NashIA4

Passing Evan a sheet of paper, Ronnie yawned widely. Morning had come a little too early. "Here's today's hot sheet, Inspector. Looks like the car that was used in that liquor store hold-up was found last night." He passed a copy to Harvey then headed upstairs for some coffee.

Glancing at the sheet, Evan was about to drop it onto his desk when a license number caught his eye. Reading the familiar number, his face paled. "Oh, man."

Looking up, he noticed that Harvey was having the same reaction. Evan sidled over to Harvey's desk and leaned close to his partner so they wouldn't be overheard. "What are we going to do, Harv?"

"We're gonna be grateful neither of us have ever been fingerprinted, for one thing." Harvey leaned back in his chair with a sigh and ran a hand through his curly hair. "Just pray Nash never finds out that we drove that car."

Seeing Nash and Joe approaching, Evan went back to his own desk and pretended to be hard at work on his computer. From the corner of his eye, he could see Harvey doing the same.

Sitting down, Nash began to go through the pile of papers on his desk. It seemed to grow higher every day. After reading one report, attached to the hot sheet, Nash frowned in puzzlement. "Hey, Joe. They found the stolen car that had been used in the hold-up of Bayside Liquor. Here's the odd thing: they found fingerprints that matched the owner and the two suspects that had been picked up, but they apparently found two other sets that don't match. We know there were only the two involved in the robbery. I wonder if two bozos found the car after it was abandoned and took it for a joy ride?"

"Beats me, Nashman." Joe pecked at his keyboard. He had his own worries, without trying to figure out the criminal mind.

Nash glanced over to say something to Harvey and froze for a moment. Harvey and Evan both wore guilty looks, and if either of them slid any further down in his chair…he'd fall out of it. "Is there anything you two should be telling me?"

Harvey straightened in his seat and exchanged looks with Evan. Before he could form a reply, however, they were all distracted by a high-pitched bellowing from outside.

Standing to look through the glass doors, Nash tried to see the source of the noise. "What the hell is that?"

Shrugging, Joe got up and went outside to investigate, followed quickly by the others. Once outside, all he could see was Watch Commander Pommerance standing next to her marked SUV, ranting about something and waving her arms at the poor young man who'd been assigned to wash cars that morning.

After a few tries, Nash finally got her attention and managed to drag her away from the trustee. "What in heaven's name is the problem, Pommerance?"

"What's the problem? I'll tell you what the problem is. I left that vehicle to be detailed and I come back to find a coffee stain on the floorboard. Not only that, I find shotgun pellets on the floor this morning and noticed the weapon isn't in the position I had it in when I left it. I had it checked out and the mechanic said there had been repair work done to the vehicle."

As her rant progressed, Nash caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning around, he spotted Evan and Harvey slinking away. Dropping his head in his hand, he felt the beginning of a pounding headache. "Stop right there, you two."

Looking up, he shook his head when the two stopped and turned around. "TELL me you didn't."

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