Free Merciless by Lori Armstrong Page B

appear Arlette knew her attacker.”
    “Yes, but remember, we’re dealing with a small pool of people on the rez, so chances
     are just as likely it wasn’t a male she knew intimately, but a male she knew in passing.”
    “We’re assuming it’s a male?” Agent Mested asked.
    “Isn’t it always?” Agent Flack shot back.
    Strained laughter.
    “Director Shenker?”
    His gaze bored into me. “Yes?”
    “It’s come to my attention that there have been quite a few young women found dead
     on the reservation in the last couple of years.”
    Agent Flack snapped his gum and whipped around to face me. “You talking about that
     Good Shield woman? Victim found gut shot out in the middle of nowhere?”
    I hadn’t seen that obituary, and it bothered me there was one or more I’d missed in
     my small bit of research. “Was the FBI called in on that one?”
    “Called, yes. We didn’t get involved because I agreed with the tribal cop who suspected
     a domestic dispute. Evidently, nine-one-one dispatch had several emergency calls involving
     the vic and her partner, going back a couple of years. The last time cops were called
     to the scene, guns were involved.”
    “So the partner is in jail?”
    Special Agent Flack blew a big pink bubble, then popped it loudly. “No. The dude was
     alibied. Happens all the time down there, cousin vouching for cousin, hey.” Laughter.
     “Nothin’ the tribal cops or nobody else could do.”
    Seemed too cut and dried. Too . . . easily dismissed.
    “Is there a reason to get this backstory on previous and unrelated cases, Agent Gunderson?”
    “Yes. I have a gut feeling some of those old cases are somehow related to this new
     one.”
    Silence. Except for Shay’s disgruntled sigh.
    “Here in the bureau, we’re less about gut feelings and hunches than we are about solid
     evidence,” Shenker said.
    I let his doubt bounce off me, but I couldn’t keep the blood from rushing to my face.
     “Even if solid evidence is ignored? Or dismissed?”
    Shenker stared at me thoughtfully. “No offense, Agent Gunderson, but you are new to
     the bureau. Why haven’t the tribal police picked up on it? If it’s so obvious to you?”
    Since I’d started working here five weeks ago, I had mostly observed. I asked questions
     only when I hadn’t been able to find the answers myself. I wasn’t the timid mouse
     in the corner, but neither was I the roaring lion. I’d backed down on a couple of
     occasions. But I would not back down on this. “Maybe due to budgetary and manpower
     constraints, the tribal cops are conditioned to look for the easiest answer first,
     in order to get the case resolved and move on to the next one. Those officers see
     a lot of bad shit. It’d be easy to get jaded. My dad dealt with them when he was Eagle
     River County sheriff. And yes, he complained about the tribal police not wanting to
     cooperate with any other law enforcement agencies. Not on any level. Something as
     simple as the tribal police refusing to fax paperwork meant he had to drive from Eagle
     Ridge to Eagle River. Half the time they’d have no record of the paperwork he’d requested.
    “And now after I’ve been in the tribal police headquarters? I see the same problem.
     To be perfectly blunt, the place is a disorganized pigsty, with who knows what files
     spread everywhere. So if there is a connection or pattern to these deaths, I wouldn’t
     be the least bit surprised if the tribal cops didn’t catch the similarities because
     they wouldn’t know where the hell to find the information.”
    No one looked at me.
    Maybe I had gotten a little vehement, maybe it was a shot to my ego they wouldn’t
     listen. As the highest enlisted rank in my squad, my opinions always commanded attention.
     I didn’t expect special treatment as an agent, but I sure as hell hadn’t expected
     my observation to be discounted immediately.
    Director Shenker steepled his fingers, just like the FBI honchos on TV.