Last Seen Alive

Chapter Nine

After leaving Michael's office, Kelsey went to see Daniel in his. She found him alone, staring absentmindedly out the window. Taking advantage of Naomi's absence, she sat in her chair to put as much distance as she could between her and Daniel.

"Hey there, partner," she said, twirling around in her seat.

He smiled in response, but it seemed forced. "I'm glad to see Michael didn't fire you last night."

He didn't sound glad at all. In fact, his tone was a mix of curiosity and suspicion. Kelsey immediately went on high alert, choosing her next words carefully.

"I didn't get off so easily though," she replied. "He's making me work in Lydia's lab for a week as punishment."

"Seriously? I'm sorry I got you into trouble."

She shook her head. "Don't worry about it. Partners stick together and all that."

"Mhh," he murmured.

"Last night you told the Chief you left for an emergency. Is everything okay?" She didn't think he'd open up to her right away but it was worth a shot.

He gave her another barely-there smile. "Yeah. Just a little family trouble."

"Oh, okay then," she said, feigning nonchalance. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her messages, barely paying attention to what any of them were saying. "So what are we doing today?"

"What about?"

"We have a dead girl and our only link to her is also dead. Shouldn't we be trying to find whoever is responsible for that?"

"Yeah, but Louis' death set us back. We still need to identify her and Lydia doesn't seem to be having much luck with that."

She held back from telling him that Kimberly had given them a possible lead on Jane Doe's identity. If he still didn't know about it, then Michael must have kept it from him intentionally. "I guess our best bet is tracking Louis' phone to see if it can lead us somewhere. Chances are, the killer took it off him after murdering him and his wife. I'm going to head over to the I.T. guys and see if they got anything. Wanna come with?"

She hoped he would say no, but after brief consideration, he stood and led the way. Calling the I.T. department a "department" was a bit of a stretch. Their office was an old common room on the second floor where a couple of booths were added, along with some laptops and other high-tech gadgets Kelsey didn't recognise. One corner of the room had a long desk stacked with old computers, CPUs, and keyboards blanketed by a layer of dust.

Daniel was already headed to the nearest booth when a young woman practically skipped over to them. In her attire of cargo shorts and a t-shirt, she looked a little too casually dressed for a police station. Especially her black hair which was twisted into one, long braid that hung over her shoulder with golden beads woven into it. Kelsey remembered seeing her around the station, but she kept drawing a blank on her name.

She smiled up at Daniel when she reached them, holding her hand out to him. "Nice to see you guys up here."

"Hi, Pamela," Daniel said, shaking her hand briefly.

Pamela from I.T. Kelsey's mind went into a panic when she heard the name and connected the dots. This was Michael's Pam. The one who'd been tracking Daniel's car for them last night. She'd forgotten about that. If Pam mentioned their tracking shenanigans to Daniel, their secret investigation would be out. She tried to think of some sign she could give Pam without Daniel noticing, but nothing came to mind even when Pam's attention was on her.

"You must be Harris, right?"

"I prefer Kelsey actually," she replied with an amused smile, panic momentarily forgotten.