Abigail put up her hand. “We can’t interfere in this investigation, Lucy. You know that. But I can give you a leave of absence.”
“I appreciate that, but Sean is in danger in jail. I need someone with authority to explain that to the Houston police. They’re not going to listen to me.”
“He’s not a cop,” Abigail said.
“No, but considering his involvement in several high-profile investigations and his work with RCK, the fact that Sean and his brother Kane both had bounties on their head by the drug cartels, one bounty because of work Sean was doing for the FBI—I shouldn’t have to explain this, you know what RCK does.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, I should have considered that. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you.” But Lucy couldn’t trust that Abigail would protect him. She trusted her—to a point. She liked and respected her and she was one of the most diligent and smartest agents Lucy knew. Still … this was a prickly situation and Abigail didn’t know just how much trouble the Rogan family had caused certain criminal organizations. If any of those groups knew that Sean was behind bars it would just take one call to put the bounty back on his head, in a place where he was defenseless.
Lucy had to talk to Rick Stockton. He was an assistant director of the FBI and had more clout than anyone else. Plus, he would do anything in his power to protect Sean. He couldn’t get him out of legitimate charges, but he could make sure that he was safe while in custody.
“While you’re on leave, Lucy, I need to remind you that you can’t insert yourself in this investigation. Let the police do their job. You’re Sean’s wife, but you’re also a sworn agent and I expect you to conduct yourself as such.”
“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