Dave Zeltserman - Outsourced

“I’m sure my design was sound. If there are any problems with that system, it must be in the implementation. But that’s what you get when all you care about is price and you have the software developed by the lowest bidder. Don’t worry about this, okay?”

“I’ll try not to. This whole thing is just so freaky. Especially that drawing looking so much like Gordon.”

Dan tried to make an innocuous comment. Standing up, he felt as if all his strength had bled out of him leaving him sluggish, like he had a bad flu. On their way downstairs, Carol knocked on both kids’ doors, telling them to come down for dinner. While they sat at the table together, Dan couldn’t look at his children and couldn’t stand the thought of them looking at him. He could barely lift his head enough to look past his plate. After the robbery, he had been mostly in shock. Now, the full magnitude of the events was hitting him.

Two people dead, another critically wounded, and it was his fault. Gordon, that young girl, both lying in a morgue now because of him. Because of him…

What did I do? he thought. Jesus Christ, what the fuck did I do?

Carol was telling the kids about the bank robbery, about how it was the same bank Dan had worked at only a month earlier. As she talked, he involuntarily shrunk inwards, as if her words were blows that he needed to protect himself against.

“Wow,” Gary said, “Dad, what would you have done if you were there today and a bunch of guys came in with guns?”

He could feel Gary’s eyes boring into him. Sitting there he felt dirty, diseased, as if he were contaminating his wife and children. He couldn’t stand it.

What the fuck did I do to myself? To them? What in the world did I do to them?

“I don’t know,” he said, his words catching in his throat.

Susie was now asking about the robbery. How could he just sit there and listen to them talk about it? How in the world could he possibly do that?

He pushed his chair away from the table.

“I’m not feeling well,” he told Carol. “I’m going upstairs to lie down.”

His wife’s brow furrowed the way it did whenever she was surprised. “Do you want me to bring you up the rest of your dinner?” she asked after a short hesitation.

“No, that’s okay, I really don’t have any appetite.”

He caught a glimpse of their faces as he turned from them. Carol showed mostly a mix of worry and confusion, maybe even a bit of the brittleness he had seen flashes of before. Susie was staring straight ahead, her features now pinched and angry. Even Gary seemed taken aback.

Jesus Christ, even without trying he was hurting them…

Moving slowly, he left the room and headed towards the staircase. His legs cold, dead, almost as if they were disconnected from his body. Looking up the stairs, he didn’t know how he was going to make it, but he had no choice. He needed to lie down and figure out a way to convince himself that things were going to be okay.

Captain Kenneth Hadley’s pale blue eyes did not look happy as Resnick entered the station. In fact, his soft round face seemed to be sagging under the stress of the day’s events. He indicated with a short wave for Resnick to join him in his office.

After Resnick took a seat across from him, Hadley asked his detective where he had been, his voice showing a touch of exasperation.

“I was getting a statement from Viktor Petrenko.”

“Walt’s been back over two hours.”

“Petrenko can be a tough man to track down.”

“In case you’ve forgotten we have had a bank robbery with two fatalities and another victim lying in intensive care with her stomach mostly gone. I need you working this case. I can’t have you running around on a personal vendetta.”

Resnick shrugged. “We needed to get a statement from Petrenko.”

“That could’ve waited.” He paused. “You didn’t do anything to get yourself or the department in trouble, did you?”

“Me? Of course not. I was very sensitive about his loss, letting him know that we would do everything possible to recover his stolen items.”

Hadley let out a lungful of air, the noise escaping from him in a slow hiss. “What did he have to say?” he asked

“Among other things, his safety deposit boxes were empty at the time of the robbery.”

“So he doesn’t want to tell us what was in them.”

“Probably for a damn good reason.” Resnick edged forward in his seat. “This shook Petrenko up. He’s desperate right now. God knows how much he lost, but probably worse for him, he can’t afford to let us find what was in those boxes. Let’s put him and his people under surveillance for a few days and see where it leads us.”

Hadley blinked several times while he stared dumbfounded at his detective. “Not a chance. We’re short-handed as it is. Every man I can free up is going to be working this bank robbery until it’s solved.”

“You’ve got no imagination, Ken.”

“Maybe not, but what I do have is everyone on my ass until we’ve cleaned up this mess.”

Resnick nodded blankly, realizing the futility of trying to argue. “We should put someone on the bank manager. Unless you want to end up with another dead body on your hands.”

“You think he’s involved?”

“I think Petrenko’s going to think so.”

“What about you?”

“I don’t know. The guys who did this found out Petrenko’s box numbers either from Petrenko himself or from someone inside the bank. I can’t imagine Petrenko letting anyone close enough to get that information from him. And you’ve also got someone in the bank shutting down their security system before the robbery and turning it back on afterwards.”

“You still haven’t answered my question. Is this bank manager involved?”

“Logically, he seems like he’d be the guy, but I don’t know. I couldn’t get a good feel one way or the other. Tom and Phil were still working on him when I left. Have you talked to them yet?”

“They’re still at the bank.” Hadley shook his head slowly, a pained expression washing over his face. “Maguire’s looking at the security videos. Why don’t you go join him? And tomorrow take another crack at this bank manager. I need to know if he’s involved. I need this mess wrapped up before I develop any more ulcers.”

“What about having someone watch over Brown?”

“I’ll take it under advisement.”

Resnick started to get up, stopped. “The body we found outside the bank – do we know who he is yet?”

“Not yet.”

Resnick nodded and left Hadley looking miserable, his pale blue eyes staring off into the distance. He found his partner alone in the video room – a windowless eight by ten foot room with a single VCR and monitor, all that the department could afford. A stack of videotapes lay in front of Maguire, who looked up briefly at Resnick with a sour smile before turning back to the monitor.

“Back from your personal errand, huh? Must be nice.”

“Not quite personal. I tracked down Petrenko for a statement.”

“No kidding? How’d that son of a bitch take the news?”

“Not good.”

“Damn, I wish you had brought me. It would’ve been worth the price of admission seeing his reaction. And I bet you had a hell of a lot more fun than what I’ve been going through.”

Resnick looked away, knowing what his partner was going to tell him.

“Margaret Williams’ parents came down to the station. Hadley, the fucking coward, had me break the news to them. I guess I can be thankful I didn’t have to escort them to the morgue.”

The one part of the job Resnick couldn’t deal with was breaking the news of a child’s death to the parents. At some subconscious level that was a good part of the reason he took off to find Petrenko, and probably also why it took him as long as it did to find Petrenko at that restaurant. Resnick knew if he had been back at the station Hadley would’ve roped him into notifying the dead girl’s parents.