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CHAPTER FORTY

NED

"This would be the fourth copy-cat killing" Arkady said.

Ned felt his good mood wilting. He'd came in happy that morning, after another night over at Garrett's house, during which they'd watched the airing of episode 22 of Carmen Barbosa's Season Four, an episode which happened to feature Garrett's character, Floyd Sinclair. But as he listened to Arkady describing the murder, the positivity melted like snow under a hot sun. The victim, Casey Goldsmith, had been a coyote, which made him think instantly of Garrett, although this coyote had been a fifteen-year-old boy. Just a kid, and even worse, so were the killers - three other teenagers, who'd bludgeoned Goldsmith to death with baseball bats.

"That's a quick identification on the killers" Jason remarked. "A witness, or something?"

Arkady glanced at the report. "Yes, a friend of the victims was with him at the time. A girl. One of the killers hit her over the head with a baseball bat, which gave her a concussion. It says she'll recover; physically, at least." He put the report on the board along with those from the other copy-cat killings. "She identified all three killers."

Some of the officers were being quiet - all cops hate dealing with the murder of the young - but Ned raised a paw. "They confessed?"

"Yes, and that's the truly horrifying part" the fox grimaced. "They confessed right away, and without any guilt. As if they felt they'd....done a public service, or something. After they killed the kid, they strung him up in a tree, like he'd been lynched."

Scarlett sounded dazed. "I can't even fathom how someone could be so possessed with hate..."

"They'll probably be convicted as adults" Arkady said. "Four lives thrown away."

The elevator doors opened.

Arkady's ears flicked towards the elevator. "And that would be our friend Senator Johnson."

Diego and Montoya had been despatched earlier to bring the Senator in for some simple questioning, concerning his whereabouts on the nights of the Harding and Vaughn murders, and about the quotes of his that had been found at the murder scenes and in the video of the Harding murders. It was supposed to be a quiet affair - a senator being questioned about possible association with a murder was something that would gather a multiplicity of unwanted publicity - but since this was only questioning, not an arrest, there was no way to guarantee that the action would go unnoticed.

The badger was scowling as he, Montoya, and Diego walked through the station, drawing the attention of every officer or detective present, heading for one of the interview rooms. Ned gave a slight grin in response to Diego's "wish me luck" look. No sooner had the interview room door clicked than Ned, Scarlett, Arkady, Nolan, and Lennox all crowded around the cameras which gave outside viewers the ability to see and hear the interview as it was being conducted. Lennox had said she might step in and question the badger herself, but for the beginning at least, Diego and Montoya were responsible for this.

Senator Johnson had sat at the end of the table, while the two detectives sat to either side of him.

Diego folded his paws together, leaned over the table. "So, Senator. Let's discuss your whereabouts on the night of June 15th. I'm sure you're very well informed on what transpired that very evening."

"I will tell you the same thing I told the officers in Sacramento" the badger frowned. His little ears were twitching; a sign of nervousness, Ned thought. "I gave my speech; I had dinner with my family, dropped them off at our hotel, and drove out into the country to pray in peace, away from the noise and the insanity."

"Can anyone confirm this?"

"I" Johnson hesitated. "I fuelled up the car at the Sinclair. The transaction is recorded on my MasterCard."

Perhaps you fuelled up as you were driving to San Francisco to deliver the DVD, Ned thought.

Montoya had been leaning back in his chair, watching the badger. Looking for uneasiness, signs of lying. "About that car" the jaguar began. "We find it very interesting that you drive a white Toyoda Prius, the very same car which the serial killer we're trying to catch is known to drive."

Johnson slammed a fist on the table. "That's nothing but coincidence! We always rent the same kind of car! It's my wife's favourite."

He always drove a Prius? Diego and Montoya shared a glance. "That's very interesting" Diego said. "Would you share with us your thoughts on the use of your quotes by the killer we're calling 'The Prophet?"

"I do not hide my beliefs" the badger growled. "They are free to be quoted by whomever so desires."

And so it went. Johnson seemed to have an argument ready for every question, never quite answering, but always offering sort of rebuttal. Such it was that after a few minutes of this, Ned and Scarlett left the camera and went back to the evidence board. Milo Paretti was already there, scribbling in a notepad. "Did you see the crowd outside?" the jackal asked. "Some of the same folks who were heckling Johnson when he gave that speech."

Ned replied that they had not, but when they went to the window, sure enough, a crowd of protesters had gathered across the street from SF Metro's headquarters. A few of them appeared to be Johnson's supporters - although his family was noticeably absent - but the majority were definitely pro-gay, waving signs with such slogans as "Arrest the Prophet," "Avenge the Victims" or simply "Love is love." Predictably, the attorney JJ Maxwell and his followers were leading the protest. The public certainly had its own ideas about who was responsible for the murders, and they wanted Johnson held accountable.

While it never rivalled the size of the crowd present the day of Johnson's speech, the crowd only grew wilder when the badger was released, as no strong evidence could be brought against him, even if his stories of where he'd been the nights of the killings could not be verified. No sooner had Diego and Montoya escorted the senator to the door when the crowd erupted in angry chanting, demanding the badger's arrest. Some of the hecklers begin hurling food at Johnson as he scurried for a waiting taxi, causing the badger to protect his face with his paws as his small gathering of allies likewise screamed at the other protesters.

After Johnson had left, Lennox prepared the division for the next day's events. "Although he has been advised against it, Representative Van Holling has insisted on continuing with his plan to speak tomorrow at Bay State University. Resultantly, Captain Williston has asked that almost the entire police force be present there. That includes all of us."

Diego raised a paw. "Are we attending as guards or as detectives?"

Lennox gave the wolfdog a quick glance. "Both. As you are all aware, the Prophet has stated that the congressman is intended to be his next victim. Our chief responsibility tomorrow is to prevent his death, but if we can catch the Prophet there as well, we must. The Mayor has been adamant that he does not want any members of the government dying in this fiasco."

Wolves and foxes and coyotes nodded, and Ned saw Lennox's gaze turning on him. "Many of you may already know a bit about Van Holling, but I've asked Officer Parker to brief us a little on the congressman and his background."

My cue, Ned thought, as eyes and ears swivelled to focus on him. "Friedrich Van Holling is a junior congressman from the district next to ours" he explained. "He used to be in the Army - rose to the rank of lieutenant before leaving to run for office. Just elected in 2012. He's interesting for several reasons. First, at 32 years old, he's one of the youngest men in congress. Second, he's the only - also the first - openly gay Republican in the House."

"Gay and Republican?" Montoya asked incredulously. "You don't hear those two words together very often."

"No," Ned agreed. "He's pretty much a libertarian ideologically. He did not have the support of his party and some religious groups were campaigning against him but he still won the election because a lot of college kids voted for him. He ran on a end-the-drug-war, keep-the-NSA-out-of-your-cell-phones, end-the-Iraq-war type platform and it didn't hurt that the Democratic running against him was burdened with a divorce scandal at the time of the election, which hurt his ratings."

"Family?" this came from Nolan. "I seem to remember him having a boyfriend."

"I'm getting to that. Yes, his boyfriend's a mechanic named Conner Wilson. He also has full custody of a daughter from a previous marriage, Melanie."

"So we'll likely have an entire family to protect" Montoya shook his head. "I hope our killer wouldn't be bastard enough to go after the kid."

That was a sobering thought, considering the Prophet had killed Eliza Harding merely because she had a gay brother. Would he kill Melanie Van Holling for having a gay father? Based his previous murders, it was probably a reasonable concern. Then again, with any luck they would catch the Prophet, whoever he was, tomorrow. Before he could kill Congressman Van Holling, his daughter, or anything else.

Lennox said as much after Ned had finished giving history on the congressman. "Thank you, Parker" she granted, then turned back to the rest of the gathered officers. "As Detective Montoya has pointed out, the danger could be not only to the congressman, but to his family and staff, so we will have them under heavy guard at all times. No one is going to die tomorrow."

Ned's phone vibrated.

He excused himself and glanced at the phone. Olympia.

"Yes?" he asked impatiently. Yong Fo couldn't have discovered the seller of the dagger yet, could he? Then again, news travelled like clockwork in the crime world, so perhaps...?

The wolf's voice was as cool and collected as ever, the British accent perfectly pronounced. "I believe I have the information you need."

"Already?"

"Yes. Your coyote and I will be at the pub your inspectors frequent. Meet us there."

The call ended.

Ten minutes later, Ned and Scarlett had escaped the station and were walking the quick distance to Salty Sebastian's. Scarlett was remarkably cheerier in mood than she had been the previous day, even though she would soon again be in the company of Olympia. Ned could understand why - if Yong Fo had really located the origin of the dagger, possibly including the identity of its buyer, then identifying the Prophet might not be far off. How grand it would be, if he and Scarlett, lowly rookies, could solve this case. Their careers would be made, as it was.

The first thing Olympia said was "No, I do not have a name." They were sitting in the darkest corner of the bar, which was unusually full for this time of day. Garrett and Ned were sitting together, as the wolf pondered how happy being reunited with his coyote made him feel, despite that only a few hours had passed since they'd last seen each other. Scarlett, for her part, seemed marginally less uneasy than the day before. She still avoided Olympia's eye contact, but she couldn't seem to help showing how excited she was, not with the way her tail was twitching, eyes darting in Olympia's direction.

Ned did not hide his disappointment. "What do you have, then?" he growled quietly.

"The identity of the seller" Olympia said. "The Black Panthers."

"The Black Panthers?" Ned repeated in dismay. "A gang?" That had always been a possibility, but one he'd hoped to avoid - the prospect of approaching another crime organisation did not thrill him. Besides, there was the question of how Yong Fo had procured the information - by beating it out of someone, probably, interrogation, or through blackmail or threats. That was the way the Chinese Triad worked.

It was not a reassuring thought to picture Garrett as the interrogator, a role he'd freely admitted to taking.

"Don't worry about it" Garrett said reassuringly.

"It is not surprising" the other wolf told him, although her eyes and ears were focused elsewhere. It was, to some extent, the same way Garrett acted, Ned realised - they were always wary; always searching the room for some hidden enemy. That was how criminals stayed alive, he thought. Such a sad existence. "The Panthers specialise in illegal arms dealing - primarily to Mexican and Columbian drug cartels and to domestic terrorists, but also to buyers in Africa and the Middle East. It is possible that the dagger was part of a payment from a buyer in that area."

On the television, a political analyst was jabbering on with some entirely useless statistics about how one's species might affect your voting choices - wolves tended to vote Republican, otters voted Democratic, foxes were Independents - and so on. "How did you come by this information?" Ned asked - and instantly regretted it.

Olympia gave him an icy look. "That is - what is it your military says - classified?"

Garrett was more direct. "You do not want to know."

Ned swallowed the retort. His suspicions confirmed. "Please continue."

"Yong Fo has arranged a meeting with one of Javon's agents" Olympia took a piece of paper and a pen from her jacket pocket, wrote an address, and handed it over. "Be at this place at nine this evening. No sooner, no later. We'll pick you up and drive together to the meeting location we have set. You do not want to be there without myself or Garrett."

That sounded ominous. "Both of us?"

"Both of you. Ideally this will be a standard transfer of information. Javon's man will give us the identity, or at the least, a description, of the man the dagger was sold to."

Ned still wasn't thrilled with the idea of meeting with the Black Panthers, but, he had to remember, he had two of the top members of the Chinese Triad as escort. "We'll be there" he said. Scarlett had been quiet during this exchange, and he gave her a questioning look. "Providing you are game?"

"I'm in" the coyote muttered. "I couldn't not be, if this gives us a chance to stop the Prophet from killing anyone else."

"Very well then" Olympia said. "I will see you at 9." She got up.

Garrett leaned over and gave Ned a quick kiss on the muzzle. "I hate to run, but I imagine you have to get back to work" he said. "See you this evening?"

"Wouldn't miss it" Ned muttered wistfully, kissing Garrett back before he and Olympia walked together to the door and left.

Scarlett looked scared and excited at the same time when Ned returned his attention to her. "You're ok, right?"

The coyote said that she was, so Ned decided that perhaps the best thing to do here was avoid over-discussing what they had just planned. When facing an ill-omened future encounter, the amount of discussion which goes on prior to the event will likely have little or no effect on the outcome, so it is sometimes wise to hope for the best and let sleeping dogs lie.