DYLAN
I have trouble getting close enough to the police department to park. There are news vans glutting the street on every side of the police station, and press are clustered there like flies on a melting candy bar.
They’re all waiting for Casey.
I park in the lot of an insurance company two blocks away and walk to the police station. I push through the media, and a cop tries to stop me before I get to the steps.
“I’m Dylan Roberts,” I say in a low voice. “Chief Gates has asked to see me.”
He makes a quick radio call inside the department, then lets me go by. I trot up the front steps, eager to get this over with so I can be where Casey is when she turns herself in. I pull open the door. There’s a charge of excitement in the air as cops stand in the front room looking out the glass doors toward the media, enjoying the drama. They don’t notice me. I head down the hall toward Chief Gates’s office. The secretary rises to her feet the second she sees me and scurries around the desk and into his office. “Chief, he’s here.”
Chief Gates doesn’t wait for me to come in. He’s at the door in a split second. “Get in here!” he says.
I hurry into his office as the secretary comes back out, and the chief slams the door shut. “Sit down!”
This is not looking good. I almost tell him he has no reason for the attitude, that he should be thanking me for exposing these monsters, but I stay quiet to see where this goes. I take my seat, and he goes back around the desk, drops into his own chair so hard that it slides back a foot. “I could arrest you for aiding and abetting a known fugitive, obstruction, conspiracy . . . But the truth is you’re the blasted hero in all this!” He says it with venom, as if he’s livid. “So do you want to tell me why you kept all this from me?”
I don’t let him ruffle me. “Because I didn’t know if you were part of this or not. It’s kind of hard knowing who I can trust when so much of the police department seems involved.”
“Seems being the key word,” Gates says. “Let me get this straight. You don’t think the chief of police needs to know that some of his major detectives are murderers? That they’re extortion artists? That they’ve made millions blackmailing people? That there are massive cover-ups that reach out to the highest level, including one of my captains and the district attorney? Are you kidding me?”
I sit there—arms crossed—rubbing my finger across my lip, waiting for his ire to die down. “Then you believe Casey’s allegations?”
“Believe them? Most of the world believes them. They came to the attention of the reporter before they came to my attention. How is that proper protocol, Dylan?”
“I told you why.”
Chief Gates looks pained. “We haven’t found Jim’s body yet. I’m hoping you were wrong about his death.”
“I’m not.”
He leans back in his chair and holds his head as if he’s got a splitting migraine. “You can’t tell me that Jim was involved in this.”
“He was,” I say. “He didn’t know about his son’s investigation into it or about them killing him, but he was involved in a lot of the other stuff. They were blackmailing him. I don’t even know how many years this has been going on or the extent of his involvement, or what they were holding over his head. But he told me it was blackmail.”
“I thought I cleaned house when I came on,” he says. “I didn’t know I fell right into his trap.”
“Keegan’s?”
“Yeah, Keegan.” Gates shakes his head and gets back up, walks to the window, and looks out at all the press assembling in front of the building. “He’s really good at what he does. He came to me as soon as I was appointed. Chummed up to me, offered his help in cleaning house, said there were a lot of cops that needed to be let go. Planted suggestions about things they had done. I let him plant those things in my head and it redirected me. Kept me from ever looking at him.”
I’m feeling less antagonistic now that I know he really does believe me. “Did you seriously not get any complaints over the years? Were there no businesses that complained that they were being shaken down? Were there no victims’ families who came forward and wanted to talk to you?”
“Honestly, no. The dry cleaner who died, his wife put in a call to me, but by the time I called her back she must’ve lost her nerve and she never answered the phone. I never could get in touch with her. And Rollins . . . I knew he drank. But it seemed like whenever he was working on a case he was sober, so I just let it go. I did fire four or five guys when I first came on the force, but now that I look back, they were some of the ones that Keegan directed me to fire. He made it sound like he was looking out for the brotherhood, trying to keep everything pure. He seemed like he was at the top of his game, and convinced me he was one of the best ones I had. I’m not proud of being duped that way.”
“So what are you doing about it now?”
“I have arrest warrants out for Keegan, Phillips, and Swayze, and we’re questioning some others that I’m pretty sure are involved, now that we’ve been investigating for the last ten hours.”
“So what does that mean for Casey?”
“She’s going to be charged with a few things, but I think they’re going to rescind the indictment for murder.”
“She doesn’t deserve to serve even one day in jail,” I say. “She was only trying to survive.”
“She fled prosecution. She stole identities, Dylan.”
“She couldn’t let him find her. Surely you can see that.”
“Her lawyers can bring all that up in court. A judge or jury might give her a pass because of her circumstances. Look, I’m just doing my job here. Because of the scrutiny and the suspicion against everyone who wears a badge here, I have to go by the book. Believe it or not, there are some of us who still want to do the right thing. Some of us who still think law enforcement is one of the most important things that keeps our country anchored.”
“Yeah, there are some of us who think that.”
“I’m sick that this happened on my watch, Dylan, and to be perfectly honest, I should probably resign. But I’m not leaving the police department in that kind of turmoil at a time like this. I’m going to stick with it at least until we get this mess cleaned up, and then I’ll reassess. But I need you being perfectly honest from this moment on about all of this. I need you going over everything you know with me. I don’t want to get my information from the news.”
“Understood,” I say. “But before we get to work, I want assurances. I want to know that Casey is safe. I want the list of people who have access to her while she’s in custody to be limited. Only the people you absolutely trust.”
“We’re putting her in lockdown,” he says. “Her attorney is hard-nosed. He’s negotiating every detail of her surrender, making sure we don’t make her a bull’s-eye for Keegan.”
“The PD has handed her over to him before.”
Gates sears me with a look. “If you’d told me the truth, Dylan. Not part of the truth . . .”
“You wouldn’t have believed me. You said it yourself. You’ve fallen for his schemes before.”
His voice breaks. “There’s enough blame to go around. Let’s not get sidetracked. Casey’s going to be safe. And hopefully she’ll be bailed out soon and get out of here. Believe me, the sooner we get rid of the media, the better.”
“Her family isn’t safe either,” I say. “We need to move them to a safe house.”
He sighs. “All right. The state police just acquired a new house. Keegan wouldn’t know about it because we haven’t used it yet. I’ll call them and get access. Let the family know to pack, that we’re coming.”
“I want to take them,” I say. “I want to make sure they’re safe. I promised Casey.”
Chief Gates folds his hands. “That’s another thing, Dylan. Your relationship with Casey is a huge concern of mine.”
I stiffen. “My relationship with her is none of your business.”
“Actually, it is. I hired you.”
“I figured you tore up the paperwork when you called me off.”
“I didn’t. You’re still on our payroll. Your relationship muddies the waters.”
“Then I’ll quit. I’m not hiding anything anymore. Everything is on the table. We can tear up those papers. You don’t have to pay me a cent.”
Gates groans as his phone buzzes. He picks up, listens, then says, “I’ll be right there.” He looks at me. “She’s a few minutes out.”
My gut hitches. “You’re not going to make her walk through those people, are you?”
“No. Barbero made sure. I have to go. You can go with the patrol officers to move Casey’s family. That’s fine. But we need to talk about one more thing.”
“What?” I ask.
“I’m obviously going to need to replace some of my detectives,” he says. “I think you’ve proven that you have what it takes. Besides, you could pass the detective exam hands down. I’ve got to give you the test as a formality, but I’m promoting you to detective. I need you working immediately to help me strategize how we’re going to clean house and how we’re going to round up every single person who’s involved in this cover-up and all these crimes.”
I’m flabbergasted. I wish I could call Casey and tell her about this. She would be as stunned as I am. “Thought you didn’t trust me.”
“Wrong, Dylan. You’re about the only one in this outfit I do trust. I need you.”
“Okay, then,” I say. “I would be honored to come to work for the police department, as long as you don’t try to dictate my love life.”
He studies me. “So you and Casey are serious? In all this mess, you’ve had time to build that kind of relationship?”
“I don’t want to get into that with you. If it’s an issue, I don’t want the job.”
He lets out another sigh. “You just have to understand that we’re not going to change the way we handle her based on your feelings for her. We have to go textbook on this.”
“That’s fair,” I say. “She’s innocent, after all.”
“So go take care of her family. Then get back here and help us with all this.”
When he reaches out to shake my hand, I shake. “You got it, Chief.”
I feel a little more buoyant as I walk back down the hall.