Hit and Run (13 page)

“It sounds like you’re in IAG.”

“Hardly. One of the individuals under investigation is an IAG officer.”

If she had antennas growing out of her skull, they would have perked up. “IAG,” she said softly.

“I’m not telling you who. You’ve figured everything else out on your own, but I can’t reveal our suspect. But Mercer is a new player. We didn’t have that liaison between Armor and IAG, now we do. It’s huge for us. They need a buffer. Mercer is it. Perez worked directly for Mercer. I’ve read all her files and reports, and most recently Jones’s. One thing is clear—Mercer himself stepped in three weeks ago and split them up, made them training officers. The two rookies assigned to each of them both came out of the same class and both are on probation for an abuse under color of authority charge.”

“Which makes them recruitable by Armor,” she deduced.

“You’re a fast study.”

“Okay, so what’s the plan?”

“Tomorrow we’re moving Jason to an undisclosed location. We’re confident that even if he knows something, he has no idea what it is, and it’s probably not going to help us. But they don’t know that.

“What we want you to do is confront Mercer. It’s a gamble. I’m not going to deny it, but in order to protect our investigation into the Vartarians, confronting Mercer is a way to get him to tip his hand. Based on Jason’s statement, Perez had learned something about Mercer and implied she had physical evidence of corruption. At least, that’s my interpretation.”

“Mine too,” Scarlet said.

“Which would reason that Mercer is the one who ordered the hit. Jason has no idea what it was that Gina had, but since there have been three attempts on Jason’s life, we believe they think he has it or knows where it is.”

“That was exactly what I thought,” she said.

“They’re not very competent,” John inteR.J.ected. “Three attempts and they couldn’t kill him?”

“The first attempt, when he left the station, I think was to scare him into running so he would be a viable suspect for Perez’s murder,” Richardson said. “The murder weapon was found in his car, he disappeared, he looked guilty. By the second attempt, they had either determined he didn’t have it but might be able to identify the shooter, so they went after him hard. They didn’t expect Scarlet to show up, or if they did, they planned to kill her too.”

“She’s a damn cat,” John said.

She stuck her tongue out at him. “That means I still have seven more lives.”

“Don’t tempt fate,” John countered.

Richardson cut off the spat. “You, Scarlet, already started the next ball rolling when you went to Sykes in jail—which was honestly a stupid move on your part.”

“I got what I needed.”

“You got your name moved up on their list. You put yourself in danger.”

“I already was.”

“We have to control the situation, but we have to do it fast. If we can flip Mercer, we can use him in our investigation. If we can’t flip him, we’ll bring him down for the murder of Officer Perez.”

“Flip him? You mean, he could walk free and be an informant?” she said. “No.”

“We have to look at the bigger picture,” he said. “You need to realize that Mercer is but one piece of a much larger conspiracy. We don’t know how far the Vartarian web has grown. Mercer knows things we need. He won’t be a cop anymore. He won’t be truly free. But yes, the AUSA is absolutely prepared to cut him a deal depending on the information he can turn over.”

It pained Scarlet that Gina’s killer could walk. She understood the process, she understand
why
Richardson thought it was a viable option, but she didn’t have to like it.

“Are you okay with this?” Scarlet asked John.

“Yes,” he said.

Richardson added, “If you want to walk, now is the time to do it. If you stay, you have to be completely on board with the plan. I can’t have you playing another angle, thinking you’ll get some sort of vigilante justice.”

“That’s not the way I operate,” she said. “I’m in.”

He nodded and tapped the photo of the graveyard exchange. “We have no idea what information Mercer passed onto Laurens, obviously, since Mercer was just put on our radar when Perez was killed. But I’m pretty certain it has to do with you.”

“Why?”

“Because you went to Sykes, Sykes called the ADA Vartarian, Vartarian called to arrange the exchange. We can access a lot of information, the Feds have warrants to get around a lot of the privacy issues related to Vartarian, but he uses burn phones constantly, and we can’t get a handle on him. But we
were
able to trace that call because it was Vartarian’s private line.”

“They probably already know where I live, who I’m sleeping with, and what car I drive,” Scarlet said. “So I get it—you want to do this fast and take the target off my back. I’m with you there.”

“Mercer is going to a dinner tonight, some police charity event.”

“It’s Kids of Cops Scholarship Fund,” John said.

“Dad’s favorite charity,” Scarlet said. “I’m going to know people there. Dad will probably be there.”

“I want you to go. Be yourself. You know people, your father is a retired Captain. You’re going to support a charity that he supports. That’s good. When you get there, we’ll be in contact. Tell you when Mercer arrives and arrange a confrontation. Accuse him, whatever you said to Sykes that set him off, but make it personal about Mercer. You know he’s involved, you’ll prove he was behind the attempt on Jason’s life, anything that you need to say to make him worried. Act like you’ve gone off the deep end.” He looked at her pointedly. “But you need to be convincing—that he won’t get away with it, that you’ll be in his face every day until you find the information that Gina had. That’s key—he needs to believe that there is something tangible out there that will bite him on the ass.”

She nodded. “I can do that.” She was actually looking forward to it.

“Wait—one more thing. You have to walk away. Nothing he says or does can stop that. You go down the rabbit hole, stay out of the way. John and I are going to tail him. We’re getting ears on him as well, but that’s touchy. You need to be on high alert. You’ll be covered, but Mercer’s a cop. He’ll be suspicious, so we have to keep the deep cover so he doesn’t suspect anything. Understand?”

“Yes.” She was getting excited. She couldn’t wait to get in his face, and considering the venue, there would be nothing he could do about it.

He handed her a slip of paper with the event details. “Tonight, eight o’clock, he’ll be there.”

“So will I.”

“I know you have a partner. I’m not going to tell you to lie, but this needs to be kept as quiet as possible. The more people that know, the greater the risk to all of us.”

“Understood.” She got up, then said, “I’d like to see Jason.”

“I’ll take you up.” Richardson turned to John. “Call Faye Clark and fill her in on the details. Make sure they know the when and where so they can get eyes and ears. I want to make sure Scarlet is covered.”

John gave her a stern look. “You and me both.”

~ ~ ~

Jason looked like he was recuperating from a vicious flu when Kyle Richardson escorted Scarlet to his room. His skin was pale and gaunt, his hair flat, and dark circles framed his eyes.

Scarlet had a dual purpose in wanting to talk to Jason. First, to make sure he was physically okay. But mostly to ask him about Gina.

“You look like shit,” she said with a smile. “But at least you’re alive.” She wanted to make him comfortable.

“Right back at you,” he said.

She sat down next to him. “Detective Richardson said he’s talked to you.”

“Yeah. We cleared the air. At least he knows I didn’t kill Gina.” He looked at the detective. “Right?”

“Neither of you are very trusting,” he grumbled.

She glanced at Richardson. “Not really,” she said. “Jase—I’ve been thinking about what Gina said to you. And about the guy you chased away. She said she had something to show you. Where would she hide potential evidence?”

“Who’s the cop here?” Richardson inteR.J.ected. “Do you think I haven’t asked the same question?”

“No, but—”

“We talked about this, Scarlet. Your boundaries. You don’t have any, do you?”

“I just want to help.”

“Let me be the cop.”

She bristled, but realized he was right. She had to let it go. She had to let Richardson and her brother do their job. She wasn’t a cop anymore. It had been taken from her.

Jason said, “Scarlet, thank you for everything. For believing me, for saving my life. I don’t know how to repay you.”

“Fuck that. You’re my friend, Jason. You always will be. Just get better so you can help take down that prick Tony Mercer and everyone else involved in Gina’s murder. I’m really sorry I didn’t know her.”

“Me, too.”

“So are you done trying to interrogate my witness?” Richardson said.

She rolled her eyes, leaned over and kissed Jason on the cheek. “I’m all yours, Kyle.”

“Go home and get dressed for the party. I’ll set everything up on my end and call you. Plan on arriving by seven-thirty.”

“What party?” Jason asked.

“The party to celebrate the beginning of the end of police corruption,” Scarlet said.

“At least one small part of it,” Richardson said.

Scarlet headed straight to the Moreno & Hart office in Santa Ana after calling to confirm that Krista was there.

The cool blast of air conditioning hit her when she walked in. Moreno & Hart occupied one-fourth of a Spanish-style building only a few blocks from the county courthouse and about twenty minutes from her apartment in Newport and Krista’s house in Huntington.

Krista was in her small office with the door open because Mac had classes and wasn’t manning the front desk. Scarlet helped herself to coffee before walking in and sitting heavily in one of the two guest chairs.

“You look exhausted.”

“Fabulous sex with Alex all night,” she said flippantly. “Didn’t get much sleep.” She didn’t really want to talk about the shooting or her insomnia. Krista probably suspected both had kept her up longer than Alex.

“But Alex didn’t give you that bruise on your neck.”

She’d almost forgotten about that. “Yeah, well, I pissed off Sykes.” She told Krista what happened in the jail.

“Bastard,” Krista mumbled.

“We have to tread carefully around him. Especially when he goes to trial. You’ll be called to testify, and if he thinks he can make a run at you in order to get off—”

“You have my back, I know. And there is more than enough evidence even without my testimony,” Krista said.

“He might go after you for revenge. He threatened my brother.”

“He threatened the wrong Moreno.”

“I love your faith in me.” Scarlet began to relax. She filled Krista in on the attempt on Jason’s life, and the plan for tonight to confront Mercer and Richardson’s plan to follow him. She left out everything about the Vartarian’s and Richardson’s larger investigation, though she itched to tell Krista.

But Krista wasn’t an idiot. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“I was sworn to secrecy.”

Krista thought on that a moment. “Does it have to do with the Vartarians?”

“Yep.”

“And you trust Richardson?”

“Yeah, I do. John’s working with him now. That makes me feel better, but also, just my gut feeling, he’s clean. And smart.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“I trust Richardson, to a point—but I trust you more. Richardson said his people are going to be deep cover so Mercer doesn’t make them. If Mercer and his people have done research on me—and we have to assume they have—you need to go in disguise as they might recognize you. Do your hair different, make-up different, whatever. Something so you don’t stand out. It’s the Kids of Cops charity, so dress up. He’s not going to do anything to me there, but outside? Fair game.”

“I can call in a favor and borrow a limo, drive you there and back—”

Scarlet shook her head. “I really think it’s best that I show up alone. If they’re watching me, they need to think I’m being the maverick on this. That I don’t see the threat. That I’m vulnerable.”

“You are. The event is at the Griffith Observatory. Lots of open space all around, and trees—a sniper can take you out a hundred yards away, or more.”

“They don’t know that I’ll be there, and Mercer isn’t going to know until I make a scene.” She looked at her watch. “It’s four. The reception is from six-thirty to eight, dinner at eight. Richardson said that Mercer would be there right at eight—they must have his schedule or something. I’ll get there at seven-thirty and stake out the place, wait for him. When I’m done, you should pick me up at the entrance so I don’t give them a target.”

Scarlet leaned forward and turned Krista’s laptop around so she could pull up a map of the area. She also brought up the invite for the Kids of Cops event. “If you can be—” She looked at the venue map and frowned. “You’ll have to pick me up at the roundabout in front of the observatory. You probably won’t get parking in the main lot.”

“I’ll get there early and park here.” Krista pointed to a small lot about a hundred yards from the roundabout. “You park down here in the event parking, stick with the crowd and walk in through the main entrance. Go to the ladies' room after you confront him and call me. I’ll drive to the roundabout and pick you up. Take you someplace safe—like your dad’s house.”

“Dad will have too many questions. And besides, he might be at the event. Alex would be good.”

“You just want more hot sex.”

“There’s nothing wrong with sex. Aren’t you getting any from sexy, slimy R.J.?” She blinked innocently.

Krista opened her mouth to respond, then closed it. “You are impossible.”

“You love me anyway.” Scarlet became serious again, studied the parking areas and the venue map. “This will work. There are too many people—too many cops—for Mercer or his goons to try anything at the event. But I’ll alert you when I’m entering as well, so you know I’m inside, just in case they try something outside.”

“What would make it even better is if Mac can wire us up.”