Rebecca Chavez called Sloane into an unscheduled meeting at ten that morning. There were several people already in the room, including Bryce Thornton, Tom Schroder, two other agents and Rebecca’s assistant.
“I’ll make this brief. You’re here because you are all working on cases that aren’t priority, and we need to expedite an investigation,” Rebecca began.
“As you have heard, David Chen, a suspected human trafficker, was shot and killed yesterday outside the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown LA.” Rebecca handed out a timeline printed on LAPD stationery. “Mr. Chen was on his way to a hearing his attorney requested to have evidence suppressed that may have been wrongfully obtained by the LAPD detective who led the investigation. We have our own investigation into Mr. Chen and his businesses, and the LAPD has been less than forthright in sharing information with us, both during their investigation and the prosecution, and now a murder investigation.
“Under normal circumstances, Bryce would be in charge of coordinating our involvement, but because of interoffice politics—which is, honestly, exhausting and rather ridiculous—Bryce has been removed from any investigations involving LAPD Detective Kara Quinn. He’s here in an advisory capacity because he has historical information that would be beneficial for you to understand. I’ll be coordinating our efforts.”
Agent Schroder asked, “Are we now lead on the homicide?”
“I’m working on that. What I would like is a task force between our office and LAPD, but they rarely agree to coordinating efforts. However, we have an ongoing investigation into Mr. Chen and his business associates, and we need information from the homicide investigation to assist us in bringing all involved to justice.”
Rebecca assigned tasks to everyone—background, media reports, reviewing LAPD documents and more. “I’m contacting the lead investigator and his supervisor and hope to expedite a joint task force, but I want to be able to go into this with information and an action plan. Questions?”
Sloane had many, but she asked only one. “What would you like me to do?”
“Agent Wagner, yes—I’ll be calling on you to join me in any meetings today to take notes and follow up on action items. The next few days may go long, so be prepared.”
Rebecca dismissed everyone but Sloane. “We’re going downtown to talk to the AUSA and, hopefully, interview Detective Quinn. Bryce is certain that she is involved in Chen’s death. She has an alibi, but I don’t know how solid it is—I need to verify that myself. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the day she arrives in Los Angeles a suspect she threatened and nearly killed is murdered. She’s on record as having said she wished he’d broken his neck instead of his leg when he fell—or was pushed—from the roof.”
“I’m confused,” Sloane said. “Was Detective Quinn investigated for any of this?”
“Internal LAPD investigation,” Rebecca said dismissively. She motioned for Sloane to follow her to her office, then closed the door behind them and motioned for her to sit. “You’ve done a competent job since you were assigned to my squad. I like that you had experience in the real world before becoming an agent. You don’t act like a rookie.”
Sloane nodded, not knowing if she should thank her boss or not. She was a bit nervous about being called in—especially in light of her meeting this morning with Costa and Granderson.
And Kara Quinn.
“This whole thing is a mess, and if LAPD were smart, they would let us take over. They’ve spent countless hours protecting Detective Quinn from any real scrutiny. Bryce opened an investigation into her after the Chen situation because her actions were deplorable, but it got shut down before we could interview her, and then Bryce was pulled into an OPR hearing. It was, frankly, a complete surprise.”
She paused, then said, “Between you and me, I think he’s too close to this. He can’t be objective when it comes to Detective Quinn. They’ve crossed paths before. LAPD Internal Affairs used to be competent, now they are very selective in who they reprimand.”
“I feel a bit out of my depth, ma’am. Would you like to task another agent to assist on this?”
“No, you’re perfect. Because you have absolutely no loyalties or previous experience with LAPD, you’re a much-needed objective observer. I’m going to contact LAPD and request coordination with this investigation, and if they don’t grant it, we might have to play hardball. It’ll be a good lesson for you.”
Elena Gomez slammed down the phone. “I don’t fucking believe this!” she screamed to no one. She was alone in her office.
She was in command and her temper could get her in trouble. She took a deep breath, let it out.
Fucking FBI.
Was that why Matt Costa had called her earlier? Did he know they were flexing muscle? Was he involved?
She hadn’t gotten that vibe from him, and she didn’t think that Kara would have sung his praises if he was a prick. Maybe he had been trying to give her a heads-up. That still didn’t calm her anger.
She strode down the hall to her commander’s office. “Commander,” she said as soon as Joe Campana waved her in, “I just got a call from the FBI that they want Chen’s investigation—well, she said she wanted to ‘coordinate a task force’—” she used air quotes “—but you know damn well that means she wants to be in charge.”
“What’s their reasoning?” Campana asked calmly, a telltale pulse in his neck the only outward sign of his frustration.
“That we have a conflict of interest. Our office initially arrested Chen, our detective is the primary witness, Detective Quinn made a verbal threat against him and there had been a pending federal investigation, other assorted bullshit.”
“A threat?” Campana looked confused. “Quinn? I don’t remember that.”
“The press played it nonstop for a couple news cycles, when Quinn was caught saying on another officer’s body cam that she wished he’d broken his neck when he fell off the roof.”
Campana couldn’t stifle the smile that rose on his hangdog face. “She was slapped for that, I remember now. I also remember that she’d been stabbed in the back, was in pain and lost a lot of blood. I don’t think it should be held against her now.”
“The FBI will hold anything and everything against Quinn,” Elena said. “They also want a formal interview.”
“About what?”
“Where she was. I told those pricks she had a solid alibi. I did not give in to their request, but they’re going to push.”
“Push back. I’ll talk to the chief. They should have called me, not you. Who was it?”
“ASAC Rebecca Chavez.”
“She’s not in violent crimes, is she?”
“No, something in White Collar. Her squad had been investigating Chen for the feds.”
Though the FBI was divided into squads that each had their own specialties, there was a lot of overlap. If a suspect in cyberterrorism, for example, committed a violent crime, the cyberterrorism unit would still handle the investigation. Elena had never figured out how the FBI office worked—all she knew was that they were a huge bureaucracy and seemed to have unlimited funds to make LAPD’s life miserable.
“Keep working it,” Campana said. “And Quinn might have to go in and give a statement, but it’s our case, the FBI is not getting it. Clear?”
“Very.”
“Close the door,” he ordered.
She did.
“What’s the status of Operation Sunshine?”
Other than the chief of police himself, Joe Campana was the only senior officer who knew about their deep undercover operation into the homeless grant process at city hall that had benefited David Chen and others. Because there was at least one bad cop involved, they all had to be extremely careful with who was read into the program.
It had been Campana’s call to use Colton’s shooting and fake his death—Colton had no family and he was at risk of someone else coming after him once the FBI had, allegedly, exposed him and Quinn to the media. Colton knew this would most likely be his last undercover investigation. He didn’t care. If they could prove what they suspected, it would rip apart Los Angeles government at the roots.
In fact, this might be the last case for all of them. They were not only investigating a bad cop, but corrupt politicians. If they didn’t get each and every one of them, their heads might be on the proverbial chopping block—and they knew it.
“Violet Halliday is missing. Colton is looking for her, Will is waiting for her to call again. Detective Caprese, who’s running the Chen homicide investigation, wants to talk to Violet as a witness. The longer she’s missing, the more they are going to look at her as a suspect or accomplice.” She didn’t have to state the obvious: if Caprese attempted to pull a warrant, they’d have to read him into the investigation.
“Why would she run?” Campana asked.
“Fear,” Elena said. “Craig worked with her more than anyone, but he’s been quiet the last couple weeks. Maybe she heard that he was killed and she’s scared for her life. The girl is a computer nerd, this has to be completely foreign to her.”
“What’s happening now with the grand jury?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “It’s up to the DA. I didn’t know until yesterday that he planned to impanel the grand jury this week. I didn’t think he had enough, but now? I’m pretty sure he was holding something back.”
“Why would he shut us out? We’ve given him some of our best people, our resources, months of time in this investigation.”
Campana was angry. She didn’t blame him, but she also suspected they didn’t know the whole story.
“I think,” she said cautiously, “that he may have been worried about a mole in the DA’s office.”
“And he didn’t give you any idea who it might be?”
“If I knew, I’d bring them in for questioning.” She didn’t want to put Colton on the hot seat, but her undercover asset had also changed over the last couple months. “Two months ago, we met with Halliday. She proved that the computer crash was deliberate and that specific files were extracted and then when the backups were installed, those files were gone. It takes a lot of skill to remove data from backups. Someone as good as Halliday, at a minimum. I think she found those files, and that’s why Craig called the grand jury.”
“Yet he didn’t tell you or Lex.”
She shook her head.
Campana swore. “This is a clusterfuck, Elena. Did you read Quinn in?”
“No. She and Matt Costa know that I was working with Craig on an investigation into housing grants, but she doesn’t know about the undercover operation. I did, however, tell them that we believe someone in the FBI alerted Chen to the raid through the interagency portal.”
Campana leaned back in his seat, looked at the ceiling quietly for ten seconds. Then he said, “Okay, this is what we do. We find Halliday, put her in a safe house, debrief her. What she knows, we know. When you feel Quinn and her feds need to know about Operation Sunshine, read them in. I know it’ll be difficult, considering, but we might need help to wrap this up.”
“And,” Elena emphasized, “keep the Chen murder investigation in-house.”
“No way am I turning that over to the feds, not when their own house is dirty. I need to talk to the chief.”
That was the signal for her to leave. She did, relieved that Campana had her back, but worried about the state of their investigation with Craig dead and Violet still missing.
Elena pulled out her private cell phone and called Colton. He didn’t answer.
She ended the call without leaving a message.