Elena Gomez left the Sheraton not feeling any better about the situation that she was in. Lying to Kara—even lies of omission—had made her stomach twist painfully.
Damn Craig for bringing Kara back to testify! Maybe they needed her for the Chen hearing, but bringing her back put the most sensitive investigation in Elena’s career in jeopardy—and now her friend was dead.
What investigation? Without Craig, you have shit.
She drove to Hanks, a dive bar on Western, south of Third. It was far out of her jurisdiction, and didn’t cater to cops. When she’d grown up not far from here in Van Nuys, the neighborhood hadn’t been bad. Not great, but not bad. Now every storefront was a bar, dispensary or shuttered, every building covered with graffiti. She wasn’t in uniform, but gangs smelled cops, so she kept her eyes and ears open.
Inside, Lex was already at a table drinking whiskey. Usually, it was Lex and Craig waiting for her. Craig—who looked so out of place here it was almost laughable—liked the joint, said the bar felt more real than the upscale places his fellow lawyers preferred.
Elena was going to miss him. They’d bonded years ago over common beliefs in justice and the law, and had become friends. She was a few years younger than Craig and Lex, but they were of the same generation with the same sensibilities.
Simply, they respected each other.
Hanks was never busy at nine thirty on a Monday night, but there were a few people sitting in singles or pairs at the bar, and a group of four men played pool. The bartender—Cindy—was six feet tall, close to sixty, with tattoos covering every visible inch of skin except her face. If she’d made them as cops, she never said. She could hold her own, and no one gave her shit.
Sometimes, Elena stopped here alone on her way home and sat at the bar feeling sorry for herself. Failed marriage, fucked job, a daughter that Elena had saved up money to send to college who was on her fifth year at UC Berkeley and wanted nothing to do with her because Elena was a “fucking cop.” Her daughter had said that to her face and it hurt. A son who planned to enlist in the Marines as soon as he graduated high school, even though she pushed for him to go to college first. But Robby was stubborn. A lot like her.
Kara had listened to Elena practically cry over her daughter because there was no one else she felt comfortable talking to. The men on her squad didn’t understand or thought she was too sensitive. Lex told her that Lizzy would “come to her senses” when she got out into the real world. Her ex had remarried and thought Lizzy was going through a phase. And Robby didn’t talk to either her or her ex about much of anything. He had his friends, played football, and just waited for the day he could leave and fight other people’s wars.
Kara listened and didn’t offer platitudes.
When Kara learned the truth, she would never forgive Elena or Lex. Elena wouldn’t blame her.
Without even asking, Cindy brought over a draft beer for Elena. Lex ordered another double whiskey.
“Well, fuck,” Lex said when Cindy walked away.
“She’s going to figure it out,” Elena said.
“You told her about the FBI, right? The portal?”
“Yeah, and I filled in Costa. He’s all over it. He has the reputation of a bulldog, he won’t let it go.”
“Still fucked,” Lex grumbled and drained his whiskey. They were using the portal as a diversion to keep Kara out of their business.
“How long have you been here?” Elena asked.
“Long enough to be halfway to drunk. You can drive me home or I can Uber. Shit, shit, shit. Kara knows something’s up. This morning, she gave me that look—you know the one she gets when she’s twisting things around in her head because they don’t fit.”
“Gave me the same look,” Elena mumbled and sipped her beer. “I can’t believe Craig is dead.”
“Makes no fucking sense. Chen had enemies. I can buy that someone would take him out. He was sniffing around both Craig and the AUSA talking about making a deal—he knew shit, and that shit got him killed. But why Craig?”
She had been wondering the same thing. “According to Kara, he planned to convene a grand jury this week. That tells me he was closer than we thought to finding out who’s behind the nonprofits he’s been investigating. Why wouldn’t he have told us?”
“He’s been unusually quiet lately. I called Peter, asked him to come by. Maybe Craig talked to him.”
“Dammit, Lex, last week Craig said we didn’t have enough for the grand jury. What’s changed?”
Lex shook his head. “I was thinking about how Halliday’s name came up today. What if she found the missing link in city hall records and told Craig?”
“Why did she run? She’s in the wind. I was skeptical about using her—even though Craig assured us there were precedents—she’s too emotionally involved. She’s edgy and ready to explode. And I don’t know about the legality of what she’s been doing in city hall.”
“I trust Craig,” Lex said. “He worked closely with her. Without Violet, we wouldn’t even have known that there were deleted files.”
Eight months ago, right after Chen was arrested, a huge swath of files had been wiped off government servers. It had made a big splash in the press for a day, then the story disappeared. At first, no one suspected anything other than a computer crash. But Violet had uncovered something potentially criminal—an admin code had been used to erase multiple files over a three-year period right before the system crashed. When they were able to rebuild the system and download backups, files were missing—all files that had to do with the Los Angeles City Housing Grant program.
As far as Elena knew, she had never figured out who had done it, and was still working on recovering the files. Craig had taken information Violet had uncovered and was using it to quietly investigate city officials—both elected politicians and city staff—to determine who, if anyone, had profited from grants that were supposed to go to homeless housing projects. Tangentially, he was reviewing all projects approved by the city council to build housing, and the costs incurred—that meant reviewing proposals, contracts, and finding out if there was fraud, nepotism or padding in any of the projects. It was painstaking work.
Why Craig was rushing this now, Elena could only speculate. Maybe there was a statute of limitations they were butting against, or maybe he finally found the smoking gun. That Violet was now missing was worrisome.
“Do you think she’s okay?” Elena asked.
“Quinn?”
“Violet.”
Lex shrugged. “I called Will, he’s still looking for her. She called him this afternoon, told him that she saw Chen shot on the street. He was going to pick her up, but she wasn’t where she said she’d be. Left her cell phone behind. One of the homeless women that Violet befriended told Will a couple of thugs she’d never seen before were harassing the homeless. They spooked Violet and she disappeared ten minutes before Will got there.”
“Maybe she recognized the shooter.”
“Why didn’t she tell Will? Come to the station? She’s been working with us for months, could have called any of us direct. She didn’t, and that makes me suspicious.”
Lex glanced up and Elena followed his gaze to the door. Peter walked in, looked around uncomfortably. Lex motioned for him to come over.
“When you said dive, you meant it.”
“The good kind,” Lex said.
“I didn’t know there was a good kind.”
Cindy came over and asked for orders. Lex nodded for more and Elena knew now for certain she would be driving him home. She got a second beer, Peter asked for Scotch on the rocks.
“I still can’t get into Craig’s office,” Peter said after Cindy delivered the drinks. “I went there after I talked to his ex—she was in shock, I didn’t want to leave her until her sister came over.”
“They were still close,” Elena said. “Not all divorces end in lifelong conflict.” She also had an okay relationship with her ex.
“The desk guard said the floor will be open at seven tomorrow morning. I’ll go through his files, messages, see what I can find.”
“It has to do with our investigation,” Elena insisted. “Kara said that Craig’s dying words were to talk to Will Lattimer.”
“Why not me? Or you?” Lex frowned, stared into his drink.
“You’re missing the point,” Elena said. “He told Kara enough about our investigation that she’s going to sniff around. She was there when he was stabbed. She’s not walking away.”
“I told Will to avoid her,” Peter said. “Buy us some time to figure out what we’re going to do.”
“We’re fucked,” Lex said. “And the only person with the power to take these bastards down is dead.”
They might have something to their advantage. “No one knows that we’re running an undercover operation,” she said.
“No one?” Peter said, eyebrow raised.
“You know what I mean. We’ve kept this tight. Whoever killed Craig didn’t want him opening a full grand jury investigation. No one else has the balls or seniority to do it, so they probably think the investigation will die with Craig.”
“It does,” Lex said.
“We need control of his murder investigation. We solve that crime, we get motive—motive is covering up public corruption, we just need to prove it. We dump it all in the open. The key is finding Violet, figure out what she told Craig or what she was going to tell him. Maybe she finally had the proof he was looking for about who in city hall was behind the computer purge.”
Elena turned to Peter. “You need to get all of Craig’s files first thing in the morning when they open the floor. Who can we take this to? What DDA will pursue this?”
“I’ll think on that,” Peter said. “But—I know you’re going to hate this idea—but it is a public corruption case. Maybe we turn it over to the AUSA.”
“No,” Lex and Elena said simultaneously.
“Hear me out—the feds have the resources to get the warrants without pussyfooting around as Craig had been doing.”
“The feds will take years to investigate,” Elena said. “We have eight months in, and we’re so close. I’m not giving it to them. Do you know how long it took them to investigate the last public corruption case, down in Long Beach? Twenty-seven months. Craig was adamant we keep this in-house. I’m going to honor his wishes. And don’t forget—we all agree that it was a fed who leaked to Chen about the raid. They get this case, they could bury it.”
“I agree with Elena,” Lex said, “but even if we put this together with another DDA, I suggest we first talk to Costa. Kara is a good judge of character, and she wouldn’t be working for his team if she didn’t trust him. He’s already looking into the raid—we can connect that with what we’ve been doing. Lay it out.”
Elena wanted to argue, but Lex was right.
“Okay,” she concurred, “but first, let’s exhaust all other options. I know a few DDAs that might take it if we can get more information from Violet.”
“We have to talk about the elephant in the room,” Peter said. “All the cameras were out near the park. Violet has the skill to take out any computer system, and was seen leaving the scene by a cop.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Elena said. “Violet Halliday? A killer? No.”
Lex concurred. “The shooting happened fast, without hesitation. Five shots, none missed. The bodyguard barely had time to react and didn’t get a shot off. What’s her motive?”
“If she doesn’t come forward soon,” Peter said, “the lead detective will have just cause to get a search warrant.”
“She’s scared. She’ll turn up tomorrow,” Lex said. “I’ll reach out to Will, see if he needs help.”
“I don’t think Halliday killed Chen,” Peter said, “but the evidence is pointing there. In addition to her skill set, she was seen running from the scene, and she’s now missing. Craig was worried that she wasn’t being careful enough in her work at city hall. She’s angry with the system and frustrated at the slow progress of our investigation. What if someone learned she was feeding us information?”
“And framed her?” Elena shook her head. “It would be an elaborate frame job. How did they know she would be in the park at the same moment that Chen was there? There are easier ways of taking her out.”
“If they know she’s a whistleblower, they can’t fire her. If they stage an accident and kill her, they don’t know where the evidence she might have is stored. Or even what she has. But if they know she’s working with Craig, they kill him, and take her out by making her less credible.”
“Possible, not plausible,” Elena said. “I think she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She could also be a target. Since she planned to meet with Craig today, maybe the killer was supposed to take her out as well.”
Lex drained his whiskey. “Now, the real elephant in the room. What are we going to do with Kara? She’s not going to be kept in the dark for long.”
Seven months ago, she, Lex and Craig had debated telling Kara about the investigation that started after she arrested Chen. But with the threat on her life and the fact that there was a corrupt FBI agent in Los Angeles, they decided to lateral her over to the FBI and run the investigation with another detective. It had been a win-win.
Craig was the only one who had objected. He’d wanted to bring her in from the beginning, but Lex and Elena held firm: for her safety, it was best to keep her completely out of the loop. Craig reluctantly went along with them.
“Let’s find Craig’s killer before Kara realizes we lied to her,” Elena said. “And hopefully, the information I gave Costa tonight will keep them both busy.”
Lex caught Elena’s eye and she knew exactly what he was thinking. Kara was not going to sit back and wait for answers.
Conrad sat on the balcony of the condo he had been using since arriving in Los Angeles nearly eight months ago when hired to clean up a nasty mess made by nasty people. He sipped a full-bodied cabernet and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the city. He’d been here before. He’d killed here before.
But he wouldn’t want to live here.
He smiled as he closed his eyes and relived excellence.
He was a patient man. One had to be in his business. Planning each moment, thinking through contingencies, having an alternative escape route if the first failed. The murder itself was almost incidental. It was the whole that he cherished: plotting, waiting, killing, escaping.
That Detective Quinn chased him was quite exhilarating.
Conrad hadn’t known she would leave with the target, but it was a possibility, so he had prepared. He saw them exit Dyson’s office, talking urgently. Quietly. Quinn wasn’t happy about something, and Dyson looked...troubled. Had he sensed the end was near? Did he fear his life?
Choosing the courthouse to kill him wouldn’t have been his first choice, but if he wasn’t dead before he met with Violet Halliday, then Conrad wouldn’t receive the second half of his payment. His clients would fall and Conrad’s reputation would be tarnished.
He succeeded in his business because of his untainted reputation, so failure simply wasn’t an option.
Detective Quinn made the game more fun and exciting, but Conrad wasn’t stupid. He recognized that both she and Agent Costa were skilled and perceptive. They wouldn’t give up, so he had to be doubly careful.
His alarm beeped and he picked up his phone. Hit Marie.
“Daddy!” the happy voice said.
“I promised I’d call before bed. Tell me what you did today.”
Marie, in her exuberant preteen way, chatted about everything, from snorkeling on the reef to having lunch with her friends to watching the sunset with her nana.
“When are you coming home?”
“Darling, I’m always home.”
“You know what I mean.”
The exasperated tone reminded him that his little princess was quickly becoming a teenager. “I don’t make promises I can’t keep, Marie. You know that. I hope to be done with my business by Friday. I will call and update you when I can. Be good for Nana.”
“I will,” she said, sullen.
He didn’t spend enough time with his daughter. It was his greatest regret that his profession required him to be separated from his bright, beautiful child. But she was safe, she was well cared for, and because of the money he made doing dirty work for the rich, he could provide for her. And when he was done with this job, he would take a long hiatus. Perhaps even a year. Both he and Marie would enjoy the time.
“I love you, Marie.”
“I love you more, Daddy.” She kissed the receiver and ended the call.
No, darling, I love you more than you can possibly imagine.
He took a few moments to think about Marie and home, about what he could do to make up for this time apart. Perhaps an extended trip to New Zealand, where he had a home outside Queenstown. Marie hadn’t been there since she was a toddler; she would enjoy exploring.
He would need to disappear for a few months when this job was over, and no better place than halfway across the world.
Conrad didn’t allow himself to think too much about the upcoming trip. Violet Halliday was in hiding. The good news was the police hadn’t found her and Detective Quinn didn’t know her value. The bad news? He couldn’t leave until she was dead and he’d destroyed the evidence she had uncovered.
With one last look at the view, he turned and went inside to get back to work.