Chapter 19

If there was one thing Alec didn’t do well, it was idle. She sat in the office across from the room they had Willard in, both doors were closed, and she could hear nothing. It rode every nerve that she had to hide. Lenny Dixon was in with Willard, she trusted him to ask all the right questions, but still wished she could be in there. Brent, Reid, and Ian were in the room on the other side of the two-way glass. Ian wasn’t sure if he could hear through the glass, but they were going to try it that way first. How long had it been?

Tapping her hand against her leg, she thought about all the people involved that they knew about. If she tried hard enough, she could see the chart Ian had put on his wall. There had to be some connection they were missing. Jac had theories, but so far that’s all they were, and everyone hoped none of them turned out to be the end game. The theories were ones of conspiracy and corruption that took things further than they wanted to think possible.

Alec almost dove on her phone when it vibrated on the table. Hoping for a call with news, she groaned when it was just a text message from Brent saying it wasn’t working and Ian would have to be in the room to find out anything. Grasping the phone in her hand, she got up and opened the door. It was one-sided glass; there was no reason why she needed to be hidden away in a room.

As she stepped into the hallway, Ian and Reid came out of the door across from her. Both wore surprised looks on their face, but she shut them down with one of her own that told them not to even think about saying a word to her.

Brent just nodded to the empty chair beside him when she went into the room. “I didn’t think you’d stay over there for long.”

“Ian can’t pick up anything through the glass?”

He shook his head and turned his attention back to the glass as Reid and Ian entered the room with Willard in it. “No.”

Reid bent down and spoke to Lenny, who nodded. Alec sat on the edge of the seat and watched the wary look on Willard’s face when he took in the size of the men that had just come in. “He’s hiding something.”

“Yeah, we figured that too.” He turned up the speaker to listen to the questions Lenny was asking Willard. They all knew the punk on the other side of the glass wasn’t going to say where he had gotten the money from to buy the pouch of pills Rick Pelts had passed to him. They all knew he wouldn’t say what he had planned to do with the pills. They knew the answers, but they still had to ask the questions.

Alec ignored the questions she’d asked many times herself and focused on the man leaning against the wall near the end of the table. Ian stood there like he was used to being in an interrogation room. She’d noticed before that he immediately blended into any atmosphere. Was that just his way or did he have to work at it so he seemed nonchalant all the time?

She envied him. With the exception of police work, the leg work part of it, Alec had never felt comfortable anywhere.

Ian tucked his hands in his pockets like he was bored with having to be there. She wondered if he was listening to Willard already. It didn’t look like he was doing anything from where she sat. When he tilted his head slightly to the side, causing the hair to fall across his brow, she realized this is what he’d done many times when they were at the bar and when they’d been screening fellow cops. Now she knew he was trying to hear what Willard was thinking.

Each time she focused on what Lenny was saying, she would find herself distracted by studying Ian. The expression on his face gave nothing away; he didn’t even close his eyes. What would it be like to be able to know what someone was thinking?

Willard began to fidget in his chair; he was getting really antsy all of a sudden. Alec flicked her eyes back to Ian; his expression had hardened to a more intense look now. Her heartbeat picked up and she didn’t know how, but she knew he had found something.

When he lifted his head and looked right at Willard, then at Reid, she wanted to jump up and run into the other room. Clamping down on her impulse, she waited and watched Reid nodded to him and Ian turned and walked out of the interrogation room. Alec was on her feet when he stepped into the room. He immediately made eye contact with her and had a small smirk on his face.

“He’s got something hidden in his hat. Something that Andrea Weaver passed to him to hold onto for Nick Colette.”

Alec looked at Brent. “How do we get his hat?”

Brent rubbed the back of his neck and then pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and hit a few numbers.

Reid in the other room answered him almost at the same time.

Brent stared at his partner through the glass. “He’s hiding something in his hat. We need to get access to it. Have Lenny take him for processing, I’ll head there and make sure there’s some sort of delay.”

Alec turned to see Reid nod and tuck his phone in his pocket. Brent turned and looked at her and then at Ian. “I’m going to go slow things down.” He looked at Ian. “You’re not bound by the same red tape we are. Find what’s in the hat. It has to be a jump drive or something small. Get it down to Jac to copy or take pics of or whatever has to be done but get it back up here as soon as possible.”

Turning, he gave Alec a look she didn’t need an interpretation for. They were stepping outside the lines and she better watch her ass.

Brent went out the door, leaving her and Ian to watch as Reid told Willard to leave his hat and jacket there on the table while he went down for new photos. Lenny helped it along by not giving him a chance to balk at that and ushered him from the room.

Ian had to put his hand out to stop her from rushing out of the room before they were out of the hallway with Willard. When he moved his hand, she rushed out of the room and into the interrogation room. Ian brushed past her and grabbed the hat before she could get to it.

“Red tape,” he reminded her.

Tucking her hands in her pockets she rocked back and forth on her feet while he turned the hat over and flipped back the sweatband inside it. A small silver USB stick was tucked underneath.

“Gotcha.” Ian grinned at her and headed for the door. “How long will Jac need?”

Alec was right on his heels. “I guess that depends on what she finds.”

“I want a copy on my tablet.” He turned the corner and headed down the stairs to the basement office. “I think better on my own.”

“Same.”

With the information from the stick copied onto another stick and Ian’s tablet, they put it back in the hat and moved on to the interrogation room where Rick Pelts was being held. Alec was almost crawling out of her skin wanting to know what information they’d gotten from Willard, but Jac had suggested they not find out while they were at the station. It pissed her off on so many levels that she had to hide and couldn’t even do her job. Once Rick was dealt with, she planned on finding a way to implicate Bill and take him out of the equation. It was a matter of principle. Your partner was supposed to have your back in any situation, not work against you behind your back—with known criminals.

She was idling in the observation room with Reid this time as they watched Max Armstrong question Rick. Brent stood at the door looking large and intimidating where Mr. Pelts could see him clearly. Ian once again just lounged against the wall.

Rick wasn’t a young impressionable punk they could intimidate, and all the men present knew it. The questions Max asked were going unanswered, but he kept needling away just in case he annoyed a response out of him.

When Ian’s head tilted to the side, Alec leaned on the table on her side of the glass. He looked like he was concentrating harder than he had earlier. What was he said he could do? Go right in and look around someone’s head. Is that what he was doing now? Could he dig around and find out more information on how Pelts planned to take her out?

He lifted his head and looked right at the glass. She knew he was directing it at her. Taking out her phone she texted him quickly to see what he’d found out.

Pulling the phone out of his pocket, he read the message and then text something back. She stared at her phone feeling as if the few seconds it took to receive it were hours. When it popped up on her screen it only said two names. Ray Butler and Payton Cox. A second message opened. They do a lot with him. Add them to the list.

Alec sent back, anything else?

Her reply was, you need to come in.

“He wants me to go in to see Pelts reaction.” She looked at Reid, who only watched her for a moment, and then nodded.

“He’d be stupid to try anything with the others in there.”

“Well, it’s worth a try.” She went over and grasped the door handle. “And if he doesn’t verbally say it, maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll think it. Oh, and see what you can pull up on a Ray Butler and Payton Cox.”

Ian didn’t like his idea much, but they needed to step this up several notches and if Rick Pelts seriously had it in for Alec, this was the only way they’d know for sure.

As Alec stepped into the room, Ian only needed one look at her to know she was hoping for Rick to try something so she could get physical. “Hey Max, I thought you might like to know that the other one is singing a pretty tune.”

Max nodded and looked back at Rick. “You may want to start giving some answers now.”

Rick sat forward in the chair, his careless attitude vanishing. He stared at Max for a moment and then glared at Alec.

Oh yeah, he recognized her all right. Ian looked down at the floor and blanked out so he could see what the man was thinking.

I can’t believe the bitch is standing right in front of me. Bill said she was out of sight and no one could get to her. Son of a bitch! Nick better get the lawyer here and get me out of here soon.

Ian looked up and sent Alec a look he hoped she’d understand. She needed to get Rick going somehow.

Tucking her hands in her back pockets, Alec stood there and looked down at the man on the other side of the table. “I know you,” she said as if she was just noticing him, “you’re Jeremy’s brother aren’t you?”

Rick’s face flushed with anger. He didn’t say anything.

Reaching up, Alec fidgeted with her ponytail. “How is he? I never did get around to visiting, figured he probably wouldn’t be missing me much.”

Ian didn’t need to even waste the effort of listening to the man’s thoughts, the bulging vein in his forehead and clenched jaw added to the dark red tone of his face pretty much said it all. Glancing briefly at Alec, he waited to see how far she’d go to get Pelts to bite. Despite the haunted look in her eyes, she wasn’t going to back down.

“It was too bad about Paul, he was intelligent enough to know better but...”

“You bitch! You should be rotting in hell right now!”

Alec stepped back as Rick Pelts jumped to his feet and smacked his hands on the table. Max stood up and placed himself between Alec and the furious man.

Straightening away from the wall, Ian moved over to stand beside Alec, knowing she’d get more than pissed with him if he looked like he was protecting her.

Ignoring all the posturing of the men in the room, she did what he hoped she wouldn’t and pushed past Max to lean on the table, bringing her face within inches of the man that hated her. “They should have got life,” she hissed, “if they ever see this side of the fence again, I’ll be watching...”

Everything happened all at once, Rick lunged across the table at her reaching for her throat, Brent grabbed him and had him against the wall at the same time that Ian wrapped an arm around Alec and dragged her out of reach. Max watched Brent hold him against the wall as he opened the door and held it for Ian to push her out into the hallway.

They were met by Reid as he bolted from the room next door. Nodding to him, Ian didn’t stop to look at Alec, he quickly hurried back inside to see if he could get anything more from the criminal that he wanted to stomp into the floor for even thinking of harming one head on Alec’s head. He paused briefly when that thought registered. Sinking fast.

Brent had released Rick Pelts and was standing back a few feet, his arms out to his sides. Ian knew he may look like he was over it, but there was something about the stance that told him he was ready if anything else was tried. Max was standing almost nose to nose with the panting Rick, speaking in a low, lethal tone.

Ian looked away from them and focused to find the path to the right mind.

I am so fucked now. Nick is going to have my balls on his mantel. Fuck.

He listened for a few more minutes until he was sure there wasn’t anything useful in the man’s immediate thoughts. Glancing at Brent, he nodded and then turned when Max pulled the handcuffs from his belt and spun Rick around.

One more down, which would have made him feel a lot better if they knew how many they were dealing with. Shaking it off, he headed towards the downstairs office. They had roughly half a day to try to piece more together before he went to lunch with Sandy and Andrea.

Alec was pacing when he walked into the office. He only had to look at her expression to know she was several miles past agitated and still looking for a physical confrontation.

His mind changed gears and he began picturing how he’d like to get physical with her.

Not right now, the logical part of his brain reminded him.

“Where’s Brent?”

Perching on the edge of the desk, Ian crossed his arms and forced his mind back to less pleasant thoughts. “They were cuffing Pelts when I left.”

Alec stopped moving and placed her hands on her hips. “Doubt we can hold him long,” she cursed under her breath and then glared at him, “if you men hadn’t stopped him too soon, we could have him on a lot more.”

“Did you expect us to let him choke you in front of us? Our hands tucked in our pockets?”

She made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat. “Like I’d let him.”

Brent came in, preventing Ian from saying what he thought of Alec’s plan. Maybe it was a good thing he didn’t.

Glancing around, Brent turned to Jac. “Where’s Felicity?”

Jac grinned. “She’s gone tux shopping for you.”

Ian swallowed the chuckle at the unpleasant expression on Brent’s face from the mention of wearing a tuxedo.

“I can hardly wait,” Brent mumbled.

“What’s going on with Pelts?” Alec resumed her pacing.

Moving around to sit behind his desk, Brent dropped down into the chair and rubbed the back of his neck. “Reid’s talking to the captain right now.” He turned to look at Ian. “Did you get anything useful?”

Shrugging, Ian motioned to his tablet sitting on the table. “Aside from whatever was on that stick...”

“Which I’m going to have a meltdown over soon if we don’t look at it,” Jac added with a smirk.

Brent nodded. “We’re just waiting until Reid gets back and then we’ll figure out that.” He looked back at Ian.

“Has anyone run those two names yet? Ray Butler and Payton Cox, I don’t what level of work they do for Pelts, but they’re in the mix of it.” He paused as Jac turned and typed on the keyboard.

“Done.” She turned back to him.

Ian zeroed in on Alec. “Bill is protecting you, well to a point. He told Pelts you were out of sight and no one could get to you.”

She snorted. “I’ll be sure to send him a thank you cupcake before I take him down.”

Brent cleared his throat. “I think it’s time to get a tail on Bill.”

Alec nodded. “I want him out of the picture.”

Reid stepped in and closed the door. “The captain just bought us two days roughly. We agreed to let Willard go—again so he can pass off the stick to Nick.” He looked around slowly at everyone. “What did I miss?”

Jac smiled at him. “I’m running those two names and Brent wants a tail on Bill.”

Nodding slowly, Reid moved over and glanced at the screen of the computer Jac sat at. “I can take care of that. I have a few private sectors that owe me big.”

“Is there anyone that doesn’t owe you a favor?” Jac asked with a smirk.

Shrugging, Reid crossed his arms and looked down at her. Ian couldn’t miss the tender look in the rough man’s eyes. “A few.”

“Set it up.” Alec moved past them and leaned on the desk staring at the search screen. “Ray and Payton are basically low-level gophers, like our buddy Willard.”

“Take away enough of their gophers and the higher-ups are going to have to come out in the open,” Ian said more to himself than the others.

“I agree. We’ll start tracking them down.” Brent got up and came around the desk. “Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I want to know what Andrea passed to Willard.” He moved over and looked down at Ian’s tablet.

“We could use your place.” Alec looked at Ian.

One night he’d been unwinding at a bar and now—now everything was getting complicated. Sighing, he turned and grabbed a notebook off the desk and scribble down his address. Tossing it on the table, he picked up his tablet and put it in its case. “I’ll see you there.”