Chapter 17
Police officers and detectives huddled into small groups at a local station watching as an officer was in the middle of hanging up four plaques on the wall with the framed faces of the recently slain Fingermen. You have to understand something the Fingermen are more like London's FBI. Most are hand picked by Creedy, Sutler's top man, and because of that almost all of them think they are better than the average police man and that knowledge makes them believe they have more power. With this in mind it is easy to understand the rivalry and bad attitudes of the police officers whenever Fingermen are mentioned or in the vicinity.
Some of the officers and detectives knew the men somewhat personally from working with them and these people were tapping away at their computers or filing away cases just like any other day not too broken up over the murders. The men were abominations to the force but they were still officers and knowing they were murdered in cold blood on the streets of London did not make any of the officers sleep well at night. Sutler was the puppeteer behind the bogus stories to make it appear the organization known as V were targeting authority figures for their own twisted agenda.
Detective Finch glanced in the direction of the plaques from his office but soon turned his tired eyes away. It seemed like someone was placing up plaques everyday and as bad as it sounded he had become used to it at this point. Shifting his focus down to the open file lying in front of him he sighed and flipped through the few papers and 5x5 photos. Once again no information could be collected on the terrorist known as V and to make things worse he recently acquired an accomplice. She was fairly cautious of the cameras like her leader however her costume did not hide as much about her but the information was still limited. What they knew about her was that she was a female, around the height of 5' 7", and brown skinned. Actually her complexion was rather helpful seeing that it limited the suspect pool but still left thousands to sort through. Finch sighed with frustration taking the photo captured of the woman seemingly about to be shot by Fingermen and brought it closer to his dulled eyes.
"Who are you?" Finch questioned the silent photo when a knock on the door caused him to place the photo back into the file.
"Come in" Finch called closing the file.
His partner, detective Carver, waltzed into the office with a small smile and two paper cups of steaming hot coffee. Finch pitied and envied the young detective who was fresh to wearing the title. He remembered when he was young and excited about advancing his career believing that he could make more of a difference and protect his home, London. He once was filled with fresh ideas and possibilities but as the decades took their toll on him he quickly learned that the world was not as black and white as he imagined. It was not as simple as finding the bad guys and locking them away. The most dangerous criminals were safely sleeping in their mansions and completely untouchable in their fortresses built from cash and fear. Every day chipped a piece of Finch's soul that he highly doubted he could get back. He learned very quickly that it was best to keep your head down and do what you were told without too much fuss. He contemplated leaving many times but one day he found the courage to look up. Observing his aged features and graying hair he knew that there was not much out there for him so he held onto the happiness in his future retirement instead. He gave a melancholy look at the young detective saddened that the lad was staring at his future and did not have the sense to know it.
"Anything new on the girl?" the young detective asked.
"Nope" Finch sighed.
"Well you might want to take a look at this" Detective Carver said passing a piece of paper to Detective Finch.
Finch's eyes scanned over the words once his reading glasses sat firmly in place. With every line his brow creased and his shoulders slacked.
"Are you serious?" Finch questioned, none to happy over the news.
"I am afraid so sir. Everyone received orders today"
"He wants us to literally go door to door and question every brown skinned female in London?"
Carver took a sip of his coffee with a shrug none too happy about the news either.
"I heard the orders came from Sutler himself" Carver cautioned hesitantly checking over his shoulder as if he were about to be caught doing something wrong.
Finch reclined back in his office chair and took a drink of his coffee to stop the spew of curses threatening to spill from his lips. This was ridiculous. Were they aware of how long it would take just to interview all those women?, not to mention the work it would take to validate if the stories were even true. Of course they didn't. All they cared about were results they were not interested in the time or man power it would take. The terrorist would have destroyed all of London by the time they managed to piece together a clue. This woman was merely his accomplice after all who was to say if he even told her everything about what he planned. There were too many what ifs when it came to her for Finch's liking and he strongly felt The Nose should not be spending it's time focusing so hard on her. However on the other hand she was their only lead. No one asked him anyway so why was he even thinking about all of this? He was there to do his job and he had his orders.
"Well we better get started then" Finch said checking through the names they were assigned.
"I thought we could start with Evelyn Dunas since the BNB is not far from here" Carver suggested with a tinge of excitement.
"Do you know her?" Finch questioned looking over the rim of his glasses at the young detective.
"Well not in person. You haven't heard of Evelyn Dunas?"
"No" Finch said not really interested in the story sensing there was nothing of importance to the case.
"She's somewhat of a celebrity. She's Gordon Dietrich's new squeeze. She has been all over the papers" Carver smirked a little perplexed how his Senior officer could be so oblivious to the woman's existence.
"I don't make it a point to stay current in celebrity gossip. We deal in facts Carver" Finch stated.
"Yes sir" Carver said straightening up as his smirk dropped.
Finch swiped his coat off of the back of his chair.
"Well on ya' then" Finch rushed grabbing his coffee and paperwork.
Finch and Carver left the station. Carver immediately took the passenger seat knowing his Senior officer would take charge of driving. Once inside the police car Finch did a once over of the list before pulling out of the garage heading straight for the BNB.
