Chapter 6 #2
“Nothing yet but my gut and a bad feeling. It’s that or he’s being paid to look the other way.
How can he not see what’s happening? Mind you, the guy never leaves his office.
He’s not out there on the streets. But there’s got to have been complaints.
I haven’t worked here long, about a year.
But I’ve seen enough to make my stomach turn.
So I don’t see how he can’t see it. The whole force isn’t corrupt, but the ones that are?
Most of them are related to him. Or they have their heads far, far up his ass. ”
“So what exactly do you want from us?” Ink asked. “Like Stone said that would be difficult and dangerous to investigate and even if we did find something what could you possibly do with it?”
“I have an idea of how you can get closer to him. Or, at least, close to someone in his family. Someone who also might have insight.”
“Yeah? Who? How?” Ink asked.
“The Chief is being threatened.”
“Threatened?” Brody asked, looking up from his laptop.
“What sort of threats?” Ink asked.
“At first he got several notes. Threats to kill him. To harm him. But then it escalated when someone tried to run him off the road. That’s when he decided that he needed security.”
Ink made a scoffing noise. “Okay, I see where this is going n, but there’s no way the Chief of Police would agree to us being his security. Don’t know the guy well, but he seems like he’d want someone slicker and more known. And wouldn’t he have plenty of protection?”
“He does. He has plenty of police security at his home and work. This isn’t for him. He’s not the only one being threatened. His kids have also been included. Marlin, his son, is a detective. He’s just moved back here and the Chief put him and his partner on the case. Which just happens to be me.”
“So you’re already getting closer to him,” Stone said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re partnered with his son.”
“Yes, but I have to move very carefully. I don’t want to end up like the cop that went to IA.
So the Chief has his son, Marlin, and two daughters.
Maisy lives in New Zealand on a large sheep station.
She and her husband have been informed of the danger.
But it’s unlikely that anyone is going to travel that far to get to her.
Which leaves us with the Chief’s youngest child, Maya. ”
Ink frowned. “Why does that ring a bell? Maya . . . Maya . . .”
“Livvy,” Brody said without looking up. “Livvy was helped by Maya.”
“That’s it.” Ink clicked his fingers. “Sometimes Brody forgets to shower and change his clothes, other times he can remember bits of information that no one else can. One moment.”
Reeves frowned while Ink brought out his phone and tapped out a message.
“What are you talking about?” Reeves asked.
“Yep, Sav confirms that’s the same Maya that came to Livvy’s aid.”
Ink shared a look with Stone.
“Who is Livvy?” Reeves asked.
“She’s a friend,” Ink said. “She was attacked and Maya stopped to help her.”
Reeves nodded. “That sounds like Maya. She seems to think she’s indestructible.
The other night dispatch received calls from some concerned members of the public about a cop being abusive toward a young woman.
She was lucky there were people willing to put their neck out for her.
Because it’s going to get to the stage where people will be too scared to speak up and that’s when the city gets into real trouble. ”
“Everyone will start to fear the police rather than seeing them as a place of safety and order,” Ink said.
“It’s already happening,” Stone added. “People are scared. It’s mostly happening in the poorer areas, but the filth is spreading.”
Reeves winced. He probably didn’t like hearing his fellow police officers labeled as filth. But that’s what they were. Attacking a young woman on her own?
Matthieu clenched his hands into fists.
That wasn’t happening.
So are you going to do something about it?
Merde.
This wasn’t his plan. He’d agreed to the meeting because he considered Ink a close . . . colleague.
But he’d also planned to refuse to get entangled in this, to leave Billings and head off somewhere else.
For some reason the image of the young woman he’d just seen outside entered his mind. What if a corrupt cop pulled her over and attacked her, tried to threaten her, demanded that she give him a blow job in return for not arresting her on false charges?
Fils de pute.
He didn’t like the idea of that at all.
“What happened to her?” he asked. “The young woman.”
“That’s the weird part. It was Maya,” Reeves said.
He shook his head. “Of everyone in this city, you’d think she would be protected, off-limits.
But Vince, the asshole cop, was manhandling her for no reason.
That bastard probably thinks he’s untouchable because the Chief likes him.
But it makes no sense. If Maya would just tell her father about what happened .
. .” Reeves broke off, sounding frustrated.
“You don’t think she will?” Stone asked.
“No. She said that there was no point, that he wouldn’t believe her.
I don’t know what Vince was planning on doing with her once he got her into his car, but he wouldn’t have taken her back to the station.
The Chief might be a lot of things, most of them bad, but even he couldn’t ignore his daughter being arrested. ”
Putain.
What the fuck had that batard been planning on doing to her? That made him feel ill. But why wouldn’t she go to her father? Would he really take the batard’s side?
“He was trying to force her into his car?” Stone asked, sounding disgusted.
“That’s what it seemed like. She wouldn’t tell me much.” Reeves shook his head. “More sass than sense.”
“So you think that the Chief of Police will hire us to protect his daughter?” Ink asked.
“Like I said, I’ve been pulled into the case because I’m now partnered with his son. I suggested that he think about hiring her a bodyguard. And he liked that idea. He asked for recommendations.”
“I thought he’d assign a cop to her,” Ink said. “If he’s corrupt, then he won’t care about using taxpayers’ dollars to keep her safe.”
“He has money,” Reeves told him. “His first wife, who died of cancer, came from money. She was the mother of his children. He married his current wife about ten months after she died.”
“ Merde ,” Matthieu muttered. He didn’t usually speak French out loud. He’d worked hard to get rid of his accent when he’d been in the Special Forces. But it did sometimes peek out at inopportune times.
“He might still choose to use a cop to protect her, but I don’t know how that’s going to go based on her interaction with Vince the other day. He’s growing less and less popular with the general population so he might move cautiously with this.”
“Any ideas on who is threatening him?” Ink asked.
“There are so many possibilities,” Reeves replied. “He can’t understand anyone threatening him or his family. Thinks he shits rainbows or something. He believes it’s someone he arrested trying to get revenge. I think it’s likely someone his cops have mistreated.”
“You do think there’s a real threat, though?” Stone asked.
“After someone attempted to run him off the road it’s being taken more seriously.
I think he’s far more open to protection now.
I’m going to suggest you guys to him. A local business should hopefully appeal.
I just need you to convince him to give you the job.
That way you can get close to Maya and perhaps the Chief. ”
“All right, we’ll think about it and I’ll be in touch,” Ink said.
Reeves didn’t look happy with that reply, but he nodded and left. Stone escorted him out.
Ink turned to Matthieu. “What do you think?”
“I think he’s desperate. I think he’s concerned about the city and the people that live here. Definitely doesn’t like the Chief, and I’m not sure how he feels about the daughter. Maya.”
Pretty name.
“He seems genuine,” Brody commented.
Stone returned. “We going to do this?”
Ink frowned. “He took a real risk coming to us with this. One that I’m not sure will pay off. I don’t know that we’ll get much information from Maya. She could know nothing.”
“It sounds like she needs the protection, though,” Brody said. “And not just from the person threatening the Chief.”
“Hmm.” Ink looked up at Stone. “If we do take it who can we put on this job?”
Stone ran his hand down his face. “I think Butch is the only one with enough freedom in their schedule. But whether he’s ready for something of this level, I don’t know. Could be difficult to manage, especially if she doesn’t want a bodyguard.”
“I don’t like any of this,” Ink said. “And a big part of me thinks we should walk away. That we shouldn’t get involved. This isn’t our problem. But then there’s Maya . . .”
“She helped Livvy,” Brody said.
“Right,” Ink said. “She didn’t know her. Didn’t know what was going on. She just saw a woman in trouble and jumped in to help.”
And someone like that deserved protection.
The Chief of Police wasn’t someone who deserved their help, he could rot. Perhaps it would be a good thing if the person threatening him took him out. Cut off the head of the poisoned snake.
But the girl was innocent. And it sounded like she was being subjected and harassed. She didn’t deserve to be hurt because her father was a corrupt batard .
The theme from Batman filled the room and Brody reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone. “Sorry. Oh shit. I have to go and, um, take this.”
He headed out of the room, bringing his phone to his ear.
Ink stared after him with a strange expression on his face.
“Everything all right?” Matthieu asked.
Ink glanced over at him. “Ah, yeah.”
Brody entered, looking even more red. “Um, Ink, he wants to talk to you.”
Ink sighed and nodded. He stood and reached over for the phone.
“Actually, he said to put him on speaker,” Brody explained, fumbling with his phone and placing it on the desk. “You’re a go.”
Who was he ?
“You’re on speaker with me, Brody, Stone, and Matthieu,” Ink said. “Please don’t tell me that you were listening in to that conversation.”
“Ink,” the voice drawled. “Let’s not play this game. We both know that I’m always listening.”
Ink started to swear. “I cleared this room for bugs myself. I don’t understand how you could have been listening.”
“Who said I bugged the room? I never said that.”
Someone had been listening to their meeting? That was a serious breach of security. Ink needed to deal with that.
“Christ,” Ink said. “You bugged Brody?”
“What?” Brody asked, his eyes wide as he stared at Ink. Then he looked down at the phone. “You bugged me?”
“Of course I did. How would I keep an eye on you otherwise? Got to keep my Pup safe.”
His pup?
Was this Brody’s boyfriend? Had he really bugged Brody?
Well, Matthieu guessed he had a point. If he wanted to keep Brody safe, he needed to know what was going on. Unfortunately, most of what Brody likely dealt with was private.
“You can’t do that,” Ink said.
“’Course I can,” the man said through the phone. “I did it, didn’t I?”
“That’s not what I meant,” Ink replied tiredly. “But tell us why you called.”
“Been hearing a lot of rumors about the corruption in the Billings Police Force,” he said. “Also heard rumblings that it’s caught the interest of a number of gang leaders wanting to cash in. Steele could find himself under pressure if that happens. The city could be on the brink of disaster.”
“So you’re saying take the case.”
“Ink, would I ever tell you what to do?” the person asked.
“You do it all the time,” Ink said dryly. “I didn’t think you’d really care about the police force crumbling and the good guys becoming bad.”
“I will always protect those who belong to me,” he replied. “But it would be easier if they lived in a safe city. If a corrupt cop pulled over my Bunny, Pup, or Sunshine then terror would rein down on them. And I don’t think anyone wants that.”
“No. Understood.” Ink reached over and ended the call.
“Who was that?” Matthieu asked.
“It’s better if you don’t know,” Ink replied. “But he’s right. The police force being corrupt makes the whole city unstable and who knows who will move in to take advantage. We take the job, we protect Maya, and we see what information we can feed to Reeves. I just need to figure out who?—”
“I will think about doing it,” Matthieu interrupted Ink.
He sighed after he said those words. It was the right thing to do. But sometimes, he wished he could do the wrong thing.
It would make his life so much easier.
“If you get the job,” Matthieu added.
“Guess that’s the best I’m going to get,” Ink replied dryly.
It was.