It was late in the evening before he pulled his car up to Hawkins’ apartment building. Ryan had to admit that the suspense was killing him; he had been dying to know if everything had worked out on her end. Deciding that the elevator was too slow, he took the stairs, skipping two at a time on the way up to the 4th floor. Finally, he reached the door, and knocked sharply. He heard footsteps and saw the light shift behind the peep hole as she checked to see who it was, then the deadbolt slid free, and the door opened a crack. Ryan slipped in and Hawkins slammed the door shut behind him, sliding the bolt back into place.
“Come into the office,” Hawkins wasn’t wasting time with pleasantries.
Ryan followed her into the room. Looking around, he could see that Hawkins had been very busy. A large folding table now dominated the center of the room; it was covered in papers that were neatly organized according to some system that currently escaped him. A whiteboard was leaned up against the wall, covered with writing, which was almost entirely illegible. Hawkins took a seat at the table, so Ryan followed suit.
“So, how were my reviews?” she asked.
Ryan knew she was wondering about the office gossip she had triggered after her performance that morning. For her plan to succeed, no one at the agency could have any doubt that she was… unable to perform her duties.
“Oh, it was a rave. And by that, I mean that everyone now thinks you are a raving lunatic. Word is you were irrational, belligerent and short tempered and that you ranted at and berated anyone unlucky enough to cross your path. They also say that you cursed out several of your superiors, quite colourfully, I might add.”
“Yeah,” Hawkins smiled fondly. “That part was fun.”
“Is it true you made an intern run crying from the building?”
“Well, he didn’t run; jogging at most,” Hawkins corrected with a grin.
“I think you might have enjoyed this a bit too much,” Ryan rolled his eyes.
“Well, if you can’t find joy in your work, what’s the point?”
“May I ask how you got your eyes to go all bloodshot? People were quite struck by that, but I don’t remember them being that bad when I last saw you.”
“A little bit of diluted vinegar. Makes your eyes very red and puffy. It’s great if you want to look like you were crying.”
“Nice trick.”
“Yeah. Stings like hell though. I don’t recommend it unless absolutely necessary.”
“They say that during your talk with Collins, you kicked a hole in the wall, and he had to call security. And then you punched one of the security agents that came to escort you out. Is that actually true?”
“Figured I’d go out with a bang. I never liked that asshole anyway. Some of Darien’s people are real tools. I wanted to hit Collins, but security got there first.”
“Well, you certainly made an impression. I think the whole agency is talking about it by now.”
“That was the point, after all.”
“Well, mission accomplished.”
“And I take it things went well on your end, because I was placed on an indefinite leave of absence. Nice work.”
“Thanks,” Ryan hesitated. “Just one thing though, if anyone asks, we’re sleeping together.”
“I’m sorry, what?” that got her attention.
“Look, I had to tell Collins something. He wasn’t buying the ‘I just really care about my partner’ act. He was getting suspicious.”
“Fine,” she grumbled. “As long as it worked.”
“You don’t mind?” Ryan was a bit surprised that she’d accepted that so easily.
“It’s a bit too late to be concerned about my reputation at this point, don’t you think? Hell, I spent the morning convincing everyone I’m a bit cracked,” she grinned wickedly, “So sleeping with you would actually be in character.”
“Ouch,” Ryan feigned a pained expression. “That hurts.”
“So, you think we’re in the clear here?” she asked.
“Yeah, it looks like everyone bought it. Frankly, most people thought you were a little bit nuts to begin with, so it didn’t come as that big of a shock.”
“Ouch,” Hawkins mimicked his hurt look.
“But you know, you are going to have to be careful. Try not to leave the apartment and don’t do any obvious investigating. If Parabellum really is as meticulous as his record suggests, then he is probably still watching you, to be sure you aren’t trying to pull one over on him.”
“That’s a good point, I’ll keep that in mind,” Hawkins chewed her lip. “Did you find out anything new in the lab?”
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“Not really. There was no sign of a tripwire or any other trigger for the bomb. It was, like you said, remotely armed and detonated using a cell phone. The detonator was too badly damaged for them to get any other information from it. The bomb itself was well constructed, but simple. The kind of thing anyone with internet access could build with materials at their local hardware store. There’s nothing really to go on there.”
“Unfortunate, but not surprising,” she replied. “Did they find anything else?”
“You mean like surveillance equipment, that kind of thing? No, they didn’t find anything like that.”
“Damn, I was still sort of hoping I might be wrong on this one,” she sighed.
“Well, there could still be another explanation, one we haven’t thought of…” Ryan began.
“Maybe. But that gets less likely all the time,” Hawkins interrupted. “Especially when you hear what I learned.”
“What did you find?” Ryan perked up.
“I got the toxicology report on Duane Tompkins. It was on my desk when I got in.”
“Did they find anything?”
“Oh yeah. They found evidence of sodium fluoroacetate in his system.”
“Poison? Really?” Ryan was shocked.
“Yup. SFA is a deadly poison. It is a compound usually found in pesticides, it interferes with cellular metabolism. In humans, SFA poisoning causes symptoms in about 30 minutes, it can cause sweating, confusion, agitation and cardiac symptoms, among other things. Sound familiar?”
“That certainly sounds like how Tompkins died. But how could he have been poisoned?”
“Remember when we were watching the footage? He ate dinner about 30 minutes before he collapsed. It’s the only way.”
“But you looked into that, remember? You said no one could have gotten access to the food.”
“No, I said no one outside of the agency could have gotten access to his food.”
“Shit,” Ryan muttered. “This just gets worse and worse, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, it does. Someone who works here could have spiked his food, easily. It fits.”
“Unfortunately.”
“Oh, and you can add another check to the inside job column too.”
“Really, there’s more?” Ryan groaned.
“Remember the night we talked with the security guard at Pauling’s mansion?”
“Yeah…” then it hit him. “Oh God, he told us that the NIA inspected their security system installation.”
“Exactly. That must be how he got the security system codes.”
“Fuck. It looks like this isn’t going to turn out to be a mistake, doesn’t it?”
“I’m afraid not.”
The more obvious it became the one of their own was responsible for all of this, the more urgent the situation felt. Parabellum had lain dormant for a long time, but having resurfaced for another victim, Ryan knew that he was not going to let the moment pass. He needed to kill again, and he wouldn’t be denied just because Hawkins had forfeited her game.
“We need to find this guy, Hawkins. Quickly.”
“We will,” he could hear the determination in her voice. “We just need to find some evidence, something that’s been overlooked.”
“What about DNA? You know, from the older crimes?”
“They tried that 7 years ago, during Parabellum’s last spree. Every piece of evidence that may have contained DNA had gone missing.”
“Seriously? Every piece?” Ryan had heard rumours of missing evidence at the time, but nothing to that extent.
“Well, not every piece,” Hawkins amended, sliding a piece of paper across the table. “Those that weren’t absent entirely had been somehow denatured through exposure to a chemical that broke down the DNA. They couldn’t get a profile from any of them.”
Ryan looked down at the evidence log she’d pushed over. It was true, several pieces were marked as unaccounted for and those that weren’t had a handwritten note that said ‘degraded’.
“Weren’t they suspicious about this?” he asked.
“Perhaps they were, but it fell by the wayside in the confusion at the time. Not to mention that it is not unheard of for evidence to go missing. And the DNA evidence was stored for a long time in somewhat unfavourable conditions, so the degradation was also not a big shock. They just let it slide.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“Well, there is the new evidence from this case, of course. But we don’t need to rush that, they’ll process it on their own and it would be an unnecessary risk to try and push it ourselves. But do you think you can get into the evidence locker without raising too much suspicion?”
“I could probably think of something. I know a couple of ladies down there I can talk to.”
“I bet you do,” Hawkins rolled her eyes.
“Hey, networking is important,” Ryan put on his most winning smile.
“I need you to take a look around. See if there is anything left; anything at all that they missed, that we could test. Even if Parabellum really did remove or destroy the incriminating evidence, maybe he missed something by mistake. I mean, we are talking a lot of evidence, spread over many years of investigation. Ironically, if something was actually lost in the evidence room, maybe he couldn’t find it either.”
“It’s a long shot.”
“Long shots are the best we’ve got right now,” Hawkins sighed. “And I’m not much help, since I can’t even leave the damn apartment.”
“I can help you out with that,” Ryan grinned. “I brought you a present.”
Ryan tossed another stack of papers down onto the table.
“And it isn’t even my birthday,” her sarcasm was palpable.
“On top is a printout of all of the computers that were logged on to the network at the time of the explosion, I asked the tech guys for it this morning. Maybe there is something in there. I also made copies of the original evidence logs for the first 2 Parabellum cases.”
“I already have the evidence logs in the case files.”
“Ah, but those are the logs stored in the computer. These are copies of the original, handwritten logs. They are harder to tamper with. I thought it could be worth a look.”
“That’s a good thought, actually,” Hawkins seemed impressed.
“Hey, I’m not just a pretty face,” Ryan preened.
“Thanks for these,” Hawkins picked up the papers. “I’ll look at them first. Other than that, I will just have to keep going through these old case files to try to find some other evidence we can revisit. I’ll call you if I get any ideas, Ok?”
“Sounds good,” he replied. “But I am absolutely dead on my feet. I’ve got to get some sleep if I am going to keep this up tomorrow.”
“Alright, fair enough” she rose and showed him to the door. “But before you go…”
Hawkins untucked his shirt and mussed his hair with her hands. Then she leaned in bit him on the neck, just enough to leave an indent, making sure to leave lipstick on his collar at the same time.
“Ow, shit! Did you just bite me?” he asked incredulously, rubbing his neck gently.
“Oh, don’t be a baby. It’s just a little bite mark. If I am being watched, I don’t want people wondering what you’re really doing in here, do I?”
“Well, if you want it to be realistic…” Ryan began.
“Don’t even finish that thought,” Hawkins warned. “I may have to follow through with your lie, but I don’t have to like it. So don’t push your luck.”
“I had to ask,” he shrugged.
“Sadly, I do believe that you did,” Hawkins rolled her eyes.
That done, she ushered him out the door and he heard the bolt slide shut behind him.