The Fed Gets Acclimated

 

 Agent Carol Danvers (The Fed) catches up on things.  Chief Lynch leaves her to it, but remains available for questions. 

Lynch: My husband's on the way with lunch.  I told him to bring something for you, too.  

Carol: Thanks.  I can see why you were reluctant to trust the County, after the debacle with Glimma Spiro.  Do you think Charlie Lake was honest with you about her investigation? 

Lynch: The powers that be in the county are crazy for publicity, but after the whole Spiro thing, they've been better at sharing information.  We have her file on the Animal Abandonment, but I've not seen them.  They just aren't a priority with two murders on my desk.  

Carol: So you don't think there's a connection? 

Lynch: Not after Helena.  If there is one, I can't find it.  Both women were... well, I phrased it on my list there as strong personalities.  Which reminds me (checks time) that I have a person of interest coming.  She tangled with both victims, but mostly Helena. 

Charlotte: Seriously?  You think I killed those two? 

Lynch: You do have a contentious history with both of them, but especially Helena Malfoy. Why don't you tell us about that? 

Charlotte: You already know the story with Helena.  Charlie Lake started in on me after I made an honest mistake.  I saw a man who I mistook for my brother-in-law, pointing a telescope at my penthouse, and confronted him. 

Lynch: Rubeus Hagrid, who also works for Doll County Parks.  (To Carol)  It turned out that Mr. Hagrid is, in fact, distantly related to the brother-in-law, but the telescope was only pointed toward Mrs. Jackson's building coincidentally. There's a very strong resemblance, apparently.

Charlotte: I'm going through a custody battle.  I thought he was spying on me. But even after my lawyer sorted everything out and all was forgiven, Charlie Lake would not let it go.  She never failed to make a snide remark if we met, and we did often.  

Carol: Such as? 

Charlotte: She asked me if I'd slapped any more total strangers.  She made it a point to splash with her sons in the pool at the country club, near where I was sitting.  Things like that. Deliberately baiting me, you know.  I just ignored her as best I could.

Carol: And what's the story with Helena Malfoy?  I'm new here, and I don't know it. 

Charlotte: She bullied me horribly when we were children, her son destroyed property I owned, my husband is a coma patient and one of Helena's daughters is a volunteer there.  I had to tell the hospital to keep her away from Billy for fear she'd do something to him. 

Carol: The daughter might do something?  Or Helena?

Charlotte: Helena would be behind it, of course, but she wouldn't dirty her own hands.  She'd make the daughter do it.  

By the time Charlotte leaves, Sulu has arrived with lunch.  

After lunch.

Carol: Usually, if a civilian discovers the identity of a client, we move him.  But Mr. Higgins will only work with us on the condition that he stays in Barbieville.

Pern: Sounds just like him.   

Carol: From what I've gathered, he came back here to woo his first wife but discovered she had passed away in the meantime.  I'm not sure why he's still insisting on being here. 

Pern: Yeah, he never did get over Kida.  Talked about her all the time, but never mentioned his daughters until I got pregnant.  He told me then that he had kids with her, that was why he left her, and he wanted me to get rid of Anakin.  I told him to get the hell out, then, and he did.  Next time I saw him was here, at the mayor's office.

Carol:  After the agent before me thought he could simply kick the man out of the program.  It was the only thing the mayor and chief could think to do, to keep the people after him away.  They couldn't risk you exposing him. 

Pern: I'm a great secret-keeper.  And after all the hate I got for being a junkie, moving here has been a godsend.  I'd hate for anything to happen to the people here.  Hank Higgins refused to eat at Sunburst when he found out they had a junkie for a cook, that's the official story. 

Carol: I'm impressed.  None of this bears on the hit-and-run cases, but since I'm apparently "his man" in the agency, I needed to know your status.

After Pern goes, they turn to the Animal Abandonment files from Charlie Lake's office. 

Carol (reading from computer): This video is edited together from doorbell cameras along Roberts Street.  Properties on that road meet the nature preserve at the rear.  See notes for specific contacts.

Lynch: That's not our SUV. 

Carol: Definitely not.