The Perfect Emma

Chapter Sixteen

Grayson Todd

"What do you mean it's missing?"

Grayson was beginning to hate that word.

At the moment he was forcing himself to give attention to a case that wasn't related to Emma or the Ghost Killer. He and Aaron had had another case before Lily had given them this lead, and it was irresponsible of him to just drop the first one. So, he'd gone down to evidence to take something out, and apparently the item in question was missing.

"I'm sorry Detective, I don't know what to tell you, it's not there," the woman at the evidence desk responded, shrugging apologetically.

Gray frowned. "Well where did it go?"

She turned to the computer, clicking around and typing for a moment, before answering, "The last person who took it out was you, Detective, and you returned it."

Gray remembered that. And if nobody had checked it out properly, it was either just a misunderstanding, or it had been stolen.

Considering he was seeing nearly every cop in this building as a suspect, the latter was looking more likely. And that concerned him.

With a frustrated sigh and a hand through his hair, he responded, "Well if I returned it, where did it go? Was it stolen?"

The woman frowned and furrowed her brows. "I don't know, Detective. But I do know that security here is tight. If your evidence was stolen, whoever did it knew what they were doing."

"Thanks, real reassuring," he retorted under his breath.

"Gray, what's taking so long?"

Gray looked up as Aaron entered the room with a cocked brow. Fantastic. "The evidence is gone," the man muttered.

"Huh?"

"It's gone, Aaron!"

The blond man raised his eyebrows, then furrowed them in confusion. "Excuse me, gone? The hell do you mean gone? Evidence doesn't just..." he started chuckling in disbelief. "Walk away."

"Well this one did," Gray muttered, having difficulty keeping his frustration at bay. "Because. It is gone."

"Okay, let's just...." Aaron raised his hands and shook them a little, before reaching for Gray's shoulder and starting to pull him from the room. "Let's just retrace our steps, yeah?"

"There are no steps to retrace," Gray replied, shutting his eyes. "I took it out. I returned it. And then it disappeared."

Aaron frowned. "Relax, pal. You're going to give yourself an aneurysm." Gray took a deep breath, rubbing at his face as if doing so would rub away his aggravation. "See? Calming breaths. Good. Now, uh." Aaron ran a hand along his own jaw in thought. "You think maybe it fell out of the bag?"

Grayson shook his head. "I always reseal the bag before I take it anywhere."

Aaron hummed in begrudging acknowledgement, knowing Gray was right. "Okay. Okay. Um. Well let's think. Where could possibly be?"

"Anywhere," Gray wanted to respond sarcastically, but since his first declaration of suspecting cops as a whole yesterday, throwing more accusations about seemed unwise. Instead he muttered, "I don't know."

Seeing his partner in this much distress, Aaron's frown deepened. "Alright, let's.... You...hold on. I'm gonna talk to Zach." He forced Gray to sit at his desk before heading off in the direction of Zach's office.

Gray groaned quietly, leaning back a little and shutting his eyes. He did not have the patience for this. It wasn't often that Grayson lost his temper—losing things didn't tend to bother him very much, for example. But when it was evidence? Possibly the only thing between a killer ending up behind bars or walking free? Something that important couldn't just disappear. Entire cases hinged on the evidence. And with everything going on the last few days, Gray was a little more high strung than usual.

When Aaron returned, he returned with Zach, as he'd said he would. But, as Gray opened his eyes, and saw the uncomfortable look on his partner's face, coupled with the woman that was with them, he felt his stomach sink.

Now was not a good time for the Internal Affairs Bureau to be here.

"Detective Todd," the woman said sternly, and Gray felt the need to stand up. And yet, despite being plenty taller than her, he still felt intimidated and towered over. "What's this about missing evidence?"

Suddenly Gray didn't really want to worry about that for the moment.

"Um," he murmured, glancing away briefly. "A, uh. A murder weapon has...disappeared from the evidence locker."

The IAB agent cocked a brow. "And I hear you were the last to check it out?"

"And check it back in," he added, wanting to make that clear. The last thing he wanted was to be pinned for this. Whatever this was.

She merely hummed in acknowledgment and nodded her head. "Right. Let's take a walk, shall we Detective?"

Grayson had a bad feeling about this. But, not wanting to make himself look bad, he cooperated. Cooperation was key with these people. It...kinda sucked knowing that her being here at all was...his fault.

Should've kept his big mouth shut.

Eventually, the group of them came out into the parking lot. The agent asked Gray which car was his. His stomach dropped further, but he remained cooperating. "Unlock it," she practically commanded. No, definitely commanded.

Gray did as he was asked, and watched beside Aaron as the IAB agent and Zach started looking through his car. He didn't expect them to find anything of course, but this was still an unpleasant—

The woman opened the glove compartment and pulled out an evidence bag. It...was the missing murder weapon. She backed herself out from the car and came around to stare at Gray with a patronizing expression. "I believe I've found your missing evidence, Detective Todd."

How.

The hell.

Did that get there.

Aaron slowly turned towards his partner with furrowed brows. "...What the hell, Gray?"

Grayson shook his head, glancing frantically between the three others, all staring at him. "I didn't—I have no idea how that got there."

"That's what they all say," the agent murmured, unimpressed. "Mr. Malcolm," she continued, turning to Zach. "I hope I can entrust you to take this to Crime Scene Investigation to test for contamination?"

Zach nodded, taking the bag. "Will do," he muttered, shooting Gray a look of confusion and betrayal.

"As for you, Detective...." The agent squinted her eyes slightly. "You're suspended from handling evidence until those test results come back." Then she held her hand out. "Gun."

Gray had to stop his jaw from dropping. If he opened his mouth he was going to get snappy, and that wouldn't help him. Beside him, Aaron took the tiniest of sidesteps away.

The agent noticed his expression however and added testily, "Be grateful I'm not taking your badge—today. Gun." Begrudgingly, Gray handed it over. "Now I think it's best that you take the rest of today off, Detective."

He couldn't believe this. Gray actually couldn't believe this.

He was being framed.

Gray never opened his glove compartment. All it had in it was useless garbage, and he only ever opened it to add more useless garbage. It was no surprise he hadn't known the evidence was in there, but he didn't even know when or how it had gotten there. What he did know was that he hadn't taken it.

"I'm sure this is a misunderstanding," said Aaron, coming to Gray's defense a little, though he didn't sound entirely convinced by himself. "Gray wouldn't do this...." Then he looked over at his partner. "Would you...?"

"No!" Grayson responded immediately, unable to believe that his own partner was doubting him right now.

Then again....

"Don't trust your partner."

Fucking hell. Gray regretted ever taking Lily's lead.

....That was a lie. What Gray regretted was getting ahead of himself and starting an LAPD witch hunt.

Of which, it seemed, he would be the first to hang.