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“Make sure Chavez understands that she must make herself available for questioning,” Tony said. “Not only by our department, but LAPD. She can and should have a representative during any LAPD interview.”
“Of course,” Brian said. “Also, we confirmed that the ballistics match in the Chen homicide and murder of ASAC Bryce Thornton. The report arrived early this morning, and Matt and I discussed the implications as he drove in.”
“What is your take?” Tony asked. “That Officer Colangelo lied about giving the gun back to the man he calls Conrad?”
“No, sir,” Matt said. “He seemed relieved to share and there was no sign of deception. We haven’t disproven anything he told us, and what we could prove shows he told the truth. Detective Quinn observed the interview from another room, and she has advanced training in interrogation. She concurs with my assessment.”
“I’m aware of Detective Quinn’s credentials, Matt. And what’s the status of her missing firearm?”
Brian straightened. Matt hadn’t told him that Kara was missing one of her personal weapons, though he had informed Tony as soon as Michael confirmed.
“LAPD sent over a crime scene tech to go over Kara’s condo. She indicated that one of her personal firearms, a Colt .45, was missing from a secure lockbox she kept in her bedroom. She has no knowledge of when it went missing. She went on record that the last time she saw the weapon was when she left in March of this year. She hasn’t been to the condo since. Agent Harris interviewed her neighbor, who had nothing to add, and a detective is following up with others and checking building security.”
“Keep me informed.”
Matt said to Brian, “I intended to tell you as soon as we had the theft confirmed.”
“You can see why this looks bad,” Brian said.
“Yes,” Matt said, “but Kara didn’t kill Chen or hire his killer. This is a setup.”
“With all due respect,” Brian said, “we need to follow the evidence. She shouldn’t be anywhere near this investigation.”
“Brian,” Tony said, “you and I will discuss this later. I understand your concerns, and we’ll address all of them. For now, let’s focus on identifying Conrad. Matt, Kara believes that the sketch matches the man she saw kill Craig Dyson?”
“She won’t swear under oath as she’s not one hundred percent positive, but his key features match. Colangelo believes that Conrad retrieved the gun between twelve thirty and when he left work at six. Colangelo parks in the structure next to LAPD main headquarters. There are security cameras at the entrances and exits. Detectives Caprese and McPherson have partnered and are in the process of reviewing the footage. We have a good description of Conrad and we may be able to identify his vehicle, if he drove in. If he walked in, we can confirm Colangelo’s statement and possibly get a better image of our suspect.”
“If the statement is accurate,” Brian said, “it means that either Conrad gave the gun to someone else to kill Agent Thornton, or he killed my agent.”
“Brian, do you believe that ASAC Chavez has any culpability in Thornton’s murder?” Tony asked.
The question carried a lot of weight, and Brian took a second before he answered.
“She has already stated that he contacted her at two forty-five Wednesday morning and informed her that he would be meeting with an informant regarding evidence that Quinn may have ordered the hit on Chen. She ordered him not to go, and said that he agreed and would wait for another contact from the informant. She claimed she didn’t know that he went to the park without backup.”
“You don’t sound like you believe her.”
“I don’t know what to believe at this point,” Brian said, his voice showing the first real sign of stress. “Phone records confirm that Bryce called her and they had a four-minute conversation. We know that his body was discovered at five ten that morning by city maintenance. The autopsy puts time of death between three and four.”
“He was set up,” Tony said.
“It seems plausible he was,” Brian said. “Still, while Bryce had a blind spot when it came to Detective Quinn, I don’t see him flaunting procedure in such a fashion or lying to his superior.”
No one said a word for a good ten seconds. If Brian’s assessment of his agent was correct, Chavez lied about what Bryce had said during their phone conversation. If she knew he was going to the park even without backup—or expecting backup to be provided by his superior—she may have been party to the setup.
Matt didn’t like her, but he hoped he was wrong about his suspicions.
“Keep me and your director in the loop,” Tony said. “On the allegations of fraud and public corruption, Agent Zack Heller is one of our top white-collar crimes experts, and Mr. Kim and Agent Wagner have been assisting. They have information.”
Zack had been fidgeting on-screen, and now he seemed relieved to be able to speak. “So, yes, this is a very interesting case,” he began. “I have reviewed everything sent to me—the statement by Mr. Lattimer, the public records that Agent Wagner and Ryder have uncovered related to the grants and nonprofits in question, press reports, and the file that Matt obtained from Mr. Dyson’s office.
“Mr. Lattimer is correct that on the surface there is nothing illegal about any of these grants or expenditures. However, the nonprofits being used as pass-throughs are certainly suspicious and I can see why Mr. Dyson felt that they warranted a grand jury investigation. There are some state and federal statutes regarding intent that may come into play. Since this is not my area of expertise, we would need to consult with the AUSA to determine what recourse the federal government has here.
“For example, there appears to be a comingling of federal and state monies with the city monies. This is not a crime. The money is given to local governments for the purposes of assisting the homeless, and comingling that with local money could be justified if it’s used for those purposes.”
Zack was certainly in his element here, Matt thought. He hadn’t warmed to the white-collar crimes expert, no one on the team had. But when it came to following the money, Zack was the best.
“But the grant process itself is rife with the potential for fraud,” Zack said. “There is no mechanism in these grants I’ve reviewed to account for the funding. Meaning, there is no built-in accountability. The entity receives five million dollars, they file the proper reports, and they have done their job. They do not have to prove based on the contracts where the money went or justify why they passed the money through to other nonprofits after taking a cut of the funds.”
