Free Steele-Faced (Daggers & Steele Book 6) by Alex P. Berg Page B

should be counting his lucky stars he brought us on board instead of a pair of detectives from another department.”
    Giving thanks seemed beyond Steck’s ability at the moment. He still stood at the foot of the luggage pile, staring into the disorder.
    I waved him over. “Steck. We need to have a pow-wow.”
    “What is it?” he asked. “Do you have some idea who did it?”
    “Yeah, didn’t you see the note the killer left tacked to the back of the stiff? Of course not, man. Get your head in the game. What we need to do is figure out a game plan.”
    “Why are you asking me, then?” said Steck. “You’re the homicide detectives.”
    “Yes, but this isn’t a normal case,” I said. “We’re undercover on a fraud investigation that hasn’t even started yet, and already somebody tangentially related to said investigation has turned up dead. We’re cut off from the rest of our support teams, and we’re in international waters, which makes jurisdiction tricky. So the question is, how do we approach this?”
    Steck sighed. “Guys, I’m not going to lie. Having this case slip through my fingers before it even starts is going to haunt me for the rest of my career, but we don’t have a choice. A murder trumps a potential fraud any day of the week. The homicide investigation has to take precedent.”
    “Agreed,” said Shay, “but that doesn’t mean we should abandon our mission.”
    I thought I knew where she was going, but I made her say it nonetheless. “Go on.”
    “Given the rumors about something fishy going down during the poker tournament and the fact that Lumpty here—Daggers’ designation, not mine—was in the employ of one of our three prime suspects, I’d say there’s about a ninety-nine percent chance his murder is related to the tourney and was perpetrated by one of the players. Because of our limited jurisdiction, we stand a better chance of figuring out who killed him by staying undercover than we do by blowing it.”
    I nodded. “I’m with Steele. This puts more pressure on our shoulders, but the mission is still the same. We’re just going to have to unravel a murder while we sort out what we came here to do. And that means more work for you, too, Steck. We don’t have additional detectives or a coroner or a CSU team, and because Steele and I have to remain undercover, you need to be our eyes and ears. You’ll need to do the legwork.”
    “For what it’s worth, we stand ready and willing to help,” said Olaugh.
    “And we appreciate it,” I said. “You can start by giving us a full list of every passenger with luggage in this compartment. Maybe that way we can figure out what Lumpty was doing here. Steck—I’m going to need you to interview all the bartenders and waitstaff from the mixer. Steele and I know when Lumpty left the party, but we don’t know precisely where the other potential suspects were and at what times. Hopefully some eye witness accounts can narrow down the suspect pool for us. And see if you can find any other crew that might’ve seen what happened down here.”
    Steck nodded.
    “I’ll make sure the staff comply,” said Olaugh. “And I’ll make sure they meet with Steck one on one. As far as they’ll know, he’s a compliance inspector, making sure people are doing their jobs.”
    “Good thinking,” I said. “Olaugh. I’ll need you and Steck to move the body to a safe, secure location out of sight from prying eyes. And someone’s going to need to clean this place up. I’m guessing you, James, due to the muzzle we’re keeping on the operation. Given what we know, that’s about all we can do at this juncture, unless you know more about mortuary science than you appear to, Steck.”
    The vice cop adopted a horrified expression. “You’re kidding, right?”
    Shay nodded. “It’s what he does.”
    “Just because somebody died doesn’t mean we need to get sober,” I said. “Although finding a dead body does have a way of taking the edge