Justice (4 page)

As that unit started to fall, Maddock and Bones bolted for the door. Before reaching it, they heard a cry of surprise, and Maddock hoped that Ramos had been struck by one of the falling shelves. He fumbled with the door handle before realizing that Ramos had locked it from the inside. The man definitely wasn’t dumb. He quickly unlocked it and he and Bones stepped out into a dimly lit corridor.

And found themselves face to face with three uniformed police officers with guns drawn and pointing at the door.

“I’m telling you,
you’ve got the wrong guys.” Bones tried to slap the table with his hands, but the manacles allowed him only a couple inches of leverage.

Detective Ramos held a disposable ice pack over a bruise just under his right eye, which had turned a dark purple in the two hours since an unidentified object from the collapsing shelf had struck him. His expression did not convey enjoyment. On the plus side, he hadn’t said a word about Melissa, which indicated the detective had no clue about the role she’d played.

“Bonebrake, I imagine you think you’re funny. We got you boys dead to rights breaking into one of our most sacred landmarks, not to mention destruction of private property and assaulting a police officer. The courts round these here parts don’t take kindly to that sort of thing, and given the judicial backlog, y’all could be our guests here for quite some time. So, how ‘bout we try again and you tell us what you’re really after.”

Another detective occupied the chair next to Ramos. Slight of frame and with short hair and a forgettable face, he hadn’t said a word. Maddock had no doubt who the alpha dog was in this partnership. He jumped in before Bones said something to make their situation worse.

“Detective, I can appreciate what it looks like, but I want to make sure my girlfriend is safe. You didn’t seem to be taking the situation seriously so we decided to look around and see what we could find.”

“So we can add a charge of interferin’ with a police investigation?”

“I’m sorry. You mean you were still conducting an investigation here? I noticed all the crime scene tape is already gone and the fingerprint dust cleaned up.”

“You were messing around with my crime scene, Maddock. By definition, you’re interferin’.”

“Dude, you didn’t even know the records storage room was part of the crime scene,” Bones added.

Ramos’ face went scarlet. “It doesn’t matter.”

Maddock sighed. “Fine, whatever. I told you why we were there. If you’re not going to listen to us, then get us an attorney.”

Ramos licked his lips and raised his eyebrows. “Why? You fellas got something to hide?”

Bones laughed. “Ramos, don’t tell me that line actually works on anyone with a double-digit IQ.”

Ramos showed the first signs of anything other than annoyance by displaying a set of crooked teeth. “Hey, it was worth a try. But seriously, once the lawyers are around, I can’t do nothin’ for you. Tell me this, why did you assault Sarah Abrams yesterday?”

Bones and Maddock shared a puzzled look. Maddock said, “Assault? What are you talking about?”

“You heard me. You expect me to believe there was a break-in and an assault one day and then you boys just happened to break in the next?”

Maddock shook his head. “This is pointless. Attorney. Now.”

Ramos’ hands caused the table to creak as he raised himself from his seat. “Have it your way. You may be here a while.”

The door swung open and a woman entered. “No, Dwayne, they won’t.”

The woman had walked with a slight limp through the door, but aside from that she conveyed nothing but competence. Red hair that hung just below her shoulders, a trace of freckles, blue eyes with the slightest trace of green. She reminded Maddock of someone.

“I want to believe!” Bones exclaimed.

The newcomer rolled her eyes and Maddock realized that Bones had identified the resemblance to Special Agent Dana Scully from the show
The X-Files
.

She pointed at Bones. “Like I’ve never heard that before. You don’t do too well with the ladies, do you?”

Bones’ eyebrows wrinkled and he looked at Maddock. “The one on TV is much nicer. Smarter, too.”

“If you two are done with your fantasizing, perhaps we could talk about why I’m actually here.”

Ramos snorted. “Boys, this is Lieutenant Sandra Sterling. What a surprise. Yes, tell us why
are
you here? Last time I checked, this was just the lowly Mount Vernon District Police Station, not Club Fed over in McLean.”

“Dwayne, my friend, I’m about to do you a big favor. I’m about to relieve you of responsibility for dealing with these lowlifes. No thanks are necessary. ” She handed him a sheet of paper which he glanced at before folding it and stuffing it in his breast pocket.

“Us country bumpkins not quite up to your high-tone Park Police standards?”

“Lose the chip on your shoulder, Dwayne. It’s unattractive, and you need all the help you can get in that department. We all know you were raised in the canebrake and pulled yourself up by your jockstrap to graduate from William and Mary. With two break-ins and an assault on National Park property, it was a question of when, not if, we got involved.”

Ramos held her stare for several seconds. Then he shrugged and reached for the key to the cuffs which secured Maddock and Bones to the interview table. Maddock massaged his wrists as he stood, glad to be free of the confinement.

With a move so quick that Maddock barely saw it coming, Sterling slapped a cuff around one of his newly free wrists. “Not so fast, Mr. Maddock. The three of us are going to have a little talk somewhere more private. The cuffs mean that I won’t have to worry.”

Bones held out his arms, palms up. “I like a woman who accessorizes. And you don’t have to worry about us, we’d never hurt you.”

Sterling regarded him the same way Maddock recalled his second-grade teacher looking at a student who tried to eat chalk. “I’m not worried about that, Bonebrake. If one of you tried something and I had to take you down, it wouldn’t look good on your service records. I don’t want that on my conscience.”

Bones turned to Maddock as, both cuffed, they followed her out of the room. “Any chance she’s an alien, because I want her to probe me.”

Maddock failed to suppress a chuckle and Sterling didn’t turn as she replied over her shoulder. “Don’t push me, Bonebrake. Be a shame to have to shoot you before you can answer any of my questions.”

“I’m telling you,
man, she’s actually with the CIA. Didn’t you see the signs?”

Maddock tried to contain his irritation. Bones was annoying him, but his real beef was with the fact that he was locked in another interrogation room after nearly an hour trapped in the back of a Park Police vehicle. With the sun just coming up after a sleepless night, he was ready to lash out at whatever target presented itself. He wished he could take the sort of calming breaths that Melissa did to combat stress, but that sort of passive approach had never worked for him.

He exhaled anyway. “Bones, just because we drove past Langley doesn’t mean that she’s CIA. I know the Park Police has headquarters in the same area.”

Bones shook his head sadly. “What better way to hide the affiliation than in plain sight?”

The door opened, and Lieutenant Sterling strode in. The door closed behind her of its own volition, as if scared that failure to do so would trigger Sterling’s ire. Maddock actually didn’t detect much anger in her, just intensity.

The room was nicer than the one in the Mount Vernon police station in that it had a window and at least looked like it had been painted during Maddock’s lifetime. His hands were cuffed but not secured to the table, so that was something. But he was still trapped against his will. He heard the snarl in his own voice. “Lawyer. Now.”

Sterling raised one eyebrow. “What makes you think you’re entitled to one? You’re not suspected of any crime.”

“Fine,” Maddock said. “In that case, you can take off these handcuffs and we’ll be on our way.”

She gestured with her index finger and shook her head. “A person of interest, that’s what you are. We can hold you for at least twenty-four hours. I hear you SEALs can practically hold your breath for that long, so it should be a piece of cake to do it in an air-conditioned room like this one.”

Bones said. “How about you just let Maddock go and you can interrogate me? There are all sorts of things I can tell you… and show you.”

Sterling’s smile was genuine, but more predatory than joyous. She yawned and stretched her arms above her head, and Maddock had to conjure an image of Melissa to keep his mind from focusing on how she moved.

Sterling stepped behind Bones and put her hands on his shoulders. Almost instantly, Bones’ face tightened in an obvious attempt not to show any pain. Maddock even noticed traces of red creeping into the skin around his neck. “They call you Bones, right? A little predictable but it could be worse. Bones, I really don’t think you want to be alone in a room with me.”

A second later she released the pressure, and Bones let out a breath. She moved back around them and spoke to Maddock as if the previous seconds had never happened. “On the other hand, if you just answer a few questions, you’ll be free to go in a matter of minutes. Well, unless you’re interested in seeing some security footage of the break-in at Mount Vernon.”

This time, Maddock looked at Bones before answering, but his friend looked equally confused.
“Okay. Lieutenant, you have our attention. Let’s watch the video.”

“Not so fast. A man has to take me to dinner before I invite him back to my place. First you answer some questions. Like what were you doing there last night?”

“Like I told Detective Ramos, we were worried about my girlfriend Melissa and her boss, and we wanted to see if we could find any clues.”

“You thought you could do better than Dwayne Ramos?”

“I think my Mom could do better than that assclown,” Bones interjected.

She considered that for just a second before barking a laugh. “Fair point. Okay, did you find anything?”

The men shook their heads.

“And you’re sure there was no other reason you were there besides trying to protect your girlfriend?”

Maddock nodded. “What other reason would there be?”

Sterling said, “No reason, apparently. I did a little research on your backgrounds. A bunch of it is classified, which seems strange for two guys not long out of SEAL training. But you seem to have been around the edges of a few civilian crimes recently as well. It’s actually quite interesting.”

Bones started nodding. “That’s right, and there’s more where that came from if you’d just--.”

She didn’t allow him to finish. “Bones, cancer cells are interesting too. Don’t let it go to your head. I have another question for you. Have you ever heard of a group called the Sons of the Republic?”

Maddock knew he hadn’t managed to keep the surprise from his face when he heard the words. He took a moment to gather his thoughts, but Bones had no such need.

“Hell yes, we’ve had a few run-ins with those jokers. They’re big on ‘taking the country back to its origins.’ Maddock and I had to step in and bust a few of their heads when they got all upset at us disrupting their plans.”

For the first time, Sterling looked at Bones with something other than ironic scorn. “What else can you tell me about them?”

Maddock was pretty sure Sterling already knew that he and Bones had encountered the Sons of the Republic before. If she had done her homework on them and knew about the Sons herself, she could have figured it out. In fact, her stepping in to rescue them from Detective Ramos made more sense in that context. He gave voice to the next logical thought.

“You think they’re the ones who broke into Mount Vernon?”

“I can’t say anything for certain, Maddock, but doesn’t it seem to you like something they’d do?”

Maddock considered that. It was possible, but still a shot in the dark without evidence linking the group to the break-in. “Sure, but what reason do you have to think it was them?”

Sterling frowned, her aggressive manner all but gone. “Nothing I can put my finger on. But I’ve got a couple of sources who say they’ve been poking around in Virginia in recent months.”

Bones asked, “What sources are those?”

Sterling grinned. “A woman never tells. Neither do the Park Police. At this point, I’m just trying to see the pattern and figure out motive.”

Maddock shook his head. “I wish we could help you and I really do mean that. But unless they’re trying to find some more concrete evidence that Washington...”

She arched an eyebrow. “Washington what?”

Maddock sighed. “You know what, forget I said anything. It’s not going to help you figure out the break-in or find them.”

“Plus if we told you, we’d have to kill you.” Bones grinned.

Sterling looked from Maddock to Bones and back again. “I’ll let that go. For now. In any case, I’ll show you the video now if you’re still interested.”

Maddock nodded. She took out the key to the handcuffs and released both men. “Follow me.”

The room with the stand containing the VCR and television was only a few steps down the hallway. It was really more of a closet than a room, a windowless space with weak lighting and a stack of chairs against one wall. Sterling fired up the A/V once Maddock and Bones had crammed themselves into the tiny chairs.

“It goes without saying that you two need to keep anything you see to yourself.”

Maddock sensed that she expected a response, so he grunted an affirmative sound that seemed to satisfy her. The picture came on, a view of the storage room at Mount Vernon before Maddock had crashed half of the shelves.

On the screen, a man, Caucasian with short hair, moved hastily through the maze of shelves, checking the tag on every box. He was dressed in nondescript clothing—khakis, a polo-style shirt, and a jacket, zipped halfway up. Nothing that would stand out among the tourists at Mount Vernon. He had a drawstring bag slung over his shoulder. Maddock wondered if it held the fake Washington portrait.

“No sound on this?” Bones asked.

“Nope, just basic security footage.”

They all continued to watch as the man searched the shelves. He finally found what he was looking for. He opened the box, rummaged through it, took out a paper inside a protective sleeve, and stuffed it inside his bag. He paused and cocked his head as if listening. He must have heard something because he hastily put the box back on the shelf, the wrong shelf, and hurried out. As he made his way back to the door, the camera caught the front of his face for a fraction of a second. It wasn’t the sharpest image, but it was something.

Maddock asked. “Any luck on matching the face?”

Sterling said, “Not yet. We’re trying to get some time on the FBI computer, but you can imagine how inter-agency cooperation goes sometimes. Do you recognize him?”

Maddock shook his head, not wanting his voice to betray his thoughts. Bones said, “You think that guy is one of the Sons?”

Sterling shrugged. “That’s what I’m trying to find out. I hoped you might have seen him before.”

Maddock detected a trace of deception in her eyes. “I have a question for you. Why are you so interested in this? I couldn’t help notice that during our time here, you haven’t written down a single thing or engaged one of your fellow officers. So please don’t tell me it’s just another case you’ve been assigned. ”

Her blue eyes hardened. “I have my reasons.”

“I’m sure you do. And if you want our help, I’d like to know what they are.”

Sterling’s eyes didn’t change, but her lower lip puffed as she exhaled with force. “You aren’t wrong. My level of interest has little to do with my job. While I did officially take on your case last night, I don’t expect it will remain assigned to me for long. There are some people who would rather this subject remained closed. That said, I don’t intend to give up on unofficial pursuit of the Sons of The Republic. It’s personal, and that’s all I’m going to say right now.”

Maddock looked at Bones, who appeared absorbed by their questioner. “Um, Bones. . .”

His head snapped back to see Maddock’s inquisitive look. “Huh? Oh, yeah, that’s good enough for me. Let me tell you about the last time we ran into the Sons…”

Maddock cut him off. “We can give you one name, Edmonia Jennings Wright. She’s the majority shareholder in a Delaware company called the Vindication Corporation. As near as we can tell, the Sons have only a loose structure, but it’s safe bet that she’ll be involved in a lot of their activity.”

“What was the last you heard of her?”

Bones chuckled. “That would be when she took you down with a flick of the wrist, right Maddock? The chick is like a hundred years old, but she’s some kind of grandma ninja.”

Sterling’s face almost showed amusement, and Maddock had to focus to keep his cheeks from reddening. “Unfortunately, Bones is right, although she’s more like seventy, not a hundred. I’m sure you can find her easily enough. Once it was clear she wasn’t interested in coming after us, we stopped thinking about her.”

Sterling’s voice was flat. “Looks like you need to start again. I realize you don’t know me at all, but trust me on this.”

Maddock wanted to protest, but he thought about Melissa. If there was any chance Sterling was right about the involvement of the Sons, Melissa was probably in danger. Confronting Wright was the best option for solving that problem.

Second-best option
, he corrected himself. There was another.