25. Twenty-Five

twenty-five

Phoenix

"You let him go?" I shrieked the following morning, irritably running my fingers through my hair and gripping it tightly as I began to pace around Captain Burgess's office.

Chief was here too, standing beside Cap as he sat behind his desk.

"We went through everything," said Chief. "But unfortunately, there is nothing there proving Karl made any purchases from a flower shop. There's no evidence putting him at one either."

"But that doesn't mean anything," Cap said, trying to remain confident. "We're still investigating. Karl's had help before, so it's likely there are others involved. It's just going to take a little more time to prove it."

I couldn't fucking believe this shit.

"What did Karl say?"

"What do you think? He's denying everything."

I bellowed out a growl, so pissed that I just impulsively reacted and vehemently kicked the chair in front of me, knocking it over.

"Phoenix." Captain Burgess rose to his feet, glaring outrageously at me. "What the hell has gotten into you?"

I closed my eyes, sucked in a hardy breath, and then released it, deciding the smartest thing I could do in that moment was pick up the chair, sit the fuck down, and apologize for my outburst.

I didn't mean to lose my temper like that. I was just stressed the hell out with these cases, and this shit with Karl and Charlotte wasn't making it any better.

"We understand you're frustrated, Phoenix, but this isn't your first rodeo. You know how these things go. Focus on interviewing Amber again and see if we can find out who those extra hair follicles belong to. I spoke to Kendall earlier and the DNA from the last of them should be back soon. Chief and I will handle Karl."

I internally scoffed but kept my lips zipped, knowing better than to argue with the two men who could ultimately end my career with just a snap of their fingers.

It wasn't until I made it back and plopped down at my computer that I furiously kicked the inside of my desk and slapped my stapler across the room, my chest heaving.

"Let me guess," Spike said from behind his desk, kicking off the floor and gliding over to me in his computer chair. "They let him go."

I met his gaze, my harrowing glare giving him the answer.

"Fucking figures," he scoffed. "So, what do you want to do?"

"There's nothing we can do." I huffed as I made to go pick up my stapler, cursing again when I saw I'd broken it. "There's no evidence putting him at the flower shop and there's nothing proving he made any purchases from one."

"That doesn't mean he didn't have help," he stated firmly, repeating the captain's earlier words. "Have you given any more thought to what I talked to you about last night?"

I gushed out a tired sigh and reclaimed my seat, placing my broken stapler down and rubbing my hands down my face, saying nothing at first.

"I don't know, Spike. It's a good theory, but it's also a huge leap, not to mention a huge accusation that could ultimately fuck us if you turn out to be wrong."

"Not if we keep it to ourselves, it won't."

I shook my head in disagreement.

"Come on, Phoenix. I understand we'd be overstepping our boundaries, but I wouldn't have brought it up if I didn't truly believe it could be related to our cases."

"And what about Charlotte?" I had to ask him. "This affects her too, you know. She could lose everything."

"She'll be upset, yes, but it doesn't change the fact that we have jobs to do. If I'm wrong, then I'll admit I'm wrong, and I'll drop it. Nobody will ever have to know. All I'm saying is that it wouldn't hurt to check it out and eliminate all of the possibilities."

"And what if you end up being right?" I asked.

He frowned at me. "This isn't something I want to be right about, Phoenix. But if I am, then I guess the three of us will cross that bridge when we get there." Spike got to his feet and began gathering his stuff. "Come on. Let's go see what Amber has to say and then we can get started."

I got up and pushed my chair in, pausing momentarily when I looked up and saw Kendall dashing out of the elevator with a manila folder in her hand. My immediate thought was that the DNA from the follicles must've finally come in, but a flustered growl slipped past my lips when she effortlessly whipped around a gossiping group of officers and beelined straight for Captain Burgess's office.

Damnit.

Why the hell was this shit taking so long?