Stolen. Part 26

"The other interesting thing that I found was that he was a whistle-blower for a case that was investigated by our Manhattan office. A mortgage fraud case. Two people were prosecuted and pled out. They're in prison for ten-to-twenty years."

"And this guy"-Stockton tapped the photo-"turned them in?"

"Yes. I wanted to talk to the FBI agent in charge of the investigation, but because it was in New York I didn't think I should make the call. I left a message for the prosecutor on the case."

"What do you need?"

"I'd like a list of employees with Avery and Block, plus they should have a background on LeGrand as part of the case file. Especially if he gave testimony and was vetted by counsel."

Rick nodded. "I'll make a couple calls. What else?"

"The FBI accountants indicate that there is anywhere from six to ten million still unaccounted for."

"And you think LeGrand has the money?"

"If he does, he's not spending it. He lives within his means. He was paid well by Avery, but wasn't on the board and made no major decisions for the company."

"Dig as deep as you need. Use my name if you have to. Find out everything about this guy. Did you find any connection to Senator Paxton?"

"None. I even searched Paxton's campaign contributor reports. LeGrand has never donated to his campaign. He's made no reportable political donations at all. I checked the files on Paxton's favorite charities, including Women and Children First, and LeGrand isn't a donor. I don't think they know each other."

Lucy continued, "I'm running the people LeGrand could have met with at Thayer's house-Hunter Nash, Skylar Jansen, Evan Weller, and Carol Hattori-to see if there's a connection to any of them."

"Don't forget Colton Thayer."

"I ran him first. Nothing. They're both from Boston, but no overlap in any area."

"Dig into the others and call if you find anything-I'm leaving."

"Is it that late?" She looked at her watch. It was only three in the afternoon.

"I'm going to New York."

"Sir, could I come with you?" she asked spontaneously.

He raised an eyebrow. "You have to report back to Quantico tomorrow morning."

"I know, but-"

"Lucy, sit down."

She swallowed uneasily and sat.

"I know this is hard on you, with Sean undercover and not being able to get involved. That's why I let you work here today. But I can't give you another pa.s.s. Noah and Sean know what they're doing. I'll keep you informed. Stay with your brother tonight; I told Chief O'Neal you'd be back by eight o'clock tomorrow morning."

Lucy knew she had asked for special treatment, something she'd never wanted to do. And only last month she'd had to face the Office of Professional Responsibility because she uncovered a drug operation while camping in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't finding the drug operation that put her on the hot seat-it was shooting a drug dealer. She was on thin ice, and it didn't matter how high she was ranked within her cla.s.s or how well she scored on her tests, there were too many people watching her, waiting for her to screw up so they could kick her out.

"I'll be there," she said. "Can I stay here for the rest of the day? I still have files to go through, and your a.n.a.lyst, Dorothy, is meeting with me at four."

"Be my guest. Dorothy is the best a.n.a.lyst in my office. She retires next year and I'm going to miss her. I'll make sure Noah updates you. But just because Sean went dark doesn't mean anything's wrong. The nature of criminals is that they don't trust anyone."

"Sean's not a criminal."

"But he's working for one."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR.

Noah walked through Deanna Brighton's apartment, increasingly horrified by her evident obsession with Sean Rogan.

The small, two-bedroom apartment in New Jersey had a view of the New York skyline and would have been considered typical for a single, female, fifteen-year veteran of the FBI. Tasteful, uncluttered, and feminine.

Except for her office.

Deanna slept in the closet-sized bedroom and the larger master bedroom was her office. One wall was covered with corkboard pinned with newspaper articles about RCK, specifically Sean Rogan. She had sticky notes on each one with questions like, "Who paid him?" and "How did he get security clearance?" Stacks of files lined another wall. She had information about RCK, their employees, Sean's a.s.signments.

One section was devoted to everything related to Sean's case at Stanford. She had a tape of the symposium where he'd hacked in and exposed his professor. Half her doc.u.ments related to her failed project.

A day planner on her desk highlighted when and where she'd tracked Sean since he'd been in New York. Noah flipped to early October, when he and Sean first arrived. Two days before they moved to SoHo, she had a notation: SR working with Thayer again.

No one knew about that outside of Sean, Rick, Noah, and Colton Thayer's group. Unless Thayer had told Paxton, and Deanna was Paxton's mole.

Deanna seemed far too volatile to be the mole, but if she was set on arresting Sean she might work with Paxton to make it happen. It would also make sense that Paxton wouldn't want Sean involved in stealing from Joyce Bonner's pharmaceutical company, because Paxton knew Sean didn't trust him.

Noah rubbed his face. The theory was too convoluted, but there was some truth to it-if Paxton had Sean arrested, then he wouldn't be a factor in the PBM theft. Except why would Paxton kill Deanna and kidnap Duke Rogan? Paxton was a lot of things, but he wasn't a cop killer.

"Noah, you need to see this."

Suzanne walked over to where Noah sat at Deanna's desk and slipped a file in front of him. "This doesn't look like her handwriting."

Noah opened the file. It was a copy of handwritten notes that appeared to have been taken at Lucy's FBI panel. There were things in here that weren't in her permanent file and some that were hand-copied from her file.

Noah knew about Lucy's past-ten months ago, when she was a murder suspect, he'd had access to even her sealed file. She'd be horrified that the information about her abduction and rape seven years ago had not only been written down by members of her panel but also given to someone else.

"'Mentally unstable'? 'Dangerous'?" Suzanne turned away. "I don't want to see any more." Then she said, "I didn't know about the kidnapping."

"I did," Noah said. He wasn't reading the notes so much as trying to figure out who wrote them. By the end he ascertained that it had to have been Juan Martinez, because the note-taker referenced things that the other two panel members had said.

That's why Deanna went to talk to Lucy-she thought Lucy was the weak link. Deanna had threatened Lucy, but Noah didn't realize with what until now.

"She has surveillance photos of Sean, mostly with his pal Colton Thayer. And a blonde."

Noah glanced over. "That's Skylar Jansen, part of Colton's crew. Sean's ex-girlfriend."

"What was Brighton doing?"

"Trying to catch him in the act."

Noah looked at Deanna's planner. She hadn't written anything down for today, but there was a notepad next to her desk. He lightly rubbed a pencil over it and brought out Sean's address.

"Someone called her and gave her Sean's address."

"We can't track her phone. The battery is out; it's the only explanation."

"Did she have a personal phone?"

"We can't find that, either, and the carrier has no signal. There's no landline into the house, but that's not unusual. I don't have a landline either."

Noah said, "I need a team over here to box everything." He picked up Juan Martinez's file. Suzanne saw but didn't say anything. Noah should leave it as part of the evidence, but he didn't want the notes to become part of the investigation.

He looked around again, trying to put himself in Deanna Brighton's shoes. He couldn't imagine himself so obsessed with trying to catch someone that he would surround himself like this. And it wasn't for murder or child molestation or some other heinous crime that often had Noah working 24/7. Deanna believed Sean was guilty of cybercrime-essentially, computer fraud. But ultimately, she was obsessed because he'd humiliated her twelve years ago.

"If Deanna isn't the mole," Noah said, talking out loud, "she must have an informant in Thayer's group. Unless-" He stopped himself.

"Oh, come on, Armstrong; you can't hold back on me."

"How well do you know Steve Gannon?"

"I don't. I'm Violent Crime; he's White-Collar. We have hundreds of agents in the building."

"He had to have known about this obsession. She couldn't keep it to herself, not with the amount of time she spent tailing Sean."

"You're accusing Gannon-"

"I'm not accusing anyone."

Noah pulled out his phone. He had a hunch-but if he was wrong, he was going to put Sean in greater danger. "Rick, I think I know who the mole is. I need a little leeway to interrogate Deanna Brighton's partner."

"How much?"

"As much as I need."

Rick said, "Okay. I hope you're right. I really didn't want to believe that Senator Paxton could kill a cop."

"If I'm right, he wanted Brighton to arrest Sean. And when she was close, someone else took her out."

"Colton Thayer?"

"Him-or someone on his team. Kurt LeGrand fits into this somehow-it can't be a coincidence that the day he shows up at Thayer's house, Hunter Nash turns up dead."

"LeGrand was a whistle-blower on a major mortgage fraud case two years ago. I'll send you what we have, but so far it's not much."

"I'd bet my badge that he's dirty."

Lucy was reading the a.s.sistant U.S. attorney's files on Avery & Block. There was so much information she could hardly absorb it, so she focused on Kurt LeGrand's testimony.

"Weren't we supposed to meet in the conference room?"

Lucy jumped and glanced up. A well-dressed, pet.i.te woman with white hair and reading gla.s.ses on a silver chain around her neck stood at the edge of Lucy's desk.

"Mrs. Conner?" Lucy glanced at her watch. It was a quarter after four. "I'm so sorry; I lost track of time."

"That's okay; I do that all the time. I took the time to look at your boards to bring myself up to speed on where you are. You've been busy."

"I only have today." She gathered up the files she was working on and followed Dorothy Conner down the hall. Everyone Dorothy pa.s.sed smiled and greeted her. She was obviously well liked and respected.

"Rick Stockton filled me in." Dorothy opened the door. They were set up in the smallest conference room but had less chance of being booted. "I've been working on this project since the beginning."

"The beginning?"

"Since Rick agreed to Agent Armstrong's undercover plan. Neither of them trusts many people, but I've worked with Rick since he joined the Bureau right out of the Marines, twenty years ago. When he was promoted to a.s.sistant director, he brought me with him."

"He said he'd a.s.signed his best a.n.a.lyst."

She smiled. "He's sweet."

Sweet wasn't a word Lucy a.s.sociated with Rick Stockton, but she trusted him. If he said Dorothy Conner was the best, then she was.

"I'm going to miss this place," she said.

"Miss it?"

"I'm retiring next year."

"But you don't have to retire, right? There's no mandatory retirement age for a.n.a.lysts, correct?"

She laughed lightly. "Next April, I'll have worked for the Bureau for thirty-five years. I'll be sixty-two next month. I'm more than ready to spend time with my grandchildren."

"Grandchildren?"

"I have three. Two boys and a girl. They live in Colorado with my son and daughter-in-law, who just found out she's expecting number four in May. I want to be living there in time for the birth."

"I can't argue with that," Lucy said.

"Good, because Rick has tried to convince me to stay, and he can be extremely persuasive. But I can withstand his charms." She motioned to the boards Lucy had set up earlier. "This is all good."

"I was hoping that before I have to go back to Quantico tomorrow morning I can figure out the connection between Kurt LeGrand and Colton Thayer."

"You're basing that on the fact that Mr. LeGrand was at Mr. Thayer's house."

"Yes. According to Sean, Colton denied knowing him."