Free Blind Sight: A Novel by Terri Persons

64.
    Garcia’s cell rang. He took it out, flipped it open, and looked at the screen. “Shit.” Putting the phone to his ear, he slipped into his most buttoned-up voice. “Assistant Special Agent in Charge Anthony Garcia.”
    Bernadette watched Garcia’s face. It tightened like an angry fist.
    “Yes, sir,” he said into the phone. “No, no, sir. But you have to understand …”
    A double sir . It was either their bosses in D.C. or Mag Dunton’s office finally returning Garcia’s calls.
    “I realize that, Senator. We’re under direct orders from Washington.”
    It wasn’t Dunton’s people; it was the man himself.
    “Apologize for that, sir. We couldn’t wait… I’m sure it is, but we couldn’t delay starting the investigation.”
    Bernadette could hear Dunton’s raised voice on the other end of the cell. Something about his wife being upset.
    The snow was coming down so heavily, the wipers were pretty much useless. Visibility was about three car lengths and shrinking fast. Garcia looked in his rearview mirror and saw a plow bearing down on them. He hung a right on a logging road, slammed on the brakes, and put the truck in park. Behind them, the plow rumbled past in a cloud of snow.
    Garcia checked his watch. “I’m sorry, but your daughter’s body is already on the way to the Twin Cities … No idea, sir. ME would be able to tell you. These things typically take time … Days, possibly longer. After that, her remains can be released to a funeral home. I suggest you call…”
    More yelling from Dunton. Garcia lowered the phone and shot Bernadette a grim smile. He returned the cell to his ear. From listening to what followed on Garcia’s end, it seemed that Dunton was drilling him about the investigation.
    “Don’t know … Don’t know that either, sir. We need a little more time … No arrests yet, but I’m certain we’ll be able to …”
    Bernadette heard the next four words as clearly as if Dunton had shouted them in her face: “You people are useless!”
    Garcia again took the phone away from his ear. He and Bernadette both stared at the cell in his hand as if it were a hand grenade with the pin pulled. Too bad Garcia couldn’t roll down his window and chuck it into a snowbank.
    Garcia puffed out a breath of air and lifted the cell. Listened. “No one under me has permission to say anything to the press … No, sir. That wasn’t from us.”
    Dunton was blaming them for the information released to the media. At least the girl’s name hadn’t been leaked. Yet.
    “Sir … sir … please. Could we meet in town? If we could have a face-to-face. Where are you and Mrs. Dunton staying? … Uh-huh … I know exactly where that is. I could meet you …”
    Bernadette gave Garcia a weak but encouraging smile.
    “If you could fill me in on the last time she contacted you or anyone else, be it a family member or a friend or … Yes, sir … I also have questions about what she was doing up north in the first place. Who the father might be. Anything, any ideas, any names would … Yes, sir. I can appreciate that, but—”
    Garcia blinked and snapped the cell closed. “Hung up on me.”
    “Why isn’t he helping us instead of fighting with us?” sputtered Bernadette. “Doesn’t he want his daughter’s killer caught?”
    “Not by the FBI. By anybody but the FBI. He’d actually have to admit we could be useful.”
    “We were assigned to this case to make a point, weren’t we?”
    “You just figured that out?”
    “I don’t like being used to make a point. I just want to do my job. Why can’t I just work and do my job without all the bullshit?”
    “Welcome to my world.”
    “I take it they’re up here.”
    “Yeah. I’m going to meet them.”
    “What’s this I stuff?”
    “I’m paid to deal with this crap; you aren’t. Just worry about solving the case.”
    “When’re you seeing them?”
    “Later. We’ve got plenty of time to check out that clinic.”
    She wanted to give