AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“For the sex trade?” Matt asked.
“I don’t think so, they weren’t always young women. Sunny said Chen worked with other businessmen in the same line of work—smaller factories in different cities. We didn’t have a good handle on that end of the business, but hoped to build it up once we had all his files. But when he found out about the raid, he destroyed his files, so we only stopped his operation.”
“The woman,” Will said. “She’s familiar, but I don’t know her name. The old white guy? I know him. Larry Klein. He’s Lydia Zarian’s biggest donor. Owns a shipping line, lots of property.”
“Want to bet his property is making money the same way Chen’s was?” Colton said.
“Why are they meeting with Muriel Coplin?” Matt asked.
“Muriel is Lydia’s campaign manager. This is damage control, my guess—yesterday, twenty-four hours before the press conference. Damage control and strategy meeting. Damn them,” Will said. “I’ll bet as we dig deeper into the finances of Sunflower and the other nonprofits we’ll find that Zarian’s donors are all profiting. God, I hate politics.”
“We don’t know that they were doing anything illegal,” Matt said.
“Then why would Meyers want my phone?” Colton countered. “There must be something here we’re not seeing.”
“Where’s Peter Sharp?” Kara asked.
“Headquarters,” Lex said. “Why?”
“Colton, Will and I realized that Peter Sharp is the only person who could have taken Colton’s reports out of Craig’s office. Everything we got from his office was light—you said it, the FBI said it. Files are missing, specifically Colton’s photos.”
“We still don’t know,” Lex said, glancing at Elena, who was still talking on the phone.
Kara shook her head. “We know. Craig had everything in his office when I was there. I remember glancing at stacks and stacks of files. Will said there was only one box logged into evidence. Where are the missing files? Where are Colton’s pictures? Sharp knew on Friday that Craig was impaneling the grand jury. That gave him more than enough time to put together the hit, then take or hide the files during the chaos after Craig’s murder, before his office was sealed.”
“That’s a serious accusation,” Lex said.
Will started to explain about the podcast, but Michael cut him off. “Violet’s not returning my text messages.”
“Where is she?” Kara asked.
“At headquarters. When we couldn’t reach you, we left her and Sharp in the conference room.” Michael looked stricken.
Lex got on the phone and walked away. Michael tried calling Violet; no answer. Matt said, “Violet’s the only person who knows how to retrieve the deleted files.”
“And Sharp knows that,” Kara said. “Did we get the warrant?”
“We were waiting for it when we left,” Michael said. “If anything happens to her...”
“We’re going to find her,” Kara said. She didn’t want any more innocent blood on her hands.
Lex came back. “I talked to security. Peter left twenty minutes ago. Violet was with him.”
“Can we track them? The car? Phone?” Matt asked.
“They’re going to the data center,” Kara said. “This is the big ‘cover your ass’ move. The press conference. Getting Colton’s phone with pictures of Zarian’s donors. But if they don’t get that backup drive and destroy it, they’re all toast.”
“Let’s go,” Matt said. “Lex, I need your car.”
“I’m going with you, the lieutenant has to stay here and deal with the fallout,” he said. “Peter.” He practically spat out the name. “That bastard. Craig was my friend. Why, dammit!” He climbed into the driver’s seat. “Why the fuck did he do this?”
Kara slid into the seat next to him. Though it was a rhetorical question, she answered: “Money. It’s all about money and power.”
Matt and Colton got into the back and Kara glanced at them. They glared at each other, both suspicious, wary. Matt caught her eye and she winked. “We’re going to stop him. No one else is going to die today.”
“I think I have a plan,” Matt said. “I need to make a call.”
“What?” Colton demanded.
