“He told you this?” Jane had a tough time believing Scott would have confided to Sullivan.
Williams grinned. “Nah. She was snooping and overheard him talking on the phone to his buddy upstairs. Not having the full context, she had to listen for a long time to understand it all.”
“Ah. Well, good. So he doesn’t think I was tailing him.”
“Well, not at McGrath’s.” Sullivan snacked on cheese bread. “But following him from the dry cleaner and library? Oh yeah. You stepped in that one, kiddo. Oh, and I’m getting dessert today too.”
“Count me in,” Williams added. “By the way, Harding Fellows, your convenience store robber who emphatically says he’snotconnected to the Mazzucas in any way, shape or form? That guy?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, after you and your, I’d say sexy but I don’t want to get accused of harassment, so I’ll just say classy, FBI lady friend—who hates you by the way—left, I heard he started singing in exchange for protection.”
“Wait. You talked to Gina?”
“No. I talked to Officer Mendoza, who was in the room with you when classy FBI lady interrogated Fellows.”
“Oh. Mendoza, built like a brick wall?”
Williams nodded. “Apparently, classy FBI lady wasn’t singing your praises to the other detective, who happens to be a friend of hers. Mendoza owed me one, so when I called down there, I heard all about it.”
“What did you do to her?” Sullivan asked Jane.
“Nothing. She’s just jealous because she was Air Force and not a Marine.”
“Ah, interagency competition.”
“The Marine Corps is not an agency,” Jane said, repeating what she’d been telling the two since she’d known them.“Anyway, I couldn’t care less if she hates me. I just want to find out who killed Dan and what Matthew’s been up to.”
“I’m a little confused,” Williams said. “I thought you were suspended.”
“I am.”
“So how are you involved in all this?”
Sullivan poked him in the ribs. “She nearly got shot by Fellows. Hello?”
“I know that.” Williams flushed. “But how does she know classy FBI?—”
“If you call Gina Holtz ‘classy FBI lady’ one more time, I will kick you under the table. Hard.”
Williams snickered. “Fine. Gina Holtz, star of the cyber team in Houston for a bit. But she wanted something spicier and transferred out of her old field office a year ago. Rumor has it she’s been attached to a bunch of special projects.” He studied Jane. “You wouldn’t happen to be working with her on anything, would you?”
Sullivan huffed. “And if she was, she wouldn’t tell us.” Sullivan turned to Jane. “Although she should.”
Jane gave in to laughter. “You two crack me up. No, I’m not officially working.” Not exactly a lie, but she didn’t want to involve these two in her “off the books” work. “I’m helping out a friend of a friend with something.”
“Ah.” Sullivan nodded. “I knew it. You can’t not be busy.”
She ignored her. “Honestly, I’m going out of my mind trying to solve the thing with Simmons. I need more on Matthew to make anything stick. Tell me about him.”
“Oh, please, Williams, this is all you.” Sullivan glanced at him.
“The guy’s an egomaniac, a dictator, and a narcissist. What did I leave out?” He snapped his fingers. “Oh, right. He needs to be medicated to calm the frick down. He’s been in our facesabout everything. Tracking movements, getting reports on top of reports and involving himself in all of our cases. I mean, he’s the SSA, but he’s micromanaging so hard I’m surprised he can breathe with his nose stuck up our collective asses.”
“Rob,” Sullivan chastised, but the humor in her eyes told Jane she didn’t mean it. “Yeah, Jane. What he said. He’s gotten worse since your stalking. I think you shook him up.”
“Good. Tell me, is he into any cases I might not be aware of? Anything you can think of that I could look into while I’m waiting for OPR to find me innocent?”
