Above the Law

by Carsen Taite

  Dale looked between them before answering. “Yes.”

  Straightforward. Good. She could work with straightforward. “Do you have some time now to meet? We could go over our plan for the week. I’d like to get your input on a few of the interviews we have scheduled.”

  “Now’s no good.” Dale put her sunglasses back on. “I’m in the middle of something. I’ll call you when I break free.”

  Lindsey only had a brief second to react before Dale started walking toward the door. In a flash, she was out of her seat. “Wait.”

  Dale turned, her mouth fixed in a thin line. Lindsey wished she’d take her glasses off again so she could tell if the expression in her eyes was curious or annoyed. She’d bet on the latter. Still, no matter how annoyed Dale might be, Lindsey couldn’t help but want to prolong the connection, if only for a few minutes. She stuck out her hand and silently counted the seconds as Dale looked down and then finally grasped it. The grip was firm and strong. Exactly what she’d expected. She let the touch linger just a shade longer than she figured Dale was comfortable with and then reluctantly let go.

  Dale nodded at her and then at Jed and strode out the door.

  It wasn’t until they were in the car, headed to the hotel, that Lindsey realized she hadn’t given Dale her number and Dale hadn’t asked.

  *

  “What the hell was that all about?” Dale slammed Diego’s door shut behind her and crossed her arms while she waited for him to respond. Peyton was waiting, but she didn’t want to start talking to Neil until she straightened things out with her boss.

  He didn’t even look up. “Sit down, Nelson.”

  “No, thanks. I won’t be here long. Can’t, since you’ve got me doing double duty. Not sure why you think I have time to show a reporter around. I’m loaded up as it is. I was on my way to interview a suspect when I got here.”

  “Seriously, Dale. Take a seat.”

  She caught the tone, gentle but firm, and complied. “What’s going on?”

  “Word is the task force work is about to be put on hold for a while.”

  “What?” He had to be joking. They’d been working these leads for months, and they were just now seeing some progress. “You can’t be serious.”

  “It’s not coming from me. Word is Gellar is shifting his office’s focus, and part of that is disbanding the team.” He pushed some papers around on his desk, clearly uncomfortable to be having this conversation with her. “Look, I know these cases are personal to you, but—”

  “These cases are personal to a lot of people, including the people Gellar is supposed to be representing. What’s the deal? He made his case against his archenemy, Cyrus Gantry, and now he’s done? Gantry’s money laundering is nothing compared to the evil the Vargas brothers engage in every day. Our work is far from over.”

  “I hear you, but it’s not my call. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. Take a breather. You’re already breaking protocol by working so soon after taking a bullet. Show this reporter and her crew around for a while and then we’ll find you a good case to get involved in. They’re focusing on the Take-Back Initiative, and we’ve already given them a list of people to interview, things to focus on. Just guide them through it, and when the event’s over, you’ll be off the hook.”

  The reporter. Lindsey Ryan. She’d known who she was the instant she saw her. Everyone knew who she was. She’d been embedded with several military units over the course of the invasion in Afghanistan and her appearances on Spotlight America were well known. To top it off, she made no secrets about her sexuality, which meant she was a poster girl for lesbians everywhere. “Did you pick me for this because she’s a lesbian?”

  He looked genuinely surprised at her question. “To tell you the truth, it was a split second decision and I’m giving you the gig because you should be on light duty anyway, and with the task force winding down, you’re the perfect choice. I guess it doesn’t hurt that your tours in Afghanistan give you a connection to Ms. Ryan. Be nice. This piece they’re doing is important to the director. Very important.”

  Image control. She got it. In the past year, the agency had taken a hit both in the press and on Capitol Hill when it was discovered that certain agents were using hookers as confidential informants and taking favors in the process. Funding was always in jeopardy, but after Hooker-Gate, getting money from Congress had been next to impossible.

  She’d do her part for the good of the division, but she wasn’t going to cozy up to Lindsey Ryan and start swapping war stories. Reporting about war wasn’t the same as actually fighting one. Ryan would tape her candy-ass fluff piece and jet back to New York, and she’d stay here and keep doing the real work that kept folks alive. In the meantime, she’d have to figure out how to keep the task force in operation without anyone knowing. The first step was convincing Diego she had drunk the Kool-Aid.

  She stood up. “Okay, I’m in. I’ll deal with Neil Davis and then I’ll call Ryan and get her crew what they need to get started.”

  “Thanks, Dale. I owe you one.”

  Damn right you do. Dale walked straight from Diego’s office to the room where Peyton’s brother had been since they’d brought him in early in the day. Peyton was waiting outside the door. “He still in there?” Dale asked.

  “Yes. I was waiting on you to go in, but I’d about decided you’d ducked out the back door.”

  “My disappearance is the least of your worries.” Dale glanced around, but several other agents were wandering the halls, and she’d rather have the talk about the fate of the task force with Peyton in private. “When we’re done here, we need to talk.”

  Peyton raised her eyebrows, but to her credit didn’t ask any questions. “Deal.” She motioned to the door. “You ready to start with him?”

  A few minutes later, Peyton was seated across the table from her brother and engaged in a silent standoff. Dale could see a definite family resemblance, but where Peyton sat tall and confident, Neil slumped in his chair, and his red eyes and sullen expression signaled defeat. It was hard to take the backseat on any interrogation, but she deferred to Peyton’s position as Neil’s sister and decided to trust her strategy. For now.

  “Neil, Mom is worried sick about you.”

  “Mom never worried about me a day in her life. How could she? All she ever did was think about her precious Peyton. No matter what the rest of us did to keep the ranch going, you were waiting for the right moment to take it all away from us.”

  Dale watched Peyton closely, but she couldn’t detect even a hint of defensiveness in response to his provocative remarks. She remembered Peyton had one other brother, Zach, and she wondered if he was as bitter toward his older sister as Neil.

  “I don’t want to take anything from you,” Peyton said, her tone neutral, calm even. “In fact, you’re free to leave here right now if that’s what you want. I only want to talk to you and help you, if I can. Considering the circumstances, I thought you might consider an offer of help after what you’ve been through.”

  “You don’t have a clue what I’ve been through.” Neil growled the words.

  “Why don’t you tell me? I know the people you’re working with are dangerous, deadly even. You should know that by now since I’m pretty sure you didn’t tie yourself up and risk getting shot by federal agents who’d been tipped off to storm that barn. I can help you, if you let me. Don’t let all the hard work you’ve done on the ranch go to waste.”

  “Of course you’d say that since you’re the only one who benefits from all the improvements I’ve made. Does Zach realize he’s never going to own a piece of Circle Six or will you wait to spring that on him until he’s given his life to making your inheritance as valuable as possible?”

  Dale shot a look at Peyton who couldn’t quite hide the toll her brother’s words were taking. While she respected Peyton’s desire to handle the interview on her own, she wanted to move it along, especially in light of what Diego had told her about the task force. She pushed
away from the wall and stepped between Peyton and her brother. “Like your sister said, you’re free to leave, but you haven’t. What that tells me is you’ve either got something to tell us or you’re just plain scared to show your face on the outside. Why don’t you lose your pride and start talking, otherwise we’re going to kick you out of here and let you fend for yourself with your new friends.”

  “If I talk, I die.”

  “Wrong. If they think you talk, you die. You walk out of here right now, the Vargases will think you talked whether you did or not. If you tell us what you know, we’ll protect you. If not, you’re on your own. I don’t care who your sister is.”

  Neil hung his head, and Dale could tell he was wavering. He’d been off the grid for days, doing who knows what. He’d gotten cash from Cyrus Gantry in exchange for his promise to let Gantry Oil drill on the Davis ranch, but he hadn’t had any money on him when they’d picked him up. She wondered if he’d blown it already. Either way, he seemed desperate, and she planned to take full advantage. She rapped a knuckle on the table. “Tick, tock. We’ve got other people we can talk to, but you better hope none of them point a finger at you.”

  He looked up at her, and his expression was a mix of resignation and resentment. “Fine, I’ll talk, but not here.”

  “Where then?”

  He looked over at Peyton. “I want to go home.”

  Peyton hesitated only a minute. “We’ll take you now.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Lindsey pushed the button to the eighth floor. She and Jed had just returned from the DEA office and were in the elevator on their way to Elaina’s room for a planning session. Elaina had called when they were on the way back to the hotel and suggested the meeting, intimating they could use Lindsey’s room, but Lindsey didn’t offer. As the talent, she had the best accommodations, but the idea of having Elaina lounging in her suite made the decision easy. All she really wanted to do was find something to eat since she’d burned through lunch hours ago. The minute this meeting was over, she was going to have a serious date with room service.

  She turned to Jed. “Let’s get something straight before we go in there.”

  He grinned. “Yes, boss.”

  She smacked him on the arm. “Seriously. I need your help. Elaina’s working some network agenda on this project, but I want to keep an open mind.”

  “I got it. Play along to get along, but be prepared to go rogue.”

  Lindsey reflected on her promise to Larry. Going rogue was what she was known for, but he was right; she did owe him a favor. If she did this assignment by the book, she’d be off the hook and free to tackle a new project. One of her own choosing. “No, we’re not going rogue, but I do want to have some of my signature on this piece, no matter how vanilla it is, so be prepared to add in some angles if the opportunity arises. We’ll have to be creative since I’m pretty sure Elaina was instructed to watch me like a hawk.”

  “And how are you feeling about that? Have you two worked together since…”

  “Nope. This is the first time. Aren’t you lucky?” Relationships in their industry took place in a fishbowl. When the relationship imploded the way theirs had, everyone got to witness the fallout. She’d seen worse debris from others, but all breakups were awkward for the people in the audience. “So far, things have been civil, and that’s all I could hope for.”

  “I don’t know how to say this,” Jed said. “So, I’m just going to be blunt. There are better producers out there. Ones who are more in tune with your style.”

  “I know.” Part of their personal clash had come when the romance wore off and Lindsey realized how differently she and Elaina approached their work. Elaina cared about ratings, viewership, and the bottom line—all the things that made the network love her. On the other hand, Lindsey cared about the story, and everything else was incidental. She’d go to any lengths to find the truth even when no one else, including viewers, wanted to know the real story. Her doggedness had never diminished the popularity of her work, but Elaina had assured her there would come a day when she would have to sacrifice her integrity in exchange for the opportunity to reach a broader audience. That assurance had been the death knell of their relationship. It hadn’t taken Lindsey long to realize she was better off alone than with someone who would never understand her. She’d never let anything get in the way of her quest for the truth.

  “She’s perfect for this piece,” she told Jed. “And that’s all that matters for now.”

  She knocked on the door of Elaina’s room and smiled when Alice answered the door. She and Alice had worked together on dozens of stories. There was no better cameraman in the business, and she was certain Alice had the same questions as Jed about why they’d been picked for an assignment that a trained monkey could do. She leaned in to give Alice a hug and whispered, “Thanks for doing this. I owe you one.”

  “Always glad to get a call from you,” Alice whispered back. She stepped aside to let Lindsey enter the room.

  Elaina’s digs weren’t quite as fancy as her own, but they ran a close second. Lindsey started to walk over to where Elaina was seated at a sizable desk, but she stopped abruptly when she spotted several trays of food sitting on the coffee table in the sitting area. “Oh my God, I’m starving.” She grabbed half a sandwich and scarfed it in three bites. She reached for a napkin and when she looked back up, Elaina was standing beside her, wearing a sweet smile.

  “I figured you’d be hungry,” Elaina said. “I don’t know how you manage to eat the way you do and keep looking this good.”

  Lindsey cleared her throat, hoping she wouldn’t choke on a breadcrumb, but didn’t ask for clarification about what “this” was. She wasn’t interested in flirting with her ex or reminiscing about how she’d always worked through meals and then come home starving. Elaina might know all her little quirks, but those were all surface level, not the stuff that really mattered. She diverted. “Hey, Jed, you better get over here before I eat all this food. Consider this your only warning.” She heaped a plate high with sandwiches, pasta salad, and fruit and took it to the desk where Elaina’s stuff was spread out. “How about we make this a working dinner? What’s first on the agenda?”

  Elaina scrambled to shove the papers into a folder and then opened a fancy leather planner the size of a Volkswagen. “I’ve arranged with the local affiliate to provide us with a room for filming some of the non DEA interviews, but I’d like to do all the agency clips either at the DEA division office or in the field, same with the other local agencies. Jed, can you work with that?”

  He gulped a bite of sandwich and nodded. “Sure. We took a good look around while we were at the DEA office. It’s not ideal, but I can make it work. What kind of in the field filming do you have in mind?”

  Elaina leaned back in her chair. “I don’t know. Maybe Lindsey could tag along with one of the agents.” She looked down at her planner. “Since our focus is the Take-Back Initiative, Lindsey, you could get them to show you where they plan to hold the main event along with some of the local outlets, stuff like that.” She pointed at her computer. “The guy in charge, Agent Diego, sent over a bio for the liaison you asked for, Special Agent Dale Nelson. He’s a decorated Marine who served in Afghanistan, and I think he could be the perfect hook for the story. Might be good to follow him around and work the human interest angle. From the war on terror to the war on drugs. Different battles, same skills. Something like that.”

  As Elaina droned on, Lindsey tried to hide a grin. Jed was kicking her under the table, and his own grin was infectious. Alice was the first to catch on. “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing,” Lindsey said as she delivered a return kick to Jed’s shin. But Jed was not to be deterred.

  “She’s going to figure it out sooner or later,” he said.

  She sighed. He was right. She turned to Elaina. “Dale Nelson is a she, not a he.”

  It took a few seconds for Elaina to register her words, but when she did, her eyes narrowe
d. “Hmmm, that might change things. I’ll have to think about it.”

  “Why?” Lindsey suspected she knew the answer, but she wondered if Elaina would be so crass as to admit her reasoning for rethinking Dale as the focus of the human interest angle. Please let her not be that callous.

  “It’s just different is all. Doesn’t have the same broad-based appeal.”

  “Broad-based appeal? Care to explain what that’s code for?” Damn. No matter how much she’d hoped Elaina would change, her hoping couldn’t make it so. Lindsey’s appetite vanished, and a clawing sense of claustrophobia drove her to stand and pace. “A woman serves her country overseas and comes home to do more of the same and that’s less compelling than a man who does the same thing? Like death and destruction can only be appreciated if we placate the majority by showing them only a pure reflection of themselves?”

  Elaina glanced at Jed and Alice, probably looking for moral support, but they both shook their heads as if to say “not my battle.” When Elaina finally addressed her, she sidestepped the question. “It’s not a matter of what you or I think. Our job is to reach the common denominator, and there’s a method to getting there. Not everyone likes the idea of women in the military, and you might lose your opportunity to reach your audience and get the message across. You know that even though you like to pretend you don’t.”

  Lindsey shook her head. Elaina wasn’t going to give in. They could continue their standoff or she could grab what little advantage she could by turning Elaina’s own words back around. “Didn’t realize you were so focused on making this a substantive piece with a moral and everything, but I’m glad to hear it. I’ve got some great ideas for ways we can beef up this story. Trust me, Dale will be the perfect centerpiece for what you have in mind.”

  She was bluffing since all she knew about Dale was that she was gruff, handsome, and annoyed as hell that she’d been thrust into this assignment. One word from Elaina and Dale would likely jump at the chance to ditch this gig, but no way was Lindsey going to let that happen. Even with the little information she’d heard so far, she was certain Dale would be the key to making this story more interesting.