Flashback (Kendra Michaels #11)

“That’s the problem. He might censor himself if someone is there without a top-level security clearance.”

“Someone like me, you mean.”

“I, on the other hand, have a higher security clearance than he’ll ever have.”

Kendra drove in silence for a moment. Lynch was starting to make sense. Dammit. “But he knows that anything he tells you will go right to me anyway.”

“Of course he does. And I’m guessing that would make him happy. But it would be on me, not him. I’m just saying I might be able to get more information this way. Which is what we want, right?”

Kendra sighed. “I don’t like it.”

“I didn’t think you would. But even you have to see the wisdom of this approach.”

Kendra cursed. “I want to hear every word he says. Don’t leave anything out.”

“You have my solemn promise.” Lynch checked his watch. “Griffin will be leaving the office right around the time we get there. Drop me off in front. Stay close. I’ll call you when I’m finished.”

“Skittish, Griffin?”

Special Agent in Charge Michael Griffin stopped in the parking garage and clutched his heart in a pretend-coronary. “Jeez, Lynch. Why couldn’t you make an appointment and visit me in my office like a sane person?”

“Time constraints. I knew you’d be out here walking to your car at about seven minutes after five. I figured I’d catch you out here, unless you had a rare late-afternoon meeting, or your wife was out of town. Then you might stay later.”

“Seven minutes after five?” Griffin said in disbelief. “I can’t be that predictable.”

“You are, and you have been for years. I used to work for you, remember?”

“I’ve tried very hard to forget.”

“Aw, come on. We had fun.”

“You had fun,” Griffin said. “Especially when it was at my expense.”

Lynch smiled. “That may have been true, I admit. But I was out of your hair soon enough.”

“Surely you didn’t come here just to relive old times, Lynch.”

“Actually, I did. But your old times, not ours. I just watched Todd Williams die.”

“Metcalf told me. I was sorry to hear that.”

“One of the last things he said is that he wanted me to talk to you.”

Griffin looked totally mystified. “Why?”

“Probably about what happened fifteen years ago, in your first go-round with the Bayside Strangler investigation.”

Griffin put down his satchel and crossed his arms in front of him. “I told you, it was over for us here at the Bureau before we could even really get started.”

“Yes, you did tell me that. But what you didn’t tell us is… why was it over? The murders stopped, but the killer was still out there. As far as I can tell, the Bureau took the case away from SDPD, then threw in the towel quickly afterward.”

“It didn’t happen quite that way.”

“By all means, enlighten me.”

Griffin was clearly annoyed by Lynch’s accusatory manner, but he still replied in a calm, reasonable tone. “The strangler never left much usable physical evidence behind, as you and Kendra have no doubt seen in the reports. We just didn’t have much to work with. We had no prints, no DNA, and one fairly vague witness description of a vehicle in the vicinity of where the last body was dumped.”

“I worked takeover cases with you, Griffin. The first thing you always did was take a fresh look at the evidence, re-interview witnesses, and have your lab run their own tests. That didn’t happen here. None of it.”