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won’t know until we
talk to him, will we?”
    Devlin blew out a deep breath.  “Get
your snack.  We need to get over to the hospital and start
interrogating suspects.”
    I sliced off enough roast to make two
sandwiches.  “You drive,” I offered one to him.  “I need
to focus on eating something without getting sick.”
    “ You’re looking a little
pale.”
    Juicy beef melted on my tongue.  So
far, so good.  “Probably just a bug.  Or nerves. 
Who’s in charge from Central Division on the scene?”
    “ Didn’t I make that
clear?  It’s your old buddy Charlie Haverston.”
    I grinned.  “Fantastic.  He’s a
hell of a detective, Dev.  You’re gonna love him.  I
should call him and get a status update on what’s going on over
there.”
    “ That isn’t all you should
know before we arrive, Helen,” he said slowly.  “Infant
abduction is a big deal.  Every cop in the city is on this
one.”
    “ Meaning?”
    “ Briscoe,” he said. 
“Still giving Crevan the cold shoulder.  I told him he should
be the one to come pick you up, but you know how he can be
sometimes.”
    “ Stubborn to the bitter
end.  Good for him not letting that over aged troll chase him
away from our case.  Thank God Haverston is in charge for the
city’s effort.”
    “ Well, they issued an
Amber Alert.  Word is that the local FBI field office is
sending someone from Montgomery.”
    That pulled a groan from deep in my
gut.  “Do you know who it is?”
    “ I think Crevan said his
name is Preston.”
    “ Hmm.  Never heard of
him.”
    “ There’s a whole lot of
field offices filled with even more field agents, Helen.  This
is standard operating procedure for a child abduction.  The
feds always wrest jurisdiction from the local and state
police.”
    “ It’s supposed to be a
cooperative effort.  I get your meaning, though.  I was
never comfortable with our tendency to swoop in at the eleventh
hour and take control.  How much time do we have before this
guy shows up?”
    “ It’s a four hour drive
from Montgomery.”
    My eyebrows lifted.  “He’s not flying
in?”
    “ Budget concerns,
Helen.  That and I got the distinct impression that this guy
is more interested in how the bureau can use this situation to
leverage Datello.”
    “ Unbelievable,” I mumbled
around another bite.  There is a finite amount of crucial time
when a child is missing, even if it is a case of custodial
interference.  They’re wasting it plotting how they can use
this to squeeze more information out of Datello on
Marcos.”
    “ Speaking of that finite
clock, we won’t have a whole lot of time to do this our way before
Agent Preston shows up and limits what we can
accomplish.”
    “ Which is why you decided
to drag me out of retirement.  Or do I have my better half to
thank for this development?”
    Devlin chuckled.  “We weren’t able to
get ahold of him.  Apparently there’s some sort of thing going
on at the governor’s place tonight.  Crevan said he’d take the
heat if Johnny is pissed off about our decision.”
    “ I suspect he won’t mind
one little bit, particularly since he’s not here to butt heads with
the FBI.  Although, I suspect he’d be in the middle of the
case and relegate the political wrangling to Chris.”
    “ Our thought
exactly.  Chris is already at the hospital, setting up a
command center for the joint effort between the FBI and OSI. 
He’s planning to follow their abduction playbook while we do things
quickly and quietly.  It might be optimistic or maybe naïve of
me to think that we could close this thing before the suit shows
up, but there you have it.”
    “ Dev, these cases are more
complex than I think you realize.”
    “ Another reason why you’re
the perfect person to guide us.  You’ve probably seen more of
them than everybody in law enforcement in Darkwater Bay
combined.”
    Since Johnny was gone, I had to agree. 
I tossed the remnant of my sandwich out the window