Best Laid Plans(33)

“Find out what’s going on with that attack. SAPD has the scene, but because of the known connection to the cartels, you’ll be called.”

“I’ll jump on it. Are you in town?”

“No.” Kane hung up.

Brad lowered his receiver and shook his head. Kane was a hard guy to talk to, but his intel had always been solid.

Brad called his DEA liaison with SAPD, Jerome Fielding. “Jerry, it’s Brad.”

“How’d you hear so fast?”

“About the hit on Trejo’s people? I have my sources.” Kane never ceased to amaze Brad.

“Are you coming down?”

“I literally just heard. I don’t even know where, when, how many, or why.”

“I’ll send you the address. It’s off Mission Road.”

One of the worst crime areas in the city, run by the gangs.

Jerry said, “Are you back on duty?”

“I can go to a damn crime scene.”

“Wear your vest. We’re not wanted down there.”

“Got it. What else?”

“I know the when—last night at seven thirty P.M.—and the how many—nine. But not the why. Yet. Maybe you can help there.”

“I might. Nine dead? Any survivors?”

“None at the scene. We found drugs and guns. Every victim was shot at least three times, all with at least one head shot. Not just the gangbangers, but two women and a kid.”

“It’s a f*cking execution.”

“If this is the first shot, there’s going to be a bloody war down here.”

“My source says it was retaliation.”

Jerry was silent for a minute. “If it was, then it’s out of my jurisdiction. There’s been nothing of this magnitude for a long time, nothing on the wire. It’s an abandoned strip mall that had been taken over by a gang with ties to Sanchez and Trejo—who you took care of. Honestly, it’s been quiet the last two months since those bastards were put in the ground.”

“Someone must have seen something.”

“And they’re not going to talk to us.”

Jerry was right. No one talked to the police down there. They didn’t trust cops. Didn’t matter if they were first, fifth, or tenth generation; it was cultural. Even those who did trust law enforcement feared retaliation by the drug cartels if they said anything. Fear was a powerful silencer.

“I’ll be there in an hour,” Brad said.

*



Sean dragged himself into HWI headquarters at eight Monday morning. Lucy had woken before dawn with another nightmare, even after they were both exhausted from a full day doing yard work in the heat.

She wouldn’t talk about it, and that bothered him, too. She kept saying she was fine. Then she did something she rarely did—distracted him with sex. He hadn’t noticed it at the time, but once she’d showered and left for FBI headquarters, he’d realized she’d changed the subject about her bad dream by kissing him and taking him back to bed.

They would be talking about that tonight. He was angry—and he didn’t want to be angry with Lucy. Which made him doubly frustrated.

Sean checked in with HWI’s front desk and was immediately sent up to Gregor Smith’s office. “Sean Rogan, it’s good to finally meet you.”

“Likewise. I’m sorry to hear about your boss.”

Gregor nodded. “It’s been hard on the staff. And Jolene, Harper’s daughter. Please sit.” Gregor had a large desk completely devoid of clutter. A computer monitor and phone were the only items on the desktop. “I don’t know how much you know about the FBI investigation into Harper’s death.”

“Some,” Sean said. Lucy had told him what she knew, but Gregor didn’t have to know that.

“Because he died under suspicious circumstances, we need to run a full forensic audit. We’ve already started the process, but we also need to verify that our systems haven’t been breached from the outside. Our IT department is good, but I would feel better having someone from the outside review our system. When it comes to computer systems, I’m a bit out of my depth.”

“Most people are,” Sean said. “You have this office, Dallas, and a small office outside D.C., correct?”

“Yes.”

“And your internal logs show nothing suspicious? When did you last run them?”

“Every night at midnight the system runs a security check and produces a report. The IT department determines if there have been any problems and alerts me immediately. So far, there’ve been no successful cyber attacks. Attempts, like usual, but no one has gotten close. But as you know, if someone is good, they can get through any barriers. Because you have a high government clearance, I can give you access.”

“I don’t need access.”

“But I thought you agreed to take the job. If it’s money, I can go to the board—”

“You agreed to my standard rate. I don’t need access because I already hacked into your system.” Sean slid a folder over to Gregor Smith. “Truthfully, you’re not that exposed. I couldn’t easily get into this office or the Dallas office. If I wasn’t concerned about being detected, I could have breached your firewall, however. I can fix that vulnerability. Your main problem is D.C.”