Best Laid Plans(67)
“Did he do that often?”
“No. But he was the boss, and he looked tired. His favorite golf course is in Dallas, and when he comes here for work—maybe once a month—he always takes at least half a day to golf.”
“How long was he in the office?”
“Not long at all. He left by ten, told me he already had booked a flight back to San Antonio. I didn’t see him again, not until he came back to Dallas last week.”
“Did you know about his spontaneous trip to San Antonio on Friday night?”
“No, I would have told Jolene immediately after I heard what happened. I was certain it wasn’t him, but then he didn’t answer his phone, he wasn’t in his hotel room—Jolene was frantic looking for him.”
“Thank you for your time. We’ll be in touch if we have any other questions.”
“Anything I can do to help, anything at all, please call me. I love Jolene like a daughter, and Harper like a brother. They are a wonderful family, and this is at its heart a family business.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
After dropping Lucy off at work, Sean went back to their house. He’d told Lucy he was running errands, mostly because he didn’t want her driving when she was still so emotionally and physically worn out after last night. The entire drive he wondered if he should have pushed her into staying home. She would have, if he’d pressured her hard enough. But she was fragile, and he didn’t want her to resent him later. The last thing he wanted to do was bully her into taking care of herself.
Plus, working would clear her head. Give her something to focus on other than reliving last night.
That didn’t mean he was going to sit back and do nothing about Mona Hill.
He sat down at his desk and booted up his computer. He’d been thinking all night about how he wanted to handle this. He couldn’t exactly turn over the information about Mona Hill that he’d uncovered because he hadn’t obtained all of it legally.
He considered calling Lucy’s sister-in-law, Kate Donovan. Though Kate was a fed, she was one of the few people Sean trusted when it came to Lucy—outside of Lucy’s brothers. But Jack would come down and kill Mona Hill, Patrick would want plan a sting operation, and Dillon would reprimand Sean for breaking the law and jeopardizing Lucy’s career. Kate, however, had a history of breaking the rules for justice. Plus, as a fed, she could find a way for the FBI to obtain the information Sean had obtained, but through legal channels.
And while Sean kept the idea of working with Kate in the back of his mind, he got to work doing what he did best.
First, he had to put aside his emotions. His overwhelming love for Lucy, and the protective instinct that came with that love, meant he might miss something or misinterpret information. He couldn’t afford to screw this up.
“This is a job,” he told himself. “Just a job. Focus, Sean.”
Putting himself in his professional mindset, he skimmed the file that Tia had sent to Lucy. He felt a bit guilty about reading Lucy’s emails—Lucy had all her files copied over to her personal computer, which was networked with his office. If he’d asked, she would have said yes. She might have asked why, though, and he didn’t want to lie to Lucy.
He needed to know what the cops had on Mona Hill and why they hadn’t been able to arrest her. It was clear from Tia’s personal notes that she believed Mona Hill had someone high up in the criminal justice system in her pocket. She didn’t give details—but it didn’t take much imagination to read between the lines. Either she was blackmailing someone or bribing someone—or a combination of both. Maybe more than one person. No government agency was 100 percent clean, as evident from the DEA’s recent problem with Agent Nicole Rollins.
And truth be told, law enforcement didn’t concern themselves with the sex trade. They had stings here and there, but when facing serious problems like human trafficking, drug cartels, violent crimes—hookers were the least of their concerns. And a group like Mona Hill’s? Tia’s notes said that Hill kept her girls under tight control and didn’t beat or abuse them. She paid them fairly, but controlled their lives through where they lived and what jobs they took. A benevolent dictator.
But Tia’s notes were borderline hostile—she certainly didn’t like Mona Hill or find anything benevolent about her. There had to be something more that wasn’t in Tia’s notes, maybe personal. An old case? A cold case? History. He made a note to dig around. It would take talking to a contact at SAPD. Unfortunately, he hadn’t lived in San Antonio long enough to have cultivated sources who weren’t directly tied to Lucy.
Next he reviewed the information he’d retrieved last night while running a deeper background check on Mona Hill. He learned quickly that Mona Hill wasn’t her real name. Why Tia didn’t know that, Sean couldn’t figure out. The information had been buried, but not impossible to find. Mona Hill was born Ramona Jefferson to a prostitute by the name of Carla Jefferson. No father was listed on the birth certificate. While Mona was a common nickname for Ramona, why had Mona changed her last name? He couldn’t find any records that she’d legally changed her name or got married. But, she had a social security card, driver’s license, and bank accounts all under the name Mona Hill—going back to when she was eighteen. Relevant? Possibly. She could have changed her name legally in another state, but she hadn’t done so in the four states he had record of her living in.