“Shit!” Norwood said.
Others echoed his sentiment.
Pat’s lips peeled back, and it was all she could do not to let her cougar out.
That bitch! She dared police other cops when she had pulled this sort of shit!
“You’re confident of your findings, Timmons?” Culver looked like he might be sick.
“Yes, sir.”
“Motive?”
“Unknown as of yet, sir.”
“All right.” Culver ran a hand over his face. “This doesn’t leave this room.”
“Chief,” Pat growled.
“Relax, all of you!” He closed his eyes and stood there, apart and yet part of the rest of them. “I am not going to sweep this under the rug, but we are going to play it smart. I will find out where Wysocki is. We need to get eyes and ears on her immediately. Lt. King, Detective Tanaka, find Caudell. Once you have a location on him, lock him down. Lieutenant, talk with ADA Logan. He’ll get you all necessary warrants. Tell him to contact me before he does. I’ll make sure the judge knows to seal the warrants and the underlying documents.”
“Tanaka, you, Sears and Nguyen, get on it. Murray, you continue working with Timmons. Let’s lock down the identification and make sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed,” Pat said. “Timmons, reach out to the officers involved in the cases that disappeared. Find out what they know but be careful. Don’t tip our hand. The last thing we need is for Wysocki to figure out what we’re up to.”
“On it, LT.”
“Lieutenant, I’ll let you brief Sgt. Lindsay,” Culver said. “Make sure she knows everything we do and ask her to pass the information along to General Flynn. Find out if they have anything that connects to either Caudell or Wysocki.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let’s close this down sooner, rather than later.”
“Yes, sir,” they each said.
“Total blackout on this until arrests are made,” he added. “I want updates every two hours, more often if something breaks, lieutenant.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Then get to work.” He looked around the room. “Timmons, good work. When this is over, come see me. I think we need to discuss your reserve status.”
“Yes, sir.” He waited until Culver left before turning to Pat, grinning like a kid in a candy store. “LT, would you be up to having me back in the squad if he gives me the chance?”
“As long as you promise to never, ever dance in front of me again,” she laughed. Then she sobered. “You heard the Chief. Get to work. I want updates every hour. And, Timmons, I’ll echo what the Chief said. Good work.”
Now to talk with Jael. Why did she feel like the other shoe was about to drop?
24
“You heard me,” Pat said.
Jael resisted, barely, the urge to curse long and hard. She’d heard Pat. She just couldn’t believe what the blonde said. It didn’t make any sense. Except it did in a sick, warped way. Unfortunately, it complicated an already complicated situation. There was no way now to keep the cops out of the final stages of the investigation. All she could hope was they didn’t stumble upon the whole truth. If they did, going to Hell in a handbasket would seem like a vacation in Paradise.
Damn it!
And damn Wysocki. She’d always gotten a bad feeling from the IAB captain. Her gut told her something wasn’t right about the woman. But Jael hadn’t been able to put her finger on what—until now.
And now it might be too late.
She stepped into the room across the hall from Mac’s and closed the door behind her. The last thing she needed was Mac overhearing. Not that she’d be able to keep the information from her, or from Jackson and Ellen, for long.
“Tell me everything.”
She listened closely as Pat laid it out for her. Of all the things she suspected, this never made the list. It never came close to making the list. Yet, in a sick way, it made sense. Now they had a cop and an addict, probably a drug dealer, heading their list of suspects—not to mention the suspects the DPD detectives didn’t know about.
How in the hell were Wysocki and Caudell tied to the lycans? What had they missed?
“God.” She blew out a long breath and dropped onto one of the chairs. For a long moment she stared off into space, thinking. “Before we go any further, let me tell you where things stand here.” At least that gave her time to gather her thoughts. “Since Culver agreed to let Flynn pull Mateo and the others in to help, I’ve switched out the guards here with members of Mateo’s squad. I explained the Chief wanted to make sure you and Tanaka had as many cops as you could get working the case. The uniforms were more than glad to let the Feds take over the boring duty.”
“All right, but why?”
“Pat, I don’t think the lycans are foolish enough to try for Mac here, but I’m not taking any chances. I want our people guarding her. They’ll know what to do and they’ll make sure the truth doesn’t get out.” She paused and her stomach churned as another reason dawned on her. “The last thing we need is to risk a normal being injured by a lycan and turning.”
Pat didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to when Jael heard her swallow hard. “You’re right. We need our people guarding Mac,” Pat said a moment later. “But we also need to maintain the illusion DPD is running the investigation. So Tanaka and I will be over later to question Mac.”
“All right.” Jael leaned back, considering what else she needed to do. “I’m sending the family to the new safehouse. Not only do they need to get ready for tonight’s pride meeting, but they need to be out of the line of fire if the lycans or that bitch or her husband decide to come after Mac.”
“No arguments here. Hang on.”
Jael waited while Pat placed her on hold. As she did, she considered her options. Not only did she want to make sure the family was safe from anything the lycans might try, she wanted to make sure the pride meeting didn’t become a battleground. She frowned. There were still too many unknowns and that worried her.
“Sorry. I need an hour or so here and then I’ll talk with Jackson about tonight. If we haven’t shut the case down by then, we’ll need to take precautions,” Pat said a few minutes later.
“I’ve already given Mateo a head’s up that we’ll be coordinating with him. Let’s make sure we aren’t taking any unnecessary risks with the pride or with Mac.” She had a feeling the former would be easier than the latter. “Marie is taking care of a few things at the office and then she’s headed here. She said she’ll sit with Mac tonight. I’ll be here as well. I hope we have this closed down by then, but I don’t want to run the risk.”
They spoke for a few more minutes. Satisfied they’d done all they could for the moment, Jael stood and slid her phone into her hip pocket. Now came the hard part. Sending Jackson and the others to the safehouse might take an act of God. Hopefully, Ellen backed her. Otherwise—well, she didn’t want to think about the otherwise.
The moment she entered Mac’s room, six pairs of eyes focused on her. Part of her wanted to turn around, close the door behind her and station herself outside the room, gun in hand. That might be easier than what she needed to do. Except she’d never been one to choose easy over necessary. She certainly wasn’t going to start now, no matter how tempting it might be.
“Jael?”
Of course, Mac spoke first. As she did, Jackson rested a hand on his wife’s uninjured shoulder. Elizabeth and the twins took up protective positions on the other side of the bed. Ellen stepped forward, looking at her in concern.
“I need all of you to listen to me.” She shook her head, her expression serious, when Abigail started to say something. “I mean it, Abby. This is important. And before you start up, Mac, I’m going to tell you everything. But I need all of you to do what I tell you without question and without objection.”
“We’ll do as you say, Jael.” Ellen pinned her family with a look that all but dared them to disobey.
“Thank you
.” She moved to stand at the foot of Mac’s bed. For a moment, she looked at her friend and wished she didn’t have to do this. Mac needed to rest. She deserved time to heal and to revel in the knowledge she carried her first child. Unfortunately, she couldn’t have that, not yet at any rate. “We have the man who rented the van in custody. Ellen?”
“I’ve given them the salient points,” the woman said.
Jael nodded. “We also have an ID on the shooter.”
Mac hissed in a breath and she struggled to sit up some more. Anger and something else flashed in her eyes. But it was the look on Jackson’s face that spoke volumes. For the first time, Jael saw the predator in him. It wouldn’t take much for his jaguar to emerge. If that happened, the hunt would be on. Not that she blamed him. She’d like nothing more than to be hunting down Wysocki’s husband. He had a great deal to answer for.
Jael pulled out her phone and called up Caudell’s booking photo from when Mac arrested him so long ago. Then she stepped around the bed and showed her friend the image. For a long moment, Mac studied it. Her brow furrowed and her eyes narrowed. Then her lips peeled back. Jael halfway expected her to hiss like her jaguar would. Instead, a low growl sounded deep in her throat.
“Caudell,” Mac said softly. “I busted him nine, ten years ago on a drug charge.”
“Are you sure?” Elizabeth asked as she looked at the image.
Jael didn’t blame her. The bearded man with long, scraggly hair bore little resemblance to the pictures they’d seen of the shooter.
“Liz, I’ll answer your question in a moment. I need Mac to answer something for me first.” She closed the photo app and put away her phone. “Mac, what do you remember about him?”
Mac thought for a moment. “I pulled him over for driving under the influence. It was mid-morning. A Tuesday, I think. I remember thinking he’d either had a very long night partying or he was getting an early start.” She closed her eyes and Jael waited as she thought back. “I followed procedure. Pulled him over and parked behind him. Approached his vehicle. My hand was on my gun. I rapped on the window and told him to roll it down. He wouldn’t, not to begin with. He didn’t look at me. Instead, he stared out the windshield as if I’d go away if he ignored me long enough. I think I threatened to break the window and pull him out through it if he didn’t comply.”
Jael bit back her smile. She had no doubt that’s exactly what Mac told him. It’s what most cops would say in a similar situation. And, hindsight being twenty-twenty, that could be the first strike against Mac in Wysocki’s eyes.
“He slowly turned his head to look at me and that’s when I knew he wasn’t drunk. He was high on something. His eyes were glassy, pupils so dilated I’m surprised he could function. The car was filled with smoke. When he opened the window, I swear I got high. I remember telling the patrol sergeant I wasn’t sure I could pass a drug test afterward because there was so much pot smoke.” A smile touched her lips and Jael chuckled softly.
“I still had to pull him out of the car. Even though he rolled down the window and even unlocked the door, he wouldn’t get out. I’m not sure he was sober enough to understand what I wanted him to do. I pulled him out and placed him under arrest. After I cuffed him, I Mirandized him and searched him. Then I called for backup. All pretty standard for that kind of stop.”
Jael nodded. Mac had done exactly what she’d taught her to do in such a situation. “What else?”
“The patrol sergeant responded out. I was new in the division and I think he was checking up on me. He had me contact the DA’s Office to get a warrant to search the car. Then he had another uniform transport Caudell and process him. I stayed with the car until the warrant came through. Then Sgt. Voight and I began the search. I’d have to check my notes for the exact details, but we found pot and coke, enough to keep the city high for days, stashed everywhere possible inside. Narcotics was called in. I wrote it up and they took over the case.”
“So you sent him to prison?” Jackson asked.
Mac shook her head. “No.” Frustration and remembered anger roughened her voice. “A couple of months later, I contacted the DA’s Office to find out what happened with the case. I’d tried getting information out of Narcotics, but no one ever answered my questions. Trust me, when the ADA got back to me and told me Narco decided they wanted to turn that bastard instead of prosecuting him, I went ballistic. But what could I do? I was only a year or two out of the Academy. Hell, I couldn’t even get the name of the Narcotics officer involved.” She chewed her lower lip for a moment. “Come to think of it, Sgt. Voight couldn’t find out either. He wasn’t any happier about it than I was.”
“And all that confirms what Timmons discovered.” Jael almost wished it hadn’t.
“If he didn’t go to prison, why wait all this time to go after Mac?” Danny asked.
“We’re still working on that. However, there’s another connection between him and your sister. Mac, I need to know if you were aware of it.”
“I can’t think of any way we’re connected except for that arrest.”
“Caudell is married. Did you know that?”
Mac shook her head. “No. Honestly, I haven’t given him a second thought in years.”
“Then you didn’t know he married Julia Wysocki?”
It felt as if all the air had suddenly been sucked out of the room. No one said anything. Jael watched Mac, noting how her right hand fisted at her side. The color drained from her face. Then she flushed as anger replaced disbelief. In that moment, Jael didn’t doubt her friend would shift and hunt Wysocki if she could.
Not that she blamed her.
“The IAB bitch?” Abby demanded.
Jael shot her a warning look. “I need an answer, Mac.”
“No, I didn’t know she was married to that piece of shit.” She shifted on the bed, her expression registering pain Jael doubted she felt. “How did she keep their relationship hidden? More importantly, why does she still have her shield?”
“Trust me, that’s something Culver is looking into.” And something she’d be looking into as well.
“Two questions.” Elizabeth spoke so coldly Jael fought the urge to shiver. She never wanted to be on the woman’s bad side. “First, why did he shoot my daughter? Second, what is his, or their, connection to the lycans?”
“I wish I knew.” More than anything, she wished she knew. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
“Let her talk,” Mac said before anyone could say anything else.
“The lycan isn’t saying much beyond admitting he rented the van and left it for Caudell. He had a few choice words about Caudell not actually killing Mac and how he’ll learn failure isn’t rewarded. But he wouldn’t say anything else, at least not anything concrete. We can imply Ferguson, or more likely Branson as his enforcer, knew what was going to happen but we don’t have proof of it yet.”
“Let me talk with him.” Jackson’s voice deepened, roughened, a sure indication his jaguar was close to the surface.
“No.” Ellen shook her head. “I’ve already contacted the rest of the Tribunal. We will meet this weekend to deal with him and, hopefully, anyone else involved. But if we roll him now, we taint anything we learn.”
“Ellen,” he drawled.
“Jackson, no. She’s right and you know it.” Mac reached for her husband’s hand and looked up at him, waiting until he nodded in reluctant agreement. “What else, Jael?”
“Mateo is setting up a new safehouse, one well away from the warehouse. He agreed we can’t take the chance the lycans haven’t figure out where we took Ferguson and the others after Cassandra’s people kidnapped them.” Now came the hard part. “Jackson, as much as I want to tell you to cancel the pride meeting tonight, I can’t. We need you to hold it. But we are setting up security. I swear we aren’t going to risk letting anything happen.”
He didn’t like it. She saw it in the tightness of his expression and the way his jaw worked. At least he wasn’t arguin
g—yet.
“Jackson, that means you, and the rest of you as well, need to go to the safehouse and review the plans for tonight with Mateo and Sgt. Lee. I’ll stay here and make sure security is so tight around Mac a flea can’t get through. Then I need to get back out in the field. I give you my word I will be here with her tonight during the pride meeting.”
“No.” Abby crossed her arms under her breasts and glared. “I’m not leaving.”
“Neither am I,” Danny added, mirroring his sister’s stance.
Jael didn’t roll her eyes, but it was a close call.
“You will do as I say on this.” She stared at the two, daring them to argue. “You’ll do it for several reasons. The first is that I’m trusting you to make sure my children are safe. I can’t be with them and be here with Mac. They are as much a part of the pride as I am. They will be there with you, standing with you, tonight as you reassure everyone Mac will be all right. But for me to do my job, I need to know you have their backs.” She waited until the twins nodded, their expressions serious.
“I’ll tell you something else, something I told Pat. The last thing we need is for the lycans to make a try for Mac here. If they do, we run the risk of one of you, or someone else, being infected and turned. Think about what that means and what it would do to you and what it would do to the rest of us if that happened.”
The twins paled. Elizabeth’s anger cooled and fear, not for herself but for her children, filled her expression. Seeing it, Jael prayed they kept her warnings in mind.
“Finally, I can’t risk my focus being torn between the three of you.” She looked from Abby and Danny to Elizabeth. “And Mac if the shit does hit the fan. Add to that the fact each of you, like it or not, need to be at the pride meeting tonight. The pride and our allies need to see you to believe Mac is going to be all right. But there’s another reason as well. You can bet your last dollar the pack knows a meeting’s been called. If it is suddenly cancelled—and if the news isn’t announcing Mac’s death—they’ll suspect something is happening and we can’t allow that. If the pack is involved in what happened to Mac, we need to know and we need to bring them to justice. I won’t let your egos or your need to try to protect your sister prevent that.”
Nocturnal Revelations Page 26