A Dallas Suite

Chapter Forty Two

Moore called me into his office before I got to my desk. "How'd it go with Knight? I hear he's a real nice man."

"Oh he's great. I'm having over for dinner tonight. You should come by, he reminds me a lot of you," I replied, carrying on the sarcasm in the conversation.

"Take a seat, John. How's your head feeling?"

I did as he asked and sat down across from his desk. I scratched at the stitches they put in my head before leaving the hospital. "It's more annoying than anything. Just a minor headache all day, really.

"Good. I've already talked to the commander, he's not upset about the gun too much. No cop would have stood by and watched a man bleed out while they waited for backup. You did what we all would have done. He was just mad that we aren't doing enough self defense classes. Said you should have been a Marine and you would have been okay." Our commander was a Marine for ten years during Desert Storm. Marines and Army had an ongoing rivalry that would never go away, but we all respected each other as much as possible.

"Did you tell him I just wanted to take the easy option and not go through all that rigorous training?"

"Oh we discussed it plenty, don't worry. I told him he should challenge you to a fight sometime and show how badass he is. Already bet my paycheck on you, so if it happens you better win or you're paying my rent," Moore said as he reached into a drawer in his desk. He pulled out his can of Copenhagen and put packed his lip with dip as we talked. "Seriously though man, are you all good? You don't need to spend some time with the psychiatrist or anything do you?"

I laughed and shook my head, "No Sir, I'll be alright. The department mandates enough therapy time for the detectives, I don't want to volunteer for any more."

"You're right, they do. But it's for the best. You know how we are, brother. We laugh off things that would give other people nightmares. It's good to get some stuff off our chests every now and then."

I didn't like having this conversation anymore than he did. Like the majority of law enforcement and military, I didn't like to open up about my issues or what I was feeling. We were around tragedies daily. You have to learn to cope with that in your own mind and drive on or you would never make it in this profession. I figured we had enough of this talk for the day. "So what's our next move with the case?"

"Well you tell me, hotshot. You're the lead detective. We know who our killer is and know that he shouldn't be approached alone," he patted the back of his head as he said it. Reminding me of my meeting with Jeff last night, in case I had forgotten about the splitting pain in the back of my head. "So what now?"

"Well we know we still have six guys on his original list that he was going after. He may be diverting from them now, since he knows we have them figured out. Or he may just be waiting until we back off to strike again. I think it'd be good to get some undercover guys to watch their homes for now until we figure out more."

"Alright. I'll get you some undercover guys to sit out there in unmarked cars. Two man teams. Give me an hour and I'll have a team in front of each house. Sound good?"

"Yeah, that'll work. Hopefully we'll get lucky and catch him sneaking into one of those houses."

"Hopefully, but I wouldn't count on it. The guy's smart. You and I know the training he's had. He'll turn invisible when he wants to."

"I think I'm going to get back to his apartment. Maybe find any runner up targets he might go after past the ten we for sure knew about."

"Sounds good. Or try and find out any information about where he might be staying at now. Maybe he had another apartment or a family member nearby. He has to be living somewhere right now. Hope's already checked his bank accounts. He's gone cold there, must be paying for everything in cash."

"Alright, I'm on it."

"And Seeks, take someone with you. Can't risk you being out on your own right now."