Disco Bomb

Chapter 8

May 14th, 2017. 7:00 AM

I decided to go to the precinct with Jack today, both because he didn't have a car and because I needed to talk to him in his office. When we walked inside, I was surprised to see very little had changed since my last visit here. The main room, which I'd heard described as the bullpen, was still noisy and crowded as it had been when Oakley was Chief. Lane had said it was silent as death under Rosemerta, but he'd presumably ended the "Reign of Terror".

I followed him to his new office and stopped to read the door. When I'd come here for the very first time, there had been gold lettering embossed on the glass reading "Chief of Police Carson Oakley". The gold lettering was still there, but it had been replaced with "Chief of Police Jack E. Lane". I was somewhat glad to see that the interior was the same.

Jack sat down at his desk while I closed the door, motioning to a chair. "Sit. What did you need to tell me?"

I frowned, unsure where to begin. Finally, I borrowed one of his cards and a pen and wrote on the back. "I want you to trace this number, then the last package delivered to this house and see who lives in... This one." I handed him the card.

He looked at it. "You know that first house is your address, right?"

"I'm not stupid. Can you just do it?"

"Hmm... Let's see. Can I just do it? Can I do this..." He shrugged. "Sure. But tell me why."

I stared at him. When it became clear he wasn't going to move unless I explained, I sighed. "Around midnight, I decided to get a drink of water, and that number called me. I thought it was a ransom demand for Ross' parents, but it turned out this guy was giving me instructions. He said... He said he would shoot you guys otherwise. There was a package in my mailbox, and he told me to deliver it to the other address, ring the doorbell and run like hell."

Jack nodded slowly, one eyebrow raised. "That sounds familiar. Let me see." He began typing into his computer. "Aha! Here it is."

I moved my chair next to his and looked at the screen. It was a complaint about -- guess what -- an unknown number calling at random hours and giving crazy demands. I scrolled down to see that it belonged to a Jeremy Lewis, and that it had been updated last night.

"Look at the most recent one," I said. "Delivering a package to my address."

"That could mean that he was the original recipient of this thing, if we're lucky. And if we're still lucky, the house you gave it to was our mystery caller." The Chief finally looked up the address. "Carmen, this looks like your expertise. It's currently a model house owned by Cold Waters Properties."

I nodded. "I have an old friend who switched to that company last year. She still owes me a favor, so I can make an arrangement. Are you going to interview Lewis?"

Jack nodded. "This time, I'm making sure nobody can snipe him through the window. My head still hurts from that last explosion. Speaking of which..." He pulled up a video from a streetlight.

It was a house with a squad car parked in front, and I realized this was from Delaney's interview. In the space of five seconds, a red car pulled up, fired a gun and threw something, then bolted. There were two men in the front seat, one with graying hair and the other with red-orange hair. The older man had on a regular jacket, but the redhead had a suit.

"Now the real question is," Jack said, "Who are these two?"