MONDAY, AUGUST 21, PRESENT DAY
Hadley was headed toward the squad room to get her notes in order for the investigation team’s end-of-shift briefing, when the chief beckoned her into his office. He closed the door behind her—actually closed it, which he never did—and pointed at the chairs opposite his desk. Since one was stacked with magazines, papers, and what appeared to be crushed brown lunch bags, she took the other, feeling sick to her stomach.
The chief sat opposite her. He pulled a sheaf of papers off his desk and held it up to her. “Have you seen this?”
DYLAN KNOX v. KEVIN FLYNN and MILLERS KILL POLICE DEPARTMENT
She swallowed. “Yes. I was served last night.”
He gave her a look. “I got my copy this morning, at the mayor’s office. I wasn’t happy to be sandbagged.”
“I’m sorry, Chief, I didn’t think—”
He held up his hand. “Before you go on, I need to let you know you’re entitled to have a union rep here for this discussion. Do you want to reschedule for when you can get someone?”
“What? No!” Her sick stomach yawed open, as if she were standing on the edge of a long and fatal fall. “Am I being fired? Oh, God. I didn’t know— What do you want me to do? Tell me, I’ll do it. I need this job, Chief. Please don’t let me go.”
He jerked back at her last words. Opened his mouth. Closed it. Set the summons flat on his desk. When he finally spoke, his voice was gentle. “You’re not getting fired, Knox. I’m not even putting you on administrative leave. Yet. I just want to figure out what we’re dealing with here. Your ex”—he tapped the papers with a couple of fingers—“alleges you and Kevin conspired to plant meth in his luggage.”
“That’s not true.”
“What part? The conspiracy? Planting the meth?”
Hadley shook her head, less a denial than to dispel the questions coiling like smoke inside her head. “This is what happened. Dylan had taken my kids to the Algonquin Waters while Flynn and I were in Albany working an investigation. He didn’t have my permission to remove them from my house and I was afraid he might be making a run with them back to California. We drove from Albany to the hotel, we talked our way past the desk clerk, and we got Hudson and Genny out of there.”
“Did you flash your badge to get it?”
“No, Chief. We didn’t identify ourselves as cops, and we were in our civvies.”
He tapped the papers again. “Your ex alleges you two roughed him up.”
“I never touched him. He started to get scary and out of control, and Flynn got him into a hold. Just long enough for me and the kids to get out into the hall.”
“What about the meth allegation?”
She spread her hands to give herself a moment. “The case we were working on involved meth. Maybe I mentioned it? I know I didn’t have anything on me that I could have snuck into Dylan’s stuff. And as far as I know, Flynn didn’t either.” That was true. She had suspicions, but she didn’t know.
“Were you and Kevin ever separated from each other? Did either of you have any time alone with your ex?”
“I left the room with the kids while Flynn had Dylan restrained. They had, I don’t know, maybe fifteen, twenty seconds before Flynn followed me into the hall? But he’d been near the door, and was dealing with a really pissed-off guy. I honestly can’t see how he could’ve planted anything on Dylan.”
“In the luggage. The notice claims the packets were in the luggage.”
“That’s less probable than slipping it into Dylan’s pocket, then.”
“Did you or Kevin see your ex after that night? Before he left for the Albany airport?”
“No.”
The chief paused, pressing two fingers against his lips. “I don’t want to get into your personal life—”
Hadley couldn’t help it, she barked out a laugh. “Chief, my personal life’s been smeared from one end of this department to the other.”
He flipped open a hand, conceding the point. “How would you characterize your relationship with your ex-husband?”
“Poor.”
“Hostile?”
“For me? I feel less hostile toward him than … I just wish he’d go away and leave me and the kids alone.”
The chief’s eyes sharpened. “Go away as in, to jail on possession charges?”
“No!”
“He sent those tapes deliberately, Knox, to sabotage your job. He wanted everyone to know you used to…” He trailed off with a noncommittal gesture that might have meant anything from skip out on parking fines to run a dog-fighting ring. “The lawyers are going to see that as pretty compelling motivation for you to try to stick it to him.”
She’d been trying to sit up straight like a good student, but she found herself slumping against the seat, folding like she was going to toss in her hand. “I don’t know what to say. Except that I didn’t do it. All I wanted that night was to take my children out of there. I didn’t conspire or entrap Dylan or, or hit him or anything. I just got my kids and left.” If the chief didn’t have her back on this, she would be totally alone.
“I believe you, Knox.”
She jerked her head up. “You do?”
He smiled a little. “I do. Hopefully, we’ll be able to take care of this early, in the deposition stage, before it costs the town too much money.” He fixed her with one of his I’m counting on you looks. “I’d rather this doesn’t get around, either in the shop or in town.”
“Oh, I’m right there with you, Chief.”
“Okay.” He slapped his hands on his desk and rose. “Let’s get into the briefing and find out how much we still don’t know about our unsub killing.”