Page 97 of Dancing in the Dark

I move across to the chair closest to the wall, then I watch as Archer wanders in, shuts the door, and takes the seat beside mine.

“What’s up, Lieutenant?” Archer settles back, adopting an air of indifference I swear he got straight from his daddy. “Did we do something wrong?”

“I received an email from Deputy Legal Counsel Markum about an hour ago citing investigative overreach.” He glances toward his computer screen. “Communication breakdowns. Improperly filed paperwork.” Bringing his eyes up again, he lifts a brow. “He said he’s had words with you both throughout this investigation, and says he may have no choice but to make a formal complaint if your conduct isn’t rectified immediately.”

“What a load of horseshit!” Archer barks. “Markum’s on a power trip and pissy because we’re not stumbling over our feet to be his best friends. Now some personal stuff has come into the mix, so he’s taking it out on us and this investigation we’re trying to conduct.”

“What personal stuff?” He sets his elbows on his desk and steeples his fingers. “What’s going on?”

I shoot a look across to Archer. Don’t fucking say it!

“Either you do, or I do,” he snarls through gritted teeth. “We’ve gotta get ahead of it, so just⁠—”

“Get ahead of what?” Fabian growls. “Detective Fletcher?”

Fuckkkkk. I pinch the bridge of my nose and groan. “Markum used to be engaged to someone, but shit went south, and the wedding was called off. It’s been a few years, but he’s still bent out of shape about it.”

“And? You’ve worked with the Port Authority legal team in the past. Why is this an issue now?”

Don’t make me say it. I’m begging you.

“Because Fletch is dating her now,” Archer rumbles. “Markum doesn’t like it.”

Fabian sucks on his top teeth and glares. At me. At Arch. “I see.”

“We’re still new, sir, and we’re trying to really make a go of this. Unfortunately, I walked in on him grabbing her a few nights ago inside her apartment. She was shouting at him to let go.”

“There was a physical altercation?”

“Between me and him?” I shake my head. “No. Between him and her? Nothing beyond him grabbing her. He realized in that moment she and I knew each other personally, so then he started spouting off shit about Jada. About Mia,” I grit out. “About Arch. He left, and that was the end of it. The next day, he apologized and vowed all future dealings between us would be professional.”

“And ever since then, we’ve been buried under bullshit paperwork,” Archer snarls. “Says he wants cooperation, but he’s the reason our asses are fused to our chairs and our case is going cold. Every time we do as he asks and send the formal requests over, he rejects them and moves the goalposts. He takes his time getting to our forms, then he claims our original subpoenas are outdated and asks for a revised set. We scramble and do that, he demands updated warrants. We send him what he wants, he natters about how the warrants were filed incorrectly. We ask for access to a restricted area of the port, he says we don’t have permission, and to get it, we need to supply a fresh formal request. We ask for CCTV of the bay, he questions if we’re stepping outside our jurisdiction.”

“He’s making us jump through hoops he tossed thirty feet into the air,” I growl, “and then complains we didn’t jump fast enough. Meanwhile, he’s seen the bay footage already.”

“Are you saying Deputy Legal Counsel Anderson Markum should be brought up for misconduct?”

“We’re saying he’s riding his law books all the way until we end up in the loony bin. Or in here,” I snap. “Sitting in front of our lieutenant explaining why we haven’t closed a case we pretty much solved within a couple of hours of talking to the people our vic last spent time with.”

His brows come low. “You’ve solved it?”

“Can’t prove it till we get past Markum’s circus of bullshit,” Arch grunts. “Can’t get past the bullshit because the forms send us in a loop.”

“He’s claiming procedure, Lieutenant. Says these things are common practice, and it’s important we follow the letter of the law.”

“You disagree with that statement?”

“No. But there’s following procedure as it was intended, and then there’s smashing us over the head with his SOP handbook and screaming about policy. This isn’t our first case down at the bay, and it won’t be our last, but this is the first time he’s intentionally slowed us down. It’s a cycle he can perpetuate all on his own, and no matter how hard we try or how quickly we submit those forms, if he doesn’t want us to Pass Go, we don’t Pass Go.”

“That means our vic is cooling off at the morgue,” Archer adds. “She died at the ripe old age of twenty-three, long before she should’ve, and instead of getting the justice she deserves, she’s being used as a pawn because Markum’s boxers are in a twist and he doesn’t like that his ex is dating other men.”

“What the hell are we supposed to do?” I grit out. “He’s got us by the administrative balls, Lieutenant, and there isn’t a damn thing we can do about it until he decides to play fair. Meanwhile,” I gesture toward the computer between us, “he’s sending complaints upstream and threatening an investigation into our conduct. The control Archer and I have exerted over ourselves since he started on his shit has been Herculean.”

“I wanted to shove a fax machine up his asshole,” Archer bites out. “Fletch wouldn’t let me.”

Fabian’s lips twitch with the ghost of a smile.

“We’re in an impossible situation,” I press. “He doesn’t want us to succeed.”