A Lie in Every Truth

by Jamie Lee Scott

  Jared threw back his head and laughed. “Investigator to the core.”

  “Don’t feel special,” I said.

  Jared leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “And the number is one. The other was a car crash. And it can’t be definitively determined that the hit and run was mob related.”

  “If I were to go after a witness, I wouldn’t kill him. I’d kill his family, slowly, one at a time. I’d wait until he thought he was safe, then I’d go after the next family member. I’d make him pay for ratting me out.”

  “But you’d be in prison,” Jared said.

  I laughed. “They only catch the stupid ones. Well, mostly.”

  He half-nodded. “True.”

  The server brought me another dirty martini, Jared had another beer, and Max switched to cranberry and club soda. Jared put it on his tab.

  “Anyone hungry?” Max asked.

  “I ate on the way here,” Jared said.

  I shook my head.

  “What brings you to Monterey Bay?” I asked.

  “I’m doing some work with the Northern District of California. Something out of San Jose. Our offices tend to work around the court districts.”

  “The WITSEC program fascinates me,” Max said.

  “I agree,” I said.

  Jared snickered. “I have to say, I’m glad to be out of there.”

  “Really? I’d think it would be a challenge,” Max said.

  “Yeah, the government spends about ten million a year to let criminals off the hook and give them a new life, for doing what they should have done to begin with. Some challenge.”

  “I hadn’t thought of it that way. I do know less than five percent of the people in the program are completely innocent. That had to be hard to swallow.”

  “It was always in the back of my mind, but I had a job to do. On the other hand, the conviction rate is almost ninety percent when a WITSEC witness testifies. That’s damn good. It’s not good for relationships, though.”

  “Yours or the witnesses?” Max asked.

  “Both. I’m sure you two understand. It’s not like you can go home and say, ‘Dude, I just found Joe Blow a new place to live after he turned state’s evidence on John Gotti. He’s going to be living in Small Town, Texas now’ and go into the details.”

  Max and I looked at each other. We knew all too well, even though our security clearances were both high enough we could share more than most people. There were some things I never wanted to talk about, much less think about, ever again.

  “How do you work? I mean, you have to keep the witnesses safe until the trial,” Max said.

  “We have an orientation center. It’s a crazy set up. The witnesses are transported there, along with whoever is going with them to their new life. The building site is extremely secure and will even withstand a bomb blast.”

  I sipped my martini slowly while Jared downed his beer and ordered another one.

  “What’s the recidivism rate?” I knew the answer but wanted to hear what he had to say.

  “Between ten and twenty percent. I know that’s a range, but there are different forms of recidivism.” He took the beer bottle the server offered.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “They are criminals. That’s what they know. Going into debt is one of the issues. Even though they are given sixty thousand dollars and six months to get situated, they’ll run up debt. And I’m talking in the hundreds of thousands. Then they’ll say they were spotted by a rival and fear for their lives. Boom, new identity, new city, new credit history.”

  “That’s bullshit,” Max said.

  “I agree. And the taxpayers are footing the bill. Now we just tell them, ‘Too bad, if you don’t pay, we’ll disclose your identification.’”

  I chuckled a little at that. Playing the players. Good for WITSEC. These losers should have been behind bars, not in a cushy new life. Except the innocents; they deserved a good life.

  “Can they just up and leave the program?” I’d never heard of it happening.

  Jared scratched his head. “Sure. They can leave any time. In fact, I’m here dealing with that right now.”

  “I thought you were in fugitive apprehension?” I asked.

  “I am. This is an old case. Wasn’t even mine, but I was assigned to the witness after his contact retired, so he had my contact information.”

  “You have someone who wants to leave?”

  “Not really. He wants to go to his dad’s funeral.”

  “How stupid would that be?” Max asked.

  “He turned state’s evidence for a huge case involving a drug cartel. The case never went to trial, so maybe not as bad as it could be.”

  “Doesn’t the cartel know he snitched?” They had to know, so the question was sort of rhetorical.

  “He also helped get the case dropped. We had the deposition because he would never have sat in the courtroom to give his testimony. But we tucked him away too early.”

  “That sounds a little screwy,” I said.

  The music in the background had stopped. The band must’ve taken a break. I liked the sounds of the clarinet and saxophone. It made the night seem like a weekend instead of a weekday. This almost felt like a clandestine meeting from an old hardboiled detective novel, with three guys in law enforcement hanging out in a blues bar.

  “The case had issues from the beginning. I’m glad it wasn’t mine to begin with.” He didn’t look at me when he said it.

  “What was the case? Is it something I can research? Maybe I can get the case back on the docket.”

  Jared smiled. “That would be nice. I don’t have the details of the case on hand, but I can get them for you. So many things went wrong with the prosecution, I swear someone got paid off. I can’t prove it, and I don’t have the time or resources, but I feel it in my bones. The drug cartels have many resources. There’s lots of money to be thrown around.”

  “What’s with this guy who wants to go to his dad’s funeral?” Curiosity got the better of me. I could see Max wanted to know, too.

  “I want to let him go, but I need to know he’ll be safe. I want to know what happened to get the case thrown out, and who got the bribes. If there’s no chance of needing this guy’s testimony in the future, I’ll see if he can go.”

  I thought about what he was saying. “You can’t do it?”

  “I can, but it’s not my job anymore, and I’d ruffle a lot of feathers by looking into it. It was even in this district, which is ironic. I heard from him right after my plane landed. It was as if he knew where I was.”

  “I could look into it for you,” I said. In my spare time, I thought. What was I saying?

  “No, Charles,” Max said, “this isn’t your concern. We don’t need to ruffle mob feathers. We ruffle enough feathers of other people.”

  “Is it mob or just drug cartel?” Like either was better than the other.

  “A little of both. The family involve isn’t tightly connected, but close enough. They did business here in California and in the Midwest. They left the East Coast and the South alone, at least from what I learned after the fact. But they did business across state lines, so they had a lot of eyes on them.”

  “And you think the case was tossed because someone got paid off?” I asked.

  “Yes, but there’s no proof, and no one looking into it, which makes me wonder who got paid. Crazy things happened in that case. Even if it had gone to trial, I think it would have been a hung jury or a not guilty verdict. Someone made sure there’d be plenty of doubt.”

  My intrigue got the better of me, and I considered looking into the case. I’d be hacking into a lot of systems, and I’d be tracking people who didn’t want to be tracked. I grinned. I’d just been invited into my wheelhouse. My forte.

  “Want me to look into it?” I asked.

  Jared shrugged. “There’s no money. I shouldn’t even have taken the call from this witness. But I know what it’s like to have to leave your li
fe and family behind. I had to go undercover for almost a year. If there had been a funeral, I’d have missed it. I hated it. One slip up and I’d be dead. You know?”

  I knew all too well. So many times, I had no idea what was happening in my real life, and I couldn’t even check. Breaking cover would have killed me, or worse, the people I cherished.

  “I’ve gone deep, but not lately. I loved it. But it’s a lonely place, not knowing if your family and friends are okay, and not being able to even look them up on social media. I still try to go undercover when I can, though. It’s a rush.” The cases I’d had in the last year had taken me to some dark places. Those places forever changed me. But the things I accomplished made it worth my time and effort.

  “I prefer tracking to going undercover,” Jared said.

  Max sat back and drank his cranberry and soda, but I could tell, if he had the chance, he’d be in on this, too, only he’d have to jeopardize his position with the FBI. I didn’t answer to anyone.

  “I’ll be looking into public records. Easy enough.”

  “But the records don’t have all of the information. Like, was there a bribe? You’ll need to get into bank accounts, personal things. I’d do it, but I have this other situation to deal with. The reason I came to California in the first place. This was a last-minute distraction and my bosses would never let me do what I’m asking you to do.”

  “In all fairness, you didn’t ask me to do anything,” I said. I looked at Max.

  He lifted his drink and said, “Just pretend I’m not here. I am.”

  “I’m sure it’ll be easier for me. Where did all of this take place?”

  Jared pointed to the table. “Right here.”

  I raised my brows. Now I understood why Jared had contacted Max. He’d planned to chat about this witness. It wasn’t just getting together with friends.

  “Mostly in the Silicon Valley, and some of it in Chicago, but mostly here. The San Francisco division of the U.S. District Court placed the trial in San Jose.”

  Like I needed a United States court system lesson. It took everything I had not to roll my eyes.

  “And if I get this information, he can go to his father’s funeral?” I asked.

  Max kicked me under the table. I ignored him.

  “Look, he can leave any time, but if he does this, he’ll be out,” Jared said.

  “Out?” Max asked.

  “He’ll have broken the rules. I already asked my boss. The guy will be high risk. We’ll need six WITSEC inspectors, three blacked out SUVS, and flight assistance.”

  “Is he married? Kids?”

  Jared shook his head. “Nope. He went under alone. That’s why it’s been hard for him, I think. He didn’t have anyone. From talking to him, he didn’t even try to make friends or fit in.”

  “That’s going to be a lot of research and reading on my part. Not my favorite kind of case research. I prefer hands on.” I hated straight reading. Let me hack into a file and find what I needed, and I was good. “I’m a fast reader, though. If I do this, I’ll need some time. I still have my own cases for our agency. That’s priority.”

  “I don’t have much time to make the decision,” Jared said.

  “I’ll have to talk to my business partner about it.”

  “No, you can’t. I can’t let anyone know I’m considering this,” Jared insisted.

  What was he hiding? All the secrecy made me want to dig deeper, when it should’ve made me get up and leave.

  I wanted to know what this witness had done, and who he was. Mimi was going to kill me. We were already one agent down with Cortnie going on maternity leave. Or was it family leave? Like it mattered; we were shorthanded.

  “When is the funeral?” I asked.

  “Friday,” Jared said.

  “So, I have two days.”

  “Yes, and even then, I have to get permission to take him to the funeral. I don’t think that’ll happen.”

  I downed the last of my martini. “I’ll escort him to the funeral.”

  When I woke up the next morning, I wondered what I’d gotten myself into. And Max wasn’t talking to me.

  Six

  Mimi

  When my alarm went off, I wanted to kick myself for making such an early appointment. I reached out to hit the snooze button, and felt Lola licking my shoulder. When I opened my eyes, her sweet Doberman face was inches from mine. I reached out and scrubbed her behind the ears.

  “Good morning, little Lola. Gotta pee?”

  She let out a low growl that sounded like a whisper.

  Groaning, I sat up and looked over to see Nick sound asleep on his side of the bed. He faced away from me, and I had the urge to crawl back under the covers and spoon with him. Instead of giving into my urges, I got out of bed and walked to the back door to let Lola out. Normally, she could go in and out through her doggy door, but with the recent burglaries in the neighborhood, we kept it closed and locked at night. Besides, it wasn’t unusual for her to go out at two in the morning and start barking and howling like we had a prowler in the yard. The neighbors didn’t take kindly to her warnings.

  Go figure: when Nick put the house up for sale, the burglaries started. We lived in a nice neighborhood near the college and the houses had almost doubled in value since Nick bought the place. We needed to start looking for a new house in case our realtor got an offer. I hoped we’d get an offer soon, because keeping the house so tidy drained my energy. And open houses meant I had to find something to do on the weekends. Mostly by myself, because Nick was working a lot of weekends lately. Gang violence and murder didn’t slow down so we could have time off together.

  I looked at my watch, debating if I had time for breakfast and coffee. I didn’t, so I headed into the master bathroom.

  Knowing myself too well, I’d set out clothes the night before. I usually had the bedroom to myself in the morning because Nick nearly always left for work before I got out of bed. I knew I wouldn’t be able to open the drapes and turn on the lights to decide what to wear.

  The shower felt good, but it wasn’t enough to wake me up. If I hurried, I’d have time to drive through Starbucks on the way to work. I sat on the side of the bathtub to pull on my black leggings, then pulled my wet hair up into a messy bun. I’d mastered the art of the five-minute-face, and actually applied my foundation, blush, mascara, and lip stain in under five. Boom! After my hair and makeup were in place, I put on a silk blouse, buttoning it as I left the bathroom. As I walked out, I saw Nick sitting up in bed, reading his phone.

  “Good morning, Sunshine,” he said without looking up from his phone.

  “Something on Facebook more interesting than me?” I walked around to his side of the bed and climbed on top of him, straddling his hips.

  “Nothing is more important than looking at you,” Nick said, and kissed me on the cheek.

  I didn’t care that he hadn’t brushed his teeth. I kissed him back on the lips.

  “I have an early client,” I said.

  “You told me last night,” he said.

  “That’s right. Sorry, I was tired.”

  “You seemed more excited about Piper than this new client.”

  I leaned in and kissed Nick again before climbing off him. “I’m so excited about Piper. The timing couldn’t have been better. Hiring friends isn’t usually a good idea, but I feel like she’s more of a former business partner, of sorts.”

  “I don’t think you’ll be sorry. I enjoyed having her as a partner, even if she was still wet behind the ears back then.” He snuggled back under the covers. “Sorry I didn’t get a chance to tell you she might stop by. When Gabe told me Cortnie might be taking her leave early, I thought about Piper. She’d been by the station, and I was pretty sure she wasn’t coming back. I didn’t know she’d come in so soon.”

  I shrugged. “It’s all good.” I straightened out my pants and shirt. “Can I ask you a favor?”

  He wrinkled his brows, crooked his lip, and I could see his nose
flare a bit. “Depends.”

  Before I opened my mouth, I remembered Piper would be starting at the agency. She could ask Nick for any favors, and probably get a better reaction. “You know what, never mind. I’ve got it.”

  I hurried out of the bedroom before he could grill me.

  “Have a great day,” I heard him yell after me. “Love you.”

  I called back, “I love you, too. And I’m leaving Lola home today.”

  As Lola got older, she didn’t warm up to new people as fast as she used to. Since I had Clive for my first client, and he gave me the heebie-jeebies, she’d feel it. That wouldn’t be good. I couldn’t remember if she’d met Piper. On the drive there, I remembered Lola had met Piper at the barn that had been a candle making company. It had been the case we’d been working on when we first met her.

  When I arrived at the office with my Grande Americano and cheese scone in hand, I saw Piper’s car in the lot. I grabbed my handbag straps and pulled them over my shoulder, picked up my briefcase, then balanced my coffee and scone as I got out of the car.

  “Our client is here,” Piper said. “He was sitting in his car in front of the house and I went out and asked if everything was okay. I thought maybe his car had broken down. That’s when he told me he had an appointment.”

  Unlike the previous day when she’d worn skull leggings and a long t-shirt, Piper looked dressed for business. She wore a navy skirt, hemmed at the knees, with a suit jacket and pale blue silk blouse. Her bare legs had a sparkle and she wore completely impractical, but sexy, high heels. She’d be in flats in no time.

  “Where is he?” I asked as I walked past her while she made a pot of coffee.

  “Reception with Uta,” Piper called as I walked into my office.

  I dropped my briefcase and handbag on the floor and looked up to see Uta standing in the front doorway. Having two entrances to my office was good and bad. I never remembered to close the doors when I left for the day, and it startled me to look up and see her standing there.

  “Do you need a few minutes?” she asked.

  I forced a smile. “Send him in.”