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Trent’s phone rang, and he answered with his title and added, “Thank you for returning my call so quickly.”
Malone spoke quietly to Amanda. “Keep me posted, and I will you. I’ll update the BOLO and get on that GPS history.”
Amanda nodded, and Malone left in his SUV. The other officer in the cruiser followed him. Shortly after, Edward came out of the marina building and got into his car and left.
Trent was waving for her to come closer and he cupped his phone. “It’s Natasha Bauer.”
“Put her on speaker.”
He informed the woman that his partner, Detective Steele, would be joining them. Once Trent made the call hands free, he said to the ADA, “We heard that you’re friends with Katherine Graves. Is that correct?”
Several beats of silence.
“Ms. Bauer?” Amanda prompted.
“That’s right. We’ve been friends since college days. Is she all right?”
The question had Amanda’s shoulders and the skin on the back of her neck tightening. It was almost as if Natasha expected an issue with Katherine. “It’s hard to say. There has been an incident.”
A puff of air traveled the line. “I wish I could say it’s a surprise, but… What happened to her?”
Trent responded. “Ms.Bauer, two perps have taken Katherine. This came in the aftermath of shooting an eighteen-year-old girl dead.”
Silence, then, “I’m at a loss for words.”
That reaction surprised Amanda. As an ADA, she’d need to think quickly under pressure, but their news had made her speechless. Amanda was getting mixed signals for what that might mean and went with one. “The fact Katherine is in trouble isn’t a surprise to you, is it?”
“Let’s just say that Kat liked to put her nose in people’s business. And, yes, I realize that’s part of a cop’s job. You’re never going to win a popularity contest, but when she worked for the NYPD, she was a real disrupter. As much as I admired her for it, I feared it might catch up with her.”
“A disrupter?” Trent asked.
“She’d push through cases with hard-headed tenacity. Her goal was always justice.”
Amanda respected the intention but that ambition would have made her enemies. “Can you think of any cases that might have come back to bite her?” She’d bring up the threats but was taking things one step at a time.
“It’s hard to pick one. She was involved with several dark cases. Her largest takedown was putting the Devil’s Saints gang out of business.”
“I’ve never heard of them,” Amanda said, but she couldn’t claim to be up on New York City gangs either.
“They were basically in their infancy but growing fast. They were already in deep with weapons smuggling and starting to dip into prostitution and the sex trafficking of minors. That’s around the time Katherine made it her mission to bring them down.”
Amanda’s respect for the former interim sergeant just went up several notches. She could relate to Katherine since Amanda was also involved with bringing down a sex-trafficking ring in Prince William County just over two years ago. This all explained why Katherine was so affected when a previous investigation involved the murder of six-year-old girls. While sexual assault hadn’t been a factor, the murder of young children was an obvious trigger point. The case may have smacked close to her history and torn the scab.
“She was successful in bringing them down,” Trent said, “so I assume the members were sent to prison.”
“All of them. Most received ten- and fifteen-year sentences. Some got life.”
This knowledge also resurrected their theory of a hired gun. The type of people under discussion typically had a reach from behind bars. Amanda explained this hypothetical to Natasha.
“I can request a record of their communications, though it’s the ones that happen off the books that are more concerning.”
And those would be the ones Amanda was most interested in being privy to. Ordering a hit wouldn’t be made through legit channels. “A good start might be the names of these gang members.”
“Consider it done. When we finish this call, I’ll get my assistant to send over those names.”
“Thank you. When did they go away?” she asked.
“Eight years ago.”
