Chapter 8 #2
When I walked in the building, the first thing I noticed was the way I no longer felt like I was walking into my second home. Things were moved and rearranged, making the office feel unfamiliar. I spoke to a few people as I kept a direct path to Tremaine’s office.
I noticed him sitting behind his desk before I walked through the open door of his office. As I prepared to give him a piece of my mind, the malice in my voice evaporated into thin air when I noticed two men in his office. One of them was in an expensive suit, and the other was in plain clothes.
“Close the door behind you and have a seat, Officer Sutton,” Tremaine ordered.
“What’s going on?” I asked, taking the seat across from his desk.
“This is Officer Benton from the Financial Crimes Department, and the gentleman to your right is Officer Christopher with the Lula Hills Police Department.”
“Lula Hills?”
“Nice to meet you, Officer Sutton. I’m Officer Alvin Christopher.”
“Excuse my manners, but what am I doing here?”
“Jameela, . . . Officer Sutton, Financial Crimes has been running surveillance on a multimillion-dollar money laundering operation for the past eighteen months,” Tremaine explained.
“Right, I heard something about that in passing.”
“You’ve come up in our recent cases.”
“Oh, OK. Which one? In my last undercover operation, we ended up with a -million-dollar sting.”
“You entered the investigation on more of a personal capacity.” Tremaine sneered.
My eyebrows snapped together in confusion. Why did he look so angry? I was used to him being in a pissy mood, but this was something else.
“Officer Sutton, you’ve been captured in some of our surveillance,” Officer Christopher explained.
“What does that mean?”
“You have been photographed on dates and spending intimate time with the suspect, Jameela!” Tremaine bellowed, almost blowing me back against the chair.
“What suspect?” I asked, turning to Officer Christopher.
Tremaine shoved a folder across his desk. Once it stopped, Christopher picked it up and opened it.
“Nicholas Toriano King is being investigated for fraud, racketeering, and money laundering. There is probably a laundry list of other crimes that he’s guilty of, but this will get us in the door so we can look around.
His uncle, Darrell Hurst, ran one of the city’s longest running illegal gambling businesses.
The uncle sent him to college and trained him to be a well-educated, articulate white-collar criminal.
King is estimated to have a net worth of five hundred and thirty million dollars, and that’s just the so-called legal money. ”
My mind hadn’t even caught up to what Officer Christopher was saying before Tremaine chimed in. “Did you know you were dating a criminal?”
“Officer Hale.” Christopher raised his hand.
“Our financial crimes department feels like you would be an asset to the investigation since you are already getting close to the suspect. We need you to see how much information you can get from him. Get your hands on any documents and get clear pictures. We are also going to need you to wear a wire,” Officer Benton finally spoke up.
“Are you asking me to investigate him?”
“We’re not asking you to do anything. You’re going undercover to investigate Nicholas King. You’ll keep things as they are so you can monitor him closely. We have been looking for a way in for the past four months since he popped up on our radar.”
“I can’t do that. I haven’t even been cleared from medical leave.”
“I’m prepared to make an exception.” Tremaine interjected.
Of course, he was. He would do anything to hurt me since I refused to kiss his ass.
I couldn’t be bothered with getting into it with him, because I was too busy trying to figure out what in the entire fuck was happening.
I searched my mind for any indication that Nicholas was this high-level criminal they were portraying him as being.
Sure, he was filthy rich, but that didn’t automatically equate to guilt. The number one clue should have been the fact that I actually liked him. Of course, something was wrong with him. My judgment had been super shitty lately. What in the world was going on with me?
No matter how smug the look on Tremaine’s face was, I couldn’t just take his word for it. I had to find out the truth for myself. As troubling as it was, it was almost a good thing that I would be the one investigating Nicholas.
I needed to see firsthand if he was the man these men thought he was. If Nicholas was really a criminal, there was nothing I could do to protect him. The part of me that wanted to be naively hopeful prayed that this was just some huge misunderstanding.
“Officer Sutton, before you leave today, someone will set you up with all the equipment you need. Officer Hale made us aware that you’re familiar with most of the surveillance equipment, so there shouldn’t be any questions.
For now, gather as much intel as you can.
Once we get a judge to sign off on it, we will get a bug in his house and phone.
Until then, you need to try to get in on some of those secret meetings.
We’ll be in touch, Officer Hale,” Christopher instructed before he and Officer Benton left the room.
My vision was blurry, and my head felt like it was spinning as I dropped my face into my hands.
“I can’t do this, Tremaine,” I muttered into my hands.
“This isn’t an option, Jameela. You been hollering for months how you want to be back on the job.
This is the way you come back. You want to prove that you’re not a liability?
Do this. You’ve only been knowing this dude for a few weeks.
It’s not like you know him like that. You don’t know what kind of monster he is, but you’re about to find out.
Don’t let your personal feelings get in the way of what might be the case of the century.
This is huge. If this goes well, you can write your own ticket. ”
“This is crazy.”
He walked over and squatted down in front of me, taking my hands in his before he spoke. “What’s crazy is you probably had my daughter around this bastard. I hope you aren’t thinking about fucking up this case, because you will never see my daughter again if I feel like you tried to tip him off.”
“Are you kidding me right now? I know damn well you don’t have the nerve to threaten me about a daughter that you haven’t even seen in the past two months.”
“Excuse me for trying to work and put food in her mouth.”
“If you would stop being a bitch and sign off for me to come back to work, then you wouldn’t have to worry so much about putting food in her mouth. I got my car taken care of, by the way.”
“I bet your scheming ass boyfriend took care of that for you.”
“You didn’t! All you want to do is control me.”
“Look, you said you wanted to come back to work. This is how you come back. If you get in the way of this investigation, you will be prosecuted, and I will make sure to get full custody of my daughter. Don’t fuck this up.”
His words were as sharp as the knife he planned to jam in my back. His threat hung in the air, nearly choking me. When I finally found my bearings, that arrogant jackass was still squatting in front of me.
“Get the fuck out of my face, Tremaine. I know how to do my job.”
“Good,” he said, finally backing off. “I was starting to think that you had lost your damn mind. You had no business fucking around anyway. Why weren’t you at home with our child?”
“Stay out of my damn business. You haven’t given a damn what either of us were doing up until now. Don’t pretend to start now.”
“What you do and who you have around my daughter is my damn business.”
“Whatever you say. Is there anything else?” I asked, standing from my seat.
My phone vibrated in my back pocket, and for the first time in weeks, I hoped that it wasn’t Nicholas.
“Just go down and pick up everything you need. When do you expect to see him again?”
“I’m not sure,” I lied.
Damn it. I was already lying, and I hadn’t even started my investigation.
“Make it soon, Jameela. You know how to lure a man into your trap.”
“Fuck you, Tremaine.”
“You just make sure you call me Officer Hale in front of everyone else from now on.”
“Again, fuck you.”
I didn’t check my phone until I made it to my car. Of course, the call had come from Nicholas. Now that I was officially investigating the man I had been voluntarily getting to know, things immediately felt strange.
Nicholas: Can’t wait to see you.
Paranoia filled me as I read over his simple message. Instead of responding, I tossed my phone into the passenger seat. I felt like he would sense something was off even through my message.
This wasn’t my first rodeo. I wasn’t a rookie. I had to pull myself together so I could do my job. More than anything, I wanted to prove him innocent. At the same time, I wasn’t na?ve enough to believe that he was just because I wanted him to be. I should have known he was too good to be true.