#youlikeit - BLACKBIRD book 1

10. profiler needed

They turned on their radios and Gillian called Fred as she drove down quiet streets.

"Everything fine here," he said. "Nobody even approached the perimeter. Save a TV crew that's still here, just to get the breaking news if we screw up and the school blows up."

"Good. Take a walk around and check the uniforms are still sharp."

"You still think they're gonna try anything tonight. I mean, they're kids. It's sort of late to be out on the street."

"They're teens, Fred," replied Aldana. "They're waiting for their parents to go to bed to sneak out."

"Jeez, Al, and I thought you were a good girl."

Gillian allowed herself a scoff. "Welcome to the real world, Fred. We'll meet you there after checking these kids' home addresses."

"Got it, see ya."

Gillian called Ron and Hank, and then the dispatch, to try to get a cruiser to watch the fifth address. They kindly told her they would do their best, but they didn't think they would be able to do it before an hour or two. So she called Tanya.

"T, try to figure out which one of them is the shiest, the one that wouldn't be up for a night adventure."

Tanya had been designated by the other two to do the dishes, and shouldered her phone before the sink, both hands in the water. "What!?"

Gillian tried to find the right words. "Check their online pictures. See who's the one that's always behind the others, the one physically smaller, or weaker. He or she might be the one with better grades. Maybe. I don't know, T. But we're four to check five addresses, so we have to narrow this down. I don't think all five of them are sneaking out tonight."

Surely Brockner would've said it in ten words tops, so Tanya would understand it right away. But she wasn't even sure how to... how to... well, yeah, profile the dynamics of a pack. There would be a leader, a wingman, foot soldiers, a brain. And that was the one she was sure would stay behind that night. But maybe the brain was the leader, or the wingman. Crap, she didn't have a clue!

"Okay, I'll do my best."

"I know. Thanks, T."

She disconnected and glanced at the dash clock, tempted to call Brock's hotel and take a chance to see if he was still awake. Eleven-ten. No way he was still up. But he had showed up at the scene past nine the night before, and stayed with her at the bar after ten.

Then she pictured him asking her how she knew where to find him. She could almost hear his cold, deep voice making the question. Oh, well, I asked my hacker son to find out where you were staying because I mean to— Yeah, sure. That alone deleted him from the picture.

Dammit. Why didn't they have profilers in the force? She should talk with her father about that. Well, the day he felt kind enough to forgive her for the terrible sin of fraternizing with a fed outside her bed.

A few minutes later Ron and Hank were also on their way, each to one of the boys' addresses. Fred had checked on the four cruisers, one on each street around the school, and found all the uniforms wide awake.

Tanya threatened Kurt and Connor with a slow painful crash of their systems if they didn't drop their joysticks and finish cleaning up, then she sat at her computer. Soon she called Gillian back.

"Hey, Reg, one of them has asthma, does that cut it?"

"Sure, he's in no shape to sprint if they're spotted. Who is it?"

"Ben Tindermann."

"Got it. Love you, T, you're a frigging genius."

"I know."

Gillian called her team on the radio. "Hey, lads, who's got the Tindermann boy?"

"Me," Hank replied. "I'm around the corner from his house."

"Well, drop it and go to— Who's the one left?"

"Betsy Tindermann. Ben's cousin and the only girl in the gang," replied Aldana right away.

"Okay, she's yours now, Hank."

"Reg, that's almost two miles away from here."

"Then you better hurry, don't you think, Doctor Schwarz?"

The team, Hank included, knew that voice. It meant that if Hank insisted, he would spend the next month cleaning toilets, or worse.

"I'm in position," reported Ron. He pulled over ten yards away from the house he had to watch, across the street, and grabbed his binoculars to study it. "Lights on only at the upper floor."

"Good, maybe we get lucky and our happy bombers don't take long," said Gillian, turning around the corner of the address she'd taken. "I'm in position too. What about you, Al?"

"I'm five streets away."

"Fred? How's everything over there?"

Fred faked a snore, making them chuckle. "Please, if you see them come, let them get here."

"I'm in position," reported Aldana.

"Well, Doctor Schwarz, you better floor it or breakfast is on you," said Gillian.

"Eat me," grunted Hank.

Ron decided to step in to cool down the mood. "Hey, guys, wanna hear something funny?" he said, binoculars to his eyes. "You know Penny is saying her first words, right? Well, all this week Laura was trying to get her to say Dad or Daddy. You know, when I leave in the morning, they wave at me and all that. So how did my daughter greet me tonight when I got home? 'Bye Daddy!'"

They laughed softly as he smiled, alone in his car, keeping an eye on the house.

"Well, at least she got it right about ten minutes later," Fred said.

Gillian saw all the lights go off in the house she was watching.

"I'm in position," Hank grunted then. "And this place is lit up like a damn Christmas tree. There's light in every frigging window."

"And what if they go out back?" asked Aldana out of the blue.

"Oh yeah! Then they get here and I get some!" said Fred.

"Lights off here," Ron reported.

"Here too," added Gillian.