Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun (Finlay Donovan, #3)(49)
Nick Anthony is no fool, Charlie had said as he’d shoved Joey. If he hasn’t seen through you yet, he will.
The hair on my arms stood on end as I remembered Joey’s response. The way he saw through you? He’d implied that Nick hadn’t seen something he should have—that Charlie was hiding something.
It’s always the nice ones that have something to hide, Joey had warned me during his class.
But if Charlie and Joey were both liars, which one of them was the bad guy?
CHAPTER 19
I shot upright in bed, jolted awake by a series of loud thumps. Blinking away the fog of sleep, I scrambled to catch my open laptop before it could slide off my thighs to the floor. The screen awoke, illuminating my manuscript. The cursor blinked behind the last words I must have typed before I’d drifted off. Vero dragged her blanket over her head, burrowing deeper under her pillow as someone pounded on our door.
“Wake up, trainees!” The booming voice sounded disturbingly like Joey’s. “You’ve just been called to a crime scene. This homicide isn’t going to solve itself. You’ve got ten minutes to get to the drill field. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” More banging, more shouting, the noise becoming muffled as he made his way down the hall.
I closed my laptop and swung my legs over the side of the bed, shaking Vero by the shoulder. “Get up and put on some clothes. We have to be at a crime scene in ten minutes.” When she didn’t respond, I grabbed the corner of her blanket and flipped it away from her.
Vero curled into a ball, clutching her pillow. “If you make me get out of this bed, this room is going to become a crime scene.”
“Fine. You can do the push-ups.” I shucked my pajama pants and dragged on a pair of jeans.
She rolled over to glare at me when I switched on the light. “What time is it?”
“A little after one.”
“Someone had better be dead.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s the point,” I said, pulling on my coat. “Here, put these on.” I grabbed a sweater and a pair of warm pants from Vero’s suitcase and tossed them on her bed. Grudgingly, she got up and dressed, following me into the hall where we melted into the pack of bleary-eyed faces filing out of the dorm. By my rough head count, only half the teams had bothered getting out of bed.
“What’s this all about?” Vero asked, tying her sleep-mussed hair back into a loose ponytail as we reached the drill field. The instructors were all there, steam on their breath as they talked amongst themselves, holding clipboards and sipping coffee from Styrofoam cups.
Nick leaned on his cane in the middle of them, entirely too bright-eyed for the hour. “Just a little role-play.”
Vero rubbed her eyes. “For the record, Detective, this is not the kind of role-play I expect when a man bangs on my door and wakes me up after midnight.”
Tyrese’s eyebrows shot up, his cup jolting to a stop halfway to his mouth and splashing coffee down the front of his coat.
Nick suppressed a wry smile as Ty used his sleeve to mop himself. “Noted, Miss Ruiz.” He raised his voice so the students in the back of the group could hear him, waiting for their hushed speculations about our reason for being there to quiet. I avoided making eye contact with Riley and Max, who were practically buzzing. “Listen up, everybody! It should come as no surprise to you that most violent crimes are committed at night. The graveyard shift is when many of those crimes are reported and detectives are woken from a nice, peaceful sleep to investigate a crime scene, like you were tonight. In order to give you the full hands-on experience, that’s precisely what you all will be doing for the next ninety minutes.” My sister began distributing hand-drawn maps to each team. “Dispatch just requested an officer to respond. A body was spotted by someone claiming to have been walking his dog in a remote wooded area. The caller did not provide his name, but he gave the approximate location of what may be an expeditious grave. Your job is to proceed to the location and investigate. The first team to locate the body—if one does indeed exist—will be awarded twenty points. They will also be responsible for securing the crime scene. The instructors will then assign various investigative tasks to the other teams. I recommend you take notes and handle your evidence carefully. Each piece of evidence you find will be used to obtain an arrest warrant and indict a suspect before the end of the week. Any questions?” Someone yawned in response.
“What time are you going to wake us up for class tomorrow?” another student asked.
“Your first classes won’t start until ten. If you all hustle through this exercise tonight, you can be back in your dorms before three and get a decent night’s rest.”
“How many points do we get if we solve the case?” Vero asked, suddenly wide awake.
Charlie and Roddy exchanged a silent high five. Joey crossed his arms, looking annoyed as the other instructors murmured in small huddles, probably adjusting their bets for the whiteboard in the faculty lounge. I looked for Wade, but he wasn’t among them.
Nick spoke over the rising chatter of the teams. “The instructors staged the crime scene while you all were at dinner tonight. Every piece of evidence, including any obtained through witness statements, has a designated number of points attached to it. Detective McDonnell and Officer Governs will be keeping score. Bonus points will be given to individual teams that follow the best practices and investigative procedures you learned in your classes today. Points will be deducted for improper searches, mishandling of evidence, and breaks in the chain of custody. Any other questions?” Nick passed his clipboard to Georgia. “Good. Please proceed to the wooded area designated on your maps. As soon as you arrive, you may begin your search. If you or your partner locates the body, call out to the nearest faculty member and we’ll provide instructions from there.”