Catch and Release

Chapter 13

Chapter 13Sheppard wasn’t accustomed to riding in the passenger seat. Outside of the Army, he had always been the driver ever since he first got his license, but Haley insisted that the Bureau assigning the car to her meant she should drive. All the federal agencies rotate their purchases through the three major American car manufacturers, and it seemed that this year, it was Chevrolet’s turn. Sheppard thought the Suburban was a very nice vehicle. It had plenty of room, and the 5.7-liter V8 could keep up with most other vehicles on and off the road, plus the extra accessories that the Bureau installed essentially turned it into a mobile office. He did, however, wonder how Haley was able to see over the steering wheel.

Their destination wasn’t particularly far, only about ten miles from the FBI field office, but the lunch-time rush and several crashes caused Sheppard and Haley to get stuck in gridlock traffic.

“Should have taken the I-94,” Sheppard said.

“I know.”

“We could probably cut through this traffic if we turn the strobes on.”

Haley raised an eyebrow. “Is someone in imminent danger of dying?”

“Maybe.”

“But probably not?”

“If we don’t get moving, someone’s gonna die.”

“The strobes stay off.”

Sheppard let out an exasperated sigh. “Ugh, you’re such a stick in the mud!”

“It’s against regulations!”

“Stupid rules. The only thing stupid rules accomplish is slowing us down.”

“Is that why you and Riley don’t see eye to eye? Because you thumb your nose at the rules?”

Sheppard dropped his head back onto his headrest and looked out the window. “Not exactly. We don’t get along for a very different reason.”

The line of cars moved forward slightly, allowing Haley to pull ahead, but she only managed half a car length before having to stop again.

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“Seriously, Sheppard? You can’t drop a line like we don’t get along for a very different reason and leave it at that! Come on, what’s the story?”

Sheppard sighed glumly and continued to stare out the window. “It could take a while.”

“It appears we have time.”

Sheppard huffed. “When I first joined the Bureau, I was assigned to the team that Riley led. We were trying to track down a child molester. Nine little girls taken in three months. One child taken every week for the first three weeks of the month, then a break until the next month. The M-E reports from the girls’ bodies were truly despicable and actually caused a couple of the agents to start seeing a therapist. We caught a break with the eighth girl. Someone saw the killer dump the body and was able to give us a description of the killer and a photo of the side of the vehicle. Even though neither were very specific, it gave us something to go on. Using the information and photo, I managed to talk a few of the egg-heads in Cyber-crime to fashion a program that would access all the network accessible cameras in the city and scan for the vehicle.”

“I’m guessing it didn’t work?”

“That’s the thing. It did work. It was a pretty common car, but the program tracked it down thanks to a dent visible in the photo. We were able to follow the camera sightings to where the killer was staying. I took this information to Riley, suggesting that we go get the son of a b***h immediately, but he was in a meeting with the director.”

“So, you got pissed off that you had to wait?”

“No, I didn’t wait. I barged right into the meeting, interrupted everyone, and told Riley and the director everything. Riley was on board, but the director pointed out that since we didn’t have a warrant to access the cameras, we couldn’t use the information. The killer would get away on a technicality and we had to find another way.”

“What?”

Sheppard turned his head to face her. “That’s what I said.”

“So, what did you do?”

Sheppard went back to staring out the window. “I was still new, not even a year under my belt, so when Riley suggested we go on TV with the pictures and a tip line, I just smiled and agreed. Thanks to that program, we were able to get some different viewing angles which led us to the car’s registration number. About ten minutes after the tip line opened, I called in an anonymous tip with the car’s registration, but in order to make that work, I had to run the plate. It took almost an hour to get the address that way, but we had the address legally. I told Riley, and we were out the door as fast as we could go.”

“So, everything worked out in the end?”

“Not exactly. When we got to the building, we busted down the door in full tactical gear, but it was too late. The girl was already dead, throat slashed from ear to ear. The killer’s television was playing the press release and above the television, the words I’ll be back were painted on the wall in the girl’s blood. We lost the girl, and the killer got away because we followed an asinine rule.”

“Sounds like the killer got away from both of you, so why the bad blood?”

Sheppard sighed again. “Because when we got back to the office, Riley and I went to report to the director. I blamed him for holding us back, and I blamed Riley for the press release, saying that it showed our hand and tipped off the killer. Things got rather heated, and I ended up copping a suspension after stating that the director’s IQ was lower than his particularly small shoe size.”

“So, now you break the rules, which has caused friction between you and Riley.”

“I don’t want to lose another person because some arbitrary rule tells me that I can’t do something to save them. If breaking a rule means a kid gets saved or a killer gets stopped, then I’ll break the rule. Riley doesn’t see it that way. He takes the stance of if we don’t follow the laws that we are duty bound to uphold, then we are no better than the criminals we chase. I’d rather catch them incorrectly than chase them futilely and lose them correctly.”

Neither of them spoke for half a minute, which seemed to stretch on for an eternity. When the traffic started moving again, Haley broke the silence. “Frustratingly, I agree with both of you.”

Now that traffic was flowing again, Sheppard and Haley continued the drive in silence.