Justice Served (26 page)

“Son of a bitch.” Rebecca’s jaw clenched.

“The shooter probably didn’t think we’d find the bullet, so he wasn’t worried about a match. Or maybe he just doesn’t care.” Flanagan shrugged. “Some professionals get very attached to their weapons. Some just figure they’re too clever to ever get caught. For whatever reason, he didn’t ditch the gun after the first murders.”

“Or he did, and someone else is using the gun this time,” Rebecca pointed out.

“And how likely do you figure it is that Beecher, who is peripherally, at least, related to the first murders, was killed by a
different
shooter?”

“Not very likely,” Rebecca said grimly. “We always assumed that Jeff and Jimmy were done by some out-of-town hit man. Looks like we were wrong. This has got to be local.”

“Because of the timing?”

Rebecca nodded. “Whoever did this set it up very quickly. There wasn’t enough time to bring someone in to do that hit.”

“Find me a gun, and I’ll tie these all together for you in a neat little package.”

“This guy just made a big mistake,” Rebecca said, almost to herself. “He just stuck his head out where we can see him.”

“Look, Frye,” Flanagan said carefully. “I know this guy shot Jeff, but…”

“There aren’t any
buts
about this.” Rebecca’s expression was completely unreadable, but her eyes were molten pits of fury. “He pays.”

*

Sloan absently reached for the phone on the desk beside her, still scrolling with the other hand. “Sloan.”

“Got a minute?” Rebecca asked.

Her voice decidedly cool, Sloan replied, “Do I have a choice?”

“I’ve called the team together for seven at your place. I’d like to meet with you alone first.”

“I was about to wrap things up here anyhow,” Sloan conceded. She stretched her back and swiveled in the desk chair to survey the room. The two detectives assigned to the new unit had left for the day, and she found the solitude welcome. Boxes of computer equipment, tools, stacks of cartons filled with files—years of data to be sorted and input—surrounded her. Peaceful. “Where are you?”

“Downstairs. How about I buy you a drink at Barney’s?”

The cop hangout was a ten-minute walk away. Sloan had never been there. “Sure.”

It took Sloan less than that to get there, and when she did, she found Rebecca already seated at a booth in the back of a long, narrow, noisy, smoke-filled bar. So much for the No Smoking signs. Of course, with the room filled with cops, who was going to complain? She settled onto the cracked leather-covered bench across from Rebecca. “Frye.”

“Thanks for coming,” Rebecca said.

A waitress appeared, and Sloan ordered scotch on the rocks after Rebecca asked for a cup of coffee. Then Sloan waited.

“I just finished a briefing with Captain Henry and Clark,” Rebecca said with a hint of disdain. “George Beecher was killed by the same shooter who took out Jimmy Hogan and Jeff Cruz. Also, Beecher was killed sometime before four a.m this morning, within the frame of your alibi.”

“I suppose no one could come up with a good reason why I might have wanted to kill two cops I didn’t know?”

“No one tried. You’re clear regarding last night’s shooting.” Rebecca saw no point in adding that Clark had grilled her relentlessly about the evidence, but she’d had Flanagan’s report in hand, and that was unimpeachable. No one questioned Dee Flanagan’s conclusions.

“I suppose Clark was disappointed,” Sloan said.

“What’s he got in for you?”

“I’m not sure he has anything in for
me
, not personally.” Sloan nodded her thanks to the waitress who passed her her drink. She took a swallow, then set the glass on the wooden tabletop. The scars of many years marred the surface, each with a tale to tell. “Federal agents don’t look kindly on those of us who’ve left the fold. Especially when we leave under a cloud. It’s in his nature not to trust me.”

“Do you know why he’s here?”

Sloan shook her head. “My guess is that your case bumps up against something the feds are interested in. I don’t think it’s a local Mob organization. I don’t think it’s Internet porn, either.”

“No, neither do I. I don’t think it’s
ever
been about that. Clark put Jimmy Hogan undercover in the PPD because something was going on here that the feds were interested in. He wanted someone deep undercover—so deep that
we
didn’t even know.” Rebecca cursed under her breath. “That’s probably what got Jimmy killed. And Jeff. Jimmy was essentially on his own, and he couldn’t even ask us for backup. He was trying to feed Jeff information without revealing his identity, and the whole thing came apart in his face.”

“Which means Jimmy was getting close to whatever it was Clark is after.”

Rebecca nodded. “And I think we are too. Beecher’s a piece of it, but I’m not sure where he fits.”

“Someone probably thought he’d talk if you squeezed him. Cut a deal to save his own skin.”

“Someone tightening up their ship. Snipping loose ends,” Rebecca mused. “That plays.” She took a sip of coffee, then winced. “Christ, this is awful. Jason has spoiled me.”

“Why don’t we go over to the office and wait for the rest of them,” Sloan suggested. “May not be as good as Jason’s, but I think I can manage to put together a passable pot of coffee.”

“Good idea.” Rebecca made no move to leave but instead leaned forward, her eyes fixed on Sloan’s. “I’m sorry I upset Michael this morning. Is she all right?”

“She was sleeping when I left,” Sloan said quietly. “But she’s fine. Getting better every day.”

“I’m glad.”

Sloan took a breath, blew it out slowly. “I keep walking around thinking something’s going to happen to her. That she’ll end up back in the hospital. This morning…when I saw her like that…” She looked away, swallowed. “I got pretty hot with you. I’m sorry.”

“Forget it. I’d’ve done the same if it had been Catherine.”

“I appreciate you getting me off the hook with Clark so fast.”

Rebecca stood. “Fuck Clark.”

Sloan slid from the booth to join her. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not.”

“Okay,” Rebecca said, turning with coffee cup in hand and surveying the team, who had gathered at the conference table. “Let’s start with Beecher.”

She brought the others up to speed with the forensic evidence and the link between the previous homicides and the present one. It took a full minute for the murmured curses and general unrest to settle after she’d announced that whoever killed Jeff and Jimmy had also eliminated Beecher and was still eluding them. “So what else do we have?”

“I got a positive hit on Beecher’s Visa card from an on-line porn relay station,” Jason reported. “The same network we busted.”

“Doesn’t mean he knew anything about the actual operation,” Watts pointed out.

“True, it’s only an indirect link, but it’s still a connection.”

“On the other hand,” Mitchell interjected, “it
does
prove he used it, and it’s one more link in the chain tying him to organized crime.” She glanced at Rebecca as if seeking confirmation. When Rebecca nodded, she continued, “And if you put this together with all the other evidence we have linking Beecher to criminal activity, it would only be a matter of time before we had something solid to charge him with.”

“Which,” Rebecca added, “made him a very bad security risk.”

“Not anymore,” Watts said.

“Precisely.”

“Except no one could’ve known how much we had on him,” Jason said reasonably.

“It would seem that way on the surface of things.” Rebecca settled into her seat at the head of the table. “We’ve been careful not to circulate our reports.” She queried Sloan with a raised eyebrow. “What are the chances that whoever was using Beecher’s computer to access the law enforcement network would know you were onto him?”

“If they were good, which they are,” Sloan answered, “they’d know I’ve been looking. Hell. They’ve known
all along
we were looking, because we reported it all to Henry before we knew how widespread a leak we really had.” She grimaced and shook her head. “They may not know just how close I’ve gotten, but they have to know it’s only a matter of time. It’s impossible even for the best cracker to hide their tracks from someone just as good.” Her smile was vulpine. “Or better.”

“There’s one more thing,” Jason said. “I just got a hit on the deep-level financial search we ran on Beecher’s accounts. Until eighteen months ago, he made sizable cash withdrawals from his personal account on a regular basis, extending back over a period of three years. Then they stopped.”

“What’s your take on that?” Rebecca asked, leaning forward with interest.

“I’d say he was being blackmailed.”

“And then,” Rebecca thought out loud, “someone thought he would be more useful as a source of
information
. Once they started using him to infiltrate the department, they stopped blackmailing him. Probably an incentive for him to cooperate. Any idea what they had on him?”

Jason shook his head. “Not yet, but I’m willing to bet it has something to do with his taste in young girls. Remember, he had a previous sexual assault charge that was dismissed.”

“So someone knew about his...proclivities…and used it as leverage—first to blackmail him and then to set him up as their inside man.”

“That’s the way I see it,” Jason said.

“When he became a liability, they cut their losses,” Watts noted.

Rebecca turned to another page in her notebook. “I’m going to hand off Beecher’s case to the homicide team that caught it. They can follow up on the routine leads and forensics. I’m having his personal and work computers brought here.” She looked at Sloan. “That’s yours.”

Her eyes glinted. “Got it.”

“Watts,” Rebecca said, moving on. “Anything from Port Authority?”

“You mean other than a big, fat headache?”

Rebecca suppressed a smile.

Watts gave an eloquent grimace. “You know how many pieces of paper it takes to move a crate of overpriced fish eggs from some Commie factory on the Caspian Sea to America?”

“Are you telling me that Jimmy Hogan had developed an interest in caviar?”

“I don’t know
what
the hell he was interested in,” Watts said grumpily. “The only thing I know right now is that all three ships he asked about originated from the same port in Russia.”

“Whoa,” Mitchell said, unable to restrain her excitement. “That has to be something, right?”

“Damned if
I
know, kid. Carla…uh, Captain Reiser…says that 30% of the ships coming into this port start out somewhere over there. The big question is why
those
three ships.”

“You need to track down everything about them,” Rebecca said, making another notation in her pad. “Check the shipping companies, the cargo manifests, the origination and final destination points, the crew—anything that they might have in common. Jimmy picked up on something. We have to know what it was.”

“Reiser is already on it. I’ll have more information for you to feed into your computers in a day or so.”

“Good,” Rebecca said. “You run with that for now.”

“No problem.” Watts’s tone suggested that he did not mind the assignment.

“Mitchell, what’s your duty status?”

“Dr. Torveau cleared me today,” Mitchell said, unconsciously sitting up straighter in her seat. “All I need is my psych clearance.”

“I don’t know, kid,” Watts muttered. “You could wait a long time for that.”

Mitchell grinned.

“Get it. I want Mitch and Jasmine back in the clubs. With Beecher dead and nothing solid from Port Authority, the only place to shake out a new lead is there.” Rebecca folded her notebook and slid it into the inside pocket of her blazer. “My street sources are coming up empty. The bust at the video studio has sent people underground, and with the hit on Beecher, it’s not safe for my CIs to do much digging. I don’t want them calling attention to themselves.”

No one at the table looked at Mitchell; everyone knew that Sandy was one of Rebecca’s CIs. Mitchell pressed her palms hard into her thighs to prevent herself from curling her fingers into fists.

“Saturday night is always a big night at Ziggie’s,” Jason said into the void. “Mitch and Jasmine and the Kings could hit it tomorrow night. There ought to be enough after-hours activity that no one would notice us asking a few questions.”

“Do it. It’s time to
make
something happen.”

*

“Just think about it,” Mitchell heard Michael say as she stepped off the elevator.

“Yeah, okay,” Sandy replied hesitantly.

“I mean it. You’d do fine.” Michael turned to the sound of Mitchell approaching. “Hi, Dell. Is the meeting over?”

Mitchell nodded, looking curiously from Sandy to Michael. Sandy appeared uncomfortable, a distinctly unusual condition for her. Mitchell had seen her angry, stubborn, even hurt. But almost never uneasy. “What’s up?”

Sandy popped up and hurried down the hall in the direction of the guest room. “Nothing.”