Chapter Text
Part 66 - Movement
Ian woke and stared at the room around him in confusion. Oh right, he was in the hotel room in Boone. Jason was in the hospital and the whole thing was SNAFU.
Checking his watch, he saw that he had slept until mid-afternoon. He blinked at the ceiling until he remembered what he'd realized just before he'd fallen asleep. While he didn't have any ideas on tracking who had shot Jason, he could investigate who had shot that beater a few years ago at the big party. The ballistics matched so at least that would tell him what gun had shot Jason now.
After a long shower, Ian got himself together and went into the hotel room that Jason's team was using as its headquarters. The linguist Nejem had been replaced by communication specialist Creek again. Ian was relieved. Creek was a lot less likely to ask probing personal questions.
Specialist Kelly was sitting on the bed, however, eating a sandwich. Ian remembered how Kelly had flushed to the roots of his red hair when he tried to reassure Ian that the team was okay with Jason being in a relationship with a man. Kelly was looking like he wanted to say more on that subject. Ian could understand that they were protective of their team leader, but Ian didn't feel like talking about it, and he couldn't think of a topic that would distract Kelly for long.
"Where is everyone?" Ian asked as he put together a sandwich from the makings on the table.
Creek looked up from his computer but it was Kelly who answered. "Sen is at the cop's hospital. He's continuing to get better. Shesh is on creep watch. Nejem is with Hill. Agent Cooper is done with his thing in Raleigh and coming back this afternoon. He's going to meet up with Shesh on creep watch."
Kelly smirked and Ian knew Jason's team had noticed that Coop had been appreciatively eyeing Ash's curvy body. Well, Coop could mess around wherever he wanted. Ian would just have to trust that Coop wouldn't get too distracted from his monitoring of Father Lane.
"Any news?" Ian asked Creek.
"Nothing new," Creek said. "You sleep?"
"Yeah," Ian said. "Really hate hospitals, they mess up my circadian rhythms."
Creek nodded.
"I'm going to go…" Ian sighed as he realized. "I'm going to go join your chatty linguist at the hospital with Jason. Maybe I can ask her to teach me about aboriginal writing."
Smirking, Creek glanced at his tattoo of aboriginal writing that Ian had mistaken for Cherokee. "Might divert her for a while."
"Divert her from what?" Kelly asked.
Creek snorted. "Other people's love lives. Her second favorite subject after linguistics."
"Oh," Kelly said, his eyes resting on Ian, his cheeks starting to heat.
"I'm going to take my sandwich to go," Ian grumbled and headed to the door. "Gonna check in with the sheriff. Car still available?"
"Your getaway car awaits," Creek laughed.
Ian sat in the car in the parking lot and ate his sandwich. It was nice not to have to think about where to get his next meal. He was really enjoying the benefits of having a team working around him. Well, it was mostly benefits.
When finished, Ian brushed the crumbs outside for the birds and drove to Sheriff Hamilton's office.
The sheriff frowned thoughtfully as Ian asked him for details about the death of the beater.
"Don't know much more I can tell you," Hamilton said. "The investigation was pell-mell rushed, with all those big shots there. Didn't want the death of a local to ruin their party."
"Did the beater-- Did Almonte have family?"
"Yeah, wife and kids. Town put together a fund to help them."
"Maybe I should go talk to her," Ian said, then winced, remembering his fraught conversations with Scott's widow, Emily.
"She done took her kids back North to live with her ma."
"Okay," Ian said. He paused then asked the question he didn't want to. "What are you doing with Scott's videos?"
Hamilton leaned back in his chair. "Shouldn't be telling you any. But we're looking at them, trying to build a timeline of victims and see how it matches up with Lane's time in Boone. We're about to start reaching out to people Scott named." He sighed. "Not gonna be pretty."
"No," Ian agreed. "Lane know about Scott's videos?"
The sheriff slowly shook his head. "Hope not. Trying to keep a lid on it. Gonna rattle Boone when people hear." He grimaced. "No, it's gonna split Boone down the middle and be a mother-loving can of worms. Most people won't be believing it. Lane is well-liked around here."
Ian grimaced in sympathy. There wasn't much to do but move forward with the investigation and let people believe what they chose to. What mattered most was what the legal system would believe.
"And you know Lane's higher-ups are going to jump in to smear Scott. If what Scott says is true - the church moved Lane when they suspected his crimes back when, then let him come back - they're in for a mess themselves. Best to poison the source."
Ian grimaced again, knowing that he might someday look back at today's calm as the good times. "Well, I'm going to go see Jason. Maybe he'll have some ideas about tracking Almonte's killer."
Frowning, this time in thought, Ian added, "Jason might have some ideas about the gun itself. He knows the bigwig circles, knows how guns move. I'll be the gun that shot the beater and Jason, that gun is as fancy as the bullets it shot." Ian remembered the beautifully formed slug that had been pulled from Jason's gut. "Might be memorable."
"Maybe," Hamilton said, but didn't sound hopeful. "Be letting me know if he has any ideas."
"Will do."
Ian left the sheriff's office and headed to North Lakes Hospital. When he got to Jason's inner room, he found Jason sitting up in bed and Nejem reading to him from one of the books that Ian had left there.
Jason's face brightened when he saw Ian. Ian's heart made an unexpected flip at Jason's smile and Ian had to take a beat to calm himself. He had worried that Jason would want to even be around Ian now that Ian knew Jason's secret, but Jason only looked welcoming.
"How're you feeling?" Ian asked when his voice would be steady.
"About as worthless as gum on a boot heel," Jason said with a wry smile.
"His numbers are looking good," Nejem said, putting down the book. "The latest nurse said he was healing well."
"Good, good." Ian pulled a chair next to Nejem's.
"Any news?" Jason asked.
"You're probably more caught up than I am," Ian said. "I just sacked out for hours."
"All I do is sleep," Jason complained. "I'm itching to get out of here."
"I bet." Ian sat down and leaned towards Jason. "I've been trying to think how we could figure out who shot Almonte." To Nejem, Ian said, "The beater that died at that party."
"The ballistics that match the gun that shot Jason," Nejem confirmed.
"Yeah. I was thinking that the rifle might be as fancy as the bullet they pulled out of you. What do you know about how high-end guns move around here?"
Jason frowned. "Not as much as I used to. There's gun shows but the really nice ones are being kept in families or being given as gifts to politicians or important members of the community."
Ian frowned. "So we're back to family members again? Just how many Hills and Robinsons are in this town and how much do they hate you?"
"No idea," Jason said with a crooked smile. "But Family Reunions are big and fancy and held at Boone Hall."
"Eww," Nejem said.
Jason gave an uncomfortable shrug and said to Ian, "Plantation."
"Oh," Ian said, then made an exaggerated sigh. "Jase, couldn't you have been an orphan?"
Nejem snorted.
Jason smiled wryly. "Used to be pretending I was adopted and I wasn't related to none of these. Told folks my real last name was Jackson."
Ian chuckled.
Nejem looked with delight between Ian and Jason, and whatever was showing on their faces.
Ian sat back and cleared his throat. "So, Mr. Jackson, Corporal Nejem, I interrupted your reading. Go on."
Nejem held up the mystery she'd been reading out loud. "This your book?"
"Yeah, got it from a sharing library downstairs."
"Do you want me to start from the beginning?"
"Naw," Ian said. "I've already read it."
"Besides," he added with a smirk. "I'm used to arriving in the thick of things and figuring out the mystery from there."
"Ah," Nejem said, pointing playfully at him. "I bet you are. I've heard a lot about you. They call you in for all sorts of problems."
Jason cleared his throat. "Corporal, the book?"
Giving Ian a smile that promised her interrogation was only delayed, Nejem reopened the book.
Some hours later, Nejem was still reading. She was really good at doing all the voices and accents. Jason was picking at his dinner, though it was the highest quality hospital food that Ian had ever seen.
Nejem and Ian had been offered catered meals as well and couldn't say no, though Nejem's was mostly growing cold as she read out loud.
Ian's phone buzzed, startling him.
It was a text from Coop. Get sheriff to st michaels asap
Frowning, Ian read the text out loud to Jason and Nejem and stood up.
But before he could lift the hospital phone to call the sheriff, the next text froze him mid-reach.
Looks like father lane needs to make a confession