Got Your Six

Chapter 17

Calvin

Captain Bennett disappears into the living room, leaving me alone with the dead man. I decide to take the opportunity to look for any sign that Gavin was here. I know he's the one who did this. Who else could it be? The man on the ground even warned me that Gavin would kill him.
The whole house is covered in dust. If he was hiding out here, it couldn't have been for very long. There's piles of mail scattered out all over the dining table. At first I didn't give it much thought, but there's a single envelope right on top that catches my attention. My last name is written in thick black letters on the outside of a plain white envelope. I glance through the doorway to the living room and see Captain Bennett still talking on the phone, good. I know me touching anything is considered tampering with evidence, but I need to know what's inside that envelope. I pluck it off the table and stare at the envelope in my hands. It's the only one without a thin layer of dust covering it. Glancing over my shoulder, I check for Captain Bennett one more time before tearing it open and removing the single piece of paper from the envelope and unfolding it.

"Sorry for your loss - G.M."

Every letter is written in thick black marker, taunting me. The anger begins to boil up inside me. There's no telling what I would do to Gavin if he were standing here in front of me right now. I fold up the paper and put it back in the envelope, wondering if I should show it to Captain Bennett or not. He doesn't want me working on the case in the first place. He'd probably take the letter from me and tell me to stay home while they look into it. Well, that's not good enough for me.
"Find anything?" Captain Bennett says from behind me just as I slide the envelope into my vest.
"Nothing that'll lead us to Gavin," I tell him. At least it's not a complete lie. It's not like he left me any sort of clue in his letter as to where he's hiding
"Well, we'll keep looking. We'll search this house up and down," Captain assures me. "I still don't want you on the case though. You're just too close to it, I hope you understand."
"I know," I say, still clutching the envelope inside my vest. I'm sure to him it just looks like I'm trying to keep my hands warm.
"All right, let's get you outta here then. Leo and Price can handle it from here. I've got more people on the way, they'll be here soon to investigate this further," Captain Bennett tells me and then leads me out of the house and back to the SUV.
I follow a few feet behind him and transfer the envelope from my vest and into my pocket without him suspecting a thing. Captain Bennett makes his way towards the passenger side, leaving me to drive us back to the station. I still have the keys but I'm just a bit sick of feeling like his chauffeur. I guess that's what being a Captain gets you though, you get to make anyone your chauffeur.
"How'd you feel during that?" He asks me about halfway back to the station.
"About what? That back there?" I ask him questionably. "Busting into an empty house?"
"Yeah, I mean, did you have any emotional reaction to seeing the dead body?" Captain asks carefully. "I mean, I'm not trying to bring anything up but I just wanna know how that made you feel."
"It didn't make me think of Cameron, if that's what you mean. Look, Captain, I'm just eager to get back to work and see Gavin behind bars for what he did. For what he did to Cameron and to the rest of my family," I say, letting out a deep sigh. "I know I can't work the case but I'd still like to come back to work just to feel like I'm doing this town some good instead of just sitting at home doing nothing."
"All right," Captain Bennett says, presumably thinking about something. "How about you come back to work tomorrow then?"
"Are you serious?" I ask him, assuming he's just messing with me. In my defense, he had just told me earlier in the day that I should stay home for another week.
"Yeah, you can be on the night shift," Captain says, as if proposing an offer.
"Well, I'm not excited about the night shift, but I'll take what I can get," I tell him, accepting his offer.
I pull into the parking lot and park the SUV next to the rest of the unmarked vehicles. Captain Bennett takes the keys from me as we make our way towards the back door of the building.
"Go be with your family, I'm sure they're wondering where you went off to," Captain tells me. "I'll see you tomorrow."
He's right, I've gotten several missed calls and texts from Kayla since I left and a few from mom. I've still got to go inside to shed my vest. I'm in and out in a couple minutes, making my way back home. The envelope still secured in my pocket.
"Where have you been?" Kayla asks immediately after I walk in the front door.
I think about the sketchy guy I interrogated outside the funeral home. Captain Bennett and I driving off to go find Gavin, only to be disappointed later. I think about the dead body we found and the envelope from Gavin. Then I look at Kayla's worried expression and decide to keep it all to myself. I can settle on a little white lie, just for now.
"Captain Bennett had a lead on Gavin. So, we went to go check it out. It didn't turn out to be anything though," I tell her, leaving out many of the key details on purpose. I don't want her to worry about any of this.
"I thought he didn't want you working the case. Hell, I thought you weren't even supposed to be working at all," she says, her words coming off as an accusation.
"I can be pretty persistent," I tell her, which is only partly true in this case. "He's actually letting me go back to work tomorrow, on the night shift."