Nic, watching out for him, tapped his outer shoulder, bringing him back to the convo just as Aidan was saying they’d catch Moore up in the morning.
“All right,” Nic said.“So what’d I miss between the interrogation and now?You got something on Bowers?”
“Let me start with toxicology.”Cam grabbed the two folders from the center of the table.“We got results back from Jong.She rushed Harris’s.”
Another smile.“Finally, a break.”
“More than that.”Cam handed him Harris’s folder first.“Harris was given a drug that made him prone to suggestion.”He handed over the second folder.“And your father was injected with two different drugs that when combined made his heart blow up, literally.”
Nic flipped open each folder, scanning the reports, before he tossed them back on the table.“They trace back to Vaughn?”
Mel shoved another file across the table, SFPD’s crest printed on the front cover.“Last year one of Vaughn’s thugs was accused of date-raping a woman he picked up in a club.Scopolamine was found in her system.”
Nic’s eyes flared icy hot.“And the asshole is still a free man?”
“The charges were dropped.Erased, in fact.”Mel nodded at the folder.“That file isn’t supposed to exist.”
And yet here it was, which was why Mel was the best at what she did on and off the books.
“The arresting officer received sizable but not triggering wire transfers from an offshore account.”Lauren slapped a bank record down on top of the files, and Nic drew the stack closer, riffling through the documents.
“Do we know where he got the drugs?”
“Probably a dealer on the club circuit,” Mel said.
“You got enough for warrants?”Cam asked.
Nic closed the file, tucking the bank records inside.“Yes, on the goon and probably on Vaughn too, especially taken together with the reconveyance to Beth.”
“He recorded it, today after the interrogation,” Aidan said.“Over the counter to make sure it hit the record by close of business.”
“Wow,” Nic scoffed.“He’s just flaunting it now.”
“Is he?”Cam turned slightly toward him.“If he says he’s just helping out his niece, what looks worse, to hold it now or record it?”
“Fair point,” Nic conceded.“He’s only doing what he told us he would.”
“But you were also right in the interrogation,” Cam said.“We need to prove it’s not his normal course of business.”
“I’ll cycle back through Vaughn’s laptop,” Lauren said.“Look for others.”
“Ghosts, too,” Jamie said.“And I’ll also run a search through land and corporate.”
As they techno-babbled back and forth, Nic shifted in his chair, knees bumping Cam’s.“Why did you want to start with the tox results?And I’m still waiting for the nail in Bowers’s coffin.”
“Sheldon and Amy over there”—he jutted a thumb at Jamie and Lauren, got two middle fingers in return—“were also segmenting lists like you suggested for those with any pharmaceuticals connection.”
“You found a connection to the drugs Curtis was injected with?”
Cam looked to Mel, who slid another SFPD file across the table.“The new SFPD chief is much more helpful than that old guy.”
“Thank fuck,” Aidan huffed.
Nic opened the folder, then tilted his head a moment later, brows drawn as he scanned the charge sheet.“This is a manslaughter case.Wrong drugs administered by a health care professional.”
Cam understood his confusion; he hadn’t immediately seen the connection either.“A manslaughter case your boss yanked from SFPD last week.”
“Chief’s likewise none too fond of Lou Bowers,” Mel said.
