Lucy had read Marie Ynez’s file on the way back from juvie, and shared the information with the others. “Marie had a messed up life. She was sexually and physically abused, her brother and mother are in prison, her father was killed in prison, her other brother is dead. She wants out of the cycle. She’s in a group home, gets good grades, and the warden doesn’t think she would be involved with a crime, but I don’t like the fact that Elise befriended her—especially since her brother was part of the Saints.” Lucy glanced at Aggie and realized she might not be the best person to talk to Marie. “I think Aggie should talk to her.”
“Why?” Nate asked.
“Because Aggie doesn’t look like a cop and she’s smart enough not to be manipulated.”
“Thanks,” Aggie said, sounding surprised. “And she might give us a lead on Mitts Vasquez.”
Lucy concurred. “I would join you,” she said, “but Elise may have told Marie lies about me. Elise never met Aggie.”
“She’s not going alone,” Nate said.
“I’m right here,” Aggie snapped.
“Nate, you would intimidate the girl,” Lucy said.
“I’ll stay in the background, but if we’re dealing with anyone associated with the Hunt family, no one goes anywhere alone. They grabbed Brad—they had to know his routine, because he’s too good to be followed. And they could know about Aggie, even though she’s new.”
Lucy frowned. Jack’s words came back to her.
They took out our core.
“What?” Nate asked.
“Jack and I were talking before you arrived. He said someone is taking out our core. It’s Elise and whoever is working with her. But … revenge isn’t the motive. It’s a motive, but this is too big and too elaborate to be the primary motive.”
“The Hunts are crazy,” Nate said bluntly. “Especially Elise. Revenge is a perfectly viable motive. And didn’t Nicole plot revenge against the DEA? Just because she was found out?”
“No—I mean, yes, she did damage to the DEA out of spite, but her primary motive was to disrupt the system so that she could get her confiscated money. She was cold and calculating, she would never have stayed in town if she had the money to get away.”
“And Elise is young and wild and it makes sense that she’d want to get back at everyone who took out her family.”
Something shifted in her thoughts. “We didn’t get everyone.”
“What do you mean?”
“Her father. Jimmy Hunt.”
“He’s in prison,” Nate said.
“In L.A. What do you want to bet the first thing Elise did when she landed in L.A. three weeks ago was to visit her father?”
She didn’t know why she didn’t think of it before, except that she hadn’t been involved in the Jimmy Hunt extradition and prosecution, had never met him, didn’t work any aspect of his case.
She needed to know if Elise talked to him. It might not mean anything, but if Elise and Jimmy had talked even once over the last three weeks, maybe he was the one orchestrating her moves. It made sense. She’d taken direction from Tobias, her half brother. She would be more apt to take direction from her father than coming up with something this elaborate on her own.
And maybe then it really was just about revenge. They had killed his wife, his niece, his son. Would he use his only living daughter to get it?
Yes … she thought he would. And Elise would be more than happy to do it.
“I’m going to contact the agent who was involved in that investigation,” she said. “Hopefully, she can get the information first thing in the morning.”
She looked at her watch. “Okay, you guys get going and we’ll meet back here when we’re done, no matter how late. Garrett and I are going to talk to the corrections officer who resigned.” She looked at the lawyer. “I assume you’re coming.”
“Jack would kill me—literally—if I let you go out alone. I have to say that I feel you’re interfering with a police investigation and this could come back to hurt you.”
“The police aren’t looking at Elise Hunt, at least not yet.”
“What about Jess?” Nate said. “He shouldn’t be by himself.”
“Leo Proctor called earlier and said he’d help any way he could as long it wasn’t about Sean’s case,” Lucy said. Leo was a senior agent and the SWAT team leader. He was also the lead hostage negotiator and Lucy had been working closely with him for the last year. “But can you stay for the weekend?”