder room.
Everyone was back at their desks, and Agent Graham sat on the other side of Carter’s desk. The two seemed to have hit it off.
She looked to Myers’ desk, just outside her office door. “I saw notes on the victim’s boyfriend when I was in my office earlier. Give me a few minutes to look them over, and we’ll go talk to him.” She looked at Agent Graham. “He’ll know you talked to her before she was killed, and he may blame you. Mind if I take this one without you?”
“Not a problem. He can answer questions to your murder but not the bribery case.” He sat back, trying to look casual and put her at ease, which only put her on alert. “Our bosses have been talking over our heads about Flores and Ramirez. I asked to be the one to tell you, even though it wasn’t my decision.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I kinda thought they might. You’re getting them for everything, aren’t you?”
“Afraid so. The cases are tied together so tightly, it makes sense to handle them in one trial instead of two. This was the prosecutors making a deal over our heads. However, I’ve convinced my boss to let you keep them another twenty-four hours, in case you need to question them again for your murder case.”
“I appreciate that, and in the end, as long as they’re put away, that’s the important part.”
He stood, stepped forward, and offered his hand. “It was a pleasure working with you. I’ve made sure your men have everything I could get on Mick Griffin. I’ll send one of my agents with you to clear the way with Griffin’s bosses, but you’re probably right about me not showing my face.”
Ronnie shook his hand. “Thank you. If there’s anything we can help you with in the future, let us know.”
She watched him leave, and turned towards her office.
“The boyfriend’s clean at first glance,” Detective Carter said from behind her, “but Graham got us some inner-office data that shows he’s been to anger managementclasses seven times in the thirteen years he’s worked for the post office.”
“He teaches Sunday School at his Baptist Church,” said Sergeant Perry. “He’s assistant coach over the church’s youth baseball team, and he plays for the men’s team. He’s divorced, with only supervised visitation of his own kids, so I have to wonder why he’s being trusted with the kids at church.”
“I wonder how he feels about Halloween,” Ronnie said. “Someone take a look at the church’s website and see if they had an activity for the kids Saturday night, please, and whether they call it Halloween or a Fall Festival.”
Ronnie sat at her desk and looked over the file. The suspect’s given name was Micah Griffin, and he was certainly big enough to have carried Wendy to the zombie display — six four, two hundred and ten pounds. The full body shot of him looked more like a basketball player than a baseball player. His DMV photo made him look angry, while he appeared friendly in his post office ID shot. Go figure.
Both made him look pious.
If he killed her at work, this would end up being Graham’s case, too.
But that wasn’t likely.
Ronnie considered every angle, and decided she didn’t want to question him at work, but she also didn’t want to wait. She wanted to see his anger up close and personal — piss him off good and see what came out. He had aconcealed carry license, but he couldn’t carry at work, so it was the logical place to pick him up.
She hooked a body cam to her suit jacket, and instructed Henderson and Myers to do so as well.
She looked to the FBI agent. “If you can clear the way for us without alerting him, we’ll be along about ten minutes after you.”
He nodded and left, and she turned back to her men. “The passport office is just inside the main door of the post office. Henderson, you’ll walk into the passport office with me. Myers, I want you inside the post office, but around the corner so Griffin can’t look out and see you. Everyone else — go back to the cases you were working on before we landed Wendy’s case.”
“LT.” This from Carter. He knew his Lieutenant took Henderson when she didn’t want to intimidate a suspect. Henderson, in his snazzy suits, looked like a runway model. No way would a six-foot-two-inch athlete with a black belt in two different disciplines see Henderson and a small female as a threat.
Her men knew her too well, but that didn’t mean she was going to change things up. Henderson might not look like a badass, but he could hold his own, and so could she.
