Chapter 3

When John McClee entered the Central Precinct with the two agents, he felt all the eyes on him. It wasn't exactly a secret, that he had ended up with the investigation on one of their detectives, but he hadn't had the occasion to come here yet. This investigation had been so hellish he had barely spared a thought for the dead officer from the North Precinct found in the Central Precinct. He had known he'd have to come and take a look, but well...

And then, Kolt and Parker had arrived, and he had had other things to think about.

Besides, it was never very pleasant to visit another precinct about a murder case inside the very building. It was kind of the same as investigating a colleague.

Actually, it was the same as investigating a colleague, since the guys here were all cops, just like him. He just knew them less than he did for the guys from his own precinct.

Investigating a colleague could go two ways: either he'd be shunned for possibly considering a cop guilty, or they'd talk to help and find Burkhardt in case he was the victim... which was probably what the Central Precinct thought.

Usually, it went the first way, though. John winced internally. This was going to be so much fun...

Maybe he should take a step back and let the agents handle this part of the investigation. Like, he was here only because they had decided to come here. Even if it wasn't true. Even if it had been his idea. Because, you see, Parker and Kolt would be gone soon, they didn't live here, they didn't work with these guys, so even if they took the blame in their eyes, it wouldn't matter much. Interagency cooperation was a big lie, anyway.

If John was the one to be blamed for the unsavory investigation, he wasn't sure the rest of his career in the police would be very pleasant.

Fortunately for him, Annie Parker took the choice of whether or not he'd be the scapegoat out of his hands. The woman simply stepped in, headed for Burkhardt's desk.

Kolt, on the other hand, seemed strangely reigned in. As if he didn't want to be noticed too much. Which made sense, now that John thought about it... If Burkhardt had arrested the man once upon a time, it was more than probable that he had spent some time in the precinct's jail. It wasn't very likely to happen, but someone could recognize him and ask questions.

Hell, John himself had no idea how the guy had ended up a government official if he had been involved in a theft. Though, the detective guessed, Farley Kolt wasn't some police officer, but more like some secret agent for an unknown governmental agency, so it probaly didn't matter so much. If he fit the bill, and wasn't secretly a serial killer, it made sense that they hired him nonetheless. For all John knew, it could even be his "criminal" abilities that had gotten him the job in the first place.

John snapped out of his thoughts as Parker asked an older detective who had been Burkhardt's partner. For some reason, John felt like she already knew the answer, but still asked, just in case. Or for the sake of appearances, perhaps.

So, what did it mean? That Burkhardt's partner was also in it?

Would John sound childish if he said he felt a bit left out?

The older detective snorted at the question, but there wasn't much mirth in his eyes. He seemed more disdainful than anything else. And possibly a bit tense due to the situation.

"I'd have thought you guys already knew. After all, it's not everyday a missing detective's partner goes missing too, and I'm pretty sure you got our memo yesterday saying that Griffith hadn't come to work either. What's it, McClee, they can't do their work properly at the East Precinct?"

John scowled at the detective, Warren something, he wasn't sure and he didn't care to remember right now.

"Hardly. There's just so much to see and take into account, and I'm the only one on that case, I'm bordering on overworking. Now, what was it about a disappearing detective?"

"Two disappearing detectives, and one officer. Nick left a mess at the North Precinct, we all know that, but Hank Griffith never came back to work after that, and Drew Wu doesn't answer his phone either. I still don't understand how Renard and Nick came to beat each other up, and the other day we found a cop's body in the hallway. You'll excuse me if I think you should be doing your job, and find out what the hell happened here!"

Parker interrupted John as he was about to answer, and maybe it was for the best, considering what he had been about to say.

"Then cooperate, Detective Bauer. You know how difficult it is to investigate when everyone keep their mouth shut."

The guy calmed down a bit, but still didn't seem pleased with the situation. John wouldn't be either, if he was in the man's shoes, so he let it go.

"I don't know a thing, Miss. And there's no point asking someone else. The new captain is here only since Renard's election, she doesn't even know Nick, Hank and Wu. The precinct was assaulted with 911 calls that night, and there was no one left. The only two who could tell you something about Nick are missing too."

The older detective fiddled with his tie for a moment, thoughtful, and winced.

"I'm not even sure you can ask someone out of the precinct. Nick Burkhardt knew many people, but few of them were true friends. The others were mostly acquaintances. His girlfriend, Juliette Silverton, left about one year ago, from what I know... I think he is friend with a couple he met though his cases, too, but I don't have their names. There was that girl he housed for a time, too, but I haven't seen her around lately. Theresa... Rhobell or something."

Parker nodded a bit, about to walk away. This was as much as she'd get, and most of it only confirmed what she already knew. Only Meisner had the names of Burkhardt's associates, because they weren't really part of Hadrian's Wall, and Silverton and Rubel had disappeared right along the detective.

Kolt had been staring at the former office of Sean Renard for some time already. John had just noticed, and he surmised the agent was regretting the fact he couldn't go in there and search the room for clues since a new captain had been given the office. He doubted Renard would have left anything compromising behind, either.

The older detective saw the look on the agent's face too, and perhaps he meant it only as a side note, but still, it made him speak one more time.

"You know, it's really weird how Renard and Nick fought the other day. They weren't friends, but Burkhardt was certainly the closest to the Captain. Always talking in secret in his office. And lately, Hank and Drew had joined them, too. They were even supporting his candidacy to the post of mayor. Whatever happened, it wasn't something either of them had expected, I'd say..."

Parker frowned at that, and sent a text to... someone John had no clue about, certainly.

Then a blond officer passed by, and the older detective grabbed her arm. The woman raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't exactly protest. Perhaps they knew each other well.

"Yes, Warren, I gave the kids their lunch money this morning..."

Scratch that, they were married. John should have know, really.

"That's not... Anyway. Elie, it's about Burkhardt. Do you know the name of that guy he asked help from on a couple of cases? A bit odd, very tall, and apparently good at tracking?"

Some unknown emotions crossed the woman's face, but soon enough it only evolved into a thoughtful look.

"Monroe. His name is Monroe. I don't know his first name though. I'd doubt he has one to begin with, if it wasn't just a little too weird even for him. His wife Rosalee has an spice shop in town. That's were I get the kids' medecine, you remember?"

Her husband crunched his face a bit, but didn't come up with anything. The wife sighed, and wrote down the address for the agents and McClee. Warren really was a special one, able to remember a case from twenty years ago, but unable to say the name of his son's teddy bear.

"Here. I don't think anyone told them Burkhardt was missing, so if you could..."

John glanced at the address, pocketed the piece of paper, and nodded at the female officer.

"No problem."

Kolt was driving, Parker was staring at the moving street, and John was rewieving his notes and completing them again. There was an uneasy silence for a moment.

Until Parker stopped looking through the window, and glanced at the detective's notes.

"No need to search for Juliette Silverton, or for Theresa Rubel, you should know. Or, at least, no need to search for them as possible witnesses. They're operatives of ours, but we've lost contact with them when Black Claw annihilated Portland's headquarters. And we've definitely lost them just when Burkhardt disappeared. Whatever happened, I'd say they are together right now."

If they were still alive. Annie Parker knew that both Eve and Burkhardt were more than anyone could handle on their own, and Theresa Rubel was more than good too, especially if they knew someone was coming for them, but it hadn't been one or two guys coming after them. Eve was stronger than it should be possible for people like her, and Burkhardt was enhanced even by his standards, which made him doubly deadly, but still. They were only human, in the end, even if a bit more than normal humans. They could be taken down.

McClee sent the agent a frustrated glare, and she guessed she deserved it. There were so many things they weren't telling him... But they couldn't. Not just like that. What would be the point of keeping it a secret if they told anyone as soon as it was easier?

Besides, Annie Parker didn't want another witch hunt to deal with just yet. Black Claw was enough of a hassle without throwing in the probability of the unknowing population trying to burn their neighbors to the stake.

McClee closed his notepad and let himself fall against the car seat.

"So Burkhardt's girlfriend is working for you. As well as the girl he took in at some point. What is it next? Griffith and Wu too?"

"Well..."

Kolt snorted a bit without even looking at them. Which was fine. John felt better knowing the man kept his eyes on the road, for once.

"Don't bother, Annie. They weren't working for our group per se, but they certainly are on our side. From what I gathered at the Central Precinct, they knew about it all, and since Burkhardt was working with us..."

"Wait a minute, what's the whole difference thing between 'working for' you and 'working with' you? I mean, does it really matter at this point?"

Kolt snorted again, but let his partner answer this time. Parker had gone back to watching the street through the window.

"It does matter, because only the Portland cell leader knew the names of the people who were 'working with' him, and he's dead. Burkhardt is a special case, because we'd really have liked to get him in, but for some reason he didn't accept."

This time, Kolt literally sneered.

"I'd say he resented the way in. Did you actually read his file, Annie? The Royals tried to abduct him instead of trying to hire him, and what did we do when our turn came? Chavez snatched Rubel on the street instead of talking like a civilized person. Then Burkhardt's mother was killed, the head was left in a box in his living room, and a bunch of black-clad operatives came in, drugged him, snatched Rubel again, took the body of his ex and the head of his mother. After that, no news until he actually went and threatened Chavez right at the Bureau!"

John decided to keep quiet and let the two talk, because he had way too many questions he didn't actually want to be answered. Like, who in hell beheaded people and left the head in a box? He certainly didn't want to have the answer to that one.

And let's not talk about the one where an FBI agent abducted that girl Detective Bauer had mentioned. Though it explained the part in Burkhardt's files that said how he had entered the Portland FBI office and directly threatened an agent.

Parker tried to argue back, but seemingly it wasn't working on Farley Kolt. For a moment, John wondered if perhaps the man resented the way in too.

"They didn't know he was who he was, they couldn't just tell him everything!"

"Oh please, it was obvious who he was! For what other reason would the Royals have left the head in a box? It wouldn't have meant anything to him if he had been just a regular cop. Besides, I've walked around town, and everyone concerned know who he is. They just had to ask. They did know there was one of his family in town for longer than Rubel had been around!"

Parker apparently had nothing to answer to that, so she kept quiet for a moment.

A moment only.

"You know I'll have to report your anger to HQ."

Kolt parked the car before a small shop, but didn't move to get out.

"Please do. After all, it's not as if they had found me almost beaten to death in a ditch, and had basically nursed me back to health only to blackmail me with their help and for mine!"

Ouch, John now understood why Kolt would resent the way in to this agency-or-whatever too. They hadn't even pretended to give him a choice. It didn't even matter that he might have decided to work for them in the first place, because the choice had been taken away from him. And, the detective surmised, the trust Kolt could have put in them at the same time.

Parker didn't look at her partner after that outburst.

"They needed your skills."

"They could have asked."

The two agents left the car at the same moment, obviously ignoring each other. John followed, The most discreetly possible.

The detective checked the address, and looked back up again. From outside, the shop looked almost quaint, but it certainly had to do with the fact that the windows were mostly high up. He couldn't see a thing from out there.

Curiously enough, the spice shop was closed. At this time of the day, the three investigators found it a bit worrying. Still, Kolt knocked at the door. When there wasn't an answer, he knocked again.

After the third time, the man rolled his eyes, and took a step back. Parker gave him a warning look, but he ignored her again.

And he broke down the door with a kick before John could say a thing.

"What the...!"

"It's four in the afternoon, on a tuesday, and the shop is closed. The car parked right next to ours hasn't moved since at least three days, if the add on the windshield is anything to go by. And the license plate matches with one Monroe's. I can tell just by looking at the storefront that the owner is one of my people, because if it wasn't the case, there wouldn't be this symbol here..."

He gestured at something John had mistaken for a scratch in the old wood, and continued.

"If the owners were close friends with Burkhardt, there's no way Black Claw left them alone, especially not after they failed to get the detective. If no one's been there since then, it's because something happened to the owners, and it has to do with Black Claw. We'd better just get in."

John looked oddly at the man, but walked in all the same. The door had been busted anyway, so why not?

What they found inside left no doubt as to the validity of Kolt's theory. The place had been ransacked, and there was a huge black graffiti on one of the walls. Black Claw indeed.

Fortunately, John didn't smell anything remotely close to a rotting corpse, and they saw no blood stains anywhere, except for a small puddle that had dried long, long ago.

"It seems they got away before these Black Claw guys got to them."

Parker acquiesced silently.

Kolt suddenly looked up from the book he had been examining, eyes locked on the door. McClee would have said he was doing that thing with his gaze, all sharp and all-seeing, if he had been on the other end of said gaze.

Parker followed her partner's eyes, a hand on her gun.

There were two men standing just outside the busted door. One of them was fidgety, short, and a bit pudgy. Oddly, John thought he looked a bit like a beaver. The other seemed calmer, but his eyes were locked in disgust upon the Black Claw graffiti. To continue on with the animal comparison, the detective would call him a wild cat. A wild, angry cat who was barely short on hissing at the black mark. The beaver guy was staying out of his way, as it was. Maybe John wasn't the only one to identify the man to an angry cat.

Kolt squinted at the men, looking tenser than ever before. He didn't actually seem frightened, which would be difficult to achieve given how the shorter man of the two wasn't frightening at all. But there was something underlying here. John glanced at Parker.

The woman did seem to know how to interpret her partner's stance, but he doubted she saw the same thing as Kolt did. It was more like she was used to his reaction. But what had the agent seen, that they couldn't see...?

Obviously.

Kolt had said it took one to know one. That only one of his people could recognize the others. He hadn't said how, he hadn't said why, but he had said it was such.

And apparently it was the case right now.

John tried to squint at the men too, just in case he got to see what it was that denounced them as members of these "people". Of course, he didn't see a thing, except that the guy who looked a bit like a beaver was getting tenser by the minute. And that Kolt was moving between Parker and him, and the other guy. As if to protect them...

The wild-cat-like man hissed something at Kolt, something John didn't understand. It didn't seem to be English, if anything. Stainadlher or something...

John tried to move around the blocking shadow of Farley Kolt to have a better look at the men, but the space between the shelves of the spice shop was narrow at best. He'd have to walk around the shelves if he wanted to see better, and Parker was blocking that way too.

Anything else, and he'd think the agents were doing that on purpose. Which was probably the case.

The angry man took a step back as Kolt drew his gun.

"What, you came to check your guys hadn't left anything incriminating behind last time? I don't really care about your motives, but I won't just let your extremist group take it out on those who don't follow you, bastards!"

John blinked. What was tha... Oh. The guy thought they were with that Black Claw group. From what he had just said, the detective surmised someone close to him had been a victim, perhaps.

Parker and Kolt sighed, and the male agent holstered his gun back. Kolt slowly took a step to the side, to reveal John McClee standing behind him. The angry man frowned in confusion, still tense, and the pudgy guy glanced worriedly at everyone.

"We're not with Black Claw. We are governmental agents on the case, and he's a detective. Do you know what happened here?"

"Show your credentials, then."

Parker and Kolt turned to look at John, who didn't get it right away, but eventually got his badge out for the guy to examine it. Obviously the two others didn't have anything to prove they were what they discreetly claimed. Obviously.

Freaking spies. Or whatever they were.

The younger of the two strangers didn't seem very impressed, though. The pudgy man tried to nudge him into talking, but the guy sneered.

"You do know there was a whole precinct of Black Claw moles until Burkhardt got rid of them, don't you, Bud? There could be some left, for all we know."

The older man paled visibly at the thought.

"But..."

John saw Parker roll her eyes and took a step forward.

"No more antics, guys. You, you must be able to tell that Detective McClee and myself are Kehrseite. And Black Claw doesn't take people out of your community, not even if they might be useful. So think about it, are we Black Claw, or is it more likely that the government pulled together a special agency to handle this?"

And one more word John didn't get... No problem, he was getting used to it. Which might be worrying, considering his job was supposedly about uncovering the truth, but well...

The younger of the two men snorted at bit, then sniffed, his stance suddenly less aggressive.

"They came the other evening, and ransacked the shop. They were mighty angry when they understood the owners had evaded them just in time."

The pudgy man finally took his chance and a bit of bravery, and asked a question the detective could just say he had been dying to ask since Kolt had presented them.

"Do you know if Nick and the others are alright? What about Adalind? And their baby? I haven't..."

He shut up when he saw the look on both the agents' faces. They had forgotten about the craddle.