“No, that was a ruse, just sexting, nothing physical about it.” Nick looked at Cortnie. “Gabe is a great guy, and you couldn’t do much better.”
“So who killed Lena?”
“I’m getting there.” Nick snapped.
He liked to tell his stories in his own good time.
“In the process of being hired for the decoy operation, Lena found out about the illegal towing and extortion by the vice cops. The decoy program was a great way for them to look good within the department while extorting money from poor folks on the side.”
Cortnie said, “So they’d tow the cars of lower income Hispanics, many of whom were their own relatives, and when they couldn’t pay, the cops would sell off the vehicles and pocket the money?”
“That and a few other scams.”
“So where does Lena come into all of this?” I still didn’t understand how murder played into the extortion scheme.
“She blackmailed the vice cops. Somehow she caught on to what they were doing. She had videos of some pretty damning transactions between Ruiz and Munoz, and really bad stuff on Powers. The money going into that Minneapolis bank account was coming from Powers, only the money had originally been going into an account at the Central Valley Bank, then getting transferred. The night Lena was killed, that money was withdrawn.”
“So, Powers didn’t go out as a decoy that night. Did she kill Lena?” Cortnie looked confused.
“We had the video from the motel right away. And you know Pics, he’s good. But, no, it wasn’t Powers.”
“It was supposed to be Powers though, wasn’t it? Powers didn’t dress as a hooker that night, because she was going to meet up with Lena and get rid of her that night. Only someone beat her to it.” I knew it.
“I don’t think so. Eventually they’d get rid of her. And we were using sexting between Gabe and Lena as a ruse to make them think Gabe and Lena were an item, and that Gabe was dirty, too. Then we had ‘dead Lena’ get a burner phone for the last twenty-four hours because she was scared for her life. The vice cops didn’t know she was dead. Neither did Gabe. There’s a lot more to it, but that’s all you need to know for now.”
“Weren’t you afraid the killer was going to get away?”
“I had her passport. She wasn’t going to get far.”
“Wilma?” I couldn’t believe it.
Cortnie jumped up. “No way.”
“Remember when she acted like she didn’t know that Richard was having sex with Lena? She knew. She’d been making plans to take the money out of that joint account and run off with Richard, all along. Only Richard wasn’t going to go anywhere. He’d never leave his wife. Lena was smart enough to know that, but Wilma wasn’t. She’d embezzled money from the bank and made it look like Lena had done it, then when she found out about the vice cop scam, well, you know the rest. She threatened to kill Lena if she didn’t stop seeing Richard. Lena told her to take him. All of this was in emails and Facebook messages on Lena’s computer. I have that flash drive at the station. That woman was crazy.”
“So when did all of this come to light?” I was still feeling left out in the cold.
“You sleep like the dead, my dear. I didn’t sleep much at all last night.” Nick gave me a lopsided grin. “So hate me if you want, but I was doing my job. And I was only steering you away from trouble. I knew who the murderer was almost immediately, but I had to keep things quiet because I didn’t want to screw up months of undercover work, and we needed to bring down some dirty cops.”
Cortnie murmured, “I hate dirty cops.”
Nick said, “Well, your cop isn’t dirty, at least not in that sense, so good luck.” He winked at her.
I’d love to sit around and celebrate this win, but I have another murder to solve.
“Wilma,” I said.
Cortnie stared wide eyed.
“We found her dead in her apartment this morning.”
“Murder?”
“Made to look like a suicide,” I said.
“How do you know it was a murder?” She asked.
Nick headed to the door, “I don’t, but something about the scene didn’t look right. The crime scene unit should be done, so I want to head to the station and see what they may have found.”
I dared to ask, “May I come along?”
I was ready to plead my case when he said, “Sure.”
* * *
The tension in the police station was palpable, the hum of whispers like white noise. Nick grabbed my hand and we nearly ran to Pic’s office.
Once there, he knocked softly, then opened the door without waiting for an answer. Pic’s office was inside the police lab, but separate.
“Got a sec?” Nick asked.
Pic didn’t look up. “Nope.”
“Find anything unusual on the suicide victim on San Miguel this morning?”
“Wasn’t a suicide.” He still didn’t look up from the paperwork on his desk.
“God dammit Pic, talk to me.”
“Open and shut. Oscar Ruiz killed that woman. His prints were all over that bathroom. And that woman’s blood was found on him when they booked him last night.” He finally looked up. “He’s a cop, you’d think he’d know better. What a royal idiot!”
I stood back, hoping my presence didn’t upset anyone, and listened.
“Blood? So Ruiz had blood on him when he was arrested, and someone had the wherewithal to test it, and it wasn’t his?”
“Actually, it was Garcia. He didn’t even know our vic was dead, but something about the blood bothered him, so we swabbed it. Then I took a sample this morning, and boom, bam, thank you, ma’am. That chick that was killed in the parking lot, this was her mother, and apparently she had Ruiz’s money. What a convoluted mess.” Pic snapped his fingers.
“Did you find any money?”
“Not my part of the job. They’ll tear that place apart today. It’s going to be a long trial.”
“Cut and dried, but it’ll still go to trial?”
“Sure it will. From what I hear, we saved ourselves a trial, too. The dead woman killed her daughter. Life’s a bitch… well, I’ll just not finish that one.” He turned back to his paperwork.
Nick’s cell phone rang.
“I’ve got to get this.”
Nick answered his call, pacing the room as he listened. When he hung up, his skin was as gray as his eyes.
“Let’s go to my office.”
I said, “Just say it.”
“That was the emergency response unit from Monterey. The GPS tracker I asked for? They found a Porsche Spyder matching the description of Charles’s car flipped over on the rocks off the coast of Big Sur.”
###
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About the Author
Jamie Lee Scott is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Gotcha Detective Agency Mysteries.
Look for her new New Adult Romance Series in 2014
along with a new Romantic Suspense series.
When Jamie isn’t writing, she’s riding. She lives on a small farm with her husband, three horses,
two dogs, and two cats. In her spare time she’s a competitive barrel racer and award winning screenwriter.
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Other books by Jamie Lee Scott
Let Us Prey
Textual Relations
Death of a Sales Rep
What a Meth
Tagged You’re It (a novelette)
New Adult Novel coming in early 2014
(Facing Zero Rockstar Romance series)
On Impulse
(Cowboy Up! Rodeo Romance series)
Reride
Acknowledgements:
First and foremost, I have to thank Scot Dierks again. For all the crap he puts up with, he will forever be my hero, and never a victim in my books. If only I could get him to dress half as nice as Charles.
For all things writing, I have to thank my editors and beta readers, who do their very best to make sure I give you the best (hopefully error free) novel to read. Nichole and Cynthia, I told you I’d thank you in writing, and I am. Thanks so much for the time, fun, and laughs.
Bente Gallagher is always there for me, even when she’s crazy busy working on her own writing career, and for that I am forever grateful.
Lucie Charles, you put my name on the map (and on the USA Today list)! The MMM girls are the best, and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be a part of that collaboration of writers. Lucie, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Mom, I promise to get this one in paperback sooner than I did the rest, so you can share with your friends. I love you.
Bad Vice: Gotcha Detective Agency Mystery #5 (Gotcha Detective Agency Mysteries) Page 18
