“May I go?”
She nodded. “Please, tread carefully. I hope this is just a misunderstanding, but Sean needs to be honest with the investigators.”
Lucy had to leave before she said something she would regret. No way would Sean tell them anything, even though he was innocent. Sean didn’t trust most cops, though over the years he’d learned to trust a few of them. He’d had problems in the past with overzealous FBI agents.
He also had a record. Sean’s crimes were nonviolent, and the one he was caught for was before he was eighteen. It should have been expunged. But Lucy didn’t know what was in his FBI file or what Houston PD might have access to.
She rose and said to Tia, “Thank you for telling me in person.”
“I’m sorry about all this.”
“I’ll find the truth.”
“Houston PD will find the truth,” Abigail said. “Lucy—”
“Sean is innocent,” she said. “Sean would never kill anyone in cold blood.”
Why were you at Mona Hill’s apartment, Sean?
“I need to go,” she said, and walked out before Abigail or Tia said anything else.
She ran back to her desk and grabbed her things, then looked around for Nate. He wasn’t in the office. She wasn’t going to talk to anyone else about this, not until she had more information. On her way out of the office, she called Nate on his cell phone. He didn’t answer. As she slid behind the wheel of her car, he texted her.
In court for the Diaz case.
She couldn’t tell him about Sean over text. She responded: Call me when you have a break.
She tried Sean’s number, on the off chance this was all a screw up and he’d already been released.
It went to voice mail after four rings.
She pulled out of the parking lot and called the one person she trusted more than anyone, other than Sean.
“Hey, sis,” Jack answered.
“Sean’s been arrested for murder. They’re transporting him to Houston, I don’t know any details, other than the victim is Mona Hill and she was killed Monday evening. I’m going home. They’ll be getting a warrant I’m sure, I need to be there.”
“Who is Hill?”
“She ran a prostitution ring in San Antonio, skipped town, and Tobias Hunt and his organization put a bounty on her head at one point. Sean kept in touch with her and she’s the one I reached out to when we were looking for Bella last year, and—”
“Now I remember. Have you talked to Sean?”
“No. They just told me when I got to work, and his phone went to voice mail. He’s already in custody. I have no messages or texts from him, and I … I don’t know what to do. He needs a lawyer, he needs help, Jack, he can’t be in jail. He can’t…” Her voice cracked and she forced herself to calm down. Deep breath. She couldn’t lose it. Sean needed her to be strong, he needed her to take care of business.
And he needed her to find out what was going on. If she acted hysterical, she’d get nothing.
“Lucy? You there?”
“I don’t know what to do, Jack,” she admitted. “I have to help him. I don’t know how. He didn’t kill Mona. I don’t believe it.”
“I’ll call JT and we’ll get the best fucking lawyer on the planet.”
“What if—”
“Shh, don’t talk, don’t say anything about Sean or this case or Mona Hill, nothing. Understand? Not over the phone. Run a complete security check on the house before talking, then use Sean’s landline.”
He was right.
“What did they tell you?” Jack asked. “Just what they said, no opinions.”
She told him exactly what Tia told her, no embellishments. She ended, “They’re in the process of getting search warrants.”
“You need a lawyer present when they serve the warrants. But if they get there before a lawyer, read it with a fine-toothed comb. Don’t let them take anything that isn’t explicitly listed. It needs to be reasonable. But they might take electronics if they can make a case that they need them, and the RCK lawyer is going to fight that because Sean works for us. We have sensitive information. They’ll likely seize any firearms, but if they have ballistics they should only take guns that fire that caliber.”
He was telling her everything she already knew, but hadn’t thought about.
“I need to call Kane,” she said.
Silence.
“What? I know he and Siobhan are out of the country, but he’ll come back for this.”
“Kane’s missing. I found out last night and took the last flight to Hidalgo. I talked to Sean this morning—he wanted to join me, but I said no. I didn’t think I would need him, I have Ranger and Dyson waiting for me at a safe house.”
“Kane’s missing?”
“Kane has been on the heels of a major human trafficking organization for years, and one of the leaders was identified with a confirmation on his location. Siobhan went with him because there were six victims involved. They rescued the girls—they are at the Sisters of Mercy convent—but Kane didn’t make it back. I’m hoping by the time I get there, Ranger will have a line on him and it’ll just be a matter of extraction. Where’s Nate?”
“In court, he doesn’t know yet.”
“I’ll tell him and ask him to stay with you until I get there. I’m hoping this situation with Kane will be resolved in twenty-four hours, and then both of us will be there. Don’t go anywhere alone.”
“This isn’t about me, it’s about Sean! What if someone is setting him up to kill him? He’s helpless in jail.”
“Sean has never been helpless, and we don’t know what this is about. Do what I say, Lucia,” he said firmly. “I need to talk to JT and Rick. Expect the unexpected. We’re in this together, understand?”
“You’re right, Jack. Thank you.”
“Be smart, Lucy. Go back to your training. All your training. I need you to be stronger than you’ve ever been, keep a cool head. We will get through this. Also, don’t use your cell phone to discuss this with anyone—just in case. The phone on Sean’s desk is secure, plus he has a secure cell in the safe. Get that phone, keep it with you, I have the number.”
He ended the call and Lucy took a deep breath. Jack was right. Falling apart wouldn’t help Sean.
She had many friends, but most of them were cops. Asking any of them for help would put them between a rock and a hard place.
Except for one. Sean and Kane had saved DEA Agent Brad Donnelly’s life two years ago, and while they told Brad he owed them nothing, she knew that Brad felt indebted to the Rogan family.
Lucy needed help and she trusted Brad. She called his cell phone.
“Donnelly.”
“It’s Lucy. I would never ask if it wasn’t important, but something … it’s extremely … hell, it’s a mess, Brad, and I don’t have many people I trust. I trust you.”
“Anything.”
“Sean’s been arrested for murder and I need information. I don’t want to talk on the phone. Can you meet me at my house?”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”