Day 8: 10,012 Total: 90,168

I think I'll be done with this novel within the next two days. Yay!

Today was filled with a lot of interesting bits and pieces again as my two people start piecing together just why everything has gone to hell for them. Here's part of a meeting for today's snippet:

"Let's go over the steps since Nic and I stepped into the case," Eli said. Nic nodded, rifled through some more papers and let Eli do the talking. "We weren't there for the first deaths. We came in with Tev. Tev lead us to the Pier and there we learned that there had been more deaths then we knew about in the city."

"And that's when someone tried to kill both of you," Dean said, leaning forward. "I think there's a link."

"Maybe," O'Donnell said. "But I've read your reports from that first night out on the Pier. I can't see that you had learned anything dangerous to someone else."

"But others wouldn't know that," Eli said. "Other people didn't have the same access to the Pier that Nic brought to the case. And once they realized he could get that access --"

"Go back," Nic said, suddenly feeling something click. He sat aside the papers and watched with amusement as the others watched him, waiting for answers. Apparently everyone had gotten desperate over this case. "We had investigated the other killings, just hadn't been to the scene. But it had all been normal until we showed up at the murder scene and found.... Tev. I knew Tev. I knew that he led us all the way back to the Pier."

"And once we headed straight for the Pier, people knew --" Eli stopped and Nic saw another moment of understanding cross his face. Eli put both hands on the table before him. "There's one piece we always thought wasn't related, but I suddenly get the feeling it is. My car went missing from the site. That wasn't just Donner and Blitzen doing something obvious and stupid, like throwing the rock at you."

"They wanted to keep us out of picture for a while," Nic said. He could almost feel it for the truth, even no where near the two. "They didn't take the car out of spite. They did it because it was the easiest way to make sure we didn't head straight to the Pier that day, and they probably just intended to kill us later, when there would be less notice drawn directly to them."

"They were mad that I had called Bryce in and drawn attention to them," Eli said. "And by doing that, they probably decided that killing us would be too blatant. They tried to warn us off."

"You two are assuming a lot here," Noble said, with a little glance at Promeyer, who had not said anything or even nodded so far. "There's no direct link to the two Militia and the drugs on the Pier."

Nic gave Promeyer a curious look and he finally shrugged and leaned forward. "I don't have anything that ties Donner and Blitz -- Donner and Belton into this case, but we all here know that I don't have much control over them, either, right? Someone of higher rank has kept them in the Militia despite the reports and warnings from the rest of us. Quite honestly, I've even stopped asking them to report in, though I do keep what tabs I can on the two. Chief Noble, I have no information that ties them to this case. But I would not be at all shocked to find out that they are involved."

Noble seemed to take that better. Nic hadn't considered the political situation here. He wondered how Dean and Castro felt, being the only two Feds in the room. And Dean looked at him and nodded.

"As long as we're doing true confessions, the Feds don't know that Castro and I are here. Our new boss is coming in today and everything is still chaos over there. By tomorrow or the next day -- well, we'll see if we're still working on this case with the rest of you."

Eli nodded. He looked back at Nic, frowning. "So what did the gain? As far as I can tell, everything stayed exactly the same from the time we hiked... out of the... hills. Oh shit."

Nic nodded. He looked at the others, measuring looks -- O'Donnell might have caught on, but then she would, under the circumstances.

"We caught a ride from the valley into town, and got here far quicker than we had expected to," Nic said. "And that's when we unexpectedly found Captain Franks and another man talking in the shadows outside the building."

"We surprised him," Eli said. "And he pulled his gun -- but it wasn't the surprise that did it. It was intent. What was it he said, Nic?"

"What are you doing here already. We took it to mean so early in the morning."

"You think Franks, Donner, Belton -- you think they're all involved with this psycho killer and the drugs?" Noble asked, and sounded rightfully disbelieving.

"I think they thought they were diverting us with the body in the hills," Nic said. "But I knew Tev, and that led us straight to the place they didn't want us to go. Donner and Belton were there, remember. They heard me tell Bryce that I knew him."

"That's still nothing but circumstantial and coincidental," Dean said. "As much as all of us would like to get Donner and Belton off the street, I don't see how you can tie this together."