exact reasoning—I have sources, but not in Houston. My guess is they felt that Sean is a flight risk.” He paused, looked from Brad to Lucy. “I’m aware of Sean’s background. His juvenile record isn’t going to be an issue—they can’t use it, or even see it. It’s been expunged, as part of his plea agreement when he was seventeen.”
Brad glanced at Lucy, surprised.
“I’ll tell you later,” she said. “I sense a ‘but.’”
“Sean’s FBI file is sealed, but they could ask to open it. I don’t know if they will, I don’t know what’s in it, but Jack doesn’t want it unsealed. If it goes that far, it would be up to a federal judge.”
Lucy didn’t know what was in his file, but he’d had an FBI agent gunning for him up until a couple of years ago, and once something was put into the record it was impossible to get out. But Sean had high-level security clearance to work on computer security for various government agencies and contractors, so whatever was in the file couldn’t be that bad.
“Felicity is going to do everything in her power to ensure that he’s arraigned today, and then we can post bail. But—and I’m being perfectly honest with you here—I think they’re going to keep him all weekend and hold off arraignment until Monday. That tells me they need more information—more evidence—in order to ask for a higher bail, or no bail. You know how these things work. The earliest he’ll be in Houston and booked is noon. Then he’ll be questioned. They’ll drag it out as long as they can to prevent him from getting out this weekend.”
“That’s bullshit,” Lucy said.
Though she would do the same thing in their position. If she believed that her suspect was guilty and could commit another crime or was a flight risk, she would arrest him on a Friday and hold him over until Monday to make sure they had all their ducks in a row before they had to go in front of a judge.
Garrett didn’t comment. He looked at his phone.
“What?” Lucy asked, leaning forward.
“They found a .45 in Sean’s plane, in a locked box under the pilot’s seat. Revolver, two bullets missing. They also found a bit of clothing or a towel that it was wrapped in. My assistant couldn’t see exactly what it was.”
“Do you honestly think that if Sean committed cold-blooded murder, he would leave the murder weapon in his own plane?” Lucy said.
Her chest hurt. She could not believe that this was happening.
“You have a lot of friends in San Antonio. Ashley Dominguez, the head of the lab, recused himself.”
“He was likely asked to,” Lucy said. “Ash is a friend. The prosecution could claim he tainted evidence.” But she would much rather have someone she trusted processing the evidence, and there was no one better than Ash. “Garrett, I need to see the evidence.”
“That’s not possible right now.”
“Sean is innocent, and this whole thing stinks. I need to talk to him and find out what’s going on. If he went to see Mona in Houston there was a damn good reason. And if it’s connected to Elise Hunt—I need to know what’s going through his head.”
She shouldn’t have said anything about Elise, but judging from Garrett’s expression, JT had already filled him in.
“You need to stay far away from Elise Hunt,” he said solemnly. “She served her time and you can’t approach her.”
“She’s dangerous and sociopathic,” Lucy said. “She is capable of anything, literally. I do not say that lightly. She killed a man in cold blood by injecting him with poison, then set the stage to make it appear as if she’d given him oral sex. She then immediately went to another man and had sex with him for money, while setting him up to be blackmailed. She had a family held hostage while she took the father at gunpoint to embezzle money from his accounts. I can go on.”
Garrett put up his hand. “Elise Hunt was not convicted of any of those crimes, and therefore in the eyes of the law she is innocent. You need to stay away from her.”
“I understand her better than anyone,” Lucy said.
“Be that as it may, let me do my job—and that is to protect you and Jesse from legal harm. My colleague Felicity will protect Sean’s rights. I can’t have you investigating this case—possibly obstructing justice—because you have a vendetta against an eighteen-year-old.”