“I do,” she said cautiously.
“You sound so convincing,” he said with a half smile.
The room was a small conference room with a round table and four chairs. There was a white board and counter and not much else. Richardson sat and Scarlet and John followed suit.
“What happened to Jason?” she asked. “Is he really in critical condition?”
“The guard was called off and someone attempted to poison him through his IV. Fortunately, whoever it was had little to no medical training and personnel were alerted before too much of the toxin got into his system. The official word is that he’s in critical condition and on life support. He is sick, but largely from the antidote which shocked his system. We’ve moved him to another floor and under an alias, but he’s going to be fine.”
“What about security tapes? Witnesses?"
“The bad news is that the intruder knew how to disable the camera feeds on that wing. I have two men I trust going through all other hospital feeds to identify everyone who exited the building between one and one-thirty this afternoon. It’s going to take time. Now. Tell me what’s going on.”
She did, starting with her visit to Sykes and calling in a favor to find out who he called after she left. She showed him the photos of Mr. Leather Jacket and Mercer and the blow up that Mac did for her on the badge. She wrapped up with her conversation with Leo, the old man who hated Fascist cops but apparently loved Gina Perez.
“Either you’re part of the conspiracy or Officer Thompson lied to you,” she said and watched him closely. “Because my brother thinks you’re a good cop, and you’ve brought him in, that means you would have followed up on Thompson’s report and talked to Leo yourself if Thompson wrote an accurate report.”
“I can’t tell you everything,” he said. “But you’re close enough to being right about what’s going on. Close enough that it puts you in danger and I should put you into protective custody.”
She frowned. “I was in danger from the minute I drove into Topanga Canyon.”
“You were in danger from the minute you answered Jason Jones’s call for help and met him at his sister’s house.”
She blanched. “I, um—”
“Save it, Scarlet. I know Jason’s innocent, and I know you thought you were helping him. I set up the SWAT sting because I suspected he’d go to his sister’s house and I needed to get him into protective custody as soon as possible. I thought putting him in the hospital with minor injuries and a guard would be sufficient, safer than solitary because I can’t control every jail and every guard. I told all this to Jason this morning, and the reason I haven’t answered your calls is that I’m working with the Feds to figure out what we’re going to do about him.”
She absorbed everything he said. She had a hundred questions, but started with, “Why didn’t you tell me this Saturday night?”
“Because I didn’t know you from Adam, and I didn’t personally know each of the SWAT team members or LBPD officers who assisted with the raid. I had to keep up the illusion.”
“You could have told me yesterday,” she grumbled.
“I was pissed off yesterday,” he said. “But after talking to my supervisor and John, I decided to bring you in as much as I can. It’s either that, or I arrest you for obstruction of justice.”
She bristled. “I haven’t done anything of the sort.” She ignored John shaking his head.
Richardson glared at her. “You’re in the middle of this quagmire.”
“Because someone is framing Jason for Gina Perez’s murder, and wants him dead. Probably so it’ll all go away, and they can close two cases.”
“This is bigger than the murder of one cop,” Richardson said. “I don’t say that lightly. I sent my wife and daughter to stay with my brother out of state because Armor Plus is dangerous and they will go after families if that’s what it takes to protect their operation.” He paused, then added, “That said, I need to keep as much of this under wraps as possible. I’ve been working on taking down Armor for over a year. This Gina Perez murder has come out of left field. It’s an outlier. I don’t believe it’s connected to my investigation, but you’ve proven it’s connected to Armor. That was a surprise to me. Perez may have found a piece of the puzzle, and I need that piece.”
“What exactly are you looking for?” John asked.
“I don’t know,” Richardson, clearly frustrated. “The hard drive from her computer was stolen. There’s no way Jason had time to remove the hard drive and hide it off site before the police arrived. We thoroughly searched her house. I need to wrap up her murder with a big bow and make sure they think I think I’m done. The information about the missing hard drive isn’t known by anyone not directly involved with this case—I sealed that information. I don’t want them to know that I’m looking for it.”
Jason had said the killer came from her office. A hard drive was actually small—about the size of a fat e-reader—and could be easily concealed.
Richardson took a big breath and said, “Against my better judgment, I’m letting you into this. Only in so far as I need to stop what’s going on and find out why Perez was murdered. I have a plan, but it’s a long-tail plan. I need to solve Perez so I can continue my investigation. This isn’t solely an LAPD case. I’m working closely with the FBI , and it’s need-to-know because they started the investigation through their white collar crimes division.”
“White collar. You’re thinking Peter Vartarian. Supervisor campaign.”
“I told you she was smart,” John said.
Richardson said, “We have someone deep cover with the Vartarian campaign. Our entire case—and our agent—is in jeopardy until I can take Gina off the table.”
“You know him, don’t you?” She tapped the image on her cell phone of the Armor Plus guy who’d picked up the message from Mercer.
Richardson nodded. “That’s Thomas Laurens, Diana Vartarian’s brother-in-law. He’s a good soldier for Vartarian, loyal to the family.”
“He was in Topanga. I saw him in full black military dress, just like Eric Peterson was dressed. In the back of the house, while I was talking to you.”
“I’d love to bring him in, but I can’t. I’ll have you give a formal statement to my FBI counterpart, but we’ll seal it along with this photos. I need your word on this, Scarlet. You can’t reveal his connection to this case.”
Scarlet looked at her brother John. “You’re okay with this?”
“Sis, this is what I do. We have to think big picture. Laurens is a small fish. You know it, I know it. We need to take out the shark, then all the bad fishes disappear or get swept up.”
John was right. She didn’t like it, didn’t have to like it, but the most important thing was stopping the organization, not just one person on the periphery.
“Tell me what you want me to do.”
“I’m waiting for permission.” Richardson’s phone vibrated on the table. “I hope this is it.”
She rose. “I’ll leave.”
“Stay.”
She sat back down. Richardson answered formally. He listened, asked a couple questions, then said, “I’d like to bring in a civilian. … Yes, that’s her. … Yes, ma’am.” He hung up and said to Scarlet, “It’s risky.”
She leaned forward. “I’ve already been shot at and nearly burned alive. I’m willing to take the risk.”
“I thought you’d say that. That was SSA Faye Clark. She’s the FBI liaison on this case. You need to know that there are only a handful of people who know that there is an active investigation into the Vartarians, and most of them are Feds. On our side, it’s me, my boss, one officer assigned to me, and now your brother. But I need to know something—are you still involved with ADA Matt Hamilton?”
“Matt?” Her stomach rolled. “Is he under investigation?”
“I can’t answer that.”
Matt? No way. He was a prosecutor, and had always been dedicated.
“We broke up three years ago,�
� she said.
“But you lived with him.”
“For a year or so.”
“And the last time you saw him?”
“I have no idea—at my dad’s maybe two years ago?” She glanced at John. John stared back, his face unreadable. No, not completely blank—she knew her brother. It was his cop face. He was dedicated, over and beyond what was required to be a good cop. If he had to keep information from his best friend, he would. “Not that it’s your business, but it wasn’t a very happy break-up. He didn’t want me to become a PI and he didn’t support my claims that someone set me up three years ago. If you think that I’m going to spill anything to him, I’m not.”
“Hamilton isn’t under investigation at this time, but because of his connection to Ben Vartarian, we don’t want there to be any risk of a leak.”
John said, “I told Kyle about my friendship with Matt. This is bigger than friendship, and when all is said and done, when Mercer and the Vartarians are exposed, Matt will understand.”
She nodded. John was right. She turned to Richardson and said, “Tell me what you want me to do.”
“The information you uncovered about Tony Mercer’s connection to Armor Plus is enlightening in many ways. It gives us something we didn’t have before. We have a list of corrupt cops who have situational problems that Armor uses to their advantage—gambling, drinking, whoring, you name it. But we only had the bottom feeders, people we’ve been watching for a long time.”
“It sounds like you’re in IAG.”
“Hardly. One of the individuals under investigation is an IAG officer.”
If she had antennas growing out of her skull, they would have perked up. “IAG,” she said softly.
“I’m not telling you who. You’ve figured everything else out on your own, but I can’t reveal our suspect. But Mercer is a new player. We didn’t have that liaison between Armor and IAG, now we do. It’s huge for us. They need a buffer. Mercer is it. Perez worked directly for Mercer. I’ve read all her files and reports, and most recently Jones’s. One thing is clear—Mercer himself stepped in three weeks ago and split them up, made them training officers. The two rookies assigned to each of them both came out of the same class and both are on probation for an abuse under color of authority charge.”
“Which makes them recruitable by Armor,” she deduced.
“You’re a fast study.”
“Okay, so what’s the plan?”
“Tomorrow we’re moving Jason to an undisclosed location. We’re confident that even if he knows something, he has no idea what it is, and it’s probably not going to help us. But they don’t know that.
“What we want you to do is confront Mercer. It’s a gamble. I’m not going to deny it, but in order to protect our investigation into the Vartarians, confronting Mercer is a way to get him to tip his hand. Based on Jason’s statement, Perez had learned something about Mercer and implied she had physical evidence of corruption. At least, that’s my interpretation.”
“Mine too,” Scarlet said.
“Which would reason that Mercer is the one who ordered the hit. Jason has no idea what it was that Gina had, but since there have been three attempts on Jason’s life, we believe they think he has it or knows where it is.”
“That was exactly what I thought,” she said.
“They’re not very competent,” John inteR.J.ected. “Three attempts and they couldn’t kill him?”
“The first attempt, when he left the station, I think was to scare him into running so he would be a viable suspect for Perez’s murder,” Richardson said. “The murder weapon was found in his car, he disappeared, he looked guilty. By the second attempt, they had either determined he didn’t have it but might be able to identify the shooter, so they went after him hard. They didn’t expect Scarlet to show up, or if they did, they planned to kill her too.”
“She’s a damn cat,” John said.
She stuck her tongue out at him. “That means I still have seven more lives.”
“Don’t tempt fate,” John countered.
Richardson cut off the spat. “You, Scarlet, already started the next ball rolling when you went to Sykes in jail—which was honestly a stupid move on your part.”
“I got what I needed.”
“You got your name moved up on their list. You put yourself in danger.”
“I already was.”
“We have to control the situation, but we have to do it fast. If we can flip Mercer, we can use him in our investigation. If we can’t flip him, we’ll bring him down for the murder of Officer Perez.”
“Flip him? You mean, he could walk free and be an informant?” she said. “No.”
“We have to look at the bigger picture,” he said. “You need to realize that Mercer is but one piece of a much larger conspiracy. We don’t know how far the Vartarian web has grown. Mercer knows things we need. He won’t be a cop anymore. He won’t be truly free. But yes, the AUSA is absolutely prepared to cut him a deal depending on the information he can turn over.”
It pained Scarlet that Gina’s killer could walk. She understood the process, she understand why Richardson thought it was a viable option, but she didn’t have to like it.
“Are you okay with this?” Scarlet asked John.
“Yes,” he said.
Richardson added, “If you want to walk, now is the time to do it. If you stay, you have to be completely on board with the plan. I can’t have you playing another angle, thinking you’ll get some sort of vigilante justice.”
“That’s not the way I operate,” she said. “I’m in.”
He nodded and tapped the photo of the graveyard exchange. “We have no idea what information Mercer passed onto Laurens, obviously, since Mercer was just put on our radar when Perez was killed. But I’m pretty certain it has to do with you.”
“Why?”
“Because you went to Sykes, Sykes called the ADA Vartarian, Vartarian called to arrange the exchange. We can access a lot of information, the Feds have warrants to get around a lot of the privacy issues related to Vartarian, but he uses burn phones constantly, and we can’t get a handle on him. But we were able to trace that call because it was Vartarian’s private line.”
“They probably already know where I live, who I’m sleeping with, and what car I drive,” Scarlet said. “So I get it—you want to do this fast and take the target off my back. I’m with you there.”
“Mercer is going to a dinner tonight, some police charity event.”
“It’s Kids of Cops Scholarship Fund,” John said.
“Dad’s favorite charity,” Scarlet said. “I’m going to know people there. Dad will probably be there.”
“I want you to go. Be yourself. You know people, your father is a retired Captain. You’re going to support a charity that he supports. That’s good. When you get there, we’ll be in contact. Tell you when Mercer arrives and arrange a confrontation. Accuse him, whatever you said to Sykes that set him off, but make it personal about Mercer. You know he’s involved, you’ll prove he was behind the attempt on Jason’s life, anything that you need to say to make him worried. Act like you’ve gone off the deep end.” He looked at her pointedly. “But you need to be convincing—that he won’t get away with it, that you’ll be in his face every day until you find the information that Gina had. That’s key—he needs to believe that there is something tangible out there that will bite him on the ass.”
She nodded. “I can do that.” She was actually looking forward to it.
“Wait—one more thing. You have to walk away. Nothing he says or does can stop that. You go down the rabbit hole, stay out of the way. John and I are going to tail him. We’re getting ears on him as well, but that’s touchy. You need to be on high alert. You’ll be covered, but Mercer’s a cop. He’ll be suspicious, so we have to keep the deep cover so he doesn’t suspect anything. Understand?”
“Yes.” She was getting excited. She couldn’t wait to get in his face, and considering the venue, there wo
uld be nothing he could do about it.
He handed her a slip of paper with the event details. “Tonight, eight o’clock, he’ll be there.”
“So will I.”
“I know you have a partner. I’m not going to tell you to lie, but this needs to be kept as quiet as possible. The more people that know, the greater the risk to all of us.”
“Understood.” She got up, then said, “I’d like to see Jason.”
“I’ll take you up.” Richardson turned to John. “Call Faye Clark and fill her in on the details. Make sure they know the when and where so they can get eyes and ears. I want to make sure Scarlet is covered.”
John gave her a stern look. “You and me both.”
~ ~ ~
Jason looked like he was recuperating from a vicious flu when Kyle Richardson escorted Scarlet to his room. His skin was pale and gaunt, his hair flat, and dark circles framed his eyes.
Scarlet had a dual purpose in wanting to talk to Jason. First, to make sure he was physically okay. But mostly to ask him about Gina.
“You look like shit,” she said with a smile. “But at least you’re alive.” She wanted to make him comfortable.
“Right back at you,” he said.
She sat down next to him. “Detective Richardson said he’s talked to you.”
“Yeah. We cleared the air. At least he knows I didn’t kill Gina.” He looked at the detective. “Right?”
“Neither of you are very trusting,” he grumbled.
She glanced at Richardson. “Not really,” she said. “Jase—I’ve been thinking about what Gina said to you. And about the guy you chased away. She said she had something to show you. Where would she hide potential evidence?”
“Who’s the cop here?” Richardson inteR.J.ected. “Do you think I haven’t asked the same question?”
“No, but—”
“We talked about this, Scarlet. Your boundaries. You don’t have any, do you?”
“I just want to help.”
“Let me be the cop.”
She bristled, but realized he was right. She had to let it go. She had to let Richardson and her brother do their job. She wasn’t a cop anymore. It had been taken from her.
Hit and Run (Moreno & Hart Mysteries) Page 10
