Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Friday morning, pleased to be back at work, Jane settled in at her desk. She’d ignored Rapp’s inspection and satisfied nod. The gesture hadn’t been sexual or romantic. More like a gesture from a stronger superior to his weak little subordinate.
After taking orders from the guys and her uncle and being yelled at by her cousin, she didn’t have the bandwidth to tolerate more nonsense. Since Rapp’s attitude felt like a twin to her Uncle Chris’s, she snapped, “Take a picture. It’ll last longer.”
Gina shook her head. “Annnd she’s back. Yippee.”
Jane mentally flipped her off but fought back a smile as she woke up her computer. Annoying Gina almost made up for Rapp being Rapp.
He grunted at her before moving back into his office.
Jane’s odd irritability made her pause in reflection. Her typical, calm, collected professional persona contrasted with Raine’s railing at life when a straight line sometimes curved. Lately though, especially with this group, Jane felt her patience being tested.
Her phone buzzed. A text from Sullivan. She immediately returned the call. “Oh wow. I’m so sorry. I meant to call and check on you but got sidelined by my family. How are you?”
“Not great.” Sullivan sounded stressed.
“Is it your leg?”
“It’s not that.”
“What’s going on? Are you at work?” Jane could pop over for a few minutes and catch Sullivan up on what she’d learned about Haversham in person.
“I’m being escorted out of the office, and the building, because I’ve supposedly got mob ties.”
“What?”
“Apparently, I’m the mole in our unit.”
“Scott is an absolute moron. I’m heading over. Stay there.” Jane hung up, grabbed her coat, and left before anyone could ask questions.
She found Sullivan sitting in the lobby of the building.
Incensed, Jane would have stormed past her and given Scott a chewing out, but Sullivan stopped her.
“Let it go. He’s got bigger problems than me if he thinks my absence will solve anything.”
“How are you feeling?” Jane studied her. Sullivan appeared fine, dressed in loose trousers and a sweater. But when she stood with her tote bag and headed for the door, her limp grew more pronounced.
“Here. Let me carry that.”
“Good.” Sullivan handed off her bag, though Jane saw through the cheery demeanor to defeat. “I was hoping you’d volunteer.”
They left in Jane’s vehicle and headed to her favorite crumpet shop down the road.
Once seated, Jane insisted Sullivan tell her what had happened.
“Well, Matthew was decent after I’d been shot. He acted supportive and horrified that I’d been wounded. He even met me at the hospital and praised me for helping out.” Sullivan scoffed. “Like, that’s my job to protect and serve. Duh.”
“Right.”
“So I went home. Rob helped. I think he was more freaked out than I was.” She paused. “I was a little keyed up afterward. Took me a while to wind down, but then I slept like the dead.”
“Same.”
“Anyway, I’m obviously not going to be a hundred percent for a while. The divisional nurse put me on restricted duty. I was planning to spend most of my time at my desk. It’s not like I don’t have a dozen other cases needing attention, right?”
Jane winced at the thought of all her cases lingering while OPR took their blasted time getting to the truth. With any luck, Scott and the others were keeping up with her work.
“No biggie, though,” Sullivan continued.
“I’ve been deep-diving into some older cases anyway.
Then that SOB comes to me this morning and tells me I’m suspended!
That there’s an OPR investigation on me too.
They rush me out of the office before I can blink.
And then some pushy chick who’s also pending an investigation insisted I bask in shame and wait for her in the lobby. ”
“Dramatic, but who— Oh, the pushy chick would be me.”
“I swear, you’ve infected me.” Sullivan tried to sound amused, but Jane heard the unspoken hurt at being sidelined.
“I’m so sorry. We’ll get this fixed. I swear.”
“It’s tied to Dan Simmons.”
“Yep.” Just when Jane and Sullivan had met to discuss Scott and Haversham. “Hey, you never did tell me what Haversham did. Or what you found on him.” Hal had found nothing but stellar reports about the guy.
“Oh, that’s right. I was looking through older case files.
Did you know Jon Haversham spent time in Vegas when August Kaminski’s name started circulating there?
Nothing ever came of it. Then he moved to Seattle.
Kaminski, I mean. But Haversham was in charge of the case file on Kaminski. I find that interesting.”
“So do I.”
“I talked to Rob about it. He remembers working some of that case as well.”
“I thought you two arrived in Vegas together.”
Sullivan snorted. “We’re not joined at the hip, you know. I got there a year after he did. And yes, we bonded—platonically—as coworkers. Rob’s one of the smartest guys I know, but he always gets overlooked. He says it doesn’t bother him, but it would bother me.”
Could Williams have turned mole to get back at a system that didn’t value him?
Sullivan scoffed. “I can read that small mind of yours. No. The mole isn’t Rob.”
Jane tried to look innocent. “I would never think that.”
“Yeah, right.” Sullivan took a healthy drink of her tea. “I’m trying to think of who could be feeding the Mazzucas information. Because we know someone is. I just can’t think of anyone in our unit. Maybe it’s someone outside.”
“You know, before I looked into Haversham, I would have said it was him. He’s in a position of power to make things happen behind the scenes. And none of us would know.”
Sullivan blinked and whispered, “The ASAC?”
“But no. The guy’s as clean as a whistle, and yeah, I know that’s majorly cliché.
But it fits. He’s a real do-gooder with an outstanding record.
Served eight years in the Navy before joining the Agency.
Doesn’t have any money or connections behind him, just a lot of recommendations from people who’ve worked with him. He’s not our guy, I don’t think.”
“You never know.”
Jane nodded. “I agree. But I really don’t see Haversham helping organized crime.
A friend of mine who’s good with computers also did a deep dive into Dan Simmons, just in case he had a beef with someone he’d previously put away.
But nothing stood out, and everyone in Dan’s organization loved him.
It’s got to be one of us on the Mazzuca case. ”
Sullivan scowled. “But everyone in our squad is decent. Even Sandy and Josh’s weird work-spouse dynamic feels oddly normal. They’re not exactly hiding anything from the rest of us unless they’re having sex. And I don’t want to know about that.”
Jane grimaced at the thought.
“Is it Matthew? He stands out as the most viable candidate to me. I mean, who does he think he is, accusing me of being a sell-out?”
“I don’t know. But I think it’s time I got serious about the Seattle field office.”
“Oh right. That place where you still have a job, even if it’s temporarily suspended.”
“Funny.” Jane had a plan, but she didn’t want to involve Sullivan. What she had in mind wasn’t exactly aboveboard. “On another note, whatever happened with your failed date Wednesday night? Did you let him know why you didn’t show up?”
“He totally came over to take care of me yesterday!” Sullivan launched into a story about her new boyfriend that Jane tried to listen to without looking bored.
All the while, she tried to figure out how to bribe Hal so he’d do her a favor without mentioning it to Joe, Uncle Chris, or worse, Raine.