Chapter 31
“What’s up?” Special Agent Grace Lee answered on the second ring. “I’m busy but I know you’re calling for a reason.”
“You’re right,” Krystal said, keeping her voice low even though she was sitting in the privacy of her own home. “How’s the Temple murder going?”
“You know I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.”
“Come on, Grace. I’m not a reporter.”
Grace snorted softly. “It’s going. Temple had so much dirt on so many people it’s a toss-up who killed him at this point.” Frustration was clear in her voice.
“Even without his laptop you’ve got all that?” She knew it had been taken from his townhome.
“It goes without saying that this stays between us… He had a backup hard drive behind some freshly painted drywall. Wasn’t even password protected. I think it was his insurance in case he was ever murdered or kidnapped or whatever. Either way, it’s a treasure trove.”
“Good. I hope you find who killed him.” She cleared her throat, about to get into trickier territory. “I heard you talked to Daniela Ruiz.”
“Yeah. I thought she would have called by now, especially with what happened to her brother.”
“Is your team looking into that?”
“Not me personally but I know the special investigators on it. Julian Hill is still in a medically induced coma, something I’m guessing you already know if you know the Ruiz woman?” The question hung in the air.
“Yeah.”
“His father is supposedly out of town but we like Logan Brown for the attempted murder anyway. But everyone has closed ranks, asked for lawyers, and no one is talking. And the security system at Hill’s place was conveniently down during the shooting.
” She gave a derisive snort. “Until Julian wakes up, this is a tough case.”
“Brown is saying Daniela set it up.”
Grace snorted. “Yeah and I’ve got a second home in Martha’s Vineyard.
He might be spreading that rumor among their people—that’s what I’ve heard—but no one else is talking about her.
And there’s absolutely no forensic evidence that she was with Julian when he was shot.
It happened in his greenhouse,” she added.
“I didn’t know that.” Krystal was gathering as many details as she could but hadn’t known that nugget. “If Daniela wants to visit her brother?”
“It shouldn’t be a problem. So why are you calling? I know you’ve got something for me.”
“Two Vice cops were arrested last night for having—”
“A trunk full of cocaine and a bunch of other goodies. Yeah, everyone’s talking about that. I also happened to notice that the man who ran into their car and essentially got them busted is Nick Storm. Your soon-to-be brother-in-law.”
“It’s a small world. Listen,” she continued quickly, not wanting to lie to Grace.
“I have a CI who has a recording of these two cops talking about Logan Brown. From the video it’s clear that they work for him.
Or have information on him. I have no idea if Brown was involved in hiring Lebedev to kill Temple, but the man is dirty. And if these two assholes are smart…”
“They’ll want to flip on Brown if they have any information.”
“Yes. They just need a little nudging from you and likely an offer of some kind of immunity. Do you want the video from me or from an anonymous source?”
“Anonymous.” She didn’t even pause. “I don’t want any of this coming back on you. And thank you.”
“No problem. Also…you’re going to get a special delivery soon. It’s Temple’s cell phone. Not sure if you’ll be able to unlock it, but your techs can try.”
“I’m buying you a drink once I close this case,” Lee said, not even questioning how she’d gotten the cell phone.
A gift from Daniela, who’d stolen it from Lebedev after shooting him. Krystal was definitely leaving that out. As soon as she got off the phone, she texted Micah and told him to send the video to Grace. She knew that not long after, he would courier over the missing cell phone.
Krystal wasn’t sure if she should be so comfortable bending the rules but she figured if she could look herself in the mirror every morning—and more importantly, if she could look at her kids’ faces and know she was making the right life choices—then she was doing all right.