What She Found (Tracy Crosswhite #9)(64)

Deiondre kept his gaze on the hardwood floor while his father spoke.

“You have a lot of reasons to be proud,” Tracy said.

“I certainly do. And I thank the Lord for my blessings every day.”

“Tell me about the task force that falsely accused you.”

Jones smirked. “That was a long time ago, Detective. Water under the bridge now.”

“Maybe for you. I’m just trying to solve a cold case.”

Jones frowned. “They were a bunch of cowboys. Mostly white.

They came out with big promises to stop the flow of drugs into Seattle. That’s what they said, anyway. Stopping the flow of drugs into Seattle is like sticking your finger in one leaky hole after another.

Pretty soon you run out of fingers. What they said and what they eventually did were two different stories.”

“What did they do?”

“What I heard is they got a taste for the money, some of them at least. More money than they would ever see being a cop. I know firsthand all that money can be intoxicating. It can get to be too much. But I think some were dirty from the start.”

“Do you know which of the members of the task force were dirty?”

“Not specifically, no. What I know is that they would wait outside bars where dealers transacted business. Someone was tipping them. Found out later it was the bar owners—a couple in particular who were in on the take.”

“You have the names of the bars?”

“I’m sure I could remember some of them with a little time, but most don’t exist anymore. Developers are putting in apartments and condos and strip malls.”

“What did this task force do, specifically?”

“They’d wait outside the bars, then pull the dealers over under a false pretense—speeding, running a red light. They’d go through their clothes and cars, and take whatever they found. Guys sometimes carried three to five thousand dollars.”

“You know this firsthand?”

“Nah. Just what I heard. What I heard was the police would have them sign two documents. One wouldn’t identify the drugs or the money. The other would. They told them they’d let them go with a traffic ticket but if they made any trouble, they’d file the second document and come back and arrest them.”

“But they took the drugs and the money.”

“Absolutely. Said the dealers forfeited both, and they would put it in the lockup and use it as evidence if they made trouble. That was bullshit.”

“How do you know?”

Jones made a face like Tracy was just na?ve. “Because word travels fast around here, especially when word is about the police. I was out of the business then, but I still knew people involved.”

“What were you told the police would do with the drugs and the money they took?”

“I was told was they’d take the drugs and sell it back to another dealer at a discounted rate and make more money. Also heard they kept some to plant when they brought false charges against anyone who got out of line.”

“How long did this go on?”

Jones shook his head. “Don’t know. What I do know is the dealers learned the bar owners were on the payroll and stopped using the bars to make transactions. That’s when they had that big drug bust and arrested a couple dozen, including me. The mayor and that top cop got up in front of the cameras and microphones and announced how they were shutting down the drug dealers in Seattle.

Except I was no longer in the business. That was after I had got out, and I’d taken the wife and kids to LA to visit with my brother and his family. I could prove it too. Just had to get the credit card receipts.”

“If you were out of the business, how were you supporting your family?” Tracy asked, not completely believing Jones had left the business cold turkey. As he’d said, the money was alluring.

“I was working legit jobs on a construction crew. All that went away when they arrested me though. I lost my job. But I wasn’t going to jail and leave my wife to raise my kids. I knew where they’d end up, and that wasn’t going to happen to them.”

“You fought the charges.”

“Wasn’t much of a fight. They kept telling my attorney they had all this evidence, but every time he asked to see it, they didn’t have any. This went on for about a year. My attorney talked to the others who’d been arrested, and they told him what had been going on, what that task force had been doing. My attorney made this clear to the prosecutor.”

An attorney would be a better witness, if Tracy got that far, than a supposedly reformed drug dealer. Maybe. “Do you have a current contact for Tommy Ford?”

Jones shook his head. “Tommy is dead. Cancer ate him up.”

“But he told you this?”

“He told me.” Jones paused before adding, “But I heard about much of it on my own, and I know it was true.”

“How do you know it was true?”

“Because after Tommy went to the prosecuting attorney, police cars and unmarked cars started driving past my house. One time an officer made a gun with his hand, pointed it at me, and pulled the trigger. My wife and kids were playing in the yard. They wanted me to know they could get to me, a warning to keep my mouth shut, that they could get to the people I loved. That was when I came close to pleading. What was the point of fighting to protect my kids if I was putting a target on their backs?”