Missing: The Body of Evidence (19 page)

She knew that she was in a heap of trouble
from more than one direction as a migraine developed and her legs weakened as
she stood to leave the room.

Logan pushed his chair back and stood. He
shook his head as if he had already found her guilty of taking a pay-off.

God almighty, what do I tell Kyle?

The union rep wrapped his arm around
Nancy’s shoulder. She had a mind to cringe, but the strength to resist deserted
her as he consoled her. Frustration, anger, embarrassment, all circled in a
cauldron of emotions. John gave her two hugs with his arm, released her and
then faced Brogan.

‘Come on, give her a break. You know full
well what she’s been through this weekend. I doubt she should really be here,
but she obviously wants to help with your enquiries.’

For once, the personnel woman looked to
have some sympathy.

‘Twenty minutes, then we’ll meet back here.
But only if you feel well enough,’ Sanchez said.

Brogan sighed and looked annoyed. He
reached out and gathered the photos and the bank slip, placed them in the file
and snapped it closed. The union rep must have taken his actions as approval.
He didn’t wait for an answer. Taking her arm, he helped her towards the exit.

‘Twenty minutes it is,’ said the union rep
and escorted her through the door.

They made their way to the canteen. The
union rep was constantly talking, but most of it passed her by as she tried to
overcome the shock of how the meeting had turned out. They sat down at a table
in the canteen.

‘Do you need some water for your
medication?’

‘No, just a strong black sweet coffee. I
don’t actually have any medication. I lost my prescription drugs in the lake.’

‘Good thinking. Just be thankful he didn’t
call your bluff and ask to see the tablets.’

‘I wasn’t bluffing, my head’s that
scrambled. I forgot I didn’t have the tablets the doctor prescribed. They’re in
my baggage at the bottom of the lake.’

‘If you take my advice I’d conjure up a
faint and walk away until you’ve had time to consult an attorney.’

‘If I wanted to be an actress, I’d be
working at serving tables over in Beverly Hills. Like I said, I’ve got nothing
to hide.’

He shrugged his shoulders and wandered off
to get the coffees.

She knew she had been set up big style. But
ten-thousand dollars seemed to be a large amount to settle a score by a petty
drug dealer, and for what? Even then, she couldn’t work out why she was the
target, and not the drug sergeant, or maybe Bill. None of it made sense. The
only part that made sense was that the amount would be reported by the bank
under money laundering legislation. There again, she imagined it would take
more than a weekend to filter down the channels. Someone must have phoned it in
on the day for internal affairs to visit Logan on the Friday.

‘Oh Christ, what the hell will Kyle think?’

Nancy sank her head in her hands.

‘Pretty much the same as I would think,’
Logan said.

He pulled up a chair and sat beside her.

‘And what would that be?’

‘That you’re up the creek without a paddle
and the waterfall is looming.’

‘Is that your idea of being funny?’

‘No, it’s the truth. What’s the summary of
your take of the situation?’

‘I’ve been set up. Why, I don’t know.
Someone wants me out of the way, that’s for sure. As if I’d be so stupid to tip
off the gang about the bust and then ask them to deposit money for the favour
in my bank account, knowing the amount involved would be reported.’

‘Money laundering?’

‘Exactly. I don’t think this has anything
to do with the drug bust.’

‘Do tell.’

‘It could be you for a start.’ He raised
his eyebrows, and looked amused. ‘You’ve been pretty keen to stop me
investigating the connection of the janitor to the death of the professor.
Maybe you and your friends at the CIA are setting me up, because I kept
digging. I think they tried to kill Tracy at the CSI lab, and maybe they had a
hand in the wildfire this weekend. I think the set up with the deposit was a
fall back just in case the fire didn’t do the job. I wasn’t the only one in
McDonald’s, Bill was there and two of the gang team.’

‘Maybe, but it was your account that had
the money deposited.’

‘Yeah, and who has the where-with-all to
hack into my computer for my bank account details?’

‘And you think internal affairs will buy
all that? Bit of a stretch for a conspiracy theory, unless you’re setting up an
insanity plea. Hackers can have criminal connections. The simple answer is; you
could have given them the details. That’s what internal affairs will say.’

The union rep joined them and placed a
coffee in front of her and two headache tablets. Logan leaned over the table.

‘Stop thinking and talking like a guilty
suspect. Stick to what you know.’

Logan stood and moved to a table at the far
side of the room. She noticed him take out his cell phone and make a call. He
kept glancing over to her as he continued with the call. Nancy swilled the
headache tablets down with her coffee.

‘How are you going to play it? You know
they’ll suspend you unless I can talk them into letting you go on sick leave.’

‘I don’t know, but let’s get it over with.’

On the way back to the conference room,
Nancy worked out they must have already spoken to the sergeant of the gang
team, and maybe he confirmed the threat made by Dean. There again, maybe it was
Dean who had called them and they had his voice on tape. Whatever the reason,
there had to be something on file preventing them from charging her, and that
they would have to supply to her attorney.

The union rep held the door open for her
and she entered the conference room. Logan followed them, still clutching the
phone to his ear, but he closed the call as he entered the room. They all sat
with a shuffle of chairs echoing in her head, and making her headache worse.

Brogan opened his file.

‘Where were we? Ah yes, you admit to having
been in McDonald’s after the briefing.’

‘Yes, and there were three others.’

Brogan and his partner exchanged glances.

‘Who were they?’

‘Two of the swat team left as I entered
McDonald’s and my partner for the day, Bill was there; I followed him outside.’

Brogan made notes and fumbled through his
file.

‘Which two were the swat team members?’

‘Not a clue, I didn’t take any notice apart
from the fact that they opened the door for me. But also, let’s not forget the
place was full of felons I’ve arrested over the years, and what with the swat
trucks and the team swarming around, I’m sure some of them could come up with
what was going down. As for Dean, you’ll need to ask him why he took it on
himself to deposit the money. Like I said, Bill and the sergeant heard the
threats.’

‘Excuse us for a minute,’ Brogan said, and
he and his partner stood.

Logan uttered his first words in the
meeting.

‘Bill is on vacation fishing, he won’t be
back for two weeks and he never takes his phone with him and Dean’s gone to
ground, we can’t find him.’

Nancy threw Logan a look as Brogan and his
partner left the room.
Fishing?
They were only out of the room briefly
and when they returned, they asked Nancy to wait outside in the corridor.

She could hear raised voices, but it was
difficult to make out what they were saying. The union rep appeared, opened the
door and joined Nancy.

‘Sorry, I tried, but we only partly won. We
came up with a political solution that suits everyone.’

The two internal affairs detectives walked
out through the door and down the corridor without even a backward glance.

‘What’s happening?’

‘Let’s get this over with,’ said the union
rep.

‘I don’t even know your name, what did you
say your name was?’ Nancy replied as if in a trance.

‘John.’

He took her arm and guided her into the
room. Sanchez passed her a printed form from the printer.

‘I need you to read and sign this. You’re
to be placed on administrative sick leave suspension and on full pay, pending
further enquiries. You must have no contact with anyone employed by LAPD, or
the press. You can’t attempt to contact any other material witness, or any
party to the investigation. You’re to be available at all times through Mr.
Logan, and...’

‘Yeah, yeah. Okay, she can read,’ said
Logan. ‘I’ll take it from here and drop the form at your office.’

‘Wait a minute, does signing this mean I
can’t go into my bank branch. I need new cards to replace the ones I lost in
the lake.’

Sanchez couldn’t get out of the room fast
enough as Logan answered her question.

‘Your bank account is frozen until
tomorrow. But, your deposit account is suspended until the investigation gives
you the all clear. The ten-thousand dollars is now in a suspended account. The
manager told me this morning that your credit card will be suspended, but
they’ll issue a new debit card to replace the one they’d put a stop on, so you
can get your salary.’

Nancy thanked God for small mercies, but
felt annoyed the outcome must have been pre-determined.

‘Badge and firearm.’

He held out his hand. Nancy took the gun
from her holster and slammed it on the desk. She took her badge from her pocket
and tossed it at Logan.

‘How can I be on sick leave and yet be
suspended at the same time? I’m not signing that, what about Kyle?’

‘The sick part enables us to ward off the
press and saves everyone embarrassment, as John here pointed out. You have to
sign it, or they don’t have to pay you.’

‘I don’t give a shit about the money, but I
can’t
not
talk to Kyle.’ Tears ran down her cheeks, but she didn’t care
that she was showing weakness.

‘Leave us,’ said Logan and looking directly
at the union rep. He didn’t need Logan to ask twice and scurried out of the
room. Logan tossed her his handkerchief.

‘Pull yourself together, for God’s sake.
Look at it as purely sick leave. As for Kyle, if you care for him and by the
looks of it... you do, if you have any feelings for him, you won’t screw up his
career; or any future with him you’re hanging onto, by trying to contact him.’

The words penetrated, although her mind was
somewhere else. But what he said was like a vibrating echo rolling around the
room. Her whole essence seemed to fall apart as she flushed from hot to cold
and her head pounded with the onset of a migraine.

‘I’ve bought you two weeks before they can
interview you again, after they have talked to Bill. In the meantime, we’ll try
to track down Dean, and maybe get his mother to sort him out; after all, she
owes you. Now sign the damned form. But get this, if there is any dirt that
clings to you when we get your bank statements, make no bones about it, I’ll
finish you for good and throw away the key.’

Nancy scrawled her signature, ripping at
the paper, and charged out of the room. The last words from Logan on the
subject echoed down the corridor.

‘Don’t even think about making your own
investigations, do you hear?’

Waiting for the elevator, it crossed her mind
it would be quicker and more appropriate to jump out of the window. Logan
ghosted beside her and into the elevator as the doors retracted. She sensed him
drilling holes in her head with a gaze, but blanked him. As the elevator hit
ground floor, Nancy went through her ritual of smoothing down her jacket and
swaying her neck. Each roll of her head made her head spin. At the ping of the
elevator door sliding open, she marched out toward the automatic glass door
exit.

‘Have a nice day,’ rang in her ears from
the girl at reception.

The migraine intensified at what she took
to be a sarcastic insult, and she squeezed her eyes closed, wishing she could
open them to find herself in a better place.

A sound exploded in front of her. She felt
hands grab her shoulder, at the same time she heard a woman’s scream and the
next she could recall was lying face down on the floor and people shouting.

All around, people were shouting and
scurrying for cover. Nancy slowly raised her head and looked in the direction
of the exit in the foyer at headquarters. There were piles of broken glass from
the door outside the building and spread around toward the sidewalk, but there
was nothing on the floor between her and the exit. Hands gripped her under her
arms and someone lifted her effortlessly to her feet. Her immediate thoughts
were that it could have been a bomb or maybe someone firing off a round at the
building.

‘You okay?’

It was only when she heard his voice that
she realized that Logan had helped her to her feet. Security guards, their guns
drawn, charged around barking orders.

‘The door jammed when it shattered,’ Logan
called out to one of the guards. ‘No one fired a gun in here and the glass is
on the outside.’ He turned to Nancy. ‘The door seemed to resonate, before it
exploded.’

The how and why was of little interest to
her in the scheme of what she faced. She ignored his attempt at striking up a
conversation. The guards holstered their guns and one of them radioed for
someone to clean up the mess.

‘No, I’m not okay.’

Nancy brushed dust marks off her pants,
turned and walked out through the exit, crunching glass underfoot. Her head
throbbed, as if with every footstep, she was banging her forehead against a
wall. Heightened senses increased the volume of every sound around her. The
cacophony of exaggerated sounds offended her hearing as she made her way to her
car. A sigh more in the way of a groan heaved from her mouth. The sense of
relief that she experienced soon changed to anger when she climbed into her car
and closed the door to the world outside. Clenched fists hammered the steering
wheel until her hands felt numb, and she hoped the numbness would spread to her
mind to stop her thinking. She sat back, closed her eyes, clasped her cheeks
with the palms of her hands and had a yoga moment, taking slow deliberate
breaths. The pounding in her brain gradually subsided.

At the turn of the ignition key, Nancy
engaged first gear and set off aimlessly along West Street. Going back to her
apartment alone, she decided was not an option. With two hours to kill before
her brain scan, she had the need to share her situation with someone. But there
was no one that came to mind with whom she could share the shame of the
situation and who would back her innocence one-hundred percent. Then someone
came to mind. Someone who would listen to her ever word and share her angst,
and make no judgment in return, but only send out vibes of unremitting love.