The Debriefing

Four

“Sure you don’t want anything?” Matt’s mouth was half full. He chomped on what looked like a taco salad only made with heart-healthy tofu. “Not bad for a hospital.”

“No.” Tony eyed the Tupperware.

This time, the nausea wasn’t from the drugs. Or Boyd’s death. Or the food.

It was the possibility of Matt’s betrayal.

His brother had lied to Talbot. He’d told her that he’d met Boyd for the first time yesterday.

But Tony had seen the two men having lunch in a café on Piedras, a block from EPPD a week or so ago.

Tony lay back with eyes closed and for a solid three minutes told himself to cut it the fuck out. But he could think of no good reason Matt would lie to her. He began to tally up the case for his brother’s guilt.

One, the lie to Talbot.

Two, Matt hadn’t told Tony about the surveillance op. And he’d been totally pissed off when Tony had shown up.

Three, as soon as they’d gotten to the factory, Matt had separated from the main team, which would have given him a chance to signal the Cardozos — specifically the sniper — and, at the same time, stay out of the line of fire. Matt’s appearing to be stuck in the warehouse, pinned down, would keep Boyd in the target zone.

Four, Elena Velasquez, the confidential informant. Matt had kept her to himself, which was odd. Detectives always shared their CIs and their information with fellow officers. One reason to keep her out of the picture? He was setting her up to be the perfect fall woman to blame for betraying Boyd.

Five, the grenades should by rights have killed the two officers but didn’t. Had they been tossed by a Cardozista away from Matt — to make sure he wasn’t hurt?

Okay. Those were circumstantial arguments of Matt’s betrayal. But they weren’t particularly damning, absent an answer to why — the number-one question on cops’ minds when they look over the puzzle of a crime.

Was there a why? Did Matt have a motive for betraying the team?

And Tony heard in his mind another question of Agent Shea Talbot’s.

Do you know anyone who might have an issue with Jonny Boyd?

Sorry I can’t help you. I don’t know anybody who’d want to take Jonny out.

Yes, it was a crime to lie to a federal agent.

But lie Tony had.

Because he did know someone who might have a reason to take the DEA agent out. His own brother.

August. Two years ago.

EPPD was running a drug takedown in an empty shopping mall east of the city, Matt being one of the officers on the job. Not the cartels; some scrawny cracker had been cooking up batches of meth like he was going to start distributing through Walmart. He was selling a mother lode to a fat, bearded biker. The bust went fine... until a carload of the tweaker’s buddies showed up, armed and eager and stupid.

All to hell.

The gun battle ran for twenty minutes, before all the perps ended up in metal.

It was a good day: More than twenty-two pounds of meth — enough for nearly forty thousand hits — and $600,000 cash. Six assholes off the street and the only injury one of the cracker’s friends, who got a pinkie shot off.

Then somebody in the DEA got to thinking. The going price for meth was $80-plus a gram. That meant the stash was worth nearly $800K. Why the discrepancy? Had $200K been stolen?

Tony wasn’t on the op but he was at the press conference, with all the drugs and cash piled high for the cameras, a typical dog and pony show the brass love. Tony happened to see the chain-of-custody card on the wrapped bags of cash: M. Wright was the first name on the list. His brother was the one who had packed up the money at the scene. If there had been a theft it could have happened anywhere from there to the evidence room, sure, but it’s always easier to pilfer from the scene rather than the vault in the evidence room.

In the profession of policing, it’s called “shrinkage.” It happens some but rarely to the tune of $200K.

Tony had heard that Boyd was getting pressure to find out if the money had in fact been stolen. So he was interviewing everyone who’d been at the scene. This was probably the subject of the meeting between Boyd and his brother that Tony had witnessed a week ago.

The meeting that Matt had lied to the FBI agent about.

Had his brother arranged for Boyd to die because the DEA agent was closing in on the truth?

Ridiculous, of course.

Impossible...

Except for the Douglas factor.