Cliffhanger Theater!

“Evening Jonas.”

Officer Jonas Bernard looked up and saw Will Hetfield looking over the Grand Prix.  “Hey detective.  I thought you were on the Stevens case.  What brings you here?”

“Tina tells me the captain wants us to find the owner of this car.  I have reason to believe the two might be connected.”

“Oh?  I just though we were looking at this car in connection with the 229 accident?”

“The 229 accident?”

“We’ve had a few calls about a red Pontiac driving erratically, and a HyVee gas attendant spotted the car an hour or so ago.  She said a man came in to buy two drinks, but he was behaving oddly.  Some witnesses to the 229 accident reported a red Pontiac exiting the interstate shortly after the hi-po went off road.  You think the two we’re looking for are also involved in Stevens’s murder?”

Hetfield looked at the backseat, then at Jonas.  “Nah, not really.  I just heard some scuttlebutt that the captain was acting oddly and that we were looking for these two for reasons that nobody knew, so I thought it was worth checking out.  Tina can handle the crime scene for a few minutes, plus some FBI guy showed up.”

“Jonas, look at this.” came the voice from inside the car.   Jonas and Hetfield looked in the car, where another officer was holding a tiny origami butterfly.  “I found it on the dash.  Did you ever see one that small before?”

***

Mokoto sat down.  She took a long drink from her beer, and looked at Jeremiah and Jebediah.  She didn’t care for working with them, but missions where she didn’t have to actually spend time with them were always better.  Jeremiah sipped from a glass, and looked around.  “So, we need to decide our next move.  The boss wants an occluded front.”

“Doesn’t it bother you two that he insists on using weather terms to give us our orders?”

“With so many governments trying to track him down, a certain degree of misdirection is key.  Besides, I’ve tried to look at is as a learning experience.”

“I don’t really get this order.” Jebediah admitted, while Jeremiah took a breath.

Mokoto took a long drink, knowing that the ever talkative Jeremiah would take this one.  “Well, in our terms, we have to work together, and be unpredictable.  An occluded front in nature is usually home to a wide variety of weather.”

Mokoto slammed down her bottle.  “It also usually leads to a drying out, something we’re not doing now.”

“Relax Mo.  We need to give the local authorities a chance to sort through things, then we make our move in the late night hours.  We’ll be out of town by morning.”

“Don’t call me Mo.  You know I hate that.”

“Mokoto, we think you should hit the morgue and check on Gerrard.”  Jebediah said this with no inflection or emotion, but almost as an order.

Mokoto glared at him.  “What makes you think I should do that.”

“Well…” Jeremiah started, but Mokoto put her hand up .

“No, I want him to answer.”  Jebediah said nothing.   She stood up and reached into her jacket.