She pulled out the file that Brewer had had prepared on him, picked up a pen and tapped it reflectively against her teeth. This investigation was going to have to be approached a little differently from most, since she couldn’t talk to people who knew Martinez, at least not openly; she didn’t want to do anything else that would tip him off that someone was interested in his actions. That would make her job a bit more difficult, but not impossible. She listed everything she knew about him so far. Then she took another sheet of paper and marked off three columns. Under one she listed every bit of information she had that could be construed to look suspicious. Under the middle one she listed personal things she’d learned about his life. The final column was for the things that pointed to his innocence. When she was finished she put the information she had just written in the proper columns. There wasn’t much written on the sheet when she concluded.
But there was nothing at all written in the third column.
Monday morning when Madeline reached Cruz’s desk he was already working. At least, she assumed that was what he was doing. He was slouched in his chair in front of his desk, shoulders propped against the backrest. She shook her head, wondering by what marvel of nature he managed not to slide onto the floor. She was tempted to give the chair a nudge, to see if he’d do just that.
He raised his head from his cup of coffee when he saw her, and pointed to another steaming cup on his desk.
“Thanks,” she said gratefully, reaching for it and pulling up another chair. Sipping from it cautiously, she asked, “Did you talk to Ritter yet this morning?”
He grimaced. “Don’t remind me.”
Instant understanding dawned on her face. “That bad, huh?”
“Not only did he strike out with Jacobs, he was not too pleased with me for talking him into it in the first place. Jacobs must have given him a real earful for even suggesting that he offer Stover a plea bargain.”
So Brewer had been right about that, Madeline thought with a sigh. “Well, we half expected this.”
“We did,” he agreed. “And who knows? If we could show proof that all these weapons came from the same supplier, and were assured that Stover could lead us to him, maybe Jacobs would reconsider. In the meantime, Stover isn’t going anywhere for a while. I’ve heard he’s having trouble coming up with bail.”
“Well, that’s the only bit of good news to come out of this so far. We’ll just have to get to work and come up with the proof it will take to convince him. Meanwhile, why don’t we use our laptops to access the listings of any people who bought AK-47s legitimately.”
“We already know that Stover didn’t buy that gun legally-he doesn’t have any papers for it,” Cruz replied.
“It’s possible that the gun could have been stolen from someone who did buy it legally.”
“I still think we’re going to find that one supplier is responsible for arming all these punks. Are you claiming the gangs have all coincidentally stolen the same kind of gun from different people in about the same time period?”
“No,” she admitted. “And I agree with your hunch. But let’s face it-we’ve only recovered one of the actual guns themselves. We need to cover all the bases.”
He gave a mental sigh, not looking forward to the tedious task of poring over lists of gun serial numbers, yet knowing the job had to be done. An idea struck him then, and he looked at her speculatively. Perhaps there would be an advantage to working with a partner on this. If he could convince her to take care of this aspect, he could follow a lead of his own.
“More coffee, Madeline?” he asked solicitously.
“No, thanks, I’m fine.”
“I could warm yours up for you.” The polite denial died on her lips when she looked up and correctly interpreted the look on his face.
“Oh, no, you don’t, Martinez,” she said flatly.
His eyebrows climbed. “What?”
“You’re not going to con me into doing the records check by myself. You’ll be right by my side the whole time.”
“Now, Madeline.” His tone was reasonable. “Why should both of us suffer through a boring job like that? If you took care of it, then I could be pursuing other possibilities. We could accomplish two things at once. I’d offer to do it myself,” he added, “but sitting inside here staring at a computer screen all day gets me hyper.”
That was a laugh. She flicked a studied glance over his casual pose. “Yeah, you strike me as the restless type, all right. What’s this hot lead you want to follow, anyway?”
“I know some people who aren’t above making money in, shall we say, unconventional ways. Some of them have been known to deal in guns, although nothing on this scale. But if pressed, one might be persuaded to give us a tip about what he’s heard on the streets.”
Madeline nodded. “Sounds like a good place to start, and I think you’re right. We should follow both leads.”
“All right!” A delighted grin broke over his face. She let him get halfway out of his chair before she added, “We can do the firearms checks in the mornings, and hit the streets in the afternoons.”
He poised in midair for a split second before dropping back into his seat.
“Can’t change your mind, huh?” His tone held resignation.
“No way.” Not only was she not about to let him shove the most tedious work off on her, she had another motive for insisting they stay together. In order to keep track of him, she had to stick close to him. Otherwise she would have no way of knowing if he actually had done what he reported, saw the people he claimed. No, she wouldn’t be able to let Cruz Martinez out of her sight during their working hours. Not if she was going to complete her own investigation on him. “We’re partners. We’ll investigate as partners.”
He sighed, already dreading the task ahead. “Well, you can’t blame a guy for trying.”
They spent the rest of the morning bringing up files on their computers, printing them off and examining the results. Gun merchants were required to take down a great deal of information about their customers, so that record checks could be done. Soon they had a list of names of people in the state who had purchased an AK-47 legitimately.
After a couple hours Madeline said, “Now why don’t we compare the serial number of Stover’s gun to the numbers on this page and-”
“Uh-uh,” Cruz said. “Look at the clock. It’s almost lunchtime. There’s no use starting on that. Time to quit, go to lunch and then onto the streets.”
Madeline felt a moment’s frustration. She hated leaving a job before seeing it through to the end. If she’d been working alone she would have chosen to complete this task before tackling a different lead. But she wasn’t working alone. Cruz had already risen, and she slowly got to her feet, too. “All right,” she said reluctantly. “But since we’re taking lunch on my time, I’m picking where we eat.”
His look was pained. “You drive a hard bargain, Casey.”
Following him back to his desk, she was retrieving her purse when she heard a voice speak behind her.
“Hey, buddy, surprised to see you here. Haven’t seen you around in almost a week.”
She turned curiously to see who was addressing Cruz.
“Yeah, we’ve been working on that case I told you about. I wouldn’t be here this morning, either, but Madeline had a hunch, and we compromised.” His tone was pained.