All I Want || B.A.

𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐞

"Fire chief says it's arson," Cassie informs Jolene, Jenny, and Beau over her shoulder as they walk towards a burnt car.

"This is the same blue-and-white truck you two saw the other day?" Jolene questions Jenny and Cassie.

"Looks like it." Cassie inspects the inside of the car.

"Somebody want to bring me up to speed?" Beau asks the three women.

"These two saw a creepy guy on the side of the road. He had a truck like this." Jolene puts it short.

"What made him creepy?" Beau looks between Cassie and Jenny.

"Just a feeling he gave me," Cassie explains.

"He looked creepy," Jenny tells why she believed the guy was creepy.

"You think he's somehow connected to your dead backpacker?" Beau questions as Jolene circles the vehicle, examining all of it.

"I don't know," Cassie admits. "It just felt like there was something in the back of the truck that he didn't want me to see."

"Well, whatever it was, the evidence is gone now." Jolene stands on the other side of the truck from the other three. "And the VIN's been destroyed."

"Well, there should be on the engine block." Cassie goes to check the engine right as Beau's phone rings.

"This is Arlen. Talk to me." Beau picks up as Jenny joins Cassie at the engine.

"Give me a hand," Cassie tells Jolene and Jenny.

"Yeah." The twins speak in unison and all three lift the hood.

They hold the hood to keep it up since the hood prop is burnt. Cassie rubs her thumb on the engine where ashes cover the block.

"There it is." Cassie pulls out her phone and snaps a photo of it. "Okay, got it." The three women close the hood of the truck.

"Copy that." Beau ends his call. "Jo, we gotta roll." He tells Jolene. "There's been a homicide out near Fort Harrison."

"You two gonna be good?" Jolene faces Cassie and Jenny. If they're not, she's staying and helping.

"Yeah, we're just gonna have Denise run the VIN," Cassie assures Jolene.

"Okay, but keep us posted," Jolene tells the two.

"Yeah." Cassie and Jenny speak at the same time.

"Be careful," Beau tells the two before he and Jolene walk off.

𒊹︎

"Victim is Diego Mendoza, forty-four. Bludgeoned to death with a tire iron." Poppernak informs Jolene and Beau as they join the crime scene. "Wife heard someone trying to break into the house. He went down to check it out and confronted the guy, and, well, this is how she found him."

"Did the wife get a look at the guy?" Jolene looks at Poppernak.

"Negative." Poppernak faces her too. "Sounds like it all happened pretty fast."

"What are we thinking, home invasion gone wrong?" Beau speaks up.

"It's about a car," Poppernak tells him. "Victim owned a black 1979 Firebird Trans Am."

Beau whistles at the car, "That's an iconic ride. Car like that's worth money."

"Targeted theft, then," Jolene says.

"It's gotta be." Beau agrees with her.

"Get ahold of local law enforcement in case our thief can't help himself and decides to take it out for another spin." Jolene orders Poppernak.