Chapter 2:
They had been in Captain Lipschitz's office for less than two minutes when the phone rang.
"What?!" he barked into the receiver. He was standing behind the desk, one hand on the phone, the other holding his lower back. The lower back is a delicate meeting point of twitchy nerves and overused muscles. His ached. And smelled. Frannie, his retired-too-soon nurse of a wife, had concocted some god-awful herbal potion for his sore muscles. She insisted on three applications a day for a week. She could up it to ten a day for all the good it was doing. Not that he had any intention of telling her how ineffectual her labours had been. Better to smell like the inside of a hippie's camper van than risk the wrath of his beloved, but overly-sensitive, wife. He'd already run out of "I'm sorry" gift ideas for the month, and he liked to eat.
"Send her in," he snapped at the receiver. Before he could even finish hanging up, he was looking sternly at his two favourite homicide detectives. Pointing at them both he said levelly, "You are getting some company on this case. You are going to behave yourselves and play nice. This is not a punishment, and it's not a request."
"No way, Cap…" Chris was immediately defensive.
"This is b.s., Cap…" Rita was yelling at the same time.
"uh uh uh…" Captain Lipschitz said quietly, holding his palm toward them while shaking his head. Once they had stopped protesting (at least verbally), he closed his eyes slowly, counted to three, then opened them and shook his finger. Softly he reprimanded them: "Did you hear the part about how this is not a request? You will speak politely. And quietly. There will be no yelling." He stopped and looked over his glasses at them until they had stopped pacing back and forth.
"Cap…" Chris started again.
"Shhh, Lorenzo." Lipschitz's voice was barely more than a whisper. "I know you don't want help on this case. But sometimes, we get the help we don't even know we need." He shrugged. "A fresh pair of eyes. A new perspective. Maybe we break this case sooner. In the end, we all want the same thing." He smiled insincerely at them. And as he was saying this, the door opened, and in walked one of the most beautiful women Chris had ever seen. Not pretty like the kids waiting tables here. Not sexy like the girls on the beach. Not "beautiful" like the rich women who made it a full-time job to tan, wax, primp, and botox their way to some version of plastic perfection. Just a confidently, naturally, classically beautiful woman. (Kind of like Rita, if he let himself think about it. Which he tried not to do too often.) Five foot seven once she was out of those low-heeled ankle boots, he guessed. Blue eyes, reddish-brown wavy hair falling a little past her shoulders. Well-cut suit. A Fed, he guessed. Had to be with that wardrobe budget. His anger was giving way to intrigue.
"That's right," the mystery woman said in her all-business alto. "We all want the same thing. To catch this son-of-a-bitch before he has the chance to hurt anyone else." She surveyed Chris and Rita in a detached, but not unfriendly, way. Before the Captain could make the introductions, she stuck out her hand to Rita. "Devon White," she introduced herself. Name only. Not pulling rank. Rita appraised the newcomer, her clenched jaw working overtime. After a moment she seemed to make up her mind to follow orders and play nice. "Sergeant Rita Lance," she said taking Devon's hand and shaking it firmly, then dropping it quickly. Devon nodded and turned to Chris, offering her hand to him as well. "Chris Lorenzo," he said without missing a beat. He was still irritated, but also interested. And she had a firm handshake. He liked that in a woman. Devon nodded again. Chris may have let a flirty smile start to creep up the corners of his mouth. But he'd deny it.
"Special Agent White is here from the FBI's Miami office," Captain Lipshitz decided to move this along and take control before any pissing matches could break out. "The sadistic and ritualistic nature of this case has caught the attention of the Feds, and she will be working closely with you. You will keep her apprised of all leads. You will work with her as you would any detective from this office." The Lip didn't like to leave any room for misunderstanding, and he kept his gaze firmly locked on Chris and Rita. "You are a team of three on this case, starting now."
Turning to Devon, he said. "But to be clear, Agent White, these officers have been busting their butts night and day on this, and they are the best cops we have in Palm Beach. This is their investigation and you are a guest in our house. A welcome guest, but a guest nonetheless."
Devon's lip curled in barely suppressed bemusement, but she stayed quiet.
"Now," Lipschtiz smiled and spread his hands wide, "can't we all just get along?"
Rita was still riled up. "Fine, Captain. You say we have to play nice. Fine. But," she said archly, turning to Devon, "we're the leads on this case." Chris noticed her nose was flaring. Not a good sign. He put a hand lightly on her arm, a gentle warning to stay on the Lip's good side and to give the nice Federal Agent a chance. She shrugged it off. She was in no mood to be placated.
"We all want the same thing, Sergeant Lance," Devon said evenly, meeting Rita's eyes. "You two want to catch this psycho, and so do I. From what I've read of the case file, these murders are similar to a couple of unsolved Miami homicides from a few months ago. I want to hear more to see if we still think there's a connection. But whether there is or isn't, we've got to get your guy off the street. Yes, it's your case. Yes, I'm an outsider and you're not happy about it. You think I'm going to pull rank because I'm a Fed. I'm not…. Unless you give me a reason to." She paused to let her words sink in. "We don't have to be at odds." She was looking back and forth between Chris and Rita now. "I want us to work together on this. I'm not interested in a turf war. I'm interested in catching this bastard."
"Great!" Captain Lipschitz chimed in with false glee. "We're all friends here. So… Chris, Rita… tell us what you've got. You can brief me and get Agent White up to speed at the same time."