Authors: Allison Brennan
“Can you protect my son?”
“Yes.”
“I’m dead serious, Rogan. Protect him or his fate is your fate. I still have friends on the outside. Friends no one even knows about.”
For the first time, Sean felt a twinge of concern. How could he protect Ricky if he didn’t know where he was hiding?
Could
he protect Ricky? How deep was the kid involved with Bobbie’s people? Would he even trust Sean?
“You tell me what you know, and I will protect your son or die trying.”
That satisfied Swain. He sat back down. Sean also sat.
“Talk to Jon Callahan.”
Sean shook his head. “He’s playing with her.”
Swain laughed. “Hardly. He wants to kill her.”
“Why? Because she’s a whack job?”
“Whack job. I like that. No. She killed Joe Hendrickson.”
Sean couldn’t prevent the surprise from registering on his face. “Why?”
“Because Joe was talking to the wrong people.”
“Be more specific.”
“I can’t. I still got to live in this prison, Rogan.”
“And was Joe close to Jon and Henry?”
“Yes. And Joe looked out for Ricky, too, especially after Abby died. Joe and I didn’t like each other, but I respected him. There are no honest men in the world, but if there were, it’d be Hendrickson. He left me alone, I left him alone. Bobbie had to make it look like an accident—a heart attack—because a lot of people would have been angry with her for taking him out. Jon was in over his head and Jimmy was panicking. Then Joe’s sons show up in town with this foolish idea for a resort.”
“Why does anyone care about the resort? It’s not a big place.”
“But it’s
people
. Outsiders. Hikers.” Swain realized that Sean didn’t get that. “Let’s say this. The product has changed. They need more space, warehouses, warmth. If you looked at the town’s gas and heating bill, you’d be surprised.”
They were growing pot. “There has to be more to this than a little weed,” Sean said.
“Little? Hardly. And there is. And that’s where the problem is. Talk to Jon, if you can. He’s changed. It got personal.”
“And it’s not personal for you?”
“It’s business for me. I’ve protected my son as best I can from in here.” He tapped his finger again. Maybe it was more personal than even Swain admitted to himself. “Bobbie wants to teach Ricky the family business, knowing I promised Abby he’d have a real life. She thinks it would be funny. And if he doesn’t join her, she’ll kill him. Not so much to get back at me, though that’s part of it. But because she does not let anyone tell her
no
.”
“Sweet little sister.”
“Do not underestimate her.”
“She must have a weakness.”
“It depends what you consider a weakness. She’s incapable of caring about anything except her goal. She likes to hurt people, and she won’t hesitate. You can’t reason with her. She’s manipulative and a liar. She has a wicked, hair-trigger temper—though I’ve heard she’s worked to control it. Our dad always said her temper would get her killed.”
“Thank you.” Sean rose, then turned back and said, “How is it personal with Jon?”
“Bobbie killed the woman Jon loved.”
“And she killed the woman you loved.”
Swain leaned forward. “That’s why I’m helping Jon, even though he turned his back on me years ago.” He called, “Guard! I’m ready.” He said to Sean, “Remember. You promised to protect my son. I’m holding you to that.”
THIRTY
Lucy took a few moments to compose herself before returning to the conference room. The group was adding her information to the timeline for Victoria Sheffield.
Lucy skimmed through documents related to Sheffield’s original case, completely bored by the White Collar unit’s methodical report, until she got to the bottom line and saw that the studio that had brought the case to the Feds estimated they lost over six million dollars on one movie alone.
Studio One was familiar to Lucy. Where had she seen that name before?
She had started going through her papers when her cell phone vibrated with an email message. Noah read his phone at the same time. It was from Sean.
Sheffield met with Paul Swain on December 23. I need to talk to both of you ASAP—without other Feds eavesdropping
.
Lucy glanced at Noah. His jaw was clenched so tight she saw a small vein throb at the top of his throat. He stood, and said, “You’ll have to excuse me for a moment.” He didn’t ask Lucy to join him, so she remained where she was.
Sheffield’s communications were rather generic, and listed from most recent to oldest. Lucy turned to the back of the packet and scanned the messages that came in prior to December 23. A full year before she disappeared, Sheffield wrote to her supervisor, Marty Strong.
I finally got a meeting with Studio One lawyers, along with G.T. from mounted police. We worked out the proprietary confidentiality agreement, I’m attaching it for approval
.
Lawyers! That’s where she saw Studio One. They were a client of the law firm Jon Callahan worked for. That was Sheffield’s connection to Spruce Lake and her connection to Jon Callahan.
It didn’t explain why she switched investigations midstream from intellectual property theft to drug running, but it was a place to start.
She wanted to say something, but the computer expert was continuing his presentation about the data analysis. He felt that none of the messages supposedly sent by Sheffield after the twenty-third were actually from her. Marty Strong disagreed.
Noah stepped into the room. “Brian, Ms. Hart, may I speak with you?”
Candela and Hart followed Noah out. What was that about? There were murmurings until the trio returned less than two minutes later.
Hart said, “Tara, Marty, Dale—you stay. Everyone else, you’ll have to be excused for a few minutes.”
Lucy rose and gathered her notes. This had to do with Sean, she knew it, and he was in trouble.
Don’t panic
.
If anything happened to him … her life would be empty.
“Lucy,” Noah snapped, “where are you going? Sit down.”
Lucy sat, startled by Noah’s tone, and a bit irritated. Hart said, “I was referring to my unit.”
When all but the seven of them had left, Noah said, “Sean Rogan is a principal at Rogan-Caruso-Kincaid, which is a security firm with high-level government clearance. They do quite a bit of work for different agencies, primarily Homeland Security, the DEA, and the FBI, and have several former law enforcement officers working for them, including Lucy’s brother Patrick, who was a cybercrimes cop in San Diego.” Noah turned on the speaker phone. “Sean?”
“I’m here.”
“The room is clear. There are seven of us—Lucy, myself, the SAC Elizabeth Hart, ASAC Brian Candela, and Agents Marty Strong, Tara Fields, and Dale Martinelli.”
“Your need-to-know team is quite large,” Sean said over the speaker.
Hart spoke up. “With all due respect, Mr. Rogan, I didn’t want to agree to this conversation at all, but Agent Armstrong convinced me to trust you. Please get to the point.”
“Certainly, Ms. Hart. Agent Sheffield visited Paul Swain in prison on December twenty-third. I read the report, and it said that Agent Martinelli was part of the task force, so you’re probably familiar with the Swain sting.”
“Correct,” Hart said.
Strong interjected, “Why would she meet with a known drug dealer? Victoria worked white-collar crime.”
“She went to Swain because in the course of her investigation of pirated DVDs she uncovered something bigger. Swain wasn’t as forthcoming about what it was. I was hoping you’d all know why she was meeting with Swain, what she was doing in Spruce Lake, and how long she’d been involved with Jon Callahan.”
Silence, this time of the stunned variety.
“You’re pulling this out of thin air!” Strong finally said.
Martinelli said, “She wasn’t even an FBI agent six years ago during the sting. How would she know Swain or any of the people in Spruce Lake?”
“I know how,” Lucy said.
Everyone looked at her. She hesitated, not liking the attention.
Sean said over the speaker, “Shoot, Lucy. What do you think?”
“Agent Sheffield was undercover investigating the theft of intellectual property from Studio One. When I read her messages about meeting with the lawyers, it clicked. Studio One is a client of Jon Callahan’s law firm in Montreal. They specialize in intellectual property, copyright, and other business matters. If she met with the lawyers, one of them could have been Callahan.”
“That’s a long, convoluted stretch,” Strong said.
“It’s the only connection she has with Spruce Lake,” Lucy said. “And it would explain the photo of her and Callahan.”
“Why would she get involved with a drug case without running it through the office?” Strong said.
Candela said, “Victoria was a good agent, but she had a history of acting without thinking.”
Strong slapped his hand on the table. “That’s not fair, Brian! We gave her a lot of leeway with this op because it was fucking movies!”
Martinelli said, “The Sacramento FBI office recently had several large stings taking down three separate pirating operations totaling more than one hundred million dollars. All the same signs were here. She might have thought she could bring us something bigger.”
“Not on her own,” Strong insisted. “Not like this.”
“Are you too close to this?” Candela asked quietly.
Strong took a deep breath but said nothing more.
Hart said, “Our emotions are running high. Victoria was extremely bright, but she also was a maverick. None of that matters right now—we will find her killer. As far as I’m concerned, we’re investigating the disappearance and murder of one of our own people. No judgments until we solve this thing. Is everyone clear?”
Everyone nodded their assent. Lucy felt ill, the mantra,
There but for the grace of God go thee
, running through her head. She could see herself following a trail that she believed in, especially if no one agreed with her. Especially if she knew justice and human lives were at stake.
“I might have an answer for you,” Sean said, “but you’re not going to like it.”
“Theory?”
“Educated guess. Swain said one thing that is now perfectly clear. I asked him why Callahan wants revenge on Bobbie Swain. His answer? She killed the woman he loved.”
“That’s bullshit, Rogan,” Strong said.
Noah disagreed. “It explains everything. Sheffield’s connection to Spruce Lake, and why she was killed.”
“How does it do that?” Strong demanded. “A lover’s spat?”
There was more to Marty Strong’s feelings for Victoria Sheffield than being a colleague, or even a friend. Lucy said, “Let’s assume that Sheffield met Callahan through Studio One.”
Strong cut her off. “That’s a damn big assumption.”
“Let her finish,” Noah said with authority. Lucy glanced around at the others at the table and realized that though everyone else had both seniority and jurisdiction over Noah, he commanded the meeting.
Lucy continued. “They’re working on the pirated DVDs and over time, Callahan tells her his concerns about Spruce Lake. It could be that she didn’t take him seriously, or thought he was exaggerating, or wanted proof before coming to her boss. Whatever her reasons, she went to Spruce Lake one or more times to gather information.”
Sean interjected. “That holds with what I got out of Paul Swain. He wants to destroy his sister for sending him to prison; Callahan wants to destroy her for killing Agent Sheffield.”
“Hold it,” Martinelli said. “Why not come to us? Even if we accept the theory that Victoria was investigating drug running on her own, when she was murdered, why wouldn’t this Callahan come to us? Unless, of course, he’s in on it.”
“But,” Lucy said, “there’s no other way she could have found out about Spruce Lake except through Jon Callahan.”
“We don’t know that,” Martinelli said.
Lucy did. Nothing else made sense. The theory she and Sean developed—most of it separately, she realized—worked.
Hart spoke up. “I’m inclined to agree with Lucy and Mr. Rogan.” All eyes turned to the boss. “What I’m about to tell you is classified, but in light of this situation, you need to know. Roberta Swain Molina was in protective custody in Florida six years ago after her husband was murdered and she was left for dead by a rival drug cartel. She provided our office with key information and physical evidence that led to the takedown of her brother’s drug business in Spruce Lake. Paul Swain had been one of the largest methamphetamine manufacturers distributing into Canada.”
Sean said, “There’s an alternate theory that Bobbie Swain orchestrated the hit on her husband.”
“She nearly died that night,” Hart said. “I know her background. Her mother died when she was a baby. She’d been grossly abused as a child, and finally escaped one violent family for another, marrying into the Molina cartel.”
“I take it,” Sean said, “you haven’t been keeping tabs on her over the last few years?”
“There was no reason to. She just wanted to have a normal life.”
“You might need to go back and fact-check,” Sean said.
“Excuse me,” Hart said, “I know more about this case than you do. You believe a convicted felon over an abused woman? Do you know what he did to her?”
Sean said, “After she got her brother Paul out of the picture, she walked in and took over.”
“That’s a serious accusation.”
“I don’t make it lightly.”
Noah spoke up. “The situation is certainly volatile right now, and I think we should assess the intelligence we have and run Bobbie Swain through our contacts at DEA. We all know that they don’t volunteer information, but if we have a name, we can get answers.”
“Brian,” Hart ordered, “take care of it.”
Lucy noticed that the SAC had lost some of her polish. Was it because Sean challenged her, or because she was having second thoughts about her assessment of Bobbie Swain?
Lucy asked, “Do you have her interview on tape? A file with her transcript?”
“Yes. Why?”
“I’d like to read the file on Bobbie Swain, as well as the sting six years ago. It might help us figure out additional connections.”