The Eustice Murders (Complete)

*Chapter 18*

Sam marched into the office and slumped back into his chair with a thud, clearly angered by this morning's events. Hank, however, followed him in slowly and sat down much more methodically and deliberately, seemingly deep in thought. Sam closed his eyes and shook his head after glancing over the whiteboard. "Well I suppose we can wipe that fucking thing clean now then," he boomed out. The language didn't bother Hank at all but he knew Sam hardly ever cursed, so he must have been really pissed.

"Hm, I wouldn't be so sure. No point in jumping into anything just yet," Hank replied.

"How so?" Sam asked while frowning.

"Well," Hank began, "it depends on how long they have been watching him. Remember when we started this case, we looked at several different possibilities regarding the killer m.o.? One of the scenarios we discussed was that two killers were operating with alternate victims making sure that at least one of them had an alibi each time. Well, that could still fit. If they've only been watching him for a few weeks or so, they may well have missed the first of the recent ones, so if the last one was committed by whoever he is working with then....," Hank trailed off, letting his partner pick up the rest.

"Drummond could still be in line for the next attack," Sam finished off the sentence realizing what Hank was getting at, although his expression suggested he wasn't entirely convinced. "It's possible, but I don't like it," Sam told him. "These kinds of stings usually go on for months and agent Masters did say they have been watching him for some time."

"Yeah, true. Although, maybe," Hank started, offering another theory, "what if they've broken the sequence and his partner, his accomplice, has struck twice?" Hank added, clearly not ready to let go just yet.

"Again possible, but I can't see it," Sam told him. "Plus, if he is involved with this trafficking ring then I doubt he'd have time to be restarting all this again."

"Yeah, I've been thinking about that," Hank answered. "There is one other possibility," he added, his eyes slightly squinted as though his mind was still processing what he was about to say. "What if Drummond was the original killer all those years ago? Maybe even working with an accomplice back then? Now the accomplice has stepped up and carried on where they left off, either alone or maybe even with a new accomplice of their own?" Sam took a sharp breath and raised his index finger as if to raise an objection but then stopped and paused for a moment, the running of his thoughts raging through his eyes.

"Now that I like," he finally added, sitting back into the chair. "Could also explain the gap in the case as well as far as the years go. As if the accomplice had been away, maybe? Now released or returned from wherever and wanting to restart again? Maybe hooked up with Drummond but found he had moved on to bigger things so stepped up by themselves? Kind of makes sense." Hank nodded as his partner began to get back on the same wavelength. "So, we're not going to investigate him directly but we're not going to dismiss him as a suspect either?" Sam queried, thinking aloud.

"Or, if we do investigate him, we just need to be a little more creative. Make sure no one is aware that we are doing so," Hank suggested, raising both eyebrows and nodding towards his partner. This clearly grabbed Sam's attention and he began to calm down once more.

"Oh, I like your thinking," Sam told him with a little glint in his eye. "We might not be able to approach him physically but nothing states we can't do a little digital search huh?" he continued while firing his laptop into action.

"Hey guys," captain Beesley called as he carefully opened the office door and gingerly peered around it. "Sorry about this morning, there wasn't much I could do," he said but Hank waved him off.

"Meh, shit happens," Sam told him.

"Yeah, not what we wanted to hear it, of course, but hey could be a bit of a blessing really," Hank added. The captain stopped in his tracks, a look of sheer astonishment on his face.

"Sorry?" he queried, not sure what to make of this response.

"Well," Hank began to explain, "there's no point in us wasting time and resources chasing after a suspect if he's not involved now is there? Could save us a lot of time and effort in the long run." The captain, baffled and amazed by this, looked across the room towards Sam who shrugged his shoulders as if to suggest he was in total agreement.

"Wow," captain Beesley said, could scarcely believe what he was seeing and hearing. "I seriously admire your positive attitude guys. No wonder people speak so highly of you two! Brookes and Moorland are out there arguing and bickering about all sorts of nonsense." This caused them to have a little chuckle to themselves.

"Ah can't let these things get to you. Onwards and upwards, right?" Sam suggested while Hank struggled not to laugh at that. He spun around in his chair and scratched his forehead in an attempt to hide his expression from the captain while sending a knowing look and a wry smile in Sam's direction.

"Yeah don't worry sir, we will find whoever is doing this. You can count on it," Hank told him as he turned back to face the captain once more.

"I'm delighted to hear it. Well, good luck and keep up the good work." The captain backed away out of the office shaking his head still amazed at the motivation and determination these guys were showing.

"So who's he been speaking to about us then?" Sam pondered.

"I guess it can only really be the captain back home in Resmar. Or maybe even our previous boss before we moved. Possibly both even? Who knows? Either way, I like the sound of it," Hank replied.

"Oh, hell yeah," Sam beamed back. If either of them needed a morale boost, this was it. It had lifted both of their spirits and reinvigorated them ready to begin searching for the killer once more. "Ok, so what's next?" Sam asked.

"We know now it's probably just a front, but we still haven't really looked into Drummond's own company ATD yet, so at least one of us should give that a crack. And although it doesn't look like there is any link between them, we should probably look into the victims also, just in case. It seems unlikely but there could be a pattern," Hank answered. The guys flipped a coin to see which of them got which task and then got to it.