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“But that still leaves nearly a dozen agents,” Sloane said.
“Including Chavez and Thornton,” Matt said.
Sloane nodded. “I only mention it because there are times one or both of them leave the office without any log—usually, we log out and note if it’s personal, such as a doctor’s appointment, or work related, and what case. There are several instances where they weren’t in the office but hadn’t logged out. Everyone does it on occasion, but this has become a pattern. I’d like to know what they are doing.”
“Together?”
“Sometimes, not always. I sent you a list of the days and times.”
Brian said, “If there’s an instance where you feel tailing someone would help, let me know first. It’ll cover you, but we need a record.”
“Yes, sir.”
“There’s one more thing to address,” Matt said. “Last night, Lieutenant Elena Gomez of LAPD told me that there is a portal LAPD is mandated to use where every case is logged and sent to the FBI. It’s mostly automated. It was put in place after an internal investigation a few years back.”
“I’m aware of it, but we don’t monitor it. It’s used primarily if there are multijurisdictional cases or to generate comprehensive reports.”
“Lieutenant Gomez made a serious accusation. She believes that Chen was alerted to the raid by someone in the FBI. The raid was kept so close to the vest that it was only hours before the scheduled raid that they pulled warrants and debriefed support officers. They had already reassigned any cop they had concerns about. Gomez isn’t certain how the information got into the portal, but believes it was from the SWAT briefing that the information was inadvertently added.”
“Does she have any other evidence that the FBI leaked information about the raid?” Brian asked. “Maybe one of those reassigned cops accessed it.”
Matt shook his head. “On the LAPD side, the portal can only be accessed by specific people—for example, the head of a squad, but not the detectives on his squad. A lieutenant, but not her uniformed officers. I suppose it’s possible, but Gomez did due diligence to clear her people. She firmly believes it was someone in the FBI.”
Brian didn’t say anything for several seconds. “That database is going to be next to impossible to analyze for any breaches,” he said, “but I’ll take a look, see what I can find in the logs.”
“Thank you.”
“I would appreciate that you keep this between us,” Brian said. “Our relationship with LAPD is already strained. If these kinds of rumors get out among the rank and file on either end, it’s going to further strain—to the breaking point—any hope of mending fences.”
“It won’t come from us,” Matt said.
“If we learn that someone at headquarters was involved directly or indirectly in this leak, I’ll take it to the assistant director,” Brian said.
As Brian and Sloane were leaving, Matt added, “I’m sorry that we haven’t been able to make much movement on this case.”
“Don’t be,” Brian said. “This group home case makes me uneasy. Any case that any of my agents even looks at has to have a record. As you know, we look into a lot of things that go nowhere—but if we’re spending time, even five minutes, on something, we assign a case number to it. This doesn’t sound familiar. I might have missed it, but I’ve been doubly focused on Chavez’s squad and I don’t remember seeing it.”
“Let me know what you learn,” Matt said, “and I’ll keep you up-to-date with what we uncover on our end.”
Brian turned to Kara. “I’d like to see those LAPD files, if you can access them?”
“Not a problem.” She might go around Lex. Charlie would pull them for her.
Once they left, Kara said, “Craig mentioned the mayor’s office. Violet works at city hall, and now Thornton is meeting with someone on the mayor’s staff? This rings all my bells.”
“Brian said they meet regularly,” Matt reminded her.
“What if this Duncan person found out what Violet or Craig were doing and called Thornton to put an end to it?”
“We need to be cautious with any accusations. I’ll fill Brian in on the little we know about Dyson’s investigation and remind him about Thornton’s meeting. This could be one of those rare coincidences.”
“Could be,” Kara said, though why Thornton would be involved stumped her. Maybe her assessment of him was wrong. Maybe he was deeply corrupt.
“You disagree.”
“I don’t know what to think, Matt. But this?” She tapped Sloane’s report. “He was investigating me, and you, and by default our entire team. Why? Just because he hates me? That seems thin.”
“I’m following up with Gomez and McPherson this morning,” Matt said. “What are your plans?”
