AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hans weighed his thoughts carefully. “Frances Buckley, if interviewed properly, by a male in authority.” He glanced at Kate. “No offense, Kate.”
She waved off his comment. “I understand. She’s old school, considers women equals, men as superiors.”
“Not exactly,” Dillon said. “I think she has contempt for women.”
“Right,” Hans said, nodding.
“I don’t get it,” Sean said. “She’s fond of Lucy, or she’s a damn good liar.”
“You’re right, Sean, about Lucy,” Hans said. “Think of it this way. Fran is sixty. She joined the Bureau when few women did, when the mentality of the Hoover years was still dominant. She fought hard to earn what she had. Many of her contemporaries didn’t, or chose professions where they weren’t constantly butting heads with men. Right there she considers herself superior to most women—she chose the harder path.
“Next consider her chosen field since her retirement. Sexual predators. They prey on women and children. The weak, in her mind. She is protecting the weak. That puts her on higher ground. Couple that with crossing the line—not only is she legally working to protect the weak, she’s doing more. She’s risking her life and her freedom to protect other women and children—not herself.”
“Maybe not so much contempt,” Dillon said, “but a superiority complex. She’s doing what others refuse to do.”
“How do we make her talk?” Noah asked.
“Put Rick Stockton and Dillon in the room,” Hans said. “Rick is the ultimate authority, only a step down from FBI director, and well known as being tough but fair. He plays the role of hard-ass. Dillon commiserates with her, understands her, even commends her. Strokes her ego, lets her know that she’ll be admired and respected for doing the right thing in the face of overwhelming odds. No one understands the pressure she faces, et cetera.”
Dillon asked, “Isn’t this a conflict of interest for me?”
Hans shook his head. “Not with Buckley—and she’ll feel comfortable with you because she knows you, knows Lucy. It’ll work. But if we find Mallory? Stay far away from him.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Dillon said.
Noah said, “I’ll call Stockton and get the warrants moving, then bring in Buckley.” He put up his hand to ward off any more comments. “You say Lucy is suspicious. Do you think Buckley might know we suspect her?”
Hans nodded. “She could be in denial, but it won’t last long—she’ll start destroying evidence.”
“If she hasn’t already,” Noah said. “We have nothing else—no hard evidence, no forensic evidence, no witnesses.”
“Lucy has a copy of everything she’d—”
Noah interrupted Kate. “A copy is good, but it’s not the original database, and there’s no guarantee that Lucy didn’t manipulate or change the data. I’m sure she didn’t,” he added quickly, “but prove that to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. We need all files, all computers, all backups—and if Lucy’s circumstantial evidence is good enough for a judge, we’ll get it before the end of today.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
Noah had made it clear that Sean should make himself available but stay away from the investigation. Kate pulled Sean aside and said the best thing he could do for them was keep an eye on Lucy until they resolved the WCF situation. Sean agreed, but he had several hours before he needed to pick up Lucy from the Medical Examiner’s Office. He couldn’t sit around doing nothing, so he went home to do his own research.
Because two of the people allegedly involved in the vigilante group were former FBI agents, Noah was playing the investigation close to the vest. He’d briefed Rick Stockton, who was apparently on board, but everything else was off the books. They didn’t want to tip off Mallory and Fran Buckley and give them a chance to disappear or destroy evidence. It would be extremely difficult to get a conviction, let alone an arrest, because they had no physical proof. Sean understood the pressure that Noah was under to get one of them to talk. Lucy’s discovery about the parolees being killed was a big red flag, but there was no hard proof that WCF had anything to do with it. The only physical evidence she had came from Cody Lorenzo, who’d taken one email out of the police report. They needed to prove that someone at WCF had used Lucy’s password, which means they needed the WCF records before they were destroyed, if they weren’t already.
And connecting it all to Morton? They could connect the dots, but the dots were all over the place and the overall picture was still unclear.
Sean called his brother Duke and filled him in. Even when they had disagreements, like they’d had earlier in this investigation, when it mattered, Duke would do whatever it took to help. He said he’d shake some trees and see what fell.
“You should know,” Duke said, “someone tried to run a background on you.”
Sean wasn’t surprised. “Who?”
“Don’t know, but it came from D.C.”
“The FBI?”
“I’d know if it was the FBI. This was private.”
He wondered who it was. Lorenzo? Fran Buckley? Or was it unrelated to this case?
“I can be there first thing in the morning. Just say the word,” Duke said.
