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“About like you’d expect,” Jack said. “It’s Saturday so the office was closed. But strangely enough there were two law clerks inside shredding documents. We were able to obtain everything they didn’t shred, but we’ll never know what was destroyed. Those shredders make it impossible to put the pieces back together again. Cole and Martinez are trying to sift through the files right now, and see what was so important they had to destroy.”
“Any drugs?”
“Nope,” Jack said. “Place was clean as a whistle. We took Sowers’ electronics and files, but the law clerks had clearly had instruction from someone.”
“The people he was having dinner with last night?” I asked.
“I’m pretty sure I can be a little more specific than that,” Jack said. “We brought in Mr. Kirby. Guess who he works for?”
“Why do I know that name?” Carver said.
“I’m going to hate it, aren’t I?” I asked.
“Yep,” Jack said. “William Kirby works for the state department.”
“Well, that’s a real bummer,” Carver said, shoving a bite of eggs into his mouth.
“Why? What does that mean?” I asked. “Kirby wasn’t in Ukraine on a peace mission. He was there with Sowers buying underage girls.”
“You know that, and I know that, and Kirby knows that,” Jack said. “But our case and our jurisdiction is to investigate the murder of David Sowers. We can’t touch Kirby on the trafficking and he knows that. You should have seen the smug look on his face as Cole and I talked to him this morning. He, of course, knew about Sowers’ drug problem. They all did, and were very concerned. He even tried to get him into rehab on multiple occasions.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. “And I’ve got oceanfront property in Nebraska I can sell you too. What about his trips to Ukraine?”
“Just business trips for the state department,” Jack said. “All classified and they don’t have anything to do with Sowers’ murder. And since Kirby was sitting at the table with Sowers when he was shot he’s not the killer. None of them pulled the trigger, so we had to cut them all loose.”
“So despite the drugs and the trafficking, the only thing we can really focus on is the murder?” I asked.
“If we uncover more on the drugs or his supplier we can look deeper, but right now we only have Sowers’ personal stash. As far as the trafficking, the man responsible is dead and Kirby is untouchable. So for right now, yes, we focus on the murder.”
“That sucks,” I said, dropping my bacon to my plate.
“You going to eat that?” Carver asked, reaching for the bacon. I slapped at his hand and said, “Yes. Because my cholesterol is just fine.”
“Mean,” Carver said, shaking his head.
Jack pushed his empty plate away and focused on his coffee. “I will say the others we interviewed were a lot more nervous than Kirby when we brought up the drugs and started talking about Sowers’ penchant for underage girls. I think if we keep leaning on them they might come up with a few good suspects for who the shooter could be.
“Jasmine Taylor especially looked a little green around the gills. I mentioned the fact that a man like Sowers never did his own dirty work. He wasn’t out on the street buying drugs. He wasn’t the one who leased apartments or made sure his wife never intermingled with his lovers. And then I mentioned Kirby. There was something there. She was scared. But she told me to talk to Colby Chan. Apparently Chan is Sowers’ admin. He was also at the dinner table when Sowers was killed. She said Chan took care of all of Sowers’ needs.”
“Convenient,” I said.
“And nice of her to throw him under the bus like that,” Carver said.
“My thoughts too.”
“So our victim is basically the scum of the earth, who surrounds himself with more scum of the earth. And his depravity is common knowledge, and he doesn’t bother to hide what he is to those who know him. Having people in higher up positions, like Kirby, made Sowers feel safe. He was cocky.”
“And a liability,” Jack said, reading my train of thought.
“A guy at the state department could easily get papers—passports, IDs, credit cards. Right?” I asked.
“Yes,” Jack said. “Trafficking is a crime of power and money. It’s not a poor man’s sport. Both money and power corrupt, and for those who are already corrupt at heart it turns corruption to evil. We’re living in a time of evil. You cut the head off one and ten more come back in its place. Look what’s happening with Carver.”
“It’s a moral compass,” Carver said, for once his tone serious. “I know whoever is doing this to me is high up on the food chain and has more power than I do. But there are other people at the top of the food chain of other agencies willing to step in and cut them down. Do I believe it’s because of their sense of justice and right and wrong? No, I don’t. I believe they do it because it’s a means to an end. It helps their own agenda. And I have to live with that because my family and their safety is my first priority. So I’ll go through the motions and keep cutting the head off one snake at a time. Just like what you’re doing by catching a murderer. He’s a snake. Is he as big of a snake as Sowers and Kirby?” Carver shrugged. “Who’s to say? Probably not. But you have to start somewhere.”
Jack blew out a breath. I’d seen the discouragement in him over the last months. He’d been serving this country and the people for a long time. But such as the way of the world, things don’t ever really get better, because corruption spreads like yeast through a loaf of bread. I could tell with every case we took on that Jack was burning out more and more. As a wife, I wanted to fix the pain I saw in him. I wanted to protect him at all costs. The problem was I had no idea how to do so.
“All we can do is keep being a light to those who are hopeless,” Carver said. “And on that note I will send you a bill for my hourly therapy rate. I’ve got to have a fallback now that I’m unemployed.”
