Lib Novel Page 80
Griffin’s expression was very sour. “I always knew you were a boil in my ass, Lynch, but you’ve never accused me of not doing my job.”
“You’ve never given me reason to. And I have to say, I’m a wee bit repulsed by the disturbing imagery.”
“Good. Then it had its intended effect.”
Lynch lowered his voice. “Come on, Griffin. On your worst day, you’ve never been lazy. You never let things just slip through the cracks, especially if it’s a case as big and important as this one. It made the papers in London, Tokyo, and Cairo. Don’t tell me you weren’t getting heat to do everything in your power to catch this maniac.”
Griffin looked down. “You know I was.”
“So what in the hell was going on?”
Griffin clenched his jaw. Lynch could see he wanted to talk. And he would talk. Almost there…
“This isn’t just some cold case, Griffin. Two young women are missing, and it appears that the Bayside Strangler is back and killing again. We need to do everything we can to stop this monster. What am I missing?”
“Lynch… This is a bureaucracy. It’s a big reason you left. Things can’t always happen the way we want them to.”
“Kendra and I don’t work in that bureaucracy. I get to make my own rules now. But we need whatever information you can give us. Come on, Griffin. We’re risking our lives out there.”
Griffin was quiet for a long moment. He glanced around the empty garage deck before speaking. “We have to do this my way. And you can’t tell anyone where you got this from.”
“Fair enough.”
Griffin chose his words carefully. “The decision to take over the Bayside Strangler case was… not one that everyone in this office supported. Obviously, it was a high-profile investigation, and certain ambitious agents were chomping at the bit to be a part of it. But SDPD had already stepped up in a major way, and their task force was covering all the bases. There was no special reason for us to step in and take over.”
“So why did you?”
“It came from above. All the way from Washington. They didn’t even want to entertain the idea of a joint investigation with SDPD. They wanted us to completely take it over.”
“And so you did. But even if you thought it wasn’t necessary, why not do everything you could?”
Griffin looked around and spoke even more quietly. “Again, we weren’t masters of our own destinies.”
Lynch cocked an eyebrow. “Washington again?”
Griffin nodded. “I’m sure, in your adventures for the DOJ, you’ve encountered stories about Joseph Highcastle, the former attorney general.”
Lynch nodded. “I even met him a couple of times. From what I understand, he was at least partially responsible for their bringing me in for my first freelance jobs.”
“Well, just days after we took over the investigation, that AG recommended that we not waste manpower on the case. He insisted that the Bayside Strangler would no longer be an issue.”
“How did he know?”
“He wouldn’t get more specific. But the murders stopped, so he was clearly right. With no new murders being committed, the Bayside Strangler dropped off the headlines and the pressure on us stopped. We didn’t know what happened. There was some speculation the killer was a foreign national who was caught and deported by the CIA.”
“Deported… or worse,” Lynch said.
“I’m guessing you may have been part of such operations.”
“Which I can neither confirm nor deny. But we both know that those classified operations happen all the time.”
“Of course.”
“It’s one way of getting around the problem of diplomatic immunity. Either we let our international partners take care of their own black sheep, or we take care of it ourselves without creating an international incident.” Lynch thought about this. “Whatever was going on, the higher-ups didn’t want the truth to come out.”
Griffin nodded. “But we still have a lot of law-enforcement officers and victims’ family members who want answers.”
“Tell me this,” Lynch said. “Have you ever heard of something called the Dayton Group?”