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“How do you know?” Matt asked.
“Every agent logs in and out of the central database. It’s easy to see who is in the office or if they are logged out as off duty or because they’re in the field. Most agents don’t track it or know the capabilities. They think it’s simply a human resources tool.”
“Is it unusual for them to stay so late?” Brian asked.
“Thornton regularly works eight to six. Chavez typically works eight to five. Half the agents on staff clock forty-hour weeks, most of them have children at home.”
“I don’t penalize staff that doesn’t work overtime,” Brian said.
Sloane’s mouth twitched, but she didn’t comment. Kara understood what she was thinking. Some cops could do the job in forty-hour weeks because they were organized, smart and worked when they were at work. Other cops just sat around waiting until the clock turned five, doing the minimum required. Probably that way in every profession.
“They both put in occasional late nights,” Sloane said, “but after nine is unusual. In addition, Thornton left yesterday to meet someone named ‘Duncan’ for lunch at ‘the club.’ I believe that this is the Wilshire Club and that Duncan is Theodore Duncan, chief of staff to the mayor of Los Angeles.”
Kara straightened. “Oh?”
“That isn’t unusual,” Brian said. “Our agents, especially SSAs and ASACs, often meet with key leaders—elected officials, bank managers, congressional staff, others. We have regular contact, though these meetings should be logged in the system.” He made a note. “Sometimes they don’t get logged until the end of the week, so I’m not going to assume he’s being deceptive.”
“Chavez has a standing lunch meeting every quarter with the members of the board of supervisors,” Sloane said, “but that’s a big deal in the office, several of us assist in putting together a presentation.”
Brian concurred.
Kara said, “I read in one of the reports that Thornton has been reviewing specific LAPD cases. Do you have anything more about those? Copies? File numbers?”
“I have the file numbers, but I didn’t have the opportunity to look into them.” She shifted through her folder and extracted a sheet, then handed it to Kara.
There were seven cases, and Kara knew them all.
“They’re all mine—but more than that, these are the cases I worked with my old partner Colton Fox.”
“Is there a legitimate reason for Thornton to have these files?” Matt asked.
“Possibly,” Brian said, “but I don’t know what it would be.” He made another note. “Agent Thornton was specifically told not to pursue any inquiries about you, Detective Quinn.”
“Do you remember the details?” Matt asked Kara.
“One was an illegal guns investigation that we worked jointly with the ATF. Three were Narcotics. One was insurance fraud, one Vice—which was my case, and Colton backed me up. And this last one—well, I didn’t work it with Colton, but I assisted. He went undercover in a homeless camp to locate a killer. I was in the middle of the Chen investigation when that went down, but because Chen was a lot of hurry up and wait, I backed him up when I could.”
“I remember that case,” Brian said. “The suspect was accused of killing six homeless men. I don’t think it’s gone to trial yet.”
“The guy killed himself in jail,” Kara said. “I don’t know the whole story, but he was schizophrenic and self-medicating. Colton thought he killed himself out of guilt—once he was properly medicated and realized what he had done, he couldn’t live with himself. He was probably the only killer I ever met that I thought shouldn’t go to trial because of legal insanity.” Someone should have helped him before he was that far gone, but Kara didn’t have a lot of faith in the system.
Will had brought the homeless murders to Colton’s attention. It was wrapped up about three months before Colton was killed. Was that how Will started working with Dyson? Was this whole case of improper grants, or whatever it was, coming from Will? Why else would Craig mention him in his dying breath?
“I feel I haven’t found anything of importance,” Sloane said.
“You have provided a lot of well-documented information,” Matt said, “and proven that Thornton has an unhealthy fixation on Kara and is looking at my cases for an unknown reason. What I’d like to know—in the privacy of this room—is your opinion. What do you think is going on in your squad, Sloane?”
Brian looked a bit uncomfortable with the question, but he nodded to Sloane. “Nothing you say is going to get anyone in trouble, but it might help us refocus our efforts. For example, we still don’t know who in the office leaked information to the media last March.”
Kara bristled and ignored Matt’s concerned glance.
Sloane took a moment to think before she spoke. “Rebecca Chavez is a competent manager. She doesn’t micromanage cases, which I think is a positive, but at the same time she doesn’t seem to be interested in what anyone else is doing. She offers advice when asked, and it’s usually good advice—such as how to approach a witness or conduct an interview—but she doesn’t get involved. However, there was one case related to group homes in Northridge that she personally looked at. I don’t even know why it was brought to our attention, but she took it and I don’t know the resolution.”
“I can find it,” Brian said and wrote it down. “Do you know other details?”
“Not many. It was brought to us—I don’t know by who—the first week of August.” She turned to Matt. “I’d like permission to follow Thornton and Chavez.”
Matt said, “We’re all trained to spot tails, and we don’t want you spotted. Our focus is finding the leak.” He turned to Kara and said, “Sloane already ruled out more than half of Chavez’s team over the last four months using a combination of access to information, knowledge of the system and personality assessment. Brian and I concurred with her conclusions.”
