Best Laid Plans(51)

“That’s … odd.”

“Understatement. A million dollars in heroin. Who targets a gang and leaves the drugs? It was a hit, pure and simple.”

Juan’s door opened at the head of the squad room where the agent cubicles were crammed. “Crawford, Kincaid, I need you.”

Ryan rolled to his desk. “Watch your back, Luce.”

“You, too.”

Lucy got up and followed Barry into Juan’s small office. She was surprised to see Sean sitting in one of Juan’s chairs. He winked at her.

Juan closed the door and sat down. “Barry Crawford, Sean Rogan. Sean has some information that might be pertinent to your investigation.”

There were only two visitor chairs in Juan’s small office so Lucy leaned against the door. Whatever information Sean had, Barry was the lead detective. He sat in the chair next to Sean and said, “I’m all ears.”

“I’ve been hired by HWI to run full diagnostics on their network. They have a few small holes, but they’re clean, at least as far as anyone hacking into their system. But I learned that Worthington hadn’t been using his own desk for the last month. He took over another office from an employee who was on maternity leave. He used her computer and phone. He was working on a complex Bureau of Land Management audit that had been flagged by the employee as having problems. I don’t know yet if he found something suspicious in the files—HWI is taking point on the audit. But it was odd that he wouldn’t work from his own office. That’s when I uncovered a bug in his phone.”

“Corporate espionage? Insider trading? What kind of device?” Barry asked.

“I don’t know the why, but it’s an extremely sophisticated transmitter. I suspect the relay is outside of the building, a literal phone tap. Which means that whoever is bugging him not only is committing a federal crime, but they probably have people and resources to monitor the tap. It’s only active when there’s a phone conversation, and I checked all HWI phones—only Worthington’s is tapped and the security team found no other bugs in the office. They’re hiring another consultant to sweep their Dallas and Virginia offices as well. But the key point is that the bug is impossible to trace unless it’s actually running.”

“Did you think about calling us to check for prints?” Barry asked. “Or having us trace the serial number?”

Sean, to his credit, remained calm. He didn’t like working with the FBI on projects. Even though Lucy was an agent, and Sean had worked with other agents over the years, he still harbored a deep hostility toward law enforcement. But Lucy recognized, particularly since they’d moved to San Antonio, that Sean had learned to temper his distrust.

“There is no serial number on the outside of the device, which means we’d have to take it apart,” Sean said. “Which I’m more than capable of doing, but wanted to put forth another option that might yield quicker results.”

“There’s no indication that the bug has anything to do with Worthington’s murder,” Barry said.

Sean’s jaw tightened. In a calm voice he said, “No, but it’s an outlier in his life. According to his admin, he started acting preoccupied three to four weeks ago. That’s about the time he stopped using his phone. He must have known the bug was there.”

“Did he tell his staff? His security chief?”

“No, which is also suspicious. But I’ve been running deep backgrounds on everyone, and nothing has popped. Gregor Smith is more than competent in his field, but I’m digging around in his background as well.”

“With what authority?” Barry asked.

“The authority that HWI gave me when they hired me as an independent consultant,” Sean said through clenched teeth.

Lucy glanced at Juan; he was watching the two of them as if this was some kind of test. And maybe it was—not just for Sean, but for her. She had to stay out of this.

Juan said, “Sean has an idea to draw them out, but the decision is up to you, Barry.”

“What’s the idea?” Barry asked Juan.

Sean answered. “At this point, whoever planted the device knows that Harper knew he was being bugged—Harper’s office extension hasn’t been used in nearly four weeks. They also know that he’s dead, even if they had nothing to do with his murder. I’d like to stage a call to leak specific information, partly true, partly false. I would monitor activity from HWI to see if someone internal is involved; you would monitor the people in Worthington’s private life.”

Lucy was afraid that Barry would just shut Sean down right there. It was a good idea, but there was no guarantee that it’d yield results.

Barry asked, “How exactly would you do this without the party involved being suspicious that it was a set up?”

“Since HWI hired me, it’s reasonable that I would be working from Worthington’s office. It’ll be in the evening, I’ll be running late and call Lucy at home.”

“And not use your cell phone?”

“Dead battery. But I don’t think anyone would think about it. The purpose is twofold. One, to get controlled information out there to determine who might be listening, and two, to trace the receiver. The bug is only a transmitter. The tap has to be in one of three places—the phone system in the router building next to the office, the relay station, or the main phone company. If it’s the latter, that means it’s a federal wiretap.”