Kara drove straight to LAPD headquarters. She’d told Michael everything Tom had said, and he didn’t think she should confront Elena right now. She considered his advice, dismissed it. There were too many things kept from her about her investigation. Why shut her out? Had she fucked up and no one wanted to tell her?
Nothing made sense and it wouldn’t until she knew everything, and that started at the top.
“You can come with me,” she began.
“I’ll wait here. I’ll call Matt, let him know what’s going on.”
“Thanks.”
He reached out, touched her arm. “Take five minutes to calm down, okay? More flies with honey.”
“I’m fine,” she said.
Still, she took several deep, cleansing breaths in the elevator and felt calmer when she reached Elena’s office.
It was the ten minutes she had to wait for Elena that had her anger building again.
One look at her and Elena swore under her breath. “Come in.” She picked up her phone and a moment later said, “I need you in my office.”
“Lex,” Kara guessed.
“Sit.”
“No.”
“Kara—”
“I want the truth. All of it. Starting with why you didn’t tell me Tom Lee, a dirty cop, knew I was undercover with Chen.”
“Lee didn’t rat you out. He knew almost from the beginning—”
“He knew about Chen’s operation—all of it—and looked the other way for a price. He’s a liar who sullied the badge, and you believe that he didn’t tell Chen about the raid?”
“There are a lot of reasons why I believe him, including information he has passed on to us over the last few months.”
“You’ve kept me in the dark—”
“You weren’t even here.”
“Before I left you knew about Lee and you didn’t tell me. Before I left, you knew that the FBI portal may have been the leak and you didn’t tell me. Craig had investigations into multiple people stemming from my operation and you didn’t fucking tell me!”
Lex walked in, quickly shut the door.
“I had no obligation to tell you anything, Detective,” Elena said. “If you have a problem with my command, you can take it up with your union rep.”
Kara wanted to hit something; she didn’t. She looked at Lex, saw the guilt in his eyes before he turned away. “So I should just turn in my badge and walk away from all of you?”
“Sit.”
She didn’t want to. God, she wanted to pace, hit something, slap her boss. That wasn’t going to get her anywhere, so she sat.
Elena walked around her desk and sat at the small table across from Kara. Lex took one of the guest chairs, turned it around to sit. None of them seemed comfortable with the silence. But Kara waited. She stared at Elena and waited for words. She didn’t know if she could believe anything her boss said, but she waited.
Elena spoke first.
“I’m not going to tell you all the reasons why we decided to keep Tom Lee in uniform, because they are complex and layered and confidential. I will tell you that he has performed satisfactorily since he was confronted with evidence of his crimes, and he has provided much-needed information about Chen’s operation that has helped Dyson build a case against multiple people—all of whom have either pled or been given conditional probation. Several are in jail today. Lee wasn’t privy to any of the inner workings of Chen’s operation, but he saw a lot, and he has identified key people for us, people we’ve continued to investigate. Lee is required, under the terms of his sealed agreement, to testify in front of the grand jury and be available at trial. Provided that he is truthful, he will not be prosecuted.”
“Whoop-de-do,” Kara muttered.
Elena bristled, then said, “Craig’s death has hit all of us hard. He’d been dogged in his pursuit of the truth, and he felt we had enough to go to the grand jury—”
“Against who? Who are you trying to get indictments on?”
“It was a grand jury to open an investigation into the city’s grant approval process, specifically grants for homeless services and housing.”
“So, not against a person, just a loose entity of government bureaucrats?”
“We believe that the grant and contracting process is corrupt, that it’s used to benefit the friends and family of government officials. Craig believed he could prove fraud to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. The city spends one billion dollars a year on the homeless crisis. One billion a year, every year, with little to no accountability.”
Kara was now confused. “What does that have to do with Chen? Is this about the apartment building he owned? Craig mentioned he got government money for it.”
“That’s what jump-started his interest. Chen applied for and received a ten-million-dollar grant to house immigrants from China.”
“Wait,” Kara said, “Chen illegally brought hundreds of Chinese women and teenagers into the country and the city gave him money to put them up in housing so they could work for him for free?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s not enough to go after whoever approved it?”
“There was nothing illegal about the application or the process. What would be illegal is if the individual approving the grant application received a kickback, or if they knew that the apartment was going to house trafficked women. But it’s bigger than Chen. This money isn’t tracked well, it’s handed out to nonprofits who have no requirement to document success. No transparency. Some may be doing good work. Others could be pocketing every dime and we wouldn’t know.”
“And this is what Violet Halliday was helping with? Because she works for the city, knows these things?”
“Yes, in part,” Elena said. “She’s a computer expert who rebuilt the crashed city hall system and intended to testify to the grand jury about what happened and prove—at least, that’s what we hoped—that the crash was intentional in order to hide corruption at the highest levels of city government.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. What computer crash? What does that have to do with human trafficking or housing grants or anything?”
“Someone intentionally crashed city hall the same day as our raid on Chen,” Lex said. “Violet is the one who figured it out—and she has been working on rebuilding the destroyed system and finding the files that disappeared when the system was rebooted.”
Kara hated computers and technology, but she understood the gist of the issue. Violet was smart. She knew things. Information that Craig needed to prosecute.
“And now she’s missing,” Lex continued. “We’re looking for her, Will Lattimer is looking for her. With Chen and Craig dead, she’s the only one who knows those files exist and the only one who may be able to find them.”
“Then she’s in danger,” Kara said. “She could already be dead. You had her working for you? She’s not trained, and she’s not a cop. She’s a computer whiz, that’s it. And you put her undercover?”
“She’s a whistleblower. Works for the city and reporting on fraud and corruption,” Lex said.
“And she witnessed Chen’s murder! She’s hiding or already dead.” Kara couldn’t believe that they sounded so nonchalant about what they had Violet Halliday doing.
“This is getting us nowhere,” Elena said.
“I want to know what else is going on. Who are you investigating? What happened after I left LA? Who do you have undercover?”
“I can’t tell you that,” Elena said. “And even if I could, I don’t know that I would. You came in here accusing me of letting a dirty cop walk, and I resent that. Craig’s murder might jeopardize every single case stemming from Chen’s arrest. Every one of them! Eight months of work—undercover, investigatory, field work, grunt work. We’ve put in hundreds of man-hours since the raid. Do you think I don’t feel like the weight of the world is crashing down?”
Kara had never seen Elena this upset about anything. Angry, sure, but she was truly upset.
“Then read me in. Bring me into the operation. Fresh eyes—you know me, you know I’m an asset.”
“I can’t—not now.”
“Bullshit.”
“I can’t because the FBI is tugging on the Chen murder investigation and they want to interview you. If you’re under suspicion of a crime, any case you’re working could be tossed.”
“That’s bullshit. I was nowhere near Chen when he was killed. You know it.”
“Apparently my verification of your alibi isn’t good enough for the feds.”
“You can’t be serious.” Kara itched to pace; she forced herself to remain seated.
“They think LAPD has a conflict of interest,” Elena continued, sounding calmer, “and they mentioned your comment that you wished Chen had broken his neck when he fell.”
“Is this Bryce Thornton? This is a joke—he can’t come after me. I know for a fact that the FBI’s IA, whatever they call themselves, told him he couldn’t investigate me for anything.”
“ASAC Rebecca Chavez. I don’t know her, but she’s the one pushing. Called me, Campana talked to her, now the chief thinks we need to play nice. We’re not giving her the Chen homicide, but I have to sit down and tell her what I know.”
“Which is?”
“The cameras weren’t working. We have multiple witnesses with conflicting stories. We have a cop who was across the street, didn’t see the shooting itself, but saw Violet Halliday running from the scene. Multiple people saw her—she was carrying something. One person thought it was a gun. One person thought it was a briefcase. Another thought it was a phone. Two blocks south, we caught her on camera—she was indeed running—and she had nothing in her hand. We spent hours scouring the area and didn’t find anything she may have dropped—no gun, no phone, no briefcase. She had a messenger bag crosswise over her body, where she may have hidden something.”
“What would her motive be to kill Chen?”
“Anger at the system?” Lex offered.
Kara dismissed the comment. “I have far more anger than most people, but I have never killed anyone in cold blood.”
“I don’t believe she killed him,” Elena said. “Another witness stated that she saw a man wearing a face mask covering his mouth and nose walking away from the bodies. People still wear them sometimes, and no one gives them a second look anymore. She gave a decent description—white male, about forty with brown hair and maybe six feet tall. But that could fit any number of people. She didn’t see a gun.”
“I want in. Let me help find Violet.”
“Go for it,” Elena said. “Tap into any resources you have in the FBI and if you find her, great.”
Kara was surprised that Elena gave in so easily. Was she missing something? She asked, “Where does Will Lattimer fit into all of this?”
“After Chen’s arrest, Lattimer heard about the housing scandal and went to Craig, who he’d met through Colton.”
At the mention of Colton’s name, her stomach twisted. “Why Craig?”
“Because he didn’t know who else to go to,” Lex said. “Craig looped us in and we put together an operation. And here we are.”
“You’re leaving a lot out between then and now,” Kara said.
“I’ll talk to Campana,” Elena said quietly. “Until I do, this is the best I can do. I hope you find Violet.”
“Where was the last place she was seen?”
They both hesitated.
“Really? You tell me you hope I find Violet and then clam up?” She stood. She was done with this runaround. Elena and Lex were hiding something from her, as if they didn’t trust her. It hurt. Damn, it hurt. “I talked to Will today,” she said. “He told me that Violet called him and he was supposed to meet her at a homeless camp off Fifth. But she disappeared and left her phone behind because some thugs scared her off. Has she been seen since?”
“No,” Elena said.
“Neither of you are telling me the truth. Maybe parts of the truth, but not everything. I don’t know why, but I will find out what you’re hiding.”
“And I will remind you, Detective Quinn, that we are your superior officers,” Elena said.
Kara walked out without responding.