“You said he moved up through the ranks quickly,” Sera commented. “This must not be the first time he has misused funds.”
Derek nodded. “Stark has done it once before. Once that we can prove, anyway.” He made eye contact with each of them. “Last year, his assistant Tucker May took the fall for him in a similar situation. Stark had accepted a bribe from AllStock Warehouse to support their proposal to open a store in Chicago. They had met a lot of resistance from local small business owners and council members, but they were ultimately approved. There was an internal investigation, and a sizable amount of money exchanged hands before they broke ground.”
Polly looked bored. “Doesn’t everyone just shop online now?”
“We kept an eye on Tucker May while he served time downstate,” Derek continued. “His cell mate turned informant in exchange for a reduced sentence—”
“Snitches get stiches,” Erin sang.
Derek hung his head a moment. “What do you think you are, O’Dea?”
“Oh yeah.” She waved him on. “Keep going.”
“Thank you. May confided in his cell mate that Stark knew about the AllStock Warehouse bribe money. Stark orchestrated the whole thing and pinned it on him with a second set of books, claiming he’d never been the wiser.”
Austin dropped into a chair beside Polly and winked at her. “Stark sounds like a real peach.”
“His father is a career politician at the state capital, so he’s been bred for this sort of thing,” Derek said. “And he’s smart about it.”
Sera shook her head. “What good does May’s cellblock confession do? He’s already been convicted. It’s his word against Stark’s.” Bowen laid a hand on her shoulder and she reached up to cover it. “It’s not unusual for a prisoner to proclaim his innocence. They all do.”
“That’s where it gets interesting.” Derek walked to the whiteboard and uncapped a blue marker. “May took the fall willingly. Stark promised to oversee his investments while he served his time, in addition to a bag of cash when he came home. But those investments failed under Stark’s watch. May wasn’t quite so ready to play ball anymore.”
“Wasn’t?” Bowen shifted on his feet. “Something happen to him?”
Derek nodded once. “May disappeared.”
“From prison?”
Erin shrugged. “It’s not as hard as it sounds.”
“May was cooperating with us.” Derek paused to let that sink in. “He had the proof we needed that Stark took the bribe. He’s also in possession of evidence that Stark approved a private development in exchange for campaign funds.”
“Stark got to him,” Connor said, his voice sounding rusty. “Found out he was going to talk.”
“That’s the assumption,” Derek confirmed. “We need to find him.”
“What if May is dead?” Erin wanted to know.
“Yeah,” Austin chimed in. “Stark doesn’t sound like the type to leave that kind of liability hanging around.”
Derek tapped the blue marker against his palm. “Each of you will be working a different angle. If we can’t find May, we trap Stark a different way.”
Erin flinched against him at the word “trap” and Connor quashed the urge to drag her onto his lap. Not for the first time, he wondered if she could handle what came their way. She might present a cavalier attitude to everyone else, but he’d seen what lay just beneath last night.
“This is where you six come in.” Derek uncapped the marker with his teeth and made a circle on the whiteboard, writing “Stark Campaign Headquarters” through the middle. “Sera, this is where I want you. Finding out everything you can. Listening, asking the right questions. We’ve built you a solid résumé and alternate identity that gets you in as a campaign staffer. Working close—”
“Nope.” Bowen started shaking his head. “No fucking way.”
“—but not too close with Stark. The mayoral election isn’t for a few months and he’s only there a few times a week.” Derek gave Bowen a challenging look. “Are you saying she’s not capable of handling it?”
Feeling an unwanted spark of sympathy for Bowen—he knew from experience that the guy lived for his girlfriend—Connor spoke up. “I think he’s saying he’s not capable of handling it.”
“Not my problem,” Derek returned.
“Can you get me in there as a”—Bowen snapped his fingers—“whatsitcalled, too?”
“A campaign staffer. And no. Best I can do is put you on surveillance outside headquarters.”
Sera murmured something to Bowen and he fell into the chair beside her, looking numbed out. Derek sighed and moved on. “Polly, I need you to set Sera up with a mic that feeds out directly to me…and Bowen. If you can get your hands on Stark’s financial records—”
“Cake.”
“—then try to track down any and all suspicious activity.”
Polly scrolled through her phone. “This barely passes as a challenge.”
Derek ignored her. “Erin, getting in and out of prison is your specialty. Find out how May did it. Or Stark did it for him, as the case may be.”