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“Lex,” Kara guessed.
“Sit.”
“No.”
“Kara—”
“I want the truth. All of it. Starting with why you didn’t tell me Tom Lee, a dirty cop, knew I was undercover with Chen.”
“Lee didn’t rat you out. He knew almost from the beginning—”
“He knew about Chen’s operation—all of it—and looked the other way for a price. He’s a liar who sullied the badge, and you believe that he didn’t tell Chen about the raid?”
“There are a lot of reasons why I believe him, including information he has passed on to us over the last few months.”
“You’ve kept me in the dark—”
“You weren’t even here.”
“Before I left you knew about Lee and you didn’t tell me. Before I left, you knew that the FBI portal may have been the leak and you didn’t tell me. Craig had investigations into multiple people stemming from my operation and you didn’t fucking tell me!”
Lex walked in, quickly shut the door.
“I had no obligation to tell you anything, Detective,” Elena said. “If you have a problem with my command, you can take it up with your union rep.”
Kara wanted to hit something; she didn’t. She looked at Lex, saw the guilt in his eyes before he turned away. “So I should just turn in my badge and walk away from all of you?”
“Sit.”
She didn’t want to. God, she wanted to pace, hit something, slap her boss. That wasn’t going to get her anywhere, so she sat.
Elena walked around her desk and sat at the small table across from Kara. Lex took one of the guest chairs, turned it around to sit. None of them seemed comfortable with the silence. But Kara waited. She stared at Elena and waited for words. She didn’t know if she could believe anything her boss said, but she waited.
Elena spoke first.
“I’m not going to tell you all the reasons why we decided to keep Tom Lee in uniform, because they are complex and layered and confidential. I will tell you that he has performed satisfactorily since he was confronted with evidence of his crimes, and he has provided much-needed information about Chen’s operation that has helped Dyson build a case against multiple people—all of whom have either pled or been given conditional probation. Several are in jail today. Lee wasn’t privy to any of the inner workings of Chen’s operation, but he saw a lot, and he has identified key people for us, people we’ve continued to investigate. Lee is required, under the terms of his sealed agreement, to testify in front of the grand jury and be available at trial. Provided that he is truthful, he will not be prosecuted.”
“Whoop-de-do,” Kara muttered.
Elena bristled, then said, “Craig’s death has hit all of us hard. He’d been dogged in his pursuit of the truth, and he felt we had enough to go to the grand jury—”
“Against who? Who are you trying to get indictments on?”
“It was a grand jury to open an investigation into the city’s grant approval process, specifically grants for homeless services and housing.”
“So, not against a person, just a loose entity of government bureaucrats?”
“We believe that the grant and contracting process is corrupt, that it’s used to benefit the friends and family of government officials. Craig believed he could prove fraud to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. The city spends one billion dollars a year on the homeless crisis. One billion a year, every year, with little to no accountability.”
Kara was now confused. “What does that have to do with Chen? Is this about the apartment building he owned? Craig mentioned he got government money for it.”
“That’s what jump-started his interest. Chen applied for and received a ten-million-dollar grant to house immigrants from China.”
“Wait,” Kara said, “Chen illegally brought hundreds of Chinese women and teenagers into the country and the city gave him money to put them up in housing so they could work for him for free?”
“Yes.”
“And that’s not enough to go after whoever approved it?”
