CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Little surprised Sean, but when he saw Assistant Director Rick Stockton waiting in front of his Georgetown town house when he and Patrick arrived back late Sunday he was surprised.
“You could have called first, Director,” Sean said.
Stockton smiled with half his mouth. “You think I came out here without knowing you’d already landed?”
Score one for the director, Sean thought. Sean unlocked the door, disconnected the alarm, and gave Patrick a glance. Patrick nodded and said, “I’m beat. It’s been a long two days. Director.”
“Good to see you again, Patrick.”
Patrick went upstairs and Sean led Stockton to the back of the town house. “Beer? Scotch?”
Stockton shook his head. Sean grabbed a beer from the refrigerator.
“Hans Vigo’s condition hasn’t improved,” Stockton said.
“Noah told me what happened. It doesn’t sound like it was an accident.”
“I sent Armstrong to investigate. Only he; the Bureau chief, Lynda O’Neal; another staff member inside; and Lucy know that it was attempted murder.”
“Prognosis?”
“None yet. They know they need to do surgery, but can’t until the swelling on his brain has gone down.” Stockton sat at the bar. “I’ll take that Scotch now.”
Sean poured the best Scotch he had, an eighteen-year-old Laphroaig whiskey.
Stockton looked at the bottle with a grin. “JT.”
JT Caruso, one of the founders of RCK, had served with Stockton and Sean’s oldest brother Kane as a Navy SEAL. Sean had known him since he was a kid. “He sends me a bottle now and again, but I’m not much of a Scotch drinker.”
Something was definitely up with Stockton. Sean leaned against the kitchen counter and let Stockton enjoy the drink. He avoided asking questions, though he had many.
Eventually it came.
“Why did you run a background check on Special Agent Richard Laughlin?”
“How do you know I did?”
“Cut the crap, Rogan.”
Sean wasn’t about to tell Stockton anything, not until he found out why it mattered. “I didn’t break any laws or obtain any classified information, so why do you care?”
Stockton’s expression was stern. “He’s an FBI agent.”
“Why would the assistant director care about a legal background check on an agent? I run backgrounds all the time, usually a lot deeper than what I did on Laughlin.”
Stockton sipped his Scotch and didn’t break eye contact. Sean had run the search quietly; there shouldn’t have been any flags thrown up, unless the FBI was already watching Laughlin. Most of Sean’s research was passive—except for the credit reports.
“You flagged his financials,” Sean said. “That’s the only way you would know that I ran his credit.”
“Who hired you to investigate a sitting FBI agent?”
“No one.”
“Stop bullshitting me.”
“I did it because I wanted to.”
Stockton stared at him, a tick in his jaw, and Sean realized there was something bigger here.
“What did he do?” Sean asked.
“I want the truth, Sean.”
“So do I.”
Stockton slammed his glass down. “Why the games? Why won’t you just tell me?”
“I’m not playing games. You asked me who hired me. I told you no one. I’m not lying. Is he a suspect in Hans’s accident?”
“No.”
Sean believed him. “What do you want?”
“If no one hired you, why did you run a background?”
Sean decided to give him most of the truth. “He’s harassing Lucy.”
That response seemed to surprise Stockton. “Lucy asked you to do it?”
“No,” Sean lied. “But when she told me he was making her nervous, I decided to dig around and find out why.”
Stockton reached over and retrieved the Scotch, poured a finger, and sipped. “And did you find out why?”
“More or less. As much as I could find out legally.”
“You have a theory.”
“I do.”
Stockton didn’t say anything. Sean decided it didn’t matter if Stockton knew or not. “Lucy wants to handle it herself. She doesn’t want me, or you, or anyone butting in.”
“But you ran a background check anyway.”
“And again, I ask, why do you care?”
“Agent Laughlin has been undercover for the last year in a major drug and money-laundering sting in a joint operation with the DEA. We sent him to Quantico as a class mentor until the trial.”
“As protection?”
“It was a dicey op, but we have the bad guys in custody. Just wanted to make sure one of them hadn’t hired you.”
Stockton wasn’t being completely honest with him, but Sean let it slide for the moment. “I’m stunned you’d think I wouldn’t check out my clients,” he said.
“Point taken.” He sipped. “Why does Lucy think Laughlin is harassing her?”
“I said, she wants to handle it.”
“I’m not getting involved. Just curious.”
Sean didn’t believe that, but it couldn’t hurt for Stockton to know that one of his agents held grudges. He told him what he knew about Laughlin’s and Kate’s shared work history.
Sean put his beer down. “Now my question to you is, how does Laughlin know Lucy didn’t pass her FBI panel, and why would he tell her Hans got her into the Academy?”
Stockton kept a poker face, but his eyes told Sean the information came as a surprise.
“I’ll answer that,” Sean continued. “To demoralize her. To make her doubt herself. He doesn’t know her; he doesn’t have any connection to Lucy except through Kate. So I think Laughlin was buddies with Standler and he blames Kate for Standler’s death.”
“That’s weak.”
“Maybe it is, but unless you have other information, that’s what I’m going with.”
Stockton drained his Scotch and put the glass down. “Thank you for the Scotch, and the truth,” Stockton said.
“Anytime. You’re practically family.” Sean trusted few people in law enforcement; Rick Stockton was an exception. In addition to being close to RCK, Stockton had proven to be both discreet and smart.
“Learn anything in New York?”
“Already gave the intel to Noah.”
Stockton nodded. “You’re still searching for Peter McMahon?”
Sean walked Stockton to the door. “That’s the last thing Hans asked me to do, as I explained to Noah. He never legally changed his name to Peter Gray, but he was using it for years. Peter Gray disappeared six years ago. My guess is he either went completely off the grid or changed his name, this time legally. I’m working on a couple angles from his time at SU.” Sean had a buddy in Syracuse who would be pulling files at the police station first thing in the morning.
“Kate’s also working on tracking down McMahon. A little competition never hurt.” Stockton smiled and left.
Sean ran up the stairs and logged in to his computer. Lucy was online. He called her.
“Rick Stockton just paid me a visit. I think he’s looking at Laughlin for something completely different than we are.” He told her about the case in Detroit and the “protection” by being put at Quantico. “There’s something fishy about the whole thing.”
“It’s Stockton’s job to protect his agents. It makes sense to me. Laughlin may be a great agent and a jerk at the same time.”
“It was the way he asked, the way he assessed my answers.”
“Did he have an update on Hans?”
“He’s the same. How are you holding up?”
“I’m okay. Better now, anyway. All I have to think about is Hans lying unconscious after someone hit him over the head—if these people are really my friends, they’ll understand.”
“Did you get the photo I sent?”
“The guy in the subway station? I didn’t recognize him, but it’s not a lot to go on. I don’t know if I saw him that I’d recognize him.”
“And the articles?”
“I’m reading them now.”
“I sent Noah a message about a notebook of Rosemary Weber’s that Tony took before leaving New York.”
“We went through his overnight bag—it was in his car—and the notebook wasn’t there. Are you sure he took it?”
“He could have brought it into his office. Maybe it went the same way as his file.”
“Meaning, someone stole it. What year was it?”
“The anniversary week of Rachel McMahon’s disappearance. That’s why I sent you the articles from that week. You read Tony’s file—maybe you’ll notice something.”
“I’ll try.”
“It’s all we have for now. Watch yourself, Lucy.”
“I love you, Sean.”
Sean hung up, wishing he could just pop in and see her. But he had his own tasks, and if they were going to get to the bottom of what was going on in New York and at Quantico finding Peter McMahon was one major step.
The guy might be innocent in all this and just trying to disappear from his past.
Or he could have a vendetta he was in the middle of enacting.
Sean sent Lucy an encouraging e-mail, then went back to his notes on McMahon. He itched to find the guy. Kate was good—one of the best—but Sean was better.
Especially since Stockton didn’t say anything about Sean having to find McMahon legally.