Interference

by Danielle Girard

  Mei looked around. “Where’s Barney now?”

  She checked her watch face on the inside of her wrist. The gesture reminded Mei of the bartender who had the tree tattoo. “Should be in the back by now, but he might be late. He’s good with faces, but he’s bad with a watch. I’ve got to finish this up, but go on back there and knock on the blue door. Tell him Joan said it was okay.”

  “Thanks, Joan.”

  “No problem.”

  “One more question. I believe you have a bartender with a tree tattoo,” Mei said.

  “That’s Carina. She’s not in until Wednesday night.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” Mei tried to hide her disappointment. The bartender had been moving fast Saturday night. The chance that she’d noticed something in all the commotion was slim. But that was how they were going to break this thing. One of these slim chances was going to have to pan out. Maybe they would have to come back and talk to Carina.

  Joan reached for more glasses. “You mind if I ask what happened?”

  “Someone slipped one of your patrons Rohypnol,” Jamie told her.

  Joan nodded. “I figured it was something like that. It’s pretty rare in here, but it’s happened.”

  “Recently?” Mei asked, trying not to cling to the idea that this could be some random coincidence rather than a plot against her specifically. That part of it, the intimacy of someone’s hatred, was so difficult to imagine.

  “Last time I heard about it was last fall, I think. We watch the bar pretty carefully, but you can’t see everything.” Joan stacked her glasses and turned back to them. “You’d think women would be different, but we’re all basically animals, I guess.”

  Mei tried to picture Amy Warner as the animal Joan described.

  “Thanks for your help,” Jamie said and led the way across through the bar toward the blue door.

  “I always felt safe, surrounded by women. It seems so naive now.”

  “A female rapist is uncommon,” said Jamie. “But rape isn’t the only reason people use Rohypnol. The drug makes the victim a very compliant partner.”

  Mei pictured the white van she couldn’t even remember seeing. Had she gone willing to a random car without a fight? Was it all just dumb luck that Sophie had seen her when she did?

  Barney wasn’t in the bar yet, so Jamie and Mei walked into the alley. Through the back door was a small cement porch. Three steps led down to the alley, which was paved but worn. Large pot holes and loose gravel covered the surface. At the base of the stairs was a concrete pad with a sewer grate. She’d seen a thousand like it. Maybe that was why it looked familiar. Or maybe she really did remember something about coming out here that night. She had the vague sense that someone had been behind her. Mei walked slowly, scanning the ground for some sign that she’d been there. The alley was maybe fifty feet long. Two dumpsters lined the backside of the building. She thought about what might be inside them. What would they even begin to search for? When she reached the street, she turned back.

  Jamie stood halfway down the alley, looking back at the building.

  Mei scanned the upper floors. “You think maybe someone saw something?”

  “It’s a possibility,” Jamie said. “But unlikely.”

  Most of the windows were small and high up. “They look like bathrooms.”

  Jamie nodded. “I think so, too. Not a lot of people staring out the window in the shower.”

  “You guys looking for me,” came a voice from the back door.

  Barney was not what Mei expected from a bouncer. He was Chinese and only a little taller than Mei, but from the tight fit of his blue polo shirt, he was clearly someone who spent a lot of time in the gym. Mei tried to imagine him bouncing the women she’d seen Saturday night. Some of them were twice his size. Maybe he had help. She’d never seen a woman bounced out of a bar.

  She also didn’t remember seeing him. Maybe that was another sign that she wasn’t in her right mind.

  Jamie handed Amy’s photo to Barney.

  “Yeah. She was here Saturday.” He glanced at Mei. “Same night as you and your friends. She came in a little before nine.”

  “Was she with a group?” Jamie asked, ignoring his reference to Mei.

  Barney shook his head and passed the photo back. “Alone. Looked like a first-timer for sure.”

  “How long was she here?”

  “Not very long. Maybe half hour. Left out the front. In kind of a hurry.”

  “With someone?”

  “Nope. She was alone when she left.”

  Jamie processed that a moment, making a note. “You remember anything else about her?”

  Barney frowned. “Like what she was wearing? She wasn’t dressed up. Not how most people come in,” he said, meeting Mei’s gaze.

  Jamie took the picture back and thanked him for his time. The club looked so little like it had Saturday night, but Mei started to feel sick being there. She took gulps of air when she reached the street. Beside her, Jamie squinted in the sunlight.

  “I was right about Amy,” Mei said.

  “You sound surprised,” Jamie said.

  “I guess I am,” Mei admitted. “The way it triggered was so strange.”

  “How do you mean?”

  Mei thought about it again. “I had no memory of seeing Amy on Saturday night until I walked into the lab Monday. I saw her, then it hit me. I thought, she was at the club, but I still don’t remember seeing her that night. Not exactly.” Mei shook her head. “It’s hard to explain.”

  “I’ve talked to a lot of women who have been roofied—and a few men—and what you’re describing isn’t uncommon. Other things like that might surface. Pay attention to them. You might stumble on something that links directly to our suspect. We need to talk to Amy Warner, too. She obviously knows a lot she’s not saying.”

  Mei looked over at Jamie. The hard-edged exterior was so obvious, it was easy to miss the fact that Jamie was an incredibly good listener. Mei nodded. “Thanks for coming.”

  “It’s my job, and I’d have done it anyway.”

  The logical step was to talk to Captain Findlay and Sergeant Lanier. Mei called and managed to get them a small slot on Findlay’s calendar. Then she called and left a message on Lanier’s voicemail. Jamie and Mei arrived back at the station parking lot almost a half hour before their appointment with Findlay. Even as Mei walked through the lot with Jamie, she felt the momentum driving her toward the building. This was the first piece of evidence that linked to a live suspect. It felt concrete, irrefutable. Mei couldn’t force herself to slow down.

  She was almost jogging as she came through the department’s back door, and Jamie Vail was keeping perfect pace. Amy Warner. Nothing about it made sense, but the evidence led right to her. Mei checked her phone for the tenth time.

  “We’ve got lots of time,” Jamie said.

  “I’m nervous.”

  “Completely normal. I’d be surprised if you weren’t,” Jamie said.

  They rode the elevator in silence. When the doors opened on the third floor, Mei almost walked right past Hailey Wyatt and Ryaan Berry, who were standing in front of them.

  “We were just coming to see you,” Hailey said.

  “We’ve got news,” Ryaan added.

  Mei had to force herself to stop moving.

  “We do, too,” Jamie told them. “You first.”

  Ryaan looked to Hailey who nodded. “We got the phone records from AT&T for Karl Penn and Sam Gibson,” Ryaan said. “We found one number they both called consistently over the past three weeks. Patrick got AT&T to triangulate all the calls coming to and from that number and guess where the triangulation leads us?”

  Mei just shook her head.

  “I give up,” Jamie said.

  “850 Bryant.”

  For a moment, Mei couldn’t thi
nk of where that was.

  “The department?” Jamie said.

  “Here?” Mei whispered.

  “Yep,” Ryaan said. “Whoever is behind these attacks is making a lot of calls from right inside this building.”

  “There’s more,” Hailey said. “Hal called St. James Church and talked to the minister there. Turns out Justin Sawicki was a member there; he taught in the bible school. Daniel Witter was one of his students.”

  “Daniel Witter?” Jamie asked.

  “The one with the infected tooth?” Mei asked.

  “Right,” Hailey confirmed. “The one who died.”

  “Whose mother shot herself?” Mei was stunned. “Our link to these guys is a church?”

  “The church and the department,” Hailey confirmed. “The minister knew most of our shooters. Albert Jackson didn’t recognize the name of St. James Church but it doesn’t mean he hasn’t been there. The minister said they offer quite a few community nights to help the homeless, so it’s possible Jackson has been there. Hal’s trying to get in touch with the church administrator about talking to the director of the community outreach programs.”

  “And the others?” Mei asked. “What about Jacob Monaghan?”

  “Monaghan’s grandmother, Pearl Lasser, was a long-time member of St. James.”

  “Who does that leave out?”

  “If we can link Albert Jackson, that’s everyone except Dwayne Henderson,” Hailey said.

  “Who is Henderson?” Mei asked.

  “The guy we arrested for the murder of Karl Penn.”

  “Karl Penn is dead, too?” Mei asked.

  Ryaan nodded. “Killed early this morning.”

  Mei shook her head. “So our killer might be a member of this church and the department.”

  “Seems possible,” Hailey said.

  “Seems bloody likely,” Jamie agreed.

  Mei and Jamie exchanged a look.

  “What’s your news?” Ryaan asked.

  Mei told them about seeing Amy Warner at the club, Amy’s denial, and the bouncer’s confirmation.

  “Who the hell is Amy Warner?” Hailey asked.

  “Exactly,” Ryaan echoed.

  “She’s a twenty-three-year-old assistant tech in the computer lab. No way is she in charge of this thing,” Mei said.

  “But she’s inside the department,” Hailey said.

  “Right, and she’s definitely a lead in the right direction,” Jamie agreed. “Mei and I are going to talk to Captain Findlay and Sergeant Lanier now.”

  “Text me after the meeting,” Hailey said. “And I’ll let you know if I hear anything else on the church connection.”

  “I think we’re getting close,” Ryaan said. Mei felt a chill off her words. It seemed like they all did. The four of them stood silently for a moment before Hailey spoke.

  “We should keep this quiet,” she said. “If we’re talking about the department, we don’t know who…”

  “Looks like a pretty intense gathering,” came a male voice from behind Mei.

  Mei turned to see a man standing behind them. In his fifties, he was dressed in a gray suit and tie.

  “Captain Marshall,” Hailey said. “Good to see you, sir.”

  The captain stopped at the group and clasped his hands in front of him, rocking on his heels. “Hello, ladies. You having an interdepartmental gathering here in the lobby?”

  “We’re working a joint case, sir,” Hailey said.

  “Carry on, then,” Marshall said with a tight smile before heading for the stairwell. The four women remained silent until the stairwell door closed behind him.

  “Keeping it quiet makes sense,” Jamie said softly.

  “Just in case,” Hailey added.

  “Just in case,” Ryaan repeated.

  Mei said nothing, feeling very much at the center of the warnings.

  Chapter 38

  Mei was only in Captain Findlay’s office for six minutes. Seven on the outside. She told Captain Findlay and Sergeant Lanier about seeing Amy Warner in the club and confronting her, but before Jamie could mention the conversation with the bouncer, Sergeant Lanier interrupted.

  “What Ms. Warner does in her free time—within the bounds of the law—isn’t our business,” she said.

  Mei felt like she’d been punched.

  “Of course,” Jamie said before Mei could protest. “But we’re talking about the night on which Inspector Ling was drugged, and we’ve just learned from Inspector Ryaan Berry of Triggerlock that this Oyster Point robbery/cyber case has been triangulated to this building.”

  “Triangulated to this building?” Captain Findlay spoke up. “What does that mean?”

  “It means whoever orchestrated the weapons robbery and set up devices in that warehouse to access the computer servers of one or more of those four companies is working from inside the department.”

  A frown settled deep into Captain Findlay’s mouth.

  “After the shooting at her home and the incident in the club on Saturday, Inspector Ling has every right to be involved. This is her case,” Jamie said.

  Findlay frowned at Jamie. “I’m not sure about that.”

  “I agree with Captain Findlay,” Lanier was quick to butt in. “This is clearly an issue for Internal Affairs now. I’m afraid it’s a conflict of interest for us to discuss it with Inspector Ling.”

  Until now, Mei had thought of Sergeant Grace Lanier as prompt, thorough, professional. She was a transfer from the Sacramento Department. There was murmuring that Lanier stayed clear of the Rookie Club for fear that assimilating with only women would be bad for her career. Mei had thought the comment was unfair. Until now. “If you feel conflicted, Inspector Vail, you should feel free to go as well,” Lanier added.

  Mei was shocked. She stared at Lanier who, at least, had the decency not to meet her gaze.

  The sound Jamie made was a little like a chuckle. Mei watched Lanier flinch at the noise as though Jamie had said something sharp and vulgar. “I do have a conflict, Sergeant,” Jamie said. “You have access to the one person who is clearly at the heart of this. If I may so say, Mei is not a likely candidate for these kinds of attacks. I do have some experience with personal vendettas against women. If it were up to me, I’d focus on Inspector Ling, not exclude her.” With that, Jamie stood. “Thank you both for your time.”

  Mei stood, too, but when Jamie went for the door without awaiting a response, Mei remained. “As Detective Vail said, I am your best source. That you are not using me seems severely negligent on your part.”

  “Inspector Ling,” Findlay interrupted, warning in his tone.

  “With all due respect, of course,” Mei added and joined Jamie at the door. Neither Findlay nor Lanier said anything as they left, but when Mei glanced back, Captain Findlay had turned his frown on Lanier.

  Amy was not in the lab when Mei arrived. By the end of the day, it was rumored that she was on leave. Mei’s team received an email from Lanier, informing them that they were to have no communications with Amy Warner as she was part of an internal investigation. Mei got another email from Lanier with Findlay cc’d, letting her know they would be posting an officer at her house at night. She forwarded it to Jamie who responded with one line: “Bureaucracy at its best.”

  Teddy and Blake asked her if she knew anything about what was going on, to which she replied she had limited information and wasn’t in a position to talk about it. The two exchanged a few words of surprise. Amy, after all, seemed as harmless to them as she had to Mei.

  Aaron, on the other hand, took the news by packing up early and leaving. He took his laptop with him. Mei replied to Lanier’s email with a cool one of her own, letting her sergeant know that Aaron had left. She certainly hoped Lanier was looking into Aaron as well as Amy. She’d hinted as much in her email but she wasn’t surp
rised that Lanier’s reply gave her zero information.

  Everything made Mei jumpy. The little steam sounds that came from the coffeemaker while she was filling the copier with paper; the way the printer clicked on and sounded like it was going to print for no reason; the creak in the bottom drawer of her file cabinet.

  There was no news on the Oyster Point case and nothing from ballistics on the ammo search. By five o’clock, Mei was jumping out of her skin, making herself crazy. She had to get out of the office. As Mei was packing up, Sabrina called. Her name on the screen of Mei’s phone made her smile. A bright spot in all the craziness. “Hi,” Mei answered.

  “Hi. I’m so glad you answered.”

  “Thanks for calling.”

  “I wanted to hear how you are,” Sabrina said. “But first I wanted to tell you that you got the apartment. The one on Bronte.”

  Mei froze at her desk. “I did?”

  “Yes.”

  Looking at apartments felt like something from a different life. Three days ago. In a month, Mei could be in her own apartment. She tried to imagine having that conversation with Andy. She was staying in San Francisco and he should stay in Chicago. What if they hadn’t caught Mei’s attacker by then? Wouldn’t Ayi be safer if Mei was living on her own?

  “Mei? If you don’t want it, you don’t have to take it.”

  “No, I do,” Mei said. “That is really great news.”

  “Okay,” Sabrina said uncertainly. “They need to do some work on it, but you’ll be able to move in on the first. I’ve got the paperwork. I thought I’d drop it off at your house.”

  “That would be great.” Mei wished she could remember the details of the apartment. “Any chance I could look at it again—maybe tomorrow?”

  “Tomorrow is crazy.”

  “No hurry. Maybe over the weekend.”

  “Since there’s no one living there,” Sabrina said, “how about if I leave you my realtor key. It will open the lockbox.”

  “Won’t you need your key?” Mei asked.

  “I’ve got an extra,” Sabrina assured her. “We can get together over the weekend and I’ll get it back then.”

  “Perfect. Thanks, Sabrina.”