Descent - 5/16

Descent - 5/16

An hour later, Kate approached LAPD station 3/10 with a confident stride. Her uniform was slightly out of date and had required major brushing but it still fitted like a glove. It was the right colour, that was the important thing. The cap was obviously wrong and she'd left it behind, but she could easily say it had been stolen that evening, if anyone asked. Kids were always collecting them as trophies.

As she expected, the building was swarming with extra personnel. She recognised a few faces from her days in the force, and gave them a wide berth. Thank the Lord she'd thought to tie her hair back. It was lighter than it had ever been when she was a detective, but even so, it was still the one thing most likely to get her noticed.

"Are you ready for this?"

Gunn gave her a nervous look. "All I have to do is sit there and deny everything, right?"

Kate nodded.

"Not a problem. Just so long as I don't end up in jail unless it's strictly necessary. Been there, done that, if you know what I'm saying."

"It'll be OK," she reassured him. "I know the drill. I'll get you out of there."

It was almost midnight and she knew the station would be packed with drunks and drug-dealers. On the right, past the main desk, one rookie guarded the door to the Eddie Brown/Shawna Copeland incident room. They'd lucked out. She lead Gunn in and cuffed him to the desk. The officer in charge of checking in prisoners was busy taking exotic false names from a group of alleged prostitutes.

Kate turned her attention to the rookie. "Hi!"

He gave her the briefest of looks and turned his attention to her captive. "What's this?"

"One of the mob from the hotel? Detective Haines wanted them all brought in."

The rookie glanced through the glass window of the door behind him to make sure no-one was about to emerge, and strolled over to her. "He's giving a press briefing, right now on the front steps. I'll tell you what the sergeant will say - he'll have to go over to 3/11, there's no room in the cells."

Kate shook her head. "No way, officer. I've got orders to bring him here. The detective needs to speak to him yesterday." She lowered her voice conspiratorially, "You know what they're like if they don't get it to the letter."

The rookie nodded sympathetically. "You won't get anywhere with the sergeant. If the cells are overcrowded and anything happens, it's his funeral. Why don't I watch him while you check with one of the detectives inside. Maybe they can sneak him in with the girls for a while."

Kate nodded and the rookie waved her through to the incident room.

It wasn't her station, but all incident rooms worked in the same way. A row of officers manned the telephones. A small area was set aside for the detectives to meet and argue strategy and exchange information. A large whiteboard and an even larger pinboard contained major details of the case to date. She could see photographs - a familiar one of Eddie Brown, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Shawna Copeland, and a slightly fuzzy, full length shot of Angel, presumably a blow-up of the one found in Shawna's bag. Behind the pinboard several filing cabinets stood ready to take the records and paperwork created by a major police hunt.

A television perched close to the ceiling in one corner of the room showed the officer in charge of the combined investigation speaking to the press. Kate knew he would have been brought in over the heads of the detectives he now lead and in consequence, nothing would be more important than watching their new boss's performance. Sure enough, they were standing underneath the television, with their backs to the door. She took a deep breath; there would never be a better time. She picked up a blank sheet of paper from an unoccupied desk and strode as confidently as she could towards the filing cabinets.

There was already a space for Shawna. When opened it revealed ten hanging files. The first three were photographic evidence and forensic reports. The fourth and fifth were empty. The sixth and seventh contained written reports, mainly from the Sun Valley investigation, sent on when the case was transferred. The remaining three files were transcripts of information received by phone from members of the public. Witness statements were absent, they probably normally occupied the empty files. They may have been somewhere in the room but there was no way of getting to know without creating a disturbance.

Kate pulled out the sixth file and leafed through it. On the television, she could hear the officer come to the end of his statement and ask for questions.

"Detective Haines, can you confirm that you have a suspect already?"

She didn't have much time. At this stage in the investigation, she knew the detective would allow three questions, maybe four, no more. She skimmed the reports methodically. Most were routine, but in the middle of the bunch, there was a summary of a phone conversation with the victim's parents.

"I asked Mrs Copeland why her daughter would have come to Los Angeles when her original plan was to leave Detroit and fly directly to San Francisco. She advised that her daughter's itinerary was always flexible, and that her research in Detroit had indicated that a visit to LA might be more profitable. Mrs Copeland confirmed that while in the city her daughter had certainly done some shopping, as she was due to fly home within two weeks."

Kate skimmed further down, trying to catch the main points in the long and detailed description of Shawna Copeland's last few weeks of life. If Angel's involvement in the murders was incidental, there must be evidence of something else linking Shawna and Eddie. She had to find it, whatever it was.

"The existence of a printout of an email from the company in the victim's belongings is certainly confirmation of this ..."

"Detective, is it the case that you have specific evidence linking these two brutal murders?"

Kate groaned inwardly, knowing the detective would refuse to be drawn on the evidence at this stage, and that she was going to run out of time rapidly unless anyone could think of a better question. She raced on through the report.

"... and given that we also have corroborating evidence of the victim's ongoing research into her family history from the family and various sources in Detroit it would seem likely that this was indeed her reason for coming to LA."

There it was. It had to be the link. Why hadn't it been investigated? Kate looked round and saw that the press conference was drawing to a close. She dumped the file back in its place and came round the pinboard, keeping one eye on the cluster of personnel under the television. In the bottom right hand corner, there was a photocopy of a printed email, with at least ten other fragments of evidence pinned around it, each overlaying it slightly. She would have to remove about 20 pins to get it off the board.

The press conference was breaking up, and so was the party at the far end of the room. In desperation, Kate started pulling out pins, while reading the email, committing as much as possible to memory in case she was disturbed. Then she put the blank sheet of paper she'd been carrying around in its place and skewered everything in place with three pins. She slipped the email and leftover pins into her pocket.

Taking a deep breath, she turned from the board and quietly made her way past the team of detectives. No-one paid her any attention.

Once outside, she exchanged commiserations with the rookie and tried to look harassed as hauled her prisoner out of the station. When they were clear, she uncuffed Gunn, and flagged down a taxi.

"So, you get anything worth having?"

"Maybe, something." Kate pulled the fragment of evidence from her pocket and read it again.

"What is it?"

"It's an email sent by a company called 'Familiarity', to the second victim. It seems to confirm they have some results for her and invites her to get in touch when she's in LA."

"So?"

"The first victim was a family history nut too. There has to be a connection."

"This 'Familiarity' crowd, they're to do with family history?"

"According to the police files, yes."

"Gimme." Gunn took the paper and read it through carefully. "I got a friend who has a cousin who's always doin' this stuff. Maybe I'll ask her if she knows the company."

Kate nodded, "That would be a start. I'll take that and show it to Angel. Can you contact Wesley and Cordelia without attracting attention?"

"I'll find a way."

"We need them to research this too. We need to know everything we can find about this company and fast."

Gunn frowned, "Because Angel's in danger?"

Kate shook her head. "Angel's not in any danger. But, I'm worried that this is just the start. We have two bodies already. How do we know whoever did it is finished?"

The taxi dropped her off outside her old apartment, and Kate could tell from the street that there were no lights on. The living room looked directly out onto the main road, and the kitchen and bathroom had views to one side of the block. Everything was dark.

Arriving at the door, she eased her key into the lock and turned the handle by small degrees. Whether she was realistic to expect a SWAT team, she didn't know, but she offered thanks to her father that she'd inherited his habit of lubricating all the hinges with WD40 regularly. She was able to enter the apartment quietly. It was deserted.

She pushed the switch on a small table lamp, and found Angel spread-eagled on the sofa, sleeping peacefully. Settling into her favourite armchair, she watched him until weariness overtook her and she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer.