that. He loved his job, he was good at it, but in the end, the job only mattered because there were good people in the world who deserved good cops protecting them.
He sent Nate a text message to call him—he needed more information than Lucy had. Then, when he was certain he wasn’t being followed, he called Detective Jerry Fielding, his liaison with the San Antonio Police Department. They had worked numerous cases together, and he was a straight shooter.
“Jerry, it’s Brad. I’m calling about the cocaine your people found in an FBI agent’s car. Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“I can’t.”
That surprised him. “Can’t?”
“Look, you and I have a good relationship, but things have been strained between all of us since Butcher was arrested. He’s denied everything, said he was forced to make a plea, and the fact that he got ten to fifteen, it has caused a lot more problems.”
“The guy is guilty, Jerry. He was working for Rollins. He should have got life and is lucky the AUSA agreed to a plea. Rollins killed a half dozen agents, including my boss.”
“I’m not justifying anything, but you didn’t testify against him. Three FBI agents did.”
“Are you saying this is all a fucking setup?”
“No. The K-9 officer was doing his job. I know Officer Smith—hell, you know him. Ramon Smith. He’s worked on several joint operations.”
Brad did know Smith. He was a solid cop, former MP in the Army, all-around good guy.
Jerry continued. “When the dog hit on the truck, they ran the plates and found out the truck belonged to an FBI agent.” He paused. “Look, Smith called his boss because he recognized it was a sensitive situation. It was his boss who decided to take the opportunity to search it. It’s legal, and he wants to make a stand on it. It’s going to get ugly.”
“Nate Dunning is not a drug runner.”
“I don’t know Nate, but I trust you, Brad. We’ve been in this field a long time. This isn’t between me and the FBI—I have friends there. I’m just saying, you need to back off and let this play out. They want a full investigation, just like the FBI demanded of Butcher. Otherwise, they’ll cry foul, and none of us will want to work in a city where no one trusts anyone else.”
“Don’t think I don’t know what your people are going through. But this is fucking bullshit.”
“I’m sorry, Brad. This case is way over my head, and I think you should sit this one out, too.”
Brad ended the call. No way in hell was he sitting this out. He called Aggie Jensen, a smart young rookie who’d started with him eighteen months ago. She was a bit quirky and sometimes too casual in an office format, but he never called her on it—he liked her ability to think of every possible contingency as easily as she breathed. Not to mention she was a young, tech-savvy recruit who’d graduated top of her class at the DEA training facility at Quantico. Brad had run a secondary background check on her and she was exactly what she appeared to be: a twenty-eight-year-old computer geek from a family of military heroes and cops.
“Yep, boss?” Aggie said when she picked up the phone.
“Dunning with the FBI was detained after SAPD found sixteen kilos of coke in his truck. I need everything you can find about the case. There has been a strain between our departments ever since the FBI took down a corrupt cop who worked for Rollins.”
“Nate? Nate Dunning?” Aggie was clearly surprised. “What did he say?”
“It’s not his, he doesn’t know how it got there, and I believe him. But I can’t get involved—SAPD will cut me off because they know Nate’s a friend.” As he navigated lunchtime traffic, he told her briefly about the history with Eric Butcher and why SAPD wanted to play this one by the book. “One problem: Sean Rogan has been arrested for murder in Houston and Lucy and Sean need Nate’s help.”
“Wow. What can I do? Tell me—anything. Lucy is a goddess in my book, anything you need.”
“We play by the rules—but find the line and ride it hard. I need everything you can get about this bust. You’re friends with Zach Charles at the FBI?”
“Two peas,” she said.
“See what you can get from him, on the q.t. I want to know how the FBI is handling this. I’m pretty certain they’ll keep Nate from being booked, but there’s going to