She’d asked what they were investigating—someone she knew well. Dallas Vine. He’d hit federal radar a year ago and was one target amid a large multistate investigation into human trafficking and money laundering. Ben and his partner Efren Gomez had been assigned to a growing task force six months ago. They worked out of the Los Angeles bureau office.
They knew Bucshon was connected to Vine; they weren’t certain how much he knew or how close he was to the top. His name had been flagged, so when the arresting officers entered it into NCIC, the National Crime Information Center, the federal team was notified. Bucshon’s arrest opened a door for them to talk to him, hopefully without Vine being alerted. Since Bucshon beat up his girlfriend, it shouldn’t leak back that his arrest had anything to do with the investigation into Vine.
The last thing they wanted was LBPD spooking Vine at this juncture. Especially Detective Jensen. Her heart might be in the right place, the guy was a vicious criminal who needed to be taken off the street, but a city PD did not have all the resources a federal agency had. Even with their resources, the team heading the investigation was frustrated. Vine was careful, and he seemed to have a sixth sense about investigators. He was as slippery as he was evil. Ben was confident they’d get their man.
Ben hoped they had enough leverage on Bucshon to get him to spill something that would help move their investigation forward.
He contacted his boss, Mark Gentry, as soon as he secured Bucshon in the back of his vehicle and before Ben got in the driver’s seat. “I’ve got Bucshon.”
“Did he say anything to LBPD?”
“No. I don’t think he had time. I’ll be at the office in about twenty minutes.”
He climbed into the driver’s seat and started the car. While he drove, Ben considered Detective Jensen. He knew who she was because of her history with Vine, and Ben knew everything about Vine, but this was the first time he’d seen her in person.Formidablewas the first word that came to his mind. The second wasstunning.Dark-auburn hair and vibrant hazel-green eyes caught his attention immediately. And she was one of those women who appeared feminine even in conservative cop clothes.
Ben hadn’t known what to expect when he was notified about Bucshon. Jensen was not the arresting officer. Meeting her was a shock to the system—in a very good way.
It tweaked him that now she probably hated him.
She’d arrested Vine when she was a rookie—impressive. Her arrest report almost read like a crime novel. They were serious charges. It was not her fault that he’d skated on everything.
Vine was released. Jensen shadowed him, staking out his office, his businesses, and his home on her own time, trying to find evidenceconnecting him to the murder of Daphne Sparks. Evidence that would put the man in jail for good. But she wasn’t skilled in surveillance. Apparently, she showed up on Vine’s radar one too many times. A lawsuit got Jensen reprimanded and suspended.
Word through the grapevine now, years later, was that she had grown into a good cop. Ben was acutely aware that if she had been able to stop him from taking Bucshon, she would have. Determined people made good cops.
She was someone Ben would like to sit down and have coffee and conversation with. The first question he’d ask was, what drew her to law enforcement? He’d bet it would be a good story. Ben himself had gone into law enforcement unsure if the profession was really for him. His father and grandfather were both retired US Marshals.
Ben felt pressured to follow in their footsteps and thought for sure he’d hate it. But when he and Efren first became partners and they rescued several boys, girls, and women who had been trafficked into the country, Ben knew he’d found his calling. He wanted to help people; he wanted to make a difference.
“Hey, where’re you taking me?” Bucshon spoke up from the back. “This ain’t the way to County.”
“I explained to you that you are in federal custody now. I’m taking you to the federal lockup in LA.”
Ben hoped the guy would stay quiet. He wanted to interview him, sure, but he wanted a controlled, recorded environment.
“Just as long as you don’t send me to County.”
“Not today.”But I’m not making any promises.
Bucshon settled down and in the quiet, as Ben navigated traffic on the 405 freeway, he let his thoughts drift back to Detective Jensen and Dallas Vine. Vine had been a small-time crook when she’d arrested him fifteen years ago. Ben could only imagine what a rookie felt when she discovered a dead body on a car stop. Unfortunately, the body could never be connected to Vine. The gun on his person was not themurder weapon, and the car was borrowed. The woman had been murdered elsewhere and placed in the car. Vine claimed he’d never seen her before.
One quote from the report had stayed with Ben because it was emblematic of how Vine got out of jams.“I just borrowed the car. I didn’t look in the back seat.”
Every bad act was always blamed on someone else. Like a greased pig, Vine slipped out of every arrest.
All he got after the smoke cleared was a slap on the wrist for drunk driving and illegally carrying a concealed weapon. That would upset any self-respecting law enforcement officer.
If the unjust situation wreaked havoc with Jensen’s career, it also affected Vine. His MO changed after that arrest. He became more careful, more circumspect. He began to insulate himself with high-powered attorneys.
One odd fact in the report stood out to Ben: Vine had no online presence at all. No social media, no website, nothing online that could be monitored. He didn’t even use credit cards.
In Ben’s estimation, Vine had been humiliated, and a man like Vine hated to be humiliated. As a result, he’d worked hard to become Teflon. So far, he’d been very successful. In the last several years, he’d grown into a virtual recluse—a recluse king of crime. The FBI became involved when evidence surfaced that Vine was part of a large multistate human-trafficking operation. He was part of a much larger puzzle.
Ben and Efren were small parts of the larger task force. They’d just finished another case when they were assigned to gather intelligence on the money-laundering portion. Efren had gone undercover, infiltrating the Vine crime kingdom to try to find connections to the larger operation and evidence to nail Vine.
Efren was the reason Ben had swooped in to take Bucshon from the stunning Detective Jensen. Efren hadn’t checked in at the prescribed time. He was now four days overdue.
As Ben drove, he clutched at a straw that the filthy little man in the back of his car might be able to give him a little hope concerning his partner.
