“That would be me, sir.” Scott met the director’s inquiring gaze. “I have recently been targeted by a Pagan gang member, a man who calls himself X. He went to prison after an undercover operation I participated in two years ago. He’s out and looking to hurt me. I thought it had nothing to do with Officer Jamieson. Or this task force.”
Lattimore’s expression gave nothing away. “Why am I just hearing about this?”
Scott sat back. “My problem. I was handling it.”
Lattimore snorted, the first emotional response Cole had ever witnessed from him. “Your way of handling things could be the reason Officer Jamieson’s cover was blown.”
Scott’s jaw worked for a second. “Actually, sir, I’m certain it was. There’s an X on the lower right-hand corner of the newspaper article Ms. Collier was sent. It was a message meant for me.”
“But Scott, if he’s after you, why not out you instead of me?”
Scott didn’t look at Cole, afraid his fear for her would show. He spoke to Lattimore. “X won’t try to take me down until he’s wrecked everything important to me. But I’m not waiting for that to happen. I’ve been working with my former handler to get to X first. I should have told you sooner.”
“Can you be certain he has no direct interest in our present U/C operation?”
“Not certain. But since it’s not about him, my best guess is he doesn’t give a shit. X just wanted to humiliate me, through my partner.”
“Sir?” Cole waited until Lattimore’s attention shifted to her. “Shajuanna was only interested in the fact that I’m a law officer who befriended her under false pretenses. Even she didn’t ask why. Every interview she’s given stresses the fact that she thinks I was sent in to trip up her husband for crimes concerning his prior conviction. Puppy drug smuggling isn’t on her radar.”
Lattimore sat still for a long time, not looking at anything in particular. Finally he slipped his fingers under his glasses to rub his eyes. “We have a lot of resources and manpower involved in this task force. More than you know about. It was possible we had a leak here, on the back end. I needed to be sure that wasn’t the case.”
Cole let that sink in. Scott had warned her there were warring political factions at work for a man in Lattimore’s position with fierce internal defenders and enemies, pro and con. The fact that the director thought it was possible they’d been betrayed by someone in-house was positively chilling.
Lattimore adjusted his glasses and gave the pair before him a tight smile. “Thank you for your candid answers. We’ve had worse outcomes, and more spectacular failures. Believe me. If we can verify that the task force’s purpose remains unknown, our efforts will continue unabated on a different front.”
Cole was grateful he didn’t actually say the words “without you.”
He stood up and offered Cole his hand. “Thank you for your work and dedication, Officer Jamieson. DEA depends on officers like you to do difficult work.” He paused, looking at Cole with a very serious expression. “I know you are in a very difficult situation at the moment. But all of this will pass. You’re a fine officer. You were able to infiltrate our target with remarkable ease. It’s been good serving with you. Now if you will follow my assistant to the appropriate room, we can begin the debriefing.” He glanced at Scott. “Agent Lucca, a private word.”
Cole glanced back at Scott before she left. He looked tough, unapologetic, and ready for anything.
When she was gone, Lattimore turned to Scott. His eyes were silver behind his glasses and a vein had popped out on his forehead. “What the hell is all this about a man called X? I want details. Names, dates, everything that’s happened.”
*
“Screw that.” Scott clicked off the TV and tossed the remote away. He’d watched five innings of a ballgame before deciding it was the slowest-ass game on the planet.
Scott and Cole had spent three grueling hours answering and reanswering questions from various task force members. They had been cross-checked against each other’s statements separately, and then cross-referenced against the reports they had turned in weekly while undercover. It was necessary but it was an antagonistic process and sometimes just short of insulting. Once or twice it had crossed that line. But they had each stuck to their stories, omitting only certain previously agreed-upon events of that night in the alley.
He and Cole had returned to their rented apartment to pack. But neither of them had much energy for that at the moment.
In fact, Scott hadn’t heard a sound coming from Cole’s bedroom in over an hour. He thought she must be asleep. Now, he wondered if she wasn’t just hiding.
He got up and crossed to her open doorway.
She was at the window, staring off into the middle distance as if the parking lot beyond was the most interesting sight she’d ever seen. But he knew she wasn’t examining the parking lot, or anything else beyond the glass. She was all inside herself. Sadness was coming off her in waves he could feel. Hugo was at her feet, splayed out so flat it seemed as if he’d been run over. He was hurting because she was.