No Good Deed

by Allison Brennan

  “Bingo,” Sean said. He zoomed in and got the exact location where Kane was now. He was an hour southeast, halfway between Linares and Galeana.

  Blitz looked over his shoulder. “Well, fuck. Get in the plane. He’s going to get himself killed.”

  Sean packed up his equipment. “Where is he? It looks like an unpopulated mountainside. A good place to lay low.”

  “That whole area is controlled by Felipe Juarez. He runs a small but violent gang. And he swore to Kane that if he ever saw him again, he’d get a bullet in the head.”

  “Kane doesn’t run from bullies.”

  “No, but he also doesn’t go into their territory alone.”

  “Could Juarez be working with Tobias?”

  “If Tobias put a bounty on Kane like we think, then yes. Juarez isn’t a drug lord. He works primarily kidnappings for hire. I’ll bet my pension that he was behind Siobhan’s kidnapping. He would know that Kane helps the Sisters of Mercy. He’s not an idiot, and this isn’t going to be easy.” Blitz glanced at Sean as Sean navigated the short, rough runway and flew east. “You’re stubborn like your brother, but you have to promise me, Little Rogan, do exactly what I say or none of us will get out of this alive.”

  “On one condition.”

  Blitz glared at him.

  “Never call me Little Rogan again.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Lucy sat at her desk and scanned the files from Logan Dunbar’s laptop. But she wasn’t really seeing anything. She was heartbroken.

  It was her own fault. She should never have read that memo.

  That knowledge didn’t diminish how she felt that Juan had asked Barry to evaluate her. Rookies were constantly being evaluated, but this was beyond routine. Worse, she’d thought she and Barry had come to an understanding, that they’d worked well together, but she must have missed his animosity.

  And she’d told him she planned to talk to Elise Hansen. Hadn’t she? Lucy rubbed her eyes and thought about what she’d done and said two weeks ago. She hadn’t made an official request through Barry, but she didn’t think that she’d had to since she was one of the agents of record. She’d called him the night before—she remembered it distinctly. She’d asked if he wanted to go with her. He’d said no, he didn’t see the point.

  Brad had gone with her instead.

  But that whole week was a blur.

  She needed fresh air. She needed to get out of this office.

  Barry could have forgotten their conversation. Or maybe she didn’t remember it the same way. Maybe when he said he didn’t see the point, he hadn’t expected her to follow through.

  “Lucy,” Hans said as he approached her desk. “Did you talk to Noah?”

  She hesitated. Had that been only twenty minutes ago? It seemed like hours had passed.

  “Yes. He said he’s meeting with Rick Stockton shortly, and he’ll find out what we need. I’m going over Logan Dunbar’s files. Noah said FBI forensics determined that the killer cloned his hard drive. It was password-protected, but we have to assume that they can eventually break the code. He asked if I’d go through the information, see if anything pops out that is worth killing for.”

  “Is there?”

  “There’s a lot here. Noah said he’s taking care of the financial documents that related to the money laundering and political corruption. Most of what I have here are memos to Noah and Rick Stockton about the day-to-day operations of Adeline’s campaign, donor information, employee information.” She hesitated. On a hunch she searched the data for Joseph Contreras. It took the computer a minute before popping out a list of documents with his name.

  “Is that the assistant who may have killed the Congresswoman?” Hans pulled over a chair and sat. Lucy was surprised that it was quiet in the office; no one else in her squad was in the bullpen. She shouldn’t be surprised; it was nearly six in the evening.

  “We don’t know anything about him. He doesn’t have an FBI file, his prints aren’t in the system. His Social and driver’s license were legitimate, but he has a very small digital footprint. We know that his Social was issued in California.”

  She clicked on the file. It was a list of all Adeline Reyes-Worthington’s campaign staff. Joseph Contreras had been paid out of the campaign, not a personal account. His salary was close to six figures, which seemed high for a personal assistant. His address was listed as the same as the Worthington’s. Where had he lived before then?

  “Kane said Contreras may have taken the hit out on him,” Lucy said. “Which confirms he works for Tobias.”

  She quickly sent Noah an email about Contreras. After he disappeared, an arrest warrant had been issued, but there’d been no sign of him.

  “So far, I haven’t found any employment information prior to the Congresswoman that might give us his background,” Lucy said.

  She wanted to talk to Hans about the memo, but it wouldn’t do her any good. He would either try to make her feel better, or remind her that the path she’d chosen wasn’t going to be easy. Instead she said, “Elise Hansen’s hearing is tomorrow afternoon. Last week I was told to expect to testify, but I haven’t heard from the AUSA. After this morning, I’m concerned. With Barry missing…”

  “You think he’s dead,” Hans said.

  “Don’t you? He didn’t get on his plane, his car hasn’t been located, no one has seen or heard from him since Friday afternoon.”

  Hans closed his eyes. “Yes, I think he’s dead.”

  Her heart tightened as tears burned behind her eyes. Her first thought was about how she could redeem herself if Barry had been killed. The memo … she couldn’t refute anything, not if Barry wasn’t there to discuss it.

  He would rather have been transferred than work with you.

  “Lucy,” Hans said, “Durant has assigned two agents full-time to track down Agent Crawford. There’s nothing more you can do.”

  Hans was right, but that didn’t make her feel better.

  Hans continued. “Dr. Oakley is wrong about Elise Hansen. I’ve already made a call to the AUSA in the hope that she can convince the judge to hold Elise for another seventy-two hours for a second psychiatric evaluation. Considering that Hansen is now connected—through her affiliation with Tobias—to an escaped felon who killed or had killed eight law enforcement officers, I think we have a good case.”

  “But there’s no hard evidence that Tobias is connected to Nicole. I’m getting a very bad feeling about what’s going to happen in court tomorrow. Elise will disappear if she walks.”

  “You’re not in this alone. The FBI, the DEA, the SAPD, the US Marshals, even the Texas Rangers, are actively involved. Rollins is going to have to move at some point.”

  “Yet she killed Sam Archer this morning.” She pulled up the video of Nicole killing the drug dealer. “I’d wanted to show you this earlier, but then we had the opportunity to talk to Chris Rollins.”

  Lucy watched the video with Hans as he studied it closely. Lucy said, “Forensically, Sam died the same way. Knee. Stomach. Head. What did your contact in LA say?”

  “Agent Novak is one of the best I’ve worked with. She’s going to dig around. She pulled Tamara Rollins’s criminal record. Minor stuff, shortly after her husband was killed. Two drunk driving arrests and one disorderly conduct for vandalism. She did community service for the arrests, time served, and paid a fine and reparation for the other.”

  “And Jimmy Hunt?”

  Hans nodded. “She thinks the Jimmy Hunt that Lieutenant Rollins referred to might be a known drug runner from Los Angeles. It’s a common name, so she’s going to confirm and get back to me. But if it’s the same Jimmy Hunt, he’s a wanted fugitive. I asked that Blair not go through the DEA right now. Not until we know more about Nicole’s operation. Adam Dover is still an agent—he transferred from Los Angeles to the DEA office in Mexico City several years ago.”

  “How do we talk to him?”

  “I passed the information up the chain of command. It’s potential
ly sensitive. First, we’re relying solely on Chris Rollins’s statement. Verifying that he never talked to Dover fifteen years ago? That’s going to be difficult. These types of background checks aren’t recorded. There might be phone records, but that’s going to be difficult to trace back fifteen years—possible, but we’re not going to get them overnight. I suspect the DOJ will open an investigation before calling Agent Dover out on one thing from fifteen years ago. But—that said—I suspect he’ll be cut off from sensitive information or put on an assignment that will keep him occupied until the DOJ can build a case against him.”

  “If Chris Rollins was telling the truth, that means I’m right: Nicole has been a double agent since the beginning. How does she get away with this for fifteen years?” It was a hypothetical question. She didn’t think they’d find the answers until they talked to Nicole.

  “Adeline Reyes-Worthington got away with money laundering and land schemes for six years before she even showed up on the FBI’s radar. Patience, understanding the system, knowing how far to push and when to hold back—smart criminals without a conscience, without remorse, can fly under the radar for a long time. I suspect Rollins moved offices often in order to avoid anyone looking at her too closely.”

  “Until San Antonio. There’s something here.”

  “It’s a border jurisdiction. Or perhaps this was where she met Tobias and how she expanded.”

  “Except this was her goal. Her endgame. There’s something more about San Antonio.” She stared at the fuzzy image of Nicole on the video.

  What’s here for you? Why is San Antonio important?

  Lucy said, “Kane thinks there’s a mole in the FBI.”

  Hans cleared his throat. She put a hand to her mouth and glanced around. They were still alone. But this wasn’t a subject they should talk about here.

  “Do we have all personnel records for the DEA and FBI?” she asked.

  “What are you thinking?”

  She kept her voice low. “First, whoever Nicole has on the inside has access. But the DEA has been completely decimated since Operation Heatwave. Two out on long-term disability, then three killed in the last two days. Four, including Sam. Could one of those agents have been the corrupt agent? Tobias cleans house—that’s what Kane has been saying from the beginning, and the slaughter of the Sanchez gang two weeks ago proves that. What if Nicole had the two agents killed during the escape because one or both were part of the plan and may have had information she couldn’t risk getting out? They knew the route when few people did.”

  Hans stood. “We need to go someplace private.”

  “The squad is clean—they’ve been sweeping for bugs daily, adding layers on computer security.”

  Hans motioned for her to follow him into Juan’s office. Reluctantly, Lucy followed. She stared at the file folder that held the memo she couldn’t get out of her mind.

  She had to put it aside. She couldn’t keep second-guessing herself. She’d known when she went to Mexico with Kane to rescue Brad and the boys that she could lose her job. She’d done the right thing, but just because something is right doesn’t make it legal. She was a sworn federal agent and had to follow the rules.

  Yet it was more than that. She didn’t like how Barry saw her, and that impacted how she viewed herself. She’d walked a fine line between what was protocol and what was not; she had shared information that maybe she shouldn’t have shared with Sean and Kane. That wasn’t the issue.

  The real issue was whether her actions, such as talking to Elise Hansen after her arrest, would result in their case being tossed by the court. She didn’t think so—and she wanted desperately to testify. Yet if she went under oath, she could be asked anything. That terrified her deep down—there were some things she didn’t want to talk about.

  “Close the door,” Hans said. He settled himself into Juan’s chair and rubbed his knee.

  She sat across from him. “Are you okay?”

  “Sore. I’m lucky I passed the physical to be cleared for duty. That had been a good day. Today isn’t. I think it’s the humidity. This spring has been mild in DC and that helped.” Hans put his hands on the desk and stared at Lucy. “I’m here not solely because of the escape.”

  Her stomach dropped. Juan forwarded Barry’s memo. Hans was going to ask her to resign. Or reassign her. Or …

  “As you mentioned, there’s a mole in the San Antonio FBI.”

  “When Tobias landed on Kane’s radar, he suspected that Nicole wasn’t the only corrupt agent. Do you know who it is?”

  “I hadn’t wanted to bring you into this,” Hans said. “Noah and I don’t disagree often—but this time, we did. He thought you would be in a unique position to investigate.”

  “A spy.” She didn’t mean to spit out the word, but that’s how it sounded.

  “I knew you would do it, but you wouldn’t like it.”

  “It would be difficult to look at the people I like and trust and think that one of them is sharing information with a killer. When they find out I was the spy … they’d never trust me again.” But she averted her eyes. Barry didn’t trust her. Juan no longer trusted her—not after she’d violated the law and FBI protocols by going to Mexico on an unsanctioned op.

  Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.

  Except she didn’t think it had been wrong. It had been the right thing to do because Brad had been tortured and would have been killed. Rules sometimes got in the way of justice, and she was willing to risk her job when necessary.

  “There are only five people—now six, with you—who know that the Bureau is investigating the San Antonio office. Myself, Rick Stockton, Rick’s admin, Noah, and the FBI director himself.

  “The DEA is investigating their own—sworn agents and civilian staff—and are coordinating with Rick at a high level,” Hans continued. “And yes, they are looking into the two agents who were killed yesterday morning. Your theory makes sense, even more sense now that I’ve read all the files on Tobias. I wasn’t going to tell you, but in light of Barry Crawford going missing, I feel he could be the one.”

  “No,” she said automatically.

  “His record is outstanding, but there’s no sign of foul play at his house, he didn’t take the vacation he was supposed to take, and no one can reach him.” Hans frowned. “I can’t help but put him at the top of the list.”

  “I worked with him. He’s as by-the-book as you can get.” Her heart skipped a beat. If Barry was corrupt, was that memo he gave to Juan his way of trying to take her down? Or his way of getting out of the office before he was caught? Except … she didn’t see him as a traitor. He was smart, professional, almost too professional. “He has family. He’s a seventeen-year veteran.” Nicole was a fifteen-year veteran.

  “I have no evidence pointing to anyone specifically. Is there anything that Agent Crawford knows that isn’t in his reports?”

  Lucy nearly froze. Barry knew a lot about her. And Sean. And Logan Dunbar …

  “Once we closed the investigation into Harper Worthington’s murder, Barry took over working with the AUSA and Agent Dunbar on the political corruption cases.” She wondered if that’s why he’d lied in the memo to Juan that she hadn’t told him she was going to talk to Elise. Was he setting Elise up to be released on a technicality? But how could she say anything to Hans about it when she had read a confidential memo she wasn’t supposed to see?

  “And,” she continued, “he would know about procedures and how we operate, who does what, strengths and weaknesses of the squad. But”—she shook her head—“I don’t see Barry playing both sides. He’s a good agent. Methodical, focused. I’m more concerned about his safety now that he’s missing, not that he’s working for Tobias.”

  “I don’t have specific information telling me that the leak is Agent Crawford, but he’s been missing since Friday evening and that was nearly three days before Rollins escaped. We can’t discount that he might be involved.”

  “Or he’s dead,” she said.
“Agent Dunbar was killed Sunday night, before Rollins escaped.”

  “And how did they know that Dunbar was going home?” Hans said quietly. “Someone told them. The killer was waiting for Dunbar, so he knew where he lived. He knew when he would be home. He beat him to DC. He cloned his hard drive, so there is specific information Dunbar had that they wanted … information that they didn’t want us to know they wanted. Otherwise they would have taken his laptop or removed the hard drive.”

  Lucy felt sick to her stomach.

  “Think about it, all right? If there is anything that you can think of that might lend credence to the theory.”

  “There’s nothing,” she said quietly. “But I’ll go through everything I have.” She paused. “Barry had his vacation planned for months and he’d be back in time, which was why I wasn’t needed at the hearing. I don’t understand why—I talked to her more than anyone—but I suppose her reaction this morning was an indicator of how she operates. It could be that the AUSA thought I would do more harm than good.”

  “I’m still trying to get in to talk to the AUSA before the hearing, but she hasn’t returned my calls.”

  Lucy had to give something to Hans—without revealing that she’d read the letter. “It could be,” she said, “that Barry and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on some things.” She rubbed her eyes. “I don’t lie well.”

  “That’s the reason I didn’t want you going undercover on your squad.”

  She opened her mouth, surprised, then closed it. “I thought Barry and I worked fine together, but it was clear we had different approaches to our jobs. He called to check up on me, find out why my file was sealed. Agent Dunbar made a comment that led Barry to discover my personal relationship with Rick, and I think that’s why he thought I overstepped when I didn’t. If I had thought I’d done anything that would jeopardize this case, I would have said something—to Barry or Juan.”

  “Yet he pushed you out of the follow-up investigation on Elise?”

  “I didn’t know it at the time, but he didn’t like that I went to interview her after the fact. It wasn’t an official interview. I needed to understand her.”