The Flagler Hunt by Jeremy Burns

Author:Jeremy Burns
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fiction Studio Books
Published: 2019-02-20T16:39:21+00:00

Chapter 34

Detective Yang’s phone rang just as she left the Lightner Museum. Her first instinct upon seeing the caller ID was to ignore it, let it go to voicemail. But she knew she couldn’t do that. Against her better judgment, she answered.

“What is it, Weiss?”

“Yang? Sarge has been asking about you. He says you’re not answering his calls. Where are you?”

“Following up on a lead. It’s all connected, starting with this morning’s arson.” She gave him the Cliff’s Notes version of the string of vandalism incidents at sites built by Henry Flagler and what she had learned about his abandoned treasure hunt from Gavin Pereira.

Weiss let out an exasperated sigh. Despite the lack of syllables, she recognized the meaning. Her mother had long ago given her a graduate-level course on disappointed sighs.

“Look, kid,” he said. “I know you’re smart and I know you want to make a name for yourself. But come on. First you’re Columbo, and now you’re Indiana Jones, chasing buried treasure and cryptic legends.”

“I saw a piece of the gold myself,” she argued.

“Great. Regardless, we’ve got actual evidence to sift through from an actual murder scene. This is your chance to prove yourself, Yang. A very legitimate case with a pair of very serious crimes. But you’re throwing it all away for a Hollywood dream. This is real. A real opportunity. But if you don’t stop running off on your own, you’re going to lose it all.”

“Thanks, Dad,” she said, instantly regretting it. Weiss may have seemed obstinate to her, but then what did he have to go on? He hadn’t seen everything that she had today, hadn’t followed the clues and talked to the experts at Grace United Methodist or at the Lightner Museum. Furthermore, it was no secret that she was ambitious, perhaps too much for her own good at this stage in her career. She had yet to prove herself as a detective, and her first act when being handed a big case was to abandon protocol and her partner, going off on her own.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her conciliatory tone genuine. “I didn’t mean that.”

“Look, I haven’t told Sarge what’s going on with you yet, but this can still be fixed.” Weiss sounded less flustered than before, trying to bring her back into the fold as any good mentor would. “Come back to HQ and we’ll make this right, together.”

See, you need a man to fix your mistakes. Right on time. Her mother’s voice never failed to show up and heap her posthumous disappointment on top of Yang’s own problems. Even your partner knows you’re not cut out for this. Stop playing at being a detective and go be the nice girl I raised. You’ve wasted enough time with this silly dream. Give me a son-in-law and some grandchildren already.

She passed through the inner courtyard of the old Alcazar Hotel, into a block-wide plaza of concrete paths, statues and plaques celebrating long-dead luminaries, and a veritable maze of shrubberies. But beyond all that, across the street, the majestic red spires of Flagler College rose to pierce the darkening sky.

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