No Good Deed (7 page)
“We need to remember that Nicole Rollins had us fooled for years,” Brad continued. “She was my partner on several major drug enforcement investigations. She was privy to years of sensitive information about drug dealers and the cartels. She’s been feeding some of them information, yet helping us take down other groups. She subtly steered us to take down the enemies of her boss, Tobias. We don’t have a last name. We believe that he is in charge and Nicole is a high-ranking member of his cartel—otherwise he would have had her killed today. My boss and I have spent the last three months compiling a dossier on how she operated in preparation for a trial that was stopped when she agreed to a plea deal—a plea deal she never planned to complete.”
Lucy frowned. That wasn’t what she and Brad had discussed earlier. But she didn’t say anything. Maybe Brad had a reason for the disinformation. Or maybe he didn’t agree with her that Nicole was in charge.
Brad walked to the front of the room as he continued. “You all need to understand how these people work. Two weeks ago, immediately prior to Nicole agreeing to the plea deal, Tobias orchestrated a hit against his own people. If it weren’t for our partnership with the FBI and the SAPD, we may never have seen the connection. I say this because you might not know what’s important when you see it. We need every detail, no matter how small or irrelevant it seems. It took us years to uncover Rollins as a traitor—she slipped up, but her slip was caught only because good agents were doing their jobs well. In addition, Tobias—using information we believe Rollins gave him about our procedures—disguised a bomb in heroin that took out our evidence locker and killed a security guard.”
Sam Archer said, “We have a team in Washington poring over Rollins’s finances. We had previously uncovered over two million dollars in hidden assets, but to orchestrate an escape like this, she must have had more resources. In addition, Tobias was able to siphon off nearly four million in funds that the late Congresswoman Adeline Reyes-Worthington had laundered for him through her real estate scams. The FBI managed to cut off their money supply, but these people are resourceful and vicious.”
Dalton and Archer answered questions from the group, then Abigail Durant, one of the FBI’s three ASACs, stood up and said, “Dalton and the marshals’ office will be taking the lead on tracking the fugitive Nicole Rollins. I will liaison with the marshals. Any information that directly relates to a sighting or Rollins’s whereabouts must be reported to your immediate supervisor or me, anytime of the day or night. Please see your direct supervisor for your assignments.” She looked over at Lucy. “Kincaid, I need to see you in my office immediately.”
Lucy stood outside Abigail Durant’s door, her stomach doing little flips, but she couldn’t think of a reason why she’d be in trouble. For the ten minutes she waited she went through everything she’d done today and during her last investigation into the murder of Harper Worthington and grew increasingly nervous that something was seriously wrong.
Abigail walked briskly down the hall toward Lucy and smiled apologetically as she opened her door. She motioned to one of two chairs opposite her desk. “Thank you for waiting, Agent Kincaid. Please, sit down.”
Lucy sat but remained rigid. She admired Abigail, a crisp, professional woman in her forties. But she’d rarely spoken to her directly—assignments came through her direct supervisor, SSA Juan Casilla.
“Juan will be out for the next few days,” Abigail said. “Nita, his wife, went into labor this morning.”
“Is everything okay?” Lucy liked Juan’s family, and regretted that she hadn’t spent time with them recently.
“Nita collapsed this morning. They may be performing an emergency C-section. Juan said he would let me know, but I don’t expect a call anytime soon. I’m supervising your unit until Barry returns. I left him a message this morning and asked him to call in. We need all hands this week.”
When Lucy first worked with Agent Barry Crawford, she thought he not only was too by-the-book, but clocked out at five without any thought to putting in extra time to solve cases and give victims peace. She’d learned that he led a very balanced life, and the time he did put into the job was focused and dedicated. They were certainly quite different in how they approached their jobs, but Lucy had grown to respect Barry’s methodology and sharp instincts. That said, they hadn’t spoken much since the Harper Worthington murder investigation ended. Lucy trusted Barry as a cop, but not as a friend after she learned he’d called agents in Washington, DC, to investigate her behind her back. She was trying to accept it, and move on, but it still bothered her.
Lucy was curious why Abigail was waiting for Barry when there were other senior agents who could take over temporarily. She didn’t say anything, however.
“When Juan and I spoke,” Abigail continued, “he said that Brad Donnelly asked for your assistance, a loan to the DEA for the duration. He wants both you and Ryan Quiroz.”
“Agent Donnelly has some trust issues right now.”
Abigail nodded. “Juan explained. I need you on another part of the task force and I’m not sure you can do both.”
Abigail opened a drawer and pulled out a thick folder. She slid it across the desk toward Lucy. “Nicole Rollins’s file,” Abigail said. “Her initial background check, psych exams, test scores, evaluations. Essentially, an expanded personnel record. Before the debriefing, I contacted headquarters to expedite a profile of Rollins. I spoke with Dr. Hans Vigo, an assistant director whom I understand you know well.”
“Dr. Vigo was my mentor at Quantico,” Lucy said. That was the simple version of the truth, which was that Lucy had known Hans for years and he’d been her mentor long before she’d been accepted into the FBI academy. “There’s no one better.”
“I’ve never met Dr. Vigo, but his reputation is outstanding, and I was very pleased when he informed me he would be coming here personally to assist. With budget cuts and priorities, headquarters rarely approves BSU going into the field.”
“Which was one reason I declined an offer to join the Behavioral Science Unit,” Lucy said. “Profiling isn’t as effective if criminologists are looking at photos and reports—they need to be in the field, interviewing individuals, viewing the evidence firsthand.”
Durant smiled. “That’s close to what Dr. Vigo said. He reminded me that you’re a criminal psychologist, told me about several cases where you assisted that aren’t part of your official record.”
Lucy had no idea what Hans had told Abigail, so she remained silent. Abigail waited a beat. Was she expecting Lucy to talk? Her heart raced, and didn’t slow even when Abigail did start speaking again.
“Dr. Vigo also has a copy of the Rollins file, but he asked that I bring you in on it as well so that when he arrives tomorrow morning, you’ll be up to speed. Will you be able to do that while also assisting Agent Donnelly?”
“I’ll make time,” Lucy said. “May I be blunt?”
“Please.”
“Agent Donnelly is a sharp agent. We both have an understanding of this case that goes beyond Nicole and her escape. This investigation connects to the murder of Congresswoman Reyes-Worthington, the drug runner Tobias, the murdered marines six months ago, and the stolen guns they’d recovered. To bring someone else up to speed would take far too much time, and they wouldn’t understand the nuances of the investigation. Except Ryan, of course—he was involved in Operation Heatwave as well, and he’s the one who uncovered Rollins’s involvement with Tobias.”
Abigail raised an eyebrow. “I read Ryan’s report. He stated you helped uncover her involvement.”
“We both did—using different sources,” Lucy said. “But what I’m getting at is that I can work up a profile, but in doing so I would need to involve Brad because he knew Nicole better than anyone else. He’d worked with her for three years. They were partners on Operation Heatwave. He knows things about her that he doesn’t realize he knows—so working with him will help me put together a viable analysis. I’ll also need to talk to Samantha Archer.”
“You have cover from this office, Lucy.”
Lucy said, “If I had to guess at this point—based on what we know about Nicole, what happened with Congresswoman Worthington, and the fact that Nicole escaped today instead of being killed so she couldn’t testify—Nicole wasn’t turned because Tobias caught her killing a drug dealer in cold blood, as the disk we uncovered during Operation Heatwave suggested. I think she made it all up when she realized we had the video. Based on my limited knowledge of her personality and background, I think she was corrupted from the very beginning.”
“And you’re basing that opinion on what? You haven’t read her file yet.”
“Because she’s smart. She showed no fear at any time. During Operation Heatwave, she behaved exactly as I would have expected a seasoned agent to behave. It was natural. She is so used to playing both sides that it wasn’t even a challenge. At most, I would say she was cold—but I know a lot of cops who are cold. Someone of her intelligence—someone who could orchestrate an escape like today—couldn’t be blackmailed into it. That makes me think killing the drug dealer five years ago wasn’t the first time she’d crossed the line. For Nicole, there was no line to cross because she’s never been loyal to the DEA.”
Abigail leaned back and steepled her fingers as she looked at Lucy. “That’s very interesting. So, essentially, she was a double agent. If this were the Cold War, she would have been an American spy working also for the Soviet Union.”
“Uncovering her personal motivation will help us find her,” Lucy said.
Abigail made a few notes on a notepad in front of her. “For the time being, work under Agent Donnelly’s direction, but report to me daily. That means, by the end of the day—whether that’s five, seven, or midnight—I need a report. It doesn’t need to be long or formal, but I need something in writing. Copy in Ryan Quiroz, because while I can’t give up two agents to the DEA, if I need to reassign you after Dr. Vigo arrives tomorrow, Ryan will step in. Currently he’s working with Proctor on security at the jail, our office, and other federal buildings. Any flaw needs to be remedied immediately. We’ll meet with Dr. Vigo here at nine a.m. tomorrow.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Lucy left Abigail’s office a little surprised by the turn of events, but eager to jump into Nicole’s file. She went back to her cubicle and sent Brad a message to let her know when he was done.
She also sent an email off to Hans Vigo, offering him a guest room. Her house was certainly big enough, and she hadn’t seen him since she graduated from the FBI Academy.
While waiting for Brad, she opened up Nicole’s file and started reading.
FBI Supervisory Special Agent Noah Armstrong had just celebrated his fifth anniversary with the FBI. The anniversary came only a week after his thirty-ninth birthday, which itself came a week after his promotion to SSA. The FBI was his second career, after spending more than a decade in the air force, most of it as an Air Force Raven protecting US planes on foreign soil and transporting prisoners internationally. And while he’d planned on being a career air force officer, he’d found a calling in the FBI.
It helped that he was most often assigned special cases by Assistant Director Rick Stockton. Technically, he was a field agent working out of the DC regional office, unassigned to a specific squad, but Noah spent most of his time investigating cases for Stockton. Projects that needed complete discretion. The promotion had no impact on what he did for Stockton, but came with a small pay raise and a private office. Noah found more value in the door than he did in the nominal salary increase.
But even the call he’d received from Stockton’s private cell phone thirty minutes ago was odd. The assistant director told him to come to an address in nearby Alexandria, Virginia, and not tell anyone. When Noah arrived, he found waiting for him both Rick Stockton and Dr. Hans Vigo, another assistant director who’d recently returned to duty after being on medical leave for several months.
Hans didn’t look like his old self—he’d lost a substantial amount of weight and looked all of his fifty-some years. He could have taken disability since he’d been nearly killed in the line of duty, or retired early because he already had more than twenty years in the Bureau, but he’d chosen to return to work. Hans had no immediate family, no children, no wife—his life was his job. Mandatory retirement was still a few years away.
Noah didn’t want that kind of life for himself, but he was nearly forty and hadn’t been on a serious date in months. Years. He’d been in love once. So deep in love he’d crossed an ethical line he’d sworn he’d never cross. But instead of losing his soul, he walked away and lost his heart. Only one person had come close to breaking down those barriers, but she was taken, and he wouldn’t pursue an unavailable woman—even if he thought he was the better man for her.
A coroner’s van was parked on the street at the address Noah had been given, along with several Alexandria police cars, officers standing outside the narrow end-unit town house.
He approached Rich and Hans waiting on the small porch. Someone was dead, and if two assistant directors were here, that meant murder and the victim was a fed. “Who was killed?”
“Logan Dunbar was murdered last night.”
“Dunbar?” Noah was one of the few people who knew that Logan Dunbar had been working undercover, gathering evidence against Texas Congresswoman Adeline Reyes-Worthington who’d been suspected of a multitude of political corruption crimes. Noah had been working the DC angle with the other members of Dunbar’s small team. Dunbar’s assignment was cut short when the congresswoman was murdered. Her crimes were far more severe than bribery—drug running, gunrunning, money laundering, conspiracy to commit murder. Noah had been wading through the documentation that Dunbar had compiled, and they’d planned a huge debriefing later this week. She wasn’t the only corrupt official in the middle of the shitstorm. “I just spoke to Dunbar on Friday.”
Rick said, “He flew back last night. We don’t know if his killer followed him from the airport or was already here. I’ve called in a forensics team directly from the lab—I want our best people on this.”