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I spotted my new partner as I walked up to the Watergate Hotel. She was standing a bit away from the lobby entrance, sucking on an electronic cigarette. As I got closer the chip in her badge started spilling her details into my field of vision. It was the Bureau’s way of letting its agents know who was who on the scene. My partner didn’t have her glasses on so she wouldn’t have had the same waterfall of detail on me scroll past her as I walked up. But then again, it was a pretty good chance she didn’t need it. She spotted me just fine in any event.
“Agent Shane,” said my new partner, to me. She held out her hand.
“Agent Va
And then I waited to see what the next thing out of her mouth would be. It’s always an interesting test to see what people do when they meet me, both because of who I am and because I’m Haden. One or the other usually gets commented on.
Va
Well, all right then. It was up to me to get the conversation started.
So I glanced over to the car that we were standing next to. Its roof had been crushed by a love seat.
“This ours?” I asked, nodding to the car, and the love seat.
“Tangentially,” she said. “You recording?”
“I can if you want me to,” I said. “Some people prefer me not to.”
“I want you to,” Va
“You got it,” I said, and started recording. I started walking around the car, getting the thing from every angle. The safety glass in the car windows had shattered and a few nuggets had crumbled off. The car had diplomatic plates. I glanced over and about ten yards away a man was on his phone, yelling at someone in what appeared to be Armenian. I was tempted to translate the yelling.
Va
When I was done I looked up and saw a hole in the side of the hotel, seven floors up. “That where the love seat came from?” I asked.
“That’s probably a good guess,” Va
“We going up there?”
“I was waiting on you,” Va
“Sorry,” I said, and looked up again. “Metro police there already?”
Va
“Have you told that to the police yet?” I asked.
“I was waiting on you,” Va
“Sorry,” I said again. Va
We went inside and took the elevator to the seventh floor, from which the love seat had been flung. Va
The elevator doors opened up and a uniformed cop was there. She held up her hand to stop us from getting off. We both pointed to our badges. She grimaced and let us pass, whispering into her handset as she did so. We aimed for the room that had cops all around the door.
We got about halfway to it when a woman poked her head out of the room, looked around, spied us, and stomped over. I glanced at Va
“Detective Trinh,” Va
“No,” Trinh said. “No way. This has nothing to do with you, Les.”
“It’s nice to see you, too,” Va
“‘All suspected crimes involving Personal Transports or Integrators are assumed to have an interstate component,’” I said, quoting the Bureau handbook.
Trinh looked over at me, sourly, then made a show of ignoring me to speak to Va
“I do,” Va
“Just because he’s got the same name doesn’t make him an Integrator,” Trinh said.
“Come on, Trinh,” Va
Trinh turned and stomped back to the hotel room without another word.
“I’m missing some context,” I said.
“You got about all you need,” Va
There was a dead body in the room, on the floor, facedown in the carpet, throat cut. The carpet was soaked in blood. There were sprays of blood on the walls, on the bed, and on the remaining seat in the room. A breeze turned in the room, provided by the gaping hole in the wall-length window that the love seat had gone through.
Va
“No ID,” Trinh said. “We’re working on it.”
Va
Trinh smiled thinly. “At the precinct,” she said. “The first officer on the scene subdued him and we sent him off before you got here.”
“Who was the officer?” Va
“Timmons,” Trinh said. “He’s not here.”
“I need his arrest feed,” Va
“I don’t—”
“Now, Trinh,” Va
Va
“Not by us,” he said.
Va
“Yeah,” I said.
“Make a map,” Va
“On it,” I said. My recording mode was already on. I overlaid a three-dimensional grid on top of it, marking off everything I could see and making it easier to identify where I needed to look behind and under things. I walked the room, carefully, filling in the nooks and cra
“There’s a glass under here,” I said to Va
“You done with your map?” Va
“Almost,” I said. I took a few more passes around the room to pick up the spots I’d missed.
“I assume you also made your own map,” Va
“We got the tech on the way,” Trinh said. “And we’ve got the feeds from the officers on the scene.”
“I want all of them,” Va
“Fine,” Trinh said, a
“That’s it for now,” Va
“Then if you don’t mind stepping away from my crime scene. I have work to do,” Trinh said.
Va
“No one likes the feds stepping into their turf,” Va
“Issues with us, or issues with you?” I asked.
Va
* * *
“Do you mind if I smoke?” Va