Chapter 8
“This is idiotic,” Russ said under his breath. “Playing spy versus spy in a strip mall.”
Knox frowned at him across the faux-grained tabletop. “We’re here, so stop complaining. I admit, this is more like something Hudson would come up with. But look at her. She’s, like, sixteen. Maybe she thinks it’s exciting.”
“I think that’s the point. Would you expect to see anyone from the AG’s office here?”
“That’s a strong no.”
The waitress stopped by with two menus the size of Russ’s cot in basic training. He asked for a Coke and some water; Knox ordered a hot chocolate. As their server left, he spotted Zhào entering. She crossed to their booth, and Knox slid aside to let her in.
“Hi. Thank you so much for meeting me.”
Russ opened his mouth to tell the kid what he thought of her cloak-and-dagger game, but Knox cut him off.
“Thanks for asking to meet with us. Look, as you can see, we’ve been worried about Flynn. But why are we doing all this”—she waggled the romance book with the not-so-coded message—“super-secret stuff? Why couldn’t you just speak to us in your office?”
“Because I don’t know who there might be in on canceling the investigation.”
Russ could feel his eyebrows climbing. “You think there was a conspiracy to squash the investigation? Into white supremacists?”
“Of course there was. You don’t really think everyone working on the project was reassigned because of funding, do you?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact, that seems entirely likely to me. Resources get reallocated all the time, especially at the state level. A major corruption case breaks and suddenly guys playing patriot games in the woods just aren’t that important.”
Knox shot him a look before turning to the baby lawyer. “What we’d really like to know, Joy—”
“It’s Yíxīn.”
“Sorry?”
“My name. It’s Yíxīn. Joy is the white name I use in the office because most of my colleagues ‘can’t pronounce’ Chinese.” She air-quoted “can’t pronounce.” “It’s okay, you can use it, too. I just wanted you to hear, you know, my real name.”
“Yíxīn,” Knox said carefully.
“Not bad.”
“Where is Kevin Flynn?”
“He’s undercover with a group of militia types upstate. Way upstate. In the Adirondack Park.”
Russ’s wash of relief almost canceled out his urge to strangle both Kevin and his sidekick.
“Is he okay?”
“Yes. I mean, I think so. I haven’t heard from him lately.”
Knox pulled her phone from her back pocket. “You can reach him?”
Zhào waved her hand. “Not that way. We have a dead-letter drop.”
“Of course you do.” Russ could feel the headache starting somewhere behind his eyeballs.
And no wonder—this was Clare-level insanity.
He spread his hands on the table. “Ms. Zhào. Before we get lost in the thicket, could you please lay out for us what happened? Starting from when the task force investigation was canned.”
“Sure, okay. So I was brought in as Kevin’s liaison after the investigation had already started. Sort of pairing the two newbies together, you know? When he got the chance to send in reports, I would read them, and I kind of got to know him that way, at a remove.”
“Kevin was looking into possible illegal gun dealing, right?”
Zhào nodded. “The focus of the task force was on how these groups are getting funded—especially the more off-the-grid ones. Some of them straight-up accept donations through their websites like they were the Girl Scouts or something, but others we suspected of extortion, drug dealing, and, in this case, trafficked firearms.”
That, at least, made sense. New York had some of the strictest gun laws in the country; there was always a thriving market selling to those who wanted to sidestep the legal process.
“There wasn’t much happening until last August, when Kevin was approached by a guy who turned up on the FBI’s watch list. Kevin encouraged the relationship, and he had credible info about some major transactions going on that would net a ton of money for somebody.
We were about to bring in Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, so you know it was big. ”
Russ nodded. Locals hated to call in the staties, the state hated to call in the feds, the feds hated to call in the alphabet intelligence agencies. And so it went.
“Then all of a sudden, boom. The investigation was over, wrap things up and don’t forget your expense sheets.”
“What makes you think it was Flynn’s info that got the project cut short? Why not the drugs or the extortion?”
“Well … the timing, mostly. None of the other arms of the investigation had broken any significant leads.”
Russ looked at her.
“And I had just sent up the report from Kevin asking for permission to reach out to ATF! There wasn’t anything else meaningful going on, nothing like a corruption case like you mentioned.”
“That you know of. You’re a, what, associate state attorney? You’ve been there how long?”
Zhào pressed her lips together. “Since May.”
“And when did you pass the bar?”
“August. But—”
“How many attorneys work in the Albany office?”
She glared at Russ. “About three hundred and fifty.”
Russ flipped his hand over, as if exposing an invisible royal flush. “I’m not questioning your abilities or your passion. But there’s a lot of information and decision-making you’re simply not going to know about.”
“Look.” Zhào pressed her forefinger into the tabletop.
“Let’s posit what you say is true, that there wasn’t any deliberate interference in the investigation.
The fact remains Kevin made contact with the subject of a federal watch list, who was involved with the sale of unlicensed firearms, which was meant to benefit an alt-right white supremacist militia organization. ”
“That could be a real and present danger,” Knox pointed out.
Russ nodded. “I agree. The trouble is, the unauthorized investigation of a cop with no authority or jurisdiction isn’t law enforcement, it’s vigilantism. How were you expecting to be able to build a case for prosecution?”
“The courts have traditionally been very deferential to evidence uncovered by police in the course of other activities.”
“What other activity?” Knox had the same I-can’t-believe-what-I’m-hearing strain Russ had had earlier.
“Camping with the Hitler Youth?” She leaned forward.
“And I hate to break it to you, but Kevin is about to become ex–law enforcement. The Syracuse PD is going to fire him if he doesn’t show up.
You can’t just take an unspecified amount of personal time without ever getting in touch with your employer. ”
For the first time, Zhào’s face lost its look of passionate sincerity. She paused. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Ms. Zhào.” Russ tried to make his voice as nonjudgmental as possible. “Is this your first job?”
“No! I worked as a lifeguard for several summers in college. And I had a paid clerkship with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office between my second and third years of law school.”
Russ looked at Knox, who had an expression he had seen directed at her son when he had done something endearingly stupid. Zhào caught their wordless exchange and sighed. “What do you think we should do?”
“I think we need to get in touch with Kevin and let him know he’s got to get back to Syracuse.”
“We can rope in Lyle.” Knox twisted toward Zhào.
“He’s the acting chief of police in our town.
If we give him whatever information you already have, plus whatever Flynn’s come up with, he could probably persuade the proper sheriff’s department to open a legitimate investigation.
Something that could lead to actual arrests and convictions. ”
Zhào buried her face in her hands and made a noise. “All right.” She lifted her head. “But Kevin has to agree. He’s the one who’s out in the field.”
“Oh, he’ll agree,” Russ said.
Knox shot him a look. “How soon can you get word to Flynn?”
“I can send a letter tomorrow. It should get there Monday or Tuesday.”
Russ tried not to wince. “That’s … not how a dead-letter drop works.”
“I know, but it would have looked damn strange if I kept popping up in a town of, like, four hundred, leaving newspapers on a gravestone.”
“He’s in a town?” Knox sat up straighter. “Let’s just go there.”
“No, they’re camping in the edge of the High Peaks region.”
“At this time of year? That’s crazy.”
“Their post office box is in a little dot on the map called Newcomb. They pick up the mail every week or two.”
“That’s too long,” Knox said, at the same time Russ blurted out, “That’s not secure!”
Zhào held up her hands. “That’s as fast as it goes.
And it’s secure enough. I’m supposed to be Kevin’s girlfriend, so he’s talking about what he’s doing generally.
There have been two times when he was one of the guys making the mail run, and when that happened, he added in a few lines of raw data before posting the letter. ”
“Girlfriend.” Knox nodded. “Huh.”
“We figured it would give us an excuse, if we needed, to meet in person privately. Everybody understands a motel booty call.”
“Do any of the militia group know, uh, that you’re…”
“Chinese? Yeah, I sent a couple pics to Kevin. White supremacists are freaking weird. Half of them have yellow fever. They want Asian girlfriends because they think we’re all submissive and shy.” She rolled her eyes. “Oh, and that we have mysterious eastern sexual techniques.”
“Uh.” Hadley paused. “Do you?”
Zhào laughed. “I learned all my sexual techniques at Hamilton College, so no.”
Russ figured it was high time to get back to the subject. “Do you have a way to let Kevin know he needs to get in touch with Syracuse? Does he have access to a phone?”
“Yes and no. We have some phrases to use to signal certain things, but the militia is paranoid about being tracked, so cell phones are a no-no.”
“We should go up there,” Knox insisted.
Russ held up his hand. “What we should do is think about this for more than fifteen minutes and come up with a decent plan. One that involves making sure Kevin is okay, his job back in Syracuse is okay, and that doesn’t blow the investigative work if”—he looked pointedly at Zhào—“there’s something there worth the Essex County Sheriff’s time. ”
Knox made a strangled sound. Russ ignored it. “First thing we should do is pull together what you and Kevin have gotten up to this point. Do you have access to the records of the combined task force?”
“You mean Kevin’s reports from before when they pulled the plug? Sure. And a bunch of the background material, too.”
“Good. That will help when we pitch Lyle on getting involved. Can you email the documents to me tonight?”
“No.” Zhào sounded as if he had suggested flying across New York with the papers clutched in her toes. “Scans and emails can be reconstructed. I’ll bring you the documents in person. We can make copies then, and I’ll return the originals to the office. No electronic trail.”
Hadley looked like she didn’t know whether to be concerned or impressed. “You do a good job thinking like a criminal.”
“Prosecutors have to think like criminals all the time. When would be good for you?”
Russ hesitated. If she went back to the state building and met them here, it would be at least an hour, and where would they find a copy machine? “I guess I could come back down on Monday…”
“That’s too long!” Knox clicked on her calendar. “I could—no, crap, Hudson’s got an indoor track meet starting at nine and Ginny’s going to an ice-skating party.”
Zhào looked at Russ. “Why don’t I just bring them up to you tomorrow? It can’t be that long a drive to Millers Kill.”
“About an hour,” Russ said.
“An hour and a quarter if you actually drive the speed limit.” Knox looked at him pointedly.
He ignored that, too. “I’ve got a thing tomorrow afternoon.” He made an involuntary face. “Could you make it Sunday? After lunch? The baby goes down for a nap around two.”
“That would work perfectly for me,” Knox said.
“Okay.” Zhào peered at the phone he held out and typed in the contact information.
“What’s your thing tomorrow afternoon?” Hadley asked. “You don’t sound thrilled about it.”
“Another one of Clare’s projects. Outreach to a couple of local white power types.”
Zhào crossed her arms on the table. “Keep your eyes open, then. ’Cause these people are everywhere, and they’re getting organized.”