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“When you said dive, you meant it.”
“The good kind,” Lex said.
“I didn’t know there was a good kind.”
Cindy came over and asked for orders. Lex nodded for more and Elena knew now for certain she would be driving him home. She got a second beer, Peter asked for Scotch on the rocks.
“I still can’t get into Craig’s office,” Peter said after Cindy delivered the drinks. “I went there after I talked to his ex—she was in shock, I didn’t want to leave her until her sister came over.”
“They were still close,” Elena said. “Not all divorces end in lifelong conflict.” She also had an okay relationship with her ex.
“The desk guard said the floor will be open at seven tomorrow morning. I’ll go through his files, messages, see what I can find.”
“It has to do with our investigation,” Elena insisted. “Kara said that Craig’s dying words were to talk to Will Lattimer.”
“Why not me? Or you?” Lex frowned, stared into his drink.
“You’re missing the point,” Elena said. “He told Kara enough about our investigation that she’s going to sniff around. She was there when he was stabbed. She’s not walking away.”
“I told Will to avoid her,” Peter said. “Buy us some time to figure out what we’re going to do.”
“We’re fucked,” Lex said. “And the only person with the power to take these bastards down is dead.”
They might have something to their advantage. “No one knows that we’re running an undercover operation,” she said.
“No one?” Peter said, eyebrow raised.
“You know what I mean. We’ve kept this tight. Whoever killed Craig didn’t want him opening a full grand jury investigation. No one else has the balls or seniority to do it, so they probably think the investigation will die with Craig.”
“It does,” Lex said.
“We need control of his murder investigation. We solve that crime, we get motive—motive is covering up public corruption, we just need to prove it. We dump it all in the open. The key is finding Violet, figure out what she told Craig or what she was going to tell him. Maybe she finally had the proof he was looking for about who in city hall was behind the computer purge.”
Elena turned to Peter. “You need to get all of Craig’s files first thing in the morning when they open the floor. Who can we take this to? What DDA will pursue this?”
“I’ll think on that,” Peter said. “But—I know you’re going to hate this idea—but it is a public corruption case. Maybe we turn it over to the AUSA.”
“No,” Lex and Elena said simultaneously.
“Hear me out—the feds have the resources to get the warrants without pussyfooting around as Craig had been doing.”
“The feds will take years to investigate,” Elena said. “We have eight months in, and we’re so close. I’m not giving it to them. Do you know how long it took them to investigate the last public corruption case, down in Long Beach? Twenty-seven months. Craig was adamant we keep this in-house. I’m going to honor his wishes. And don’t forget—we all agree that it was a fed who leaked to Chen about the raid. They get this case, they could bury it.”
“I agree with Elena,” Lex said, “but even if we put this together with another DDA, I suggest we first talk to Costa. Kara is a good judge of character, and she wouldn’t be working for his team if she didn’t trust him. He’s already looking into the raid—we can connect that with what we’ve been doing. Lay it out.”
Elena wanted to argue, but Lex was right.
“Okay,” she concurred, “but first, let’s exhaust all other options. I know a few DDAs that might take it if we can get more information from Violet.”
“We have to talk about the elephant in the room,” Peter said. “All the cameras were out near the park. Violet has the skill to take out any computer system, and was seen leaving the scene by a cop.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Elena said. “Violet Halliday? A killer? No.”
Lex concurred. “The shooting happened fast, without hesitation. Five shots, none missed. The bodyguard barely had time to react and didn’t get a shot off. What’s her motive?”
“If she doesn’t come forward soon,” Peter said, “the lead detective will have just cause to get a search warrant.”
“She’s scared. She’ll turn up tomorrow,” Lex said. “I’ll reach out to Will, see if he needs help.”
