3am

Chapter 3

It takes us almost an hour before we can even begin to head to Joe's parole officer. First, we return to the detective's floor to gather the case file. Once on the third floor though, we are commandeered into a meeting with Lieutenant Daniels by Sergeant Easmon. We are escorted into the small conference room by Easmon, where Lieutenant Daniels keeps us waiting. After fifteen minutes, I have to ask, "Sarge, can't we just report to you our findings and you pass it along to the lieutenant when he finally returns?"

"Sorry Zeke, but no. Lieutenant wants a first-hand account of the progress so he can prepare a sound-bite report for the news."

"More likely, he wants a first-hand account so he can give us a first-hand reaming..." Liam mutters. Sarge shoots him a glare that quickly shuts him up.

Daniels finally arrives after another fifteen minutes. By now I am antsy, wanting to get out of here as quick as possible and start talking to Joe's parole officer. No telling what kind of information he could be sitting on...

"So Burke, what have you and Frost found out about our John Doe?" Daniels asks, directing his question to my partner.

"Well..." Liam begins, shooting a glance at me. He is asking if he should mention my theory to them. I give an imperceptible shake of my head. There is no way they will understand. All telling them will do is earn me a one-way ticket to the nearest lunatic asylum.

"Yes, Burke?" Daniels prompts.

"We have a tentative identification, sirs," Liam says. "Zeke re-ran the missing persons' searches without the tattoo and the search spit back the name Joe Saldenas, a twenty-eight-year-old man who used to deal ecstasy and marijuana. Zeke knew him from his patrol days. We have just come from the CSI lab where Annie Jacobsen, the forensic artist, confirmed the probability that the skull belonged to Saldenas. So now we want to head over to the parole officer who is over Saldenas to see if he can ID the composite sketch as Joe."

"Why would you rerun the missing persons search without the tattoo?" Easmon asks me.

"Well, sir," I begin, mulling over the easiest explanation. "I thought there was a chance the tattoo was... well... too new to be mentioned in the original missing person report."

"Too new?" Daniels asks, suspiciously. "What made you think that Frost?"

I sigh and settle in for the long haul. "The skin around the tattoo was still red and puffy when the body was discovered. The colors of the tattoo were still vibrant. That makes me think Joe got it relatively recently. And since his parole doesn't specify he has to get approval for tattoos," I add, unable to relinquish a chance at a jab at my superiors, "then maybe his parole officer didn't know he had one when he filed the report."

Easmon and Daniels seem to ponder the implication of my statements, while I secretly heave a sigh of relief. But it is only short-lived relief...

"Frost..." Daniels begins. I gulp softly, dreading what is about to come. "Why did it take you a WHOLE week to decide re-run the database search without the tattoo parameters?"

"Well, sir..." I trail off; thinking about what is least likely to prolong this meeting. Luckily, Liam jumps in.

"We haven't had a lot of time to think, sirs. We have been chasing down leads that have come in left and right. It just happened that this morning we had a few minutes to review our notes and the case file. Zeke picked up on the tattoo thing and gave it a try."

"Yeah," I chime in. "It has been kind of crazy around here. We spent the first three days just tracking down and interviewing the families of the matches Missing Persons spit out with the first search."