Irish Throwdown (What Happens In Vegas Book 4) by Matt Lincoln (short books for teens .TXT) 📕

Evans’s toxicology report. His wife, Prudence Evans, had displayed aggressive behavior similar to Dominick’s when she’d attacked Junior, so it was likely she had taken whatever he had.

“Hey, you’re back,” Fiona greeted us as she approached us in the bullpen. She pulled Miranda’s chair away from her desk and dragged it over so she could sit between our desks. “Did you find anything?”

“We found a woman drugged out of her mind,” I retorted. “But nothing that will actually help us with the case.”

“Is that how this happened?” she asked as she took hold of Junior’s wrist and pushed his shirt sleeve up his arm. A tiny spot of red was blooming over the bandage where blood had managed to seep through.

“It’s just a little nick,” Junior shrugged. “She came at me with a knife. I managed to stop her, but it grazed my wrist.”

Fiona huffed and frowned at Junior.

“Dating a federal agent is too stressful,” she grumbled dramatically. “I swear, every single one of you gets hurt somehow on every case we get.”

“You’re a federal agent, too,” Junior protested.

“I sit behind a desk all day,” she retorted. “Not that I wouldn’t mind going out in the field more, but somehow that desire wanes every time I see one of you stumble back to the office covered in new injuries.”

“Didn’t someone send a bomb to you last year?” Junior countered. “You’re in just as much danger as the rest of us, especially with how much time you spend illegally hacking and messing around in things you shouldn’t.”

I watched them banter for a few more seconds, feeling increasingly more like a third wheel with every moment that passed.

“Alright,” I interrupted uncomfortably. “I’m gonna go get something to eat from the break room.”

“No, wait,” Fiona stopped me as I moved to get up. “Sorry, I completely forgot I came over here for a reason. I cross-referenced all the perps, and I wanted to talk to you guys about the results.”

“Okay.” I reluctantly sat back down.

“Right,” she nodded. “So I couldn’t find anything solid linking any of the attackers. They varied wildly in everything from race, gender, occupation, socio-economic status, and even age. The oldest was a sixty-seven-year-old woman who attacked her mailman when he tried to deliver a package, and the youngest was a seventeen-year-old private school student who went completely nuts on his science teacher in the middle of class. He is currently in a coma.”

“Seriously?” Junior frowned. I understood his frustration. I’d always felt it was especially awful any time a crime involved a kid.

“I know,” Fiona grimaced. “I did find something weird, though. All these incidents took place in the past month, but there was a rash of similar attacks about three months ago. The only difference is that the incidents from three months ago were all perpetrated by drug addicts, and most of the victims were also drug addicts. The police just kind of shrugged and brushed it off, and it wasn’t until now that they connected them to the newer cases.”

“They ignored the crimes?” I asked incredulously. “Just because they were addicts doesn’t mean they weren’t people.” I sighed in frustration. Before I’d become a law enforcement officer myself, I’d had my fair share of run-ins with cops who saw me as disposable or unimportant just because I was homeless. It made me sick that a cop would just dismiss someone like they were trash.

“Yeah, it’s awful,” Fiona frowned. “But at least we know about it now. We won’t just brush people aside like they did.”

She smiled at me sympathetically, and my anger abated somewhat.

“Agents!” Wallace bellowed as he rushed out of his office and toward the bullpen. Fiona jumped at the uncharacteristically loud volume of his voice, and even I was shocked into silence. “We have some bad news. Prudence Evans has just died in her hospital room.”

“What?!” I exclaimed as I shot out of my seat. Fiona clapped her hands over her mouth in shock.

“They’re still unsure exactly what happened,” he continued thoughtfully. “Apparently, she was sedated once she made it to the hospital. She appeared to be resting and stable, but she suddenly took a turn for the worse. She coded, and the staff was unable to resuscitate her. Because of the circumstances surrounding the case and her arrest, it’s being presumed that her death was a result of a drug overdose.”

“But..?” Fiona asked. I could tell that there was something Wallace was leaving out as well.

“People are talking,” Wallace admitted. “They’re saying maybe Hills or Chapman had something to do with her death.”

“That’s a load of--” Fiona yelled before snapping her mouth closed and pressing the palms of her hands into her eyes in frustration.

“I know it is,” Wallace grumbled. “But we were already on thin ice regarding everything that happened with the last case. Frankly, I think this might just be a ploy to shift the blame onto us. The hospital might be panicking, thinking they overlooked something. It’ll be easier for them to avoid a malpractice suit if they can point the finger of blame onto someone else.”

“What do we do now?” Junior asked seriously. I could tell he was nervous, which wasn’t surprising considering he was the one who had grappled with Mrs. Evans in the kitchen before I’d arrived. I’d heard a commotion and glass shattering, so I couldn’t honestly say that I knew what had happened in there. Not that I would ever betray my partner.

“For now, nothing,” Wallace replied. “Right now, these are all just rumors. I haven’t received any official orders or instructions, so we’ll continue to operate as normal. I just wanted to let you know what’s going on so that you aren’t blindsided. No doubt this will affect our reputation among local law enforcement.”

“Great,” I scoffed sarcastically. Fiona had calmed down and was now glaring angrily into space. The four of us fell into an uneasy silence. A moment later, I snapped my head toward the entrance as the silence was broken by the beep