“Stupid fucking sister,” I grumbled as I slammed the files onto the bed in the basement.
I walked over to the dresser and plopped my suitcase on top of it.
“Stupid fucking men,” I growled.
“Need anything?”
The foreign voice hit my ears and I slowly turned around to find another leather-bound muscly idiot standing at my basement door. I hadn’t even been down here five minutes by myself and already they were circling like vultures.
“No,” I said flatly.
The man nodded toward the files. “Need help sorting through anything?”
I blinked. “Let’s get one thing very, very clear: these are official police files and memos, and you’re not police. So, if you want my help, leave me the fuck alone so I can go through them in peace.”
The man stared at me before he nodded. “Feel free to make yourself at home.”
“Does the basement have a key?”
He furrowed his brow. “What?”
I sighed. “The door. It’s got a lock, so where’s the key? I want the keys to the basement so I know that none of you guys are sneaking down here when I’m not down here and looking at these files.”
He shrugged. “That’s a question for Finn.”
“Then, go ask him and retrieve any keys for me that go to this basement so I can keep them on my person.”
“I’m not your errand boy, Detective.”
I hissed at him. “And I’m not your link into the police department you’re wanting to investigate in your own right. You brought me here to work, not break rules. So, give me space to do my damn job.”
The man closed my door and left me without another word spoken and it only frustrated me more. If these assholes thought they could catch me off-guard, they had another thing coming. And why the hell were they tailing me in the first place? I was the cop in this situation! I shouldn’t be anywhere near potential suspects, and since Chief Lundson had referred to them by their crew name, that told me everything I needed to know about their activities in the area.
But, my sister and possibly my niece were involved in this shit. So, I had no choice but to help if I wanted to protect them in the process.
And if keeping them safe meant bending a few of the rules to suit my pleasure, then so be it.
After pulling myself together I got out my laptop and logged onto the internet. I used the access codes the woman at the front desk had been authorized to give me which gave me entrance into the police department database. It housed everything I needed, including digital copies of the physical copies I had sitting behind me on the desk.
Which meant I could take those things back and be done with it.
Nevertheless, I wanted to check the information in the physical files against the digital ones just to make sure everything was the same, because sometimes those dirty rotten little excuses for cops sometimes changed some things around. Physical files were quickly going out of style due to databases like this, which meant that cops could sometimes fudge the digital records since it took too much time to compare digital to physical.
But, I’d take the time just to make sure.
As I read through the files and fact-checked them against what was on my screen, I started seeing some serious flags being thrown up. For instance, it was very easy to come to the conclusion that while the Black Flags and the Dirty Misfits were both biker gangs, the Black Flags were certainly rougher around the edges. But, that also meant that the Dirty Misfits might simply be better at cleaning up their messes before the police got involved.
I can’t stay here. I have to get into a hotel.
Dinner flew by without an ounce of food eaten as I lost myself within the pages of the files. The more I fact-checked, the more I saw these guys for what they really were. These Dirty little Misfits had a few open cases, and one of them were murder charges because some Black Flags guys turned up dead in the middle of the street, essentially.
But, yet again, the local department didn’t have enough proof to arrest any of them.
“Jesus,” I said breathlessly.
I wondered if Summer knew about those charges.
The more I dug, though, the more curious I became, and soon my train of thought turned from fact-checking files to digging shit up on Finn. He was a strange nut, that was for certain, and come to find out that the police department had a massive file on him. Easily thirty-plus pages of information dating all the way back to his teenage years.
I saw that he did a stint in juvie for stealing. I saw that he did yet another stint in juvie a second time around for something in his file that had been redacted. It was very unusual for a digital file to be redacted like that, and as I kept flipping through his file on my laptop I noticed that most of his shit past page ten was fully redacted.
Before all charges against him had been dropped.
What did you get yourself into, little Finn?
I saw that his father helped pay for his record to be expunged and the process had almost been escalated to the front. And the second I saw the check his father had written, I laughed out loud. Now, it all made sense. The house on the beach that was practically a mansion. This weird disdain he had for people who looked down on him.
Finn was nothing more than some rich little kid that rebelled, and when he got himself into trouble Daddy swept in to clean up the mess.
“Typical,” I murmured.
Then, I came across something very, very curious.
“What the fuck?” I whispered.
I came across a file with Finn’s name on it that wasn’t attached to his original file at all. In fact, it was underneath the heading of cold cases within the police database. My eyes widened as I read the few pages inserted into the file. Apparently, at eighteen years old, some girl named Melody died and all of the clues somehow led to him being her killer.
There was an arrest date in the file, but the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence on the prosecution’s side. Eventually, the case was dropped less than a year later, but I didn’t see a check or anything that his father had written to pay off the judge.
“Guess Daddy’s money can’t cover up murder,” I mumbled.
It angered me, though. As I slammed my laptop closed, I wasted no time in packing everything back up. I was living under a roof with literal criminals. Literal murderers! And if Summer wanted to choose this life for herself, that was fine. She could do that. But, I had every right to protect not only myself, but my niece.
If my sister didn’t want to come to her senses, I’d make sure Cheyenne didn’t pay for her mother’s mistakes.
I’m getting the fuck out of here.
I jammed my laptop back into my suitcase and moved everything around so I could fit the files in there as well. I still had about six of them to factcheck, but once I did they were going right back to the police precinct. The less I carried on me, the better.
Then, I sat on the edge of my bed and waited.
I waited until night hung heavily in the sky. I waited until there wasn’t a sound echoing above my head for at least an hour. Summer came down to say goodnight and I managed enough strength to hug her without vomiting, and part of me wondered if I could convince her to come with me. Convince her to leave and come back to her senses.
But, she was enamored with Tanner again.
I have to show her just how dangerous these guys are.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to do us while living under this roof, so when silence fell around the house I silently eased myself up the steps. The basement door opened up into the kitchen and I paused, waiting for someone to peek their head around the corner and address me. I held my breath as I slowly walked through the house. I got all the way to the front door before I heard creaking above my head.
But, once the creaking settled down, I slipped the door open enough for me to suck my stomach in and slide out.
Then, I made a break for my car and got the fuck out of there.
Hotel room, here I come.
