Ghost Mortem (Ghost Detective #1) - Jane Hinchey Page 0,37

his voice.

"Well yes, only mine are on the inside." I nodded in agreement.

Galloway blew out a sigh, his face resigned. "Okay. But this goes no further. I'm taking a huge risk telling you and I cannot afford to have word of this getting out." He glanced up at the ceiling and muttered something to himself about pushy women.

I couldn't believe he'd caved. I'd fully expected him to leave without either of us getting what we wanted. Of course, now that he had, I had a twinge of concern that maybe I didn't want to know this big bad secret. What if it's what got Ben killed? Would it put a target on my back too? Although to be fair, any of his cases could be behind his murder and I may already be a target.

"You're overthinking," Ben whispered near my ear. I lowered my head and willed my brain to stop spinning. It didn't.

"I'm part of an undercover task force," Galloway said, voice devoid of emotion. "To investigate—and put a stop to—corruption in the force."

My head snapped up. "You should have led with that," I told him.

"So you know about Ben's case?"

I snorted. "Of course I know what those assholes did to him. I'm his best friend. I was by his side throughout the entire debacle. I saw what it did to him!" I poked Galloway in the chest, hard. "Why has it taken this long, huh? Three years. That's a pretty shitty response time."

Galloway had the grace to look remorseful. "The task force was only created this year. As I said, it's undercover. Secret. We can't have anyone finding out about it; otherwise they'll go into hiding and we'll never catch them at it."

"By them, you mean cops? Your fellow officers?" I needed to be one hundred percent certain clear we were on the same page. Galloway nodded.

"What if this is some trick? Get me to hand over all of Ben's proof that Firefly Bay Police Department is corrupt, then you destroy it and it was all for nothing."

"All I can give you is my word." Galloway shrugged. It was true. There were no guarantees I could trust him. There was a time when I would trust virtually anyone, but those days were gone. The department had nearly destroyed Ben. They'd kicked him while he was down. Not only had he been dealing with his father’s illness and the heartbreaking decision to put him into care, but they framed him as a bad cop. Falsified reports, tampered with evidence. They'd left him with no option. Be fired for misconduct or resign. All because he'd witnessed a payoff between an officer and a drug dealer.

"You've been in Firefly Bay a while. Why now?"

He looked puzzled. "I'm not sure I know what you mean? Yes, I've been here for two years. But the task force has only recently been formed."

"And no one in the Firefly Bay Police Department is involved in the task force? Just you?"

He inclined his head. "Just me." Then he elaborated, "The task force is statewide. Firefly Bay isn't the only station with problems, hence, the task force."

I chewed my lip. He could be spinning me total bullshit. "I believe him," Ben said. My most troubling thought was that I did too. I didn't want to—every fiber of my being was protesting—but my gut instinct told me Galloway was on the up-and-up. "Fitz, if we can stop the corruption that we both know is happening then we have to trust him. We have to take the chance." I liked how Ben said we. That I wasn't alone in this, he had my back.

I nodded my head. Once. "What is it you need?"

"Ben said he kept his own reports of everything that happened. That's what we were meeting about the day we bumped into you. I'd reached out to him, we had a conversation and he told me everything he knew."

"You know it was Ian Mills Ben saw, accepting a bribe from a drug dealer he was meant to be arresting?"

Galloway nodded. "I do. I'm also looking at Sergeant Dwight Clements and Deputy Police Chief James Clarke." I wasn't surprised to hear Dwight's name come up, he and Ian were as thick as thieves, both on duty and off. James Clarke surprised me, but then I figured someone high up in the department had to be involved; otherwise things would never have escalated as they did. "Remember," Galloway added, "not a word. This is strictly between us."

"Oh good. You're