Simple Genius (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell 3)

Ventris studied the pavement for a few moments. “I actually noticed that there were no towels,” he said. “And the bath mat, but I didn’t know about the plunger.”

Michelle said, “So you were suspecting murder too?”

“I always suspect murder,” Ventris said. “I’m bringing in a team to go over everything here.”

Sean said, “And you’re interested in Rivest’s death because you think it ties into Monk Turing’s, which was on federal property.”

“So maybe we should join forces,” Michelle suggested.

“That’s not possible,” Ventris said. “If you have information you want to share with me, fine, but it’s not a two-way street. We have ways of doing things at the Bureau.”

“I thought your ways of doing things included working with the local police,” Sean said.

“And I fit that bill,” Hayes added.

“But they don’t,” Ventris replied fiercely, glaring at Sean and Michelle.

“Isn’t the point that we catch whoever did all this?” Michelle said.

“No, the point is, I catch them,” Ventris snapped.

“I’ll make it easy for you,” Sean began. “We’ll just make it a competition. Who gets there first gets the credit. But just so you know, we’re going to kick your ass.” He turned and stalked off.

Ventris turned on Hayes. “If he in any way impedes my investigation, you’ll be going down with him, Hayes!”

“I’m just trying to do my job here,” Hayes shot back.

“No, apparently you’re trying to do my job.”

Ventris noticed Michelle staring at him and smiling.

“What the hell are you looking at, lady?”

“Should’ve taken me up on my offer of cooperation, Ventris. Because when we crack this thing you are going to look like such an idiot.” She turned and walked off.

“I can arrest you for saying shit like that,” Ventris screamed after her.

Michelle turned back around. “No, you can’t. It’s that little bedrock thing called free speech. Have a nice day.”

A minute later Hayes joined Sean and Michelle in front of her truck.

Hayes said, “Great, we’ve now managed to piss off the CIA and the FBI. Who we gonna do next? DEA?”

Michelle said, “Assuming the morgue was blown up on purpose, the question becomes why.”

“And the answer seems obvious,” Sean remarked. “There was something on those bodies that the ME would find that would point us down the right road.”

“He’d already done the cutting on Monk,” Hayes pointed out. “So it couldn’t have been Monk’s body they were worried about.”

“Right,” Sean said. “Burning up Rivest’s body means we c

an’t tell if my theory on how he was killed was correct.”

Michelle added. “Do we know if the ME had looked for that already?”

“If he did he didn’t have a chance to tell us,” Hayes said quickly. “I asked him to call me as soon as he found anything and he never did.”

“We can follow down a lead Ventris doesn’t have,” Sean said confidently.