Chapter 24

"So, you think I can get him to talk to me?" Robert wondered. William Blanchard had been waiting for them at Charlie's desk inside the Major Crimes bullpen and now the three of them sat at the detective's desk. Robert had texted his brother to meet him at the precinct and had been let into the bullpen by Joe. The leader of the Major Crime unit had disappeared into his office afterwards, while Jesse was still making phone calls.

"I think you tell him that Lynn got your brother involved in whatever the hell has been going on, he'll try and back pedal or cover his own ass in some way," Charlie admitted.

"You're hoping that he's still afraid of me," the man said.

"A little. He knows that you'll be mad because you were hauled in by SJPD. You had to use vacation time, had to travel, only to find out this schmuck's sister somehow sucked your brother into trouble," Charlie figured.

"What if all he manages to do is throw Lynn under the bus?" Robert was worried and the detective could see that. William was being quiet this whole time but the detective figured that was because he didn't want to get into any more trouble.

"Then you make the argument that Lynn is disabled and you don't believe she'd do it on her own," Charlie said.

"You guys are going to be nearby when I do all of this right?" Robert started to get nervous.

"Yes, we'll be outside wherever you're meeting him, listening to the conversation. If we have to bust in, we will. I'm going to suggest that we have this all done in a public place anyway," the detective tried to reassure him.

"Ok, good," Robert nodded.

"I'd say we do it at the bar that Richard hangs out at," William finally spoke up. It wasn't an ideal location, especially if Richard had already had a few drinks. Any good defense attorney would argue that any statement his client made, was made while he was not in control of his mental faculties.

"We want to surprise him, but we want him sober," Charlie said.

"I don't know of any place else to meet him. well at least a place I'd consider public," William admitted.

"What about after his shift at his place of business? We could have a private chat in his car," Robert wondered. Charlie mused for a few minutes. A public parking lot where an unmarked car could sit and not easily be noticed. Richard worked inside the St. John's city limits as part of the onshore branch of one of the oil and gas industry companies that had found the black gold beneath the ocean off Newfoundland's coast. It would be a shift change and a large number of people coming and going.

"Let me run this by my boss and then we'll go from there. It's too late to do it today so tomorrow would be the earliest we could do it. Go get checked into your hotel and we'll talk soon," Charlie promised.

"Sounds good," Robert nodded. He and William stood up and left the bullpen. Jesse had just gotten off the phone and he turned to his colleague.

"Got a plan?" The younger detective asked.

"I think so. Any luck with those school records?" Charlie wanted to know.

"Lynn barely scraped by. The principal said that on more than one occasion Lynn's father turned down the offer of getting her into special education classes," Jesse shook his head.

"He never spoke to her mother?" Charlie asked.

"I'm beginning to think that their mother almost didn't exist. No activity on her credit history for years. Her family said they reported her missing but they were told to do so in their own province. So, I called up Ontario Provincial Police who told me to call the RCMP. They promised to go digging through their archives since no report popped on their computer. The officer I spoke to said that they had no idea why the report wouldn't be in the system but that maybe the file would be more helpful with that," Jesse explained.

"Could be it didn't go very far. Especially if there was no evidence of foul play," Charlie didn't like it one bit.

"Makes you wonder," Jesse said. They were interrupted by an officer who wanted to let them know that Doctor Kley was done with his session for now and wanted to speak with Charlie. The elder detective quickly left the bullpen to see what the Doctor had discovered.

To Be Continued…