Stolen (9 page)

“Shit, Colton! Paxton could be setting you up. You get him the information he wants, he turns you in. He turns us
all
in.”

Colton shook his head. “He knows I have something that will destroy him.”

“What?”

“I can’t tell you.”

Sean ran up the stairs until he was face-to-face with Colton. “You owe me.”

Colton didn’t like the threat. “I have our initial conversation videotaped, all right? Taped and safe. He knows it. He won’t do anything to us.”

“Then who is the fed?”

“What did she look like?”

“Dark blond hair, highlighted, five foot six, one hundred thirty-five pounds. Or so. Forty, give or take.” He’d taken a picture of her on his cell phone, but he was saving that for Noah.

Colton said, “Let’s go to my control room. We’ll look at the security footage from the last couple weeks. If you see her, let me know.”

Sean followed Colton to the small room off his office where he had all his security cameras. They sat down.

“It’s going to take a while,” Colton said. “I’ll have Carol put another plate on the table.” He smiled. “It’ll be like old times.”

Not quite,
Sean thought, but he nodded. “Old times.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

 
Monday

Sean stared at the ceiling, unable to sleep. The last time he looked at the clock it glared 1:47. Too late to be up on a Sunday night. Monday morning? He should just get up and walk off his anxiety, but he didn’t want to leave. He was too wound up, too angry and frustrated, and with all the drunks leaving the bars he feared he’d get himself into trouble.

He’d made his bed. That’s what Duke would have told Sean. And maybe he had agreed to help Rick Stockton because he was desperate to purge these demons that had haunted him. Maybe he’d agreed to go undercover because it would disappear his past.

Except it wouldn’t. His past had been locked tight until now, and Sean had willingly opened the door. Redemption? Maybe. Maybe that’s all this was about. Cleaning the slate for him and Lucy.

But even though he’d agreed to work undercover with Noah Armstrong, Sean couldn’t help but think that he’d been manipulated into it.

*   *   *

Over two months ago, the week Lucy started at the FBI Academy, Assistant Director Rick Stockton asked Sean to meet with him. Sean hadn’t been surprised or suspicious at first—Rick was a longtime friend of JT Caruso and Sean’s brother Kane, who’d together founded RCK. They’d also been Marines and Marines tended to stick together, even if they hadn’t served with each other. Sean had always been unclear how the friendships had been forged. Because Rick had the authority to hire private contractors for certain jobs and RCK was on the approved-vendor list, Sean had met with him a few times for business since moving to D.C. last year. He’d also done a few private jobs for him.

But Rick’s call was unusual because he hadn’t gone through Duke for the meeting; he’d asked that they meet at Sean’s house instead of the FBI office and insisted that Sean’s partner, Patrick Kincaid, not be present.

Sean made it all happen, his curiosity battling his wariness. Any time law enforcement was involved, Sean became apprehensive. He didn’t trust most of them.

And then the kicker: Rick brought Noah Armstrong with him.

Sean had planned on meeting with Rick informally, at the dining table that sat in the middle of the great room next to Sean’s pool table. Maybe play a game or two. But when he saw Noah, Sean changed gears and took them upstairs to his office. He sat behind his desk and motioned for them to take either the chair or the couch. Rick sat in the chair across from Sean. Noah leaned against the wall.

“What can I do for you?” Sean sat back, casual, though his muscles were tight. He and Noah had settled their differences for the most part, but they’d never be friends. It was because Sean knew, in his gut, that Noah cared too much for Lucy. Personally cared. He’d never admitted it, to Sean or Lucy, but guys knew these things.

“I’m sure I don’t have to ask this, but I need strict confidentiality,” Rick said.

Sean dipped his head. “Of course.”

“You remember the case Lucy assisted in a few weeks ago, before starting the Academy? The Wendy James murder?”

“Yes.” Lucy would have been dead if not for her bulletproof vest. Sean couldn’t forget if he wanted.

“Noah came to me with an off-book investigation—”

Sean couldn’t help but smile. “Noah, I’m impressed.” When Noah looked at him quizzically, Sean added, “You aren’t usually one for breaking the rules. There’s hope for you yet.”

Noah scowled, but Rick almost cracked a smile. The assistant director continued, “I listened to his suspicions, and because I had additional information regarding the suspect, I decided we had more than enough to warrant an investigation. But the problem is information channels. The investigation needs to be quiet.”

“Meaning you’re investigating someone internally and you don’t want them to find out. Got it. But don’t you guys have a federal IA or something?”

“I decided to keep this
completely
out of our system. The director approved my operating plan, and he and Dr. Hans Vigo are the only other people who know who we’re investigating and why. The director has given me blanket authority to run it as I see fit.”

“Don’t keep me in suspense.”

“We’re looking at two people, one we know and a mole in the FBI that we’ve narrowed down to someone in the New York City regional office.” He paused. “We’re investigating Senator Jonathan Paxton.”

Sean almost laughed. “It’s about time.”

Paxton was someone Sean would love to make disappear, if he did those kinds of things.

Rick motioned for Noah to explain. “Last January, after we arrested Fran Buckley, a white-collar and cybercrime task force was created who went through all the records of her organization, Women and Children First. She claimed during her plea agreement that all activities were funded through legitimate contributions made by law-abiding citizens who wanted to help stop violent crime—that none of their donors knew what they were doing with the money. There were enough legal successes with their program that everyone was deceived until Lucy found the connection to the vigilante ring.

“There’s nothing in the financial records that screams murder for hire. But I interviewed Senator Paxton because he was the de facto head of WCF and he had been raising money for them around the country. I got the feeling that he was holding back. He was definitely angry, but it didn’t seem directed at Buckley. I started looking into some of the donors who had given to both Paxton’s senatorial campaign and WCF and realized that many had lost a loved one to violence. The donations were all across the board, from a hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. I don’t think that any of the donors hired WCF to specifically target a killer, but I suspected that Paxton had his own hit list, created from people he’d met—people he might have bonded with because they shared a tragedy.”

Sean didn’t say a word. Noah was very close to the truth, but Sean had never been able to prove it. Knowing someone was guilty and having the evidence to prove it in a court of law were very different. And while Lucy had cut ties with Paxton, she had suspected he’d been involved as well. Had Noah talked to her? Had she fueled these suspicions?

Noah was watching Sean closely, and Sean kept his face as blank as possible, though talking about Paxton angered him.

“But I couldn’t find anything substantive,” Noah said. “I put my suspicions aside until the senator put himself in the middle of the Wendy James investigation.”

Sean knew far more about that investigation than Noah thought he did, so he kept to the minimal facts. “Lucy said he was the one who turned the photos of Wendy and the congressman over to the media.”

“He started the ball rolling, though I think he was far more involved in manipulating events. I don’t have a good grasp on his psychology, but Hans is writing up a profile for me.”

“I can tell you exactly who Paxton is,” Sean said. “He’s a narcissist with a god complex.” He almost said more but cut himself off.

Rick said, “That’s pretty much what Hans has already told us. He found out more about Paxton when he interviewed Lucy.”

Sean leaned forward. “You brought Lucy in?”

“Not into this investigation. But as part of her pre-Quantico interview, Hans talked to her about what happened at WCF and got her to talk about her relationship with Senator Paxton, without letting on that he was the subject of an investigation.”

“She doesn’t have a relationship with him.”

“But she did—she worked for him as an intern for a year; then he got her the job at WCF. They had been friends. I know you’re angry—”

“You don’t know half of it.” Sean stopped himself. Again. He was only going to dig himself into a hole. Unless … unless Rick and Noah already knew what Paxton had on him. Unless they already knew that Paxton had blackmailed Sean.

Noah said, “We needed more insight into what motivates Paxton. It’s easy to say ‘money and power’ because he’s a politician, but it’s more than that. You know that Lucy looks like his dead daughter.”

Sean nodded once. He didn’t trust himself to speak.

“Hans thinks that Paxton has a driving need to protect Lucy like he couldn’t protect his daughter, and also that he sees himself as some sort of superhero, a violent Robin Hood who, instead of stealing from the rich to give to the poor, kills the guilty to protect the innocent.”

“I wouldn’t put such a noble cause on his head,” Sean couldn’t resist saying.

“Nor would I,” Rick said. “But as you know, it’s important in criminal psychology to understand the suspect’s motivations so that we can figure out his next move. That’s why we’re here.”

Sean knew what was coming before Noah said it. He was already thinking of ways to get out of it.

“We need your help.”

Sean delayed by saying, “It probably kills you to say that.”

“It does.”

Honest.
Sean admired that.

“There’s nothing I would like more than to take down Paxton, but I don’t see how I can help.”

Noah walked over to Sean’s desk and handed him a thin file. “Over the last few weeks, since I shared my suspicions with Rick, we’ve learned that Senator Paxton paid your old friend Colton Thayer a large sum of money for ‘security consulting.’ We know that Thayer has been under suspicion in the past for cybercrimes—generally hacking, but instead of stealing information he exposes company corruption. Proving it has been far more difficult. He’s never been indicted.”

Colton was good. He wouldn’t be caught. But that he was under suspicion wasn’t good.

“Paxton is up to something,” Noah continued. “He’s taken more trips to his home state of New York this year than he has in past years.”

Rick said, “When Noah came to me with information about Paxton’s involvement in the vigilante group, it took some digging, but it became clear that someone in the FBI was feeding him information about our investigations. He was able to steer clear of sex offenders who were already on our radar, and target only those who no one was tracking.”

“Why do you think the mole is in the New York office instead of D.C.?”

“Paxton is extremely careful, but we traced some suspicious communications to the main Manhattan office. We can’t dig deeper electronically without bringing in more people, and right now I don’t know who I trust to do it.”

“Because a lot of cops don’t think that there’s anything wrong with knocking off child molesters and rapists,” Sean said.

“It’s more than that. This isn’t just about vigilantes anymore. Thayer has no ties to violent or organized crime. He’s a hacktivist. Why would Paxton hire him?”

“I don’t know.” But Sean had been thinking about it since they mentioned Colton’s name. Now Sean knew where Paxton got the information he used to blackmail him. He’d suspected, but now it was practically proven. Would his closest friend do that to him? What was Sean even thinking? He hadn’t seen Colton in nearly ten years. People change.

“That’s why we need your help,” Rick said. “We want you to go undercover for us.”

“You want me to spy on my old friend.”

“We want to know what he’s doing for Senator Paxton. And Sean, we know he’s been calling you.”

Sean slammed his fist on his desk. “You’ve been investigating
me?
”

“No. We’ve been investigating Thayer. He’s called you multiple times. But you’ve never called him.”

Even if Sean had, they wouldn’t see the record. Sean would have used a secure phone. That Colton hadn’t done the same made Sean wonder if he had grown overly confident or sloppy. “I haven’t seen Colton in nine years. Not since I graduated MIT. Don’t you think it’s kind of suspicious that I just waltz back into his life?”

“Why was he calling you?” Noah asked quietly.

Sean had to deflect them. Distract them. “He’s been trying to get me to work for him.” That was the truth.