"His own brother? What the hell for?" asked Garrett.
"I don't know. I only hope I'm wrong."
"I'll call his captain in BPD and get this cleared up. I don't want us suspecting him on top of everything else that’s going on." Garrett shouted a few orders before we dashed inside, jogging to his office. He grabbed his desk phone and asked for the Boston switchboard. As soon as he was connected, I waited breathlessly as he spoke. When he put the phone down, he was pale. "Damien Solomon isn't on vacation, nor is he up for any promotion. He was suspended last week in connection to a string of thefts from the evidence locker."
My jaw dropped. "What is he supposed to have stolen?" I asked.
"The cash evidence turned in from a crime scene that occurred a couple months ago. A hundred grand is missing. Damien was the only one in possession of the evidence but, according to his captain, he swears it wasn't him."
"Maybe it wasn't!"
"There's more. He was caught taking a bribe a couple of months ago but he said he was working on a new criminal informant so the captain let it slide even though it didn't sit right. This is bad, Lexi! No wonder he was so keen to get us looking at all kinds of other angles. He probably thought he could drown us in the detective agency's case files and distract us long enough to cover up whatever is really going on."
"It's not just bad, but terrible!" I said. "We sent him over to pick up Lucas's research!"
Maddox punched in the numbers before I finished speaking. "Lucas, it's Maddox," he began. "Did Damien Solomon arrive at the agency? Damn!" Maddox looked up. "Damien just left with all the research."
"What do we do now? Sit and wait until he comes back?" I asked.
"If he comes back," pointed out Maddox. "He has to know he couldn't keep this up forever."
"I don't know what else we can do if he doesn’t return here," said Garrett. "It will take hours, if not days, to get a warrant to tap Damien's cellphone and find a signal. By then, he could be out of the city."
"We don't have to wait that long," I said. I took Maddox's phone. "Lucas, find out where Damien went."
"Is something wrong?" asked Lucas.
"Yeah, very wrong. I think Damien is caught up in this somehow."
"He looks kind of familiar," said Lucas. There was a long pause, then, "I think he resembles a man in one of the photos, but I can't be sure."
"What was the man in the photo doing?"
"He was talking to the boss, one of the Copleys, and handing him an envelope."
"Are you sure it's Damien?"
"No. I only met him for a few minutes and the photo wasn't exactly perfect. It could have been him."
"Let's find him first and work out the rest later," I said as I hung up. "Damien must have freaked out about something. If he thinks we're close, he might try and sabotage the investigation."
"I think that's already happened," said Garrett, palming his face as he groaned. "He's had access to everything. We took him at his word when he said the Niners weren't of any interest. What if everything he told us is a pile of crap? I can't believe he played me!"
"Hey," I said. "Not one of us suspected Solomon's brother. Who would have?"
"I should have called his captain regardless of that stuff he said about a promotion and not wanting to look like he was trying to get an unfair advantage."
"Do you think he knew someone was going to hurt his brother?" asked Maddox. He stood by the door, his arms crossed.
"He seemed upset about it when we first met him," I said.
"We didn't just meet him," pointed out Maddox. "He was following us. He never explained why, not properly. If he knew the warning was for him from the start, then he probably wanted to know what we knew before he approached you."
"That might be true but I can't imagine him hanging Solomon out for target practice, no matter what he did. Like Mooch and Mikey both said, shooting Solomon was a warning. One that obviously wasn't heeded or they wouldn't have sent a second hit man." A thought struck me. "Lily and I looked through Solomon's phone and there was a series of text messages between him and Damien. Damien asked for a loan and Solomon said no. What if it was to pay someone off?"
"He must owe someone a lot of money if he stole the hundred grand and it still wasn't enough," said Maddox.
"To risk losing his job, he must be pretty scared of whomever he owes it to," said Garrett.
I paced the small office, walking in between my brother and Maddox. "He must be desperate to get the rest now that a second hit was attempted. And he might not know we have that shooter in custody. Where could he find that much money so quickly to pay them off? Do you think he owes money to the gang?"
"It's connected to the Niners somehow so we should definitely assume that," said Garrett. "Now that we know where to look, I think we'll find the connection."
"I hate to say it," said Maddox, checking his watch, "but Damien should be back by now. I think we need to assume he's not coming back."
"What's he going to do now? He's got a gang on his back who want their money and a brother in hospital. What's his next move?" asked Garrett, but I didn't get the impression he was asking either of us.
"Lieutenant Graves?" This time, a detective I recognized stepped into the room. "Your delivery just opened his mouth. I think you're going to want to hear this."
"Let's go," said Garrett.
"We're coming too," I said. "If he implicates Damien, I want to know."
We followed the detective out of the office. In the squad room, Garrett barked orders to detain Damien if he turned up and focus the whole investigation on the Niners. With every minute that passed, I was sure Damien wouldn't risk returning to the station. If he saw the "parcel" outside MPD, it could have spooked him, or maybe he read what was contained in the packet Lucas gave him. If he read it, and realized there was evidence connecting him, there was no way he would have returned with it. He could have possibly gotten rid of whichever piece implicated him, but that would only have bought him a short time until we discovered that the research he delivered was incomplete.
I wished I could call Anastasia and ask what she knew but I didn't want to worry her more. I was sure she'd been just as blind to Damien as I was. I didn't doubt he cared about Solomon, but now everything he said or done was tainted. Plus, if I called her, what were the chances of her believing me that her older brother had been shot because her younger brother had gotten into the kind of trouble he couldn't extricate himself from? It would only cause more pain and upset.
"We'll find him," said Maddox.
We stepped into the now familiar room to watch Garrett enter the interview room. The man on the other side had regained his color but he still had wisps of tape stuck to his clothing and his short hair was standing at odd angles. He wore a leather jacket over pants and a shirt and looked more like a businessman than a hit man. I wouldn't have noticed him in the street. His face was oddly easily forgettable.
"He can't have gone far." Maddox's phone buzzed and he read the screen. "Lucas said Damien's phone went offline a couple minutes ago but it pinged in the downtown area."
"Why would he be there?"
"Robbing a bank?" Maddox quipped.
"Don't even joke. I'm afraid he will." Another thought occurred to me. "Solomon was looking at a possible bank heist before he was shot. He thought the manager was paranoid, but what if he wasn't?"
"It was a joke, Lexi!"
It did seem far-fetched and I couldn't see Damien pulling off a complex heist. "Where would you go if you caused all this?" I asked.
"If no one else was in any jeopardy, I'd lie low, but that's not the case. I think we need to go through everything Damien touched and try and work out what he might have removed, as well as finding anything he threw in or deliberately omitted."
"That could take weeks!"
We stopped as Garrett's voice filtered through the speakers. "I don't have time for beating around the bush. I have the syringe. I have a gun with your fingerprints on it, and
any time now, I'm going to get a ballistics report back that proves you also shot at a PI and an FBI agent. Anything to say for yourself?"
"It was me. I did it. I confess."
"Okay," drawled Garrett. "That was easy. Anything else to confess to?"
The man nodded. "I tried to inject a man named John Solomon with a drug. Not to kill him, however, so you can’t charge me with attempted murder."
"I'll decide the charges."
"Really, there's nothing to charge me with since nothing happened," said the man, "but I'll admit shooting at the woman and her guy. Again, not a murder charge, or even attempted murder. I'll do some time, but not for that."
"Who put you up to it?"
"Don't know his name but I met him at an auto bodyshop on Ninth Street. His choice of venue. Didn't look like he worked there so it was probably just a convenient location. He paid me five grand to shake up some guy and cause a big scare."
"You sound pretty scared," said Garrett.
"I am. I have a family. Please, you have to help me. I'm confessing! What more do you want from me?"
"Tell me what the man at the bodyshop looks like."
"Five-ten, dark hair, Caucasian. Got a birthmark the size of a dime on his right hand. Dresses like he's into stocks or some other kind of profitable business. Expensive clothes and shoes. Nice watch. He got into a Mercedes afterwards."
"That sounds like Grant Copley," said Maddox. "This finally connects the dots."
"Which is great, but it doesn't help us find Damien," I said.
"No, it doesn't but we’re getting very close to finding out what is going on."
Chapter Twenty-One
Lucas waited for us at the elevator as Maddox and I stepped out onto the agency's floor. Garrett was making a lot of noise about not leaving the station, but I couldn't stay still a moment longer. The hit man was in custody so Garrett's argument that I wasn't safe seemed to lose most of its power. "I got everything I could find on Damien Solomon," he said.
"Tell me the short version."
Lucas opened the file he carried and began to read. "His career was good. He's been a cop for eight years, made detective three years ago. He spent some time undercover a couple years ago and that's when things seemed to go wrong. His captain in New York thought he'd gotten in too deep, and was losing himself in his role so he insisted he be pulled out. He was offered therapy and the therapist later signed him off as fit to work. He has a good close rate, and no trouble. Then he transferred to Boston PD around a year ago, very suddenly."
"Was there any reason given?"
"To be closer to family," said Lucas, glancing down.
"We know that's not true! I haven't seen him once and Solomon never mentioned him either."
"It's a stock answer for not giving an answer," said Maddox.
"I think he's right," said Lucas. "Damien got into some financial trouble after the undercover gig. Poker mostly. Won a lot of money, lost a lot. Won some more, lost even more and he was on a losing streak after that. He's struggling to pay his bills. Took a loan out, and it looks like he lost that at the table too. Then the slate gets wiped clean. He's suddenly got lots of money in his account again."
"Did he win it?"
"I don't think so. I traced the deposit back to a shell corporation that is owned by the firm that owns those unoccupied but strangely financially successful buildings here and in Boston."
"A bribe!" I said.
"I'm guessing it is, but I'd like Maddox to take a closer look," said Lucas, handing the file over.
Maddox flicked through it, running his forefinger down the sheets as he hastily scanned the highlights. "I think that's a good theory."
"There's more," said Lucas. "I correlated gang activity with the payments Damien received and I found something interesting. There was a case against Eric Dutka, a gang boss in Boston. A murder charge. They had plenty of evidence except for the bodies but the police planned a raid of a property Copley owned. There was talk about a tip-off, however, because when the police got there, they found nothing. A day later, Damien got a big payment."
"Oh, no," I groaned.
"Yeah," said Lucas.
"But what does that have to do with the Copleys?"
"Eric Dutka's mother is the older sister of the Copleys' mother. It looks like Damien made a deal to get his payments cleared."
"But he's still in debt," I said, frowning.
"At least we know how he's probably connected to the Niners now," said Maddox.
"He was too stupid to see making a deal with the devil was a one-time only thing. Or maybe by doing that, it meant the Boston gang had something on him and he couldn't get out. They probably encouraged him into running up a new debt and then had him working as a mole so they could evade detection," said Lucas.
"He's not the first cop to get into something over his head," said Maddox.
"If he'd told all of that to Solomon, I'm sure Solomon would have helped," I said.
"Damien probably thought he could handle it, but his debt got too big, or he didn't want to do any more favors, and they called in the marker," said Maddox.
"And Solomon was the final warning. Do what we want, or we go after your family," I said. My legs felt weak and I reached for something to grab hold of, but barely managed to clutch a ficus tree before my hand connected with a wall.
"Solomon was the closest family member they could go after," said Maddox. "They had no idea what they did when they went after him."
"We need to find Damien before he does something else stupid," I told them. "He knows his time is about to run out. He already panicked when he picked up the file from you, Lucas, so he must be desperate for the cash if he thinks he's clean out of warnings. Any idea on how much he owes?"
"No clue. It's not like anyone writes a receipt for this stuff."
"I'm going to guess it's that figure," said Maddox. He flipped the pages and tapped the figure deposited into Damien's account, and now gone. It was an eye-watering amount.
"I can cover that," I said as both men turned to me. "Solomon had an insurance policy. That is, he arranged for a check to reach me if anything happened to him so I would be okay," I explained. "I never cashed the check. If I take it to the bank, I can give the money to Damien and he can use it to pay off those people. Solomon will be safe. So will Damien."
"What makes you think they won't just shoot Damien the minute he gives them the money?" asked Maddox. "He's caused them a lot of trouble and we already have three of their men in custody. They have to know someone is going to sell out sooner or later."
"I think I know how to facilitate a meeting," I said. I hated to ask Duncan O'Malley for another favor but he'd already helped out, and so quickly and rather spectacularly on the past two occasions.
"You can't ask O'Malley again," said Maddox.
"How did you know?" I gasped.
"I figured his private meeting with you at the hospital wasn't to deliver grapes. Seeing that Mooch was later served up on a silver platter only confirmed it."
"Oh."
"Plus, I saw you talking to him outside the police station earlier after the second hit man magically appeared strung up on the flagpole."
"Why didn't you say something? Or arrest him?"
"He wasn't my top concern at the time. I figured you'd say something eventually."
"I'm lost," said Lucas. "What does Duncan O'Malley have to do with anything?"
"I'll explain it all another time," I said. "Let's go to the bank and cash the check."
"There's no way they'll give you that much money and let you walk out with it," said Maddox.
"Why not?"
"For a start, they probably don't have that much cash in the whole bank. There is a strict protocol and legal procedures for ordering such large quantities."
"Then what are we supposed to do?" asked Lucas.
"We need to find Damien and persuade him to help us," I said. "It's the only other option. If he tells us everything, Garre
tt can go after everyone who was involved. No more hit men."
"I agree," said Maddox. "So where do we look?"
"He might have gone back to my parents’ house. Maybe he wasn't running. Maybe he went to pick up a sweater. Or he could have gone to the hospital."
"And switched off his phone?" asked Maddox, shaking his head in disbelief. "You call your parents to make sure. I'll call Delgado."
"I need a phone," I said.
"Solomon has a bunch of burn phones in a bin in his office," said Lucas.
"I'll go get one." I turned and charged up the stairs, running to the shared office with Maddox and Lucas on my heels. As I pulled open the doors and sprinted to Solomon's office, I noticed it was unusually quiet. Normally, someone was in here working but everyone except me was currently out of the office. I opened Solomon's door and made for the bins that took up the lowest shelf of the bookcase that occupied one wall. The third bin held a variety of cellphones, still in their packaging. "They're not charged," I said, tossing the one I picked up back into the bin. "This does not happen in the movies!" In frustration, I grabbed the desk phone and dialed my parents, already cross at the delay.
"Hello," said Dad.
"Dad, it's me, Lexi."
"What happened? Where are you?" he asked, automatically alert at my hurried tone.
"I'm fine. Is Damien there?"
"No, he's with Garrett," he said.
"Are you sure?"
"That's where he said he was going this morning after he took Anastasia to the hospital. I offered to take him but he hired a car for a few days."
"He hasn't returned back to your house at all?"
"No. I've been here all day. What's happened? Is Damien okay?"
"I'm sure he's fine. I'm just trying to track him down."
"Are you at the hospital?" Dad asked. "Is there any news about Solomon?"
"Only that he's stable and under twenty-four-hour guard. Yesterday's incident doesn't seem to have caused any damage. Dad, I have to go now. I'll call you later, or if you see Damien, please have him call me."
"Okay," agreed Dad.
I shook my head at Maddox. "No sign of Damien at my parents' house. What did Delgado say?"
Rules of Engagement (Lexi Graves Mysteries, 11) Page 22
