#youlikeit - BLACKBIRD book 1

3. on the road

The State Police Detectives stationed in Auburn had taken the case from the local PD when the girl turned out to be from Boston. The body had been found early in the morning, in a container outside a coffee shop, and Clyde, the old detective assigned to the case, told Brock and Russell that he'd never seen such a brutal display of violence in all his years as a detective.

They were by the building doors when Russell got a call. He disconnected and joined Brock, who waited for a chance to say goodbye to the man.

"I'm sorry, Detective, but we have to go," Russell said. "The family of the victim has been already notified, and they will be here about noon."

They shook Detective Clyde's hand once more and left.

"Cooper wants us back in Boston," said Russell as they got in their SUV. "And Reg seems to have something: the girl in the hospital has a cigarette burn on her forehead, just like this one. Could be a signature, right?"

Brock nodded, taking the I-90 onramp. During their first days working together, Russell had tried to refer to his friend as Gillian, but he had already dropped it, tired of correcting himself every time he called her Reg.

By then, Brock knew that she was one of his very few close friends—he even suspected she was the closest one—and that their friendship went back to their academy days. Russell shared those informal ways he'd seen in Gillian, but so many years in the Bureau had polished any rogue or smartass edge he might have had. And the one thing that had caught Brock's attention right away was that he could tell that Russell and Gillian had never been together as anything more than friends. He talked about her with a deep, true affection, and Brock knew Gillian used to call him when they were more than four or five days out of town. He'd even overheard some of their conversations, if her calls caught them on the road. They treated each other like siblings, not a hint of sexual tension between them whatsoever, despite their spicy jokes.

Brock was glad to work with Russell, who was seasoned, smart and driven. He had to admit Russell was actually the best associate he'd had in years—well, not that he'd had many over the last six, anyway. One of the best things about Russell was that he didn't care about Brock's acquired taste for silence. If he had something to say, he just said it. Else, he minded his own business.

Now, when Russell mentioned Gillian, Brock scolded himself once again. He'd never gotten a chance to thank her for her present three months earlier. Whenever they weren't on a case, he'd been busy moving into his new apartment, or catching a plane to DC to see Andrea. He hadn't seen Gillian at the field office either, and didn't have any personal contact information to at least call her. Yes, he could've asked Russell for her number, but somehow it didn't feel quite correct. They both were law enforcement officers working in the same city, their workplaces hardly four streets away. According to Brock's math, they were bound to come across each other. Yet they hadn't.

If he was to be completely honest, he also ought to thank Gillian for mentioning him to Cooper, when she and Russell had presented the BEB case. It'd been what had gotten him in it, and effectively back in business, despite Cooper's clear intentions of keeping him in that small office next door to hers and away from the field as much as she could. However, nothing had turned out like she'd planned, but rather the other way around, and Brock knew Gillian had had her part in it.