Read Online Fine Blue Steele (Daggers & Steele Book 4) by Alex P. Berg - Free Book Online Page B

minutes ago. It was early this morning, when Quinto and Steele brought the joys of this profession straight to my door.”
    “I know,” said the Captain. “That was a joke.”
    Really? The Captain’s lips didn’t show even the slightest hint of an upward curl. He could’ve fooled me—but maybe therein lay the joke.
    “Do you have an update for us, sir?” asked Steele.
    “Actually, I was hoping you’d have one for me,” he said. “Detective Quinto came back about half an hour ago and said you encountered some unexpected resistance in the form of one of our government’s other law enforcement agencies.”
    I snorted. “You could say that.”
    The Captain lifted an eyebrow in my direction. Apparently he’d finally learned that trick from either Steele or me, though it lessened his face’s illusion of immobility.
    “The suspects in the case—or persons of interest, rather,” said Steele, “are all army servicemen and women. A team came and returned them to the New Welwic Main base. Now they’re in the care of the military police and under investigation by an Agent Elmorodil Blue, a member of the Army Criminal Investigative Command.”
    While Steele explained the situation to the Captain, I dug my thermos—now empty—out of my pocket and placed it on my desk. The pocket flopped open, like the mouth of a dead fish. Hopefully I hadn’t stretched it beyond the limits of elasticity. I still planned on getting another twenty good years out of my jacket.
    “Yeah,” I said, still eyeing the deformation in my coat. “And this Agent Blue is a real piece of work. It’s going to be a blast prying information out of him.”
    Steele blinked and gave me a dissenting glance.
    The Captain noticed. “Has he been like this all day?”
    “How did you guess?” said Steele.
    The bulldog groaned and rolled his eyes in the surliest way possible. “Listen up, Daggers, as I’m only going to say this once. I’ve no doubt you harbor a high level of distaste for this Blue individual, because you don’t like much of anyone. Guess what? I don’t care. Your job is to follow the rules, work with other government agencies where necessary, and to solve the crimes that are thrust in front of your crooked nose.”
    “Crooked?”
    “Shut up,” he said. “I’m not done. The point is, I expect you to get to the bottom of this, despite whatever hurdles are in your way, and I expect you to do it with a smile on your face. Detective Steele? Inform me if he becomes a problem—by which I mean a greater one than he normally is. Understood?”
    The Captain waggled his finger between the two of us. Steele nodded. I grudgingly did the same.
    “Good. Now, seeing as you’ve already eaten—” The bulldog indicated a spot of sauce on my jacket that had somehow eluded my attention. “—I’d suggest you get to work. From everything Quinto told me, this shouldn’t be that hard of a case to unravel.”
    The Captain turned and headed back toward his office, but he paused halfway there. “Oh, and one more thing. I was informed late last night that Detective Rodgers suffered a death in his family.”
    “What?” said Steele. “Who?”
    “Not his wife or kids,” said the Captain. “Extended family. He’ll be out of town for a few days as he deals with the aftermath. But it means the two of you and Quinto will have to shoulder the load until he returns. I figured you should know. If nothing else, perhaps that knowledge will encourage you to strive for increased efficiency.”
    Based on the bulldog’s smirk, I knew he directed that last bit toward me, but it was an unneeded jab. I was a master of efficiency—mostly because I delegated as much of the grunt work to others as I could. But I don’t think that’s what he meant…
     

12
    Shay and I headed downstairs to the dungeon, which, despite persistent rumors to the contrary, wasn’t a real dungeon, populated with the emaciated remains of poor saps who’d never made bail and the