High Risk by G.K. Parks (books for 10th graders TXT) 📕

“It looks like he ducked down low, so as not to be seen, and cupped his hands here.” She held her hands up to her eyes. “Like he was looking inside.”

“That’s what we figured,” I said.

“Gold star.” Ellie checked the rest of the windows and gave the back door another check. “Unfortunately, I don’t think this will give us much.”

“It was worth a shot,” Fennel said. “Thanks for trying. Give me a call the second you finish running the analysis.”

“Absolutely.” She tucked her kit into the rear of the van, gave Brad a friendly hug, waved to me, and headed back to the precinct.

“You know, I’m starting to enjoy the level of service you get. Once again, we might need to revisit the concept of pimping you out.”

“Hardy har.” He led the way back to the car, but our outing hadn’t led to any leads. We still weren’t any closer to identifying the killers or their next attempt at a large payday. “What if we do a few surprise checks?”

“On what?”

“Not what. Who. Or whom.” His brow furrowed. “I don’t know. We’re not the grammar police.” He pulled away from the shop. “The murders weren’t planned. The planning comes down to the break-ins and possibly the getaways. Killing’s just a side effect.”

“I’d agree with that.”

“So our killers didn’t make a big score. Unless they did it for the thrill and got that out of their system, they’ll want to go someplace safe, divide up their ill-gotten gains, and research their next target, just like Jake said.”

“Sure.” I didn’t know where he was going with this.

“Okay, so let’s follow up with everyone we spoke to yesterday and see if anyone’s acting particularly squirrely. I’d say we’d check with LockBox, but I’m guessing Voletek and Lisco already gave them the third degree.”

“Yeah, but we did the same with our suspects. They’re clean.”

“It just doesn’t make sense. At least one of the killers had to possess key facts about Star Cleaners. The security code. The uniforms. The killer has to be connected somehow. We have a list. I even got Mr. Lee to name his suppliers. It’s late. No one will expect us now. If we catch them off guard, we might stand a chance of getting to the bottom of this before someone else dies. C’mon, Liv, I don’t know what else we can do, unless you have a better idea.”

I checked the time. Once we returned to the precinct, Lt. Winston would probably send us home. Unlike Capt. Grayson, the lieutenant was a stickler about keeping to our assigned shifts. Briefly, I wondered if he had his sights set on a position at 1PP. That would explain why he had two legacy detectives working in his unit. Bureaucratic brownnoser. “Yeah, all right. But don’t get your hopes up.”

“I never do.”

Twenty-two

Michael Tolliver stared at us for a good twenty seconds before recognition kicked in. “Detectives, please, come in.”

We’d already checked on Catelyn Rivera, who we found camped out in the campus library. Then we drove by Guy Kellerman’s place to make sure it remained empty while he was on vacation, and then we swung by to speak to Pamela Aiker. No one acted oddly, but by now, word had spread about the murdered night watchman. Aside from being upset about losing someone who worked in the same building as they did, they didn’t exhibit any signs they were responsible or display any awkward behavior which would indicate they were in the midst of planning a multi-million dollar heist.

“Is there something I can help you with?” he asked.

The smell of marijuana was nothing but a lingering memory. For the most part, the place looked about the same. “We just wanted to check on you.”

He smiled at me. “Thanks.”

Brad looked down the hall. “Is the party still going on?”

Tolliver laughed. “No, thank goodness. Everyone’s gone home, and Carter’s at work. Don’t get me wrong, we had a hell of a night, but I couldn’t do it every day. I’m getting too old for that.”

“When’s the wedding?” I asked.

“Friday.” He pointed to a suit hanging from the frame of the open closet. “I’m a groomsman.” He made a noise halfway between a sigh and a snort. “I got that pressed at work. Y’know, I can’t believe something like that happened there. We hear about a lot of break-ins and armed robberies happening around us. That grocery store on the corner’s been hit like three times this month. But I never thought it’d happen to us. We don’t have anything worth taking, but we were prepared. Mr. Lee made us watch these training videos he got from the security place.”

“Moonlight Security?” Fennel asked.

“Yeah. Johnny made fun of me for watching them. He said they were a joke.” Tolliver’s voice cracked. “I guess he should have paid more attention to them.”

“So you were friends?” Fennel asked, baiting his hook.

“Friendly. We didn’t talk at work much. Usually, by the time he came in, I was halfway out the door. But one time, Mr. Lee asked if I’d sweep up, so I stayed late. I guess we got to talking that day. But that was about it. I didn’t really know him.”

“Didn’t you play online games together?” I jerked my chin at the console beneath the TV.

Tolliver smiled sadly. “Yeah, we did, sometimes. He had a whole crew. They’re pretty cool guys.”

“Why didn’t you mention this to us yesterday?” Fennel asked.

“I didn’t think about it. Honestly, I wasn’t doing much thinking when we spoke last time. But if there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know. Johnny seemed like a good person.”

“What did you talk about online?” Fennel asked.

“Not much, aside from killing things.” Tolliver pressed his lips together. “I mean, y’know, fake things.”

“I got it,” Fennel said.