Chapter Six

            Detective Jessi Reece tapped the end of his pencil rapidly on the desk. Something about the case just didn't add up. Two employees at the Department of Youth Services, with only a rudimentary connection to each other, were dead within a day of each other in a part of town where neither of them lived. He knew the second one, Lynn Bradley, from the Kanly case. He briefly wondered if the girl, Helena, was the connection, but it didn't make sense. The man who was killed was only Bradley's supervisor. He ran the department but had no dealings with the actual cases themselves.

            He picked up the field reports again and was about to start rereading them when Tony Donovan, a beat officer at the station, poked his head into Reece's cubical.

            "Did you hear about that couple?" Tony asked.

            "Couple of what?" Reece replied without looking up.

            "The couple who was watching that girl for you and the Commissioner."

            "The Barbers?" Reece asked. Suddenly his full attention was focused on the other detective.

            "Yeah, that's them. The Barbers. Did you hear what happened?"

            "Obviously not," Reece said, getting irritated. "Do I get three guesses or are you just going to tell me?"

            "They were found dead a couple of hours ago. One of their foster kids found them. The medical examiner's out there now. I'm surprised you haven't heard by now."

            Reece glanced from the officer to the files in his hands. The girl was the key. It was too big a coincidence otherwise. He stood and brushed past Donovan, asking, "Is the Commissioner in his office?" He didn't wait for an answer. He took the stairs two at a time and almost knocked over the dispatch secretary on his way past.

            Beside the receptionist's desk, Gordon's office door was open. Gordon was there hanging up his coat, two empty boxes on the floor beside the coat rack. Ignoring the receptionist, Reece stepped into Gordon's office and said, "You may need to put your coat back on."

            "Is there a problem?" Gordon asked.

            "There might be," Reece replied, handing over the files. "I think our little cat girl is the subject of another killer." He waited until Gordon scanned the files. "The Barbers were found dead a while ago."

            Gordon snapped the files shut and got his coat. "Let's go," he said.