Best Laid Plans(86)

“Yes,” Dunbar said shortly. He glanced at Lucy, anger etched in his face, then turned away. “Mr. Worthington came into the D.C. office on May seventh and spoke to my boss. He came with information that we already knew, but we didn’t know his motive, and we had far more information about his wife’s activities than he did. We determined that we could not bring him into the investigation because of spousal privilege—we didn’t want to give Adeline any leverage against us when we bring down the hammer. So we put him off. Told him we’d look into it.”

“Then you tapped his phone,” Barry said.

“So we could keep tabs on him. It was done legally.” He glanced at his watch. “I really need to get back to the campaign. I’ve already been gone nearly two hours.”

Juan said, “Barry, Lucy, I think you’re on to something with Worthington. But there is no evidence that the congresswoman was involved in his murder. And honestly, there would be easier ways to kill him than to set up a scene that is potentially embarrassing to her and her reelection. However, Harper Worthington could have found something in one of his audits that got him killed, and the manner of his death was simply to embarrass him or divert attention. And it wasn’t very professional—DNA and the other evidence at the scene all led you to the prostitute. You need to work her, find out who hired her, and then we’ll see where that goes. You have my permission to continue pursuing the investigation wherever it may lead.”

“Juan, with all due respect—” Dunbar began.

Juan put his hand up. “But do not approach Adeline Worthington or anyone on her staff without consulting with me first. Logan and his team have a good case against her, and I don’t want to risk losing that conviction on the thin chance she may have been involved with her husband’s murder. Logan and I will work out a way to communicate, should we uncover evidence that directly links the congresswoman to murder.”

“Thank you, Juan,” Dunbar said.

Ritz smiled. “I knew if I put you all in the room together, you’d work out a reasonable agreement. Logan, when are you expecting to wrap up your investigation?”

“Sir, the final decision will be with the AUSA and Assistant Director Rick Stockton. Director Stockton is the one who approved this op. Because it’s an election year, we don’t want to be perceived as being political by exposing her without an absolute clear, irrefutable case; at the same time, Stockton doesn’t want anything that could be perceived as an October Surprise, so we’re hoping to wrap everything up by the end of June and issue the indictments.” He hesitated, then turned to Lucy and Barry. “An olive branch—if I uncover anything that suggests Adeline was involved in her husband’s death, I’ll let Juan know. Likewise, if you learn anything about Adeline or her staff that might help in my investigation?”

“Of course,” Barry said. “Juan will know everything we know.”

“Good,” Ritz said. “I’ll call Stockton with a report of this meeting and our agreement. Thank you for coming down, Logan. If you need any help from my office, call me directly.”

“Thank you, sir.”

*



Barry followed Lucy to her cubicle after the meeting. “What did Logan mean about you pushing this investigation?”

“I don’t know,” Lucy said. But she had her suspicions.

Barry pulled a chair over from Kenzie’s empty desk and sat. “Lucy, this is the first time we’ve worked as partners since you’ve been here. I have my way of doing things, you have yours. So far, your instincts have been sharp. But I watched your expression in that room, and you were holding something back. What?”

“I’m not keeping anything relevant from you,” she said.

“What don’t you think is relevant?”

“Logan Dunbar is from D.C. I worked out of the D.C. office for a couple of months as an analyst before I started at Quantico. I butted heads with Dunbar’s boss on a case I worked.”

“That’s not it.”

“Then I don’t know what.” But she did. Only, she didn’t want to share with Barry. Or anyone.

“When he mentioned Assistant Director Rick Stockton, you reacted.”

“I did?”

“Don’t play poker with me.” He smiled. It was the first time since they’d started working this case together that Barry seemed to be relaxed around her. As if they were actual partners, not just colleagues.

She caught herself biting her bottom lip, a nervous habit she’d thought she’d lost. “I don’t like to name drop.”

“You didn’t.”

She hesitated, because she really didn’t want to make it seem like she’d enjoyed any favoritism. It had been difficult enough when she’d learned that her mentor, Dr. Hans Vigo, had pulled strings to get her into Quantico after her application had been denied. But if Barry called the right people, he could learn about her friendship with Rick and she didn’t want him to think that she was keeping anything from him. And trust was a two-way street.

“It’s really not anything,” she said, “but I worked on some projects for Rick Stockton while I was at Quantico. There’s a family connection.”

“You’re related to Stockton?”

“No—nothing like that. Rick is good friends with my brother and sister-in-law.” That was the simplest explanation, and completely true. She didn’t need to go into Rick’s connection to RCK or the Rogan family or talk about what specifically she’d worked on.