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A cop killed Chen. He could have tracked her, set her up, killed Thornton.
Matt turned to Elena. “Did you know Monday that a cop killed Chen? Did you lie to me?”
“I didn’t know until Tuesday morning.”
“You had plenty of time to tell me.”
“We’ve been through this, Costa,” Elena said. “All I had was Violet’s statement to Colton that she thought it was Colangelo. He was wearing a mask. I need her official statement, and we were going to do that today, once Colton finished putting together evidence. This was a seven-month-long undercover investigation—we couldn’t shut it down in five minutes.”
“That cop could have killed a federal agent. And that’s on you.”
She bristled. “He didn’t,” she said through clenched teeth. “I’m not reckless, Agent Costa. Colangelo and Officer Perez—who saw Violet running from the scene and is on the same shift as Colangelo—have been under twenty-four-hour surveillance since Violet reported to Colton. They were transferred to jail duty for the week, pulling twelve-hour shifts, on camera the entire time. When they leave, I know, and they are both tailed.”
Colton Fox sauntered in through the rear of the building.
Matt stared at the man who had once been an important part of Kara’s life, professionally and personally. He was average height and build, lean and muscular. His unshaven face was darkly tanned from being outdoors, his brown hair sun-bleached. He had a small scar on his face. He wasn’t handsome, at least Matt didn’t think so, but he did have the dangerous good looks that attracted some women. Rough and confident.
Matt hated this man. Did he hate him because he had faked his death and caused Kara pain? Or did he hate him because Kara had once been involved with him?
Maybe both.
Matt suppressed his emotions and said, “Everything on the table. Now.”
“You must be Special Agent in Charge Mathias Costa,” Colton said with a cocky half grin as he pulled a chair out. He wasn’t dressed like a homeless man, but was clean and in jeans and a black T-shirt, his gun and badge on his belt. Clearly, the undercover operation was over.
He sat, leaned back, casual.
Matt sat across from him. “I need to know what you know. All of you. Whatever is going on here, it’s over. We have a dead prosecutor and a dead FBI agent. We all want answers.”
No one spoke at first, then Will threw up his hands. “For shit’s sake,” he said. “This guy is right. No one was supposed to die—you were investigating graft and corruption, fraud, white-collar crimes where people aren’t killed. Now Craig, who we all liked and respected, is dead. Violet is in danger. I told her I would watch out for her. She’s been through hell. She lost her mom not two months ago. She has done everything we’ve asked, things we didn’t ask but she knew we wanted. She found the truth and now she’s in hiding, terrified. So no more bullshit.”
When no one said anything, Will turned to Colton. “Colt, everything. For Violet, and for Craig.”
Colton gave an almost imperceptible nod, then Will turned to Matt and said, “I was the catalyst for this investigation.”
Matt turned his attention to Will. “Because of Chen’s building.”
“Yes. I didn’t know at the time he owned it, but I had been tracking a group of nonprofits used as pass-throughs for grant money. It’s a legal scam. However, if Chen was a criminal—and if he used this grant program to profit off human trafficking—then maybe we could expose the system and effect change. Craig agreed. Once we had enough evidence, he could take it to the grand jury. At the same time, Violet came to me about a suspicious computer crash in city hall. She’s been instrumental from the beginning, first working with me, then working with Craig.”
Lex said, “While Kara was on leave—when you first met her—she and Colton were outed by someone to the media. We believe it came from the FBI, so you can see why we were skeptical of everyone in the LA office. Kara was out of town in Washington, as you know, but Colton was shot by a gangbanger while he was undercover in another operation.
“It was while he was in the hospital that Elena, Colton and I decided a deep cover operation into the housing grant scandal was warranted. We took it to our boss, he agreed. There were too many facilities, too many people potentially involved, and the issues are complex. We needed solid evidence to build a case of massive government fraud and corruption. Without layers of proof, we’d never get it through the DA’s office. Letting everyone think that Colton died gave us the time and freedom to work the case as long as it took.”
“The homeless are invisible,” Will said. “Most people walk by and either intentionally ignore them or just don’t see them. Colton was able to get physically close to every facility that is operated by these nonprofits. He has thousands of pictures of how the money is spent—or not spent. He has gone through the shelter process and documented what they do and don’t do. Craig intended to launch a grand jury investigation into the finances of the nonprofits under an obscure law related to public monies. While on the surface there is nothing illegal about how these nonprofits are set up, they are ultimately pass-through accounts that enrich the people running them. Craig believed he found a loophole by which the grand jury could issue indictments for fraud.”
“He said it was threading a needle,” Elena said. “But he was the master.”
“It is clear to me that this grand jury investigation that was supposed to start today is the reason he was killed,” Matt said. “And you kept that information from me from the very beginning.”
“Not intentionally,” Elena said.
“Yes, intentionally. You should have come clean Monday night when you came by the hotel. Instead, you sent me on a wild-goose chase pointing fingers at the FBI for alerting Chen to the LAPD raid.”
“They did!” Elena snapped. “It came from the FBI, just like leaking Colton and Kara’s identities to the press back in March.”
“We have no proof. Neither do you.”
“I wasn’t going to risk Colton. Not when we were so close.”
