CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 2

Captain Deakins sat down behind his desk as the two detectives entered his office and sat down in the chairs facing his desk. "There's been another hit by the 'Cross-Country' killer. It looks like he's made it out to California. The LAPD and FBI are setting up a joint task force and the Feds have requested the two of you. They're thinking is that he's going to stay in California for a while. The FBI agent in charge was impressed with the profile you worked up. He's curious to see if you can add anything to it, after looking at all the cases attributed to him since your original profile. Their lead profiler pulled your jacket Bobby. He was impressed that you worked with Declan Gage. The profilers in the bureau still consider Gage something of a legend. Frankly, he was impressed with the profile you worked up. They'd like you out there ASAP, they wanted you on the red-eye tonight. The Chief told them that was impossible. You have cases to hand off to others. The Chief's office is handling your flight arrangements, but it will be sometime tomorrow."

Alex and Bobby exchanged a look. With a slight shrug to indicate it was fine with him, Alex said, "Sure, tomorrow's fine."

"Good, that should give you enough time to fill in Reed and Sawyer on the Tyler case. They'll take over on that one from now on. It shouldn't take you longer than the rest of the week to take care of this thing In California. I think maybe we can get the department to spring for the weekend too."

"Um…um, Carver has me scheduled for the grand jury on Monday and we haven't gone over my testimony either."

"Carver was in the meeting with the Chief, he'll be rescheduling your appearance before the grand jury."

From the corner of his eye, Deakins saw Goren preparing to leap up. "It's a minor delay, that's all, Bobby. Until you clear this one. Janseen isn't going to get away with his partner's death."

Bobby nodded as Deakins continued. "Check back with me when you finish with Reed and Sawyer. I should have your travel vouchers and itineraries from upstairs for you by then." Deakins reached for his phone, his way of signaling his detectives that they were finished for now. The two detectives got up to leave.

Once outside his office, Bobby let loose with a mini war cry. "Woohoo! An expense paid trip to warm and sunny Southern California! Break out the sunscreen and shades."

Alex was having a hard time figuring out if Goren was seriously excited about going or being sarcastic. "Deakins didn't say anything about warm and sunny southern California; it could be cold and foggy northern California. So, are you seriously happy about this, or what?"

"What's not to be happy about? We'll have a couple of kick back days on the city's dime. I wonder, since it's for the FBI, I wonder if it's the nation's dime. How terrible could it be? We go in, knowing this joint task force is going to be a bunch of joke. LAPD and the FBI will be fighting for jurisdiction. Between the two, they'll pick through the profile we came up with, tear it apart, dismiss it as amateur to leave us with a couple of bruised and battered egos and a weekend of laying on a bright and warm sunny beach. I think it's a fair trade. We know this going in, so let's just sit back and enjoy a break from the city."

"You never cease to amaze me, Bobby. I guess you could be right. I wonder if Andy could sneak away for a couple of days. We could sure use a break from all those loan applications."

"He's the boss. If he's not clever enough to figure out a way to write off a trip like this as a business expense, you might want to rethink those loan applications you've have been filling out."

"Hey, hey, you may have something there. Why didn't I think of that? I still have to call Andy, maybe he can get away. He still doesn't know that I'm not going to be home early."

"Alex, It's after six o'clock, he's probably noticed by now. Shouldn't he be home by now? He's a pretty smart guy."

"Oh, crap, what time is it? Six o'clock, oh man…" Alex picked up her cell phone and started dialing. As she did, Detectives Reed and Sawyer stepped off the elevator and walk over to grab a cup of coffee.

Goren saw them and told Alex, "Go on, call Andy. I've got things covered with Reed and Sawyer."

"Cool! Thanks Bobby."

Bobby grabbed all the paperwork from the Tyler case. He caught Reed's eye and pointed to one of the interview rooms. Chris Reed nodded and leaned over to tell his partner. Bobby nodded and went into the interview room to wait for the officers. Not much had happened with this case yet, they didn't even have the ME's report yet. It wasn't going to take long to get Reed and Sawyer up to speed on this one.