“First off,” Becker said, “there’s definitely a connection between Curtis Unified and Black Swan Enterprises. It’s buried in about a hundred layers of shell corporations and misleading legal paperwork, but it’s there if you look hard enough.”
“What kind of connections?” Zane asked from beside her, and she glanced over to see him leaning in close, his eyes focused on the Skype screen. Damn, he made intense look good.
“To start with, Black Swan Enterprises fronted the money for the construction of the parking garage,” Becker said. “They went out of their way to hide it from casual observers, but at the same time, they made sure if anyone bothered to dig deep, they’d find a completely rational trail of investment decisions ending in a net profit. Maybe not enough to justify a worldwide conglomerate like Black Swan Enterprises wasting their time on something as trivial as a parking structure in downtown LA, but the numbers support their involvement. I think all that’s a cover, though.”
“A cover for what?” Alyssa asked.
“To hide the fact that Black Swan Enterprises wanted the parking garage built a very particular way.”
“What do you mean?” Diego asked.
Becker shrugged. “I’m not an expert on building things, especially parking garages, but when I compared the costs for Stefan’s garage with several others in LA, Black Swan Enterprises put a lot more money into the foundation work than other people—like more than they paid for the entire rest of the structure.”
Alyssa almost gave herself a high five as the answer clicked in her head. “You think they put extra money into the foundation because there’s more than just a foundation down there. Like maybe rooms to hide people they kidnapped?”
“The building plans filed with the county show a few small offices on the ground level for management purposes, then not much beyond maintenance and utility space below that,” Becker said. “But unless Black Swan Enterprises was using the construction costs as a way to launder money, you’ve got to think it’s at least possible there’s something else down there.”
“Maybe even our illustrious police chief,” Zane said.
That was a possibility, Alyssa thought. “This is all great supposition, but what are we going to do to confirm it? Zane and I already figured out there’s no way to get into the offices on the lowest level without being seen. I doubt we’ll have better luck trying to go in from the ground floor.”
“We could set up a stakeout on the garage,” Zane suggested. “Keep an eye on the place until we see something worth moving on.”
Becker opened his mouth to say something, but a man called his name from somewhere behind him. “I have to go. We got a call—barricaded suspect in an apartment building. If you guys need anything else, let me know.”
“So, how do you want to do this?” Rachel asked after Becker hung up. “It might look suspicious if we’re parked by the curb across the street from the garage 24–7.”
Alyssa considered that. “I have an FBI credit card. We could see if there’s an office or apartment for rent nearby that’d give us a good visual on the entrance and exit of the garage.”
Zane and his teammates agreed that sounded like a good plan. Alyssa stood to head out with Zane when Diego caught his eye.
“Before you guys leave, could I talk to you for a second?” he asked Zane. “Outside.”
Alyssa pretended she didn’t see the curious expression on Zane’s face. Or the way he glanced at Rachel out of the corner of his eye. When he gave Alyssa a questioning look, she nodded and sat down on the couch again.
She didn’t know them well at all, but it seemed obvious there was some kind of tension between the three SWAT cops. She’d thought Zane’s joke about Rachel and Diego having their clothes on when they walked in was exactly that—a joke. Now, she wasn’t so sure. Maybe the two of them had slept together and regretted it.
Alyssa knew it was absolutely none of her business, but she also knew what it was like being a woman in a male-oriented career field, so she figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask if Rachel wanted to talk about it, but the SWAT cop spoke before she could get the question out.
“So, you have a federal credit card, huh?” Rachel asked, the smile on her face making Alyssa suspect the woman knew what she’d been thinking. “I bet it has a nice limit on it. Any chance you can use it to get us some rooms in a different hotel? Someplace that doesn’t have bedbugs the size of poodles?”
Alyssa laughed. Rachel did, too. The sound was almost enough to make the lingering tension in the room fade away. That’s when she realized Rachel didn’t seem tense. She seemed…tired. As in really, really tired.
Maybe that’s all that was going on. Maybe Rachel couldn’t sleep well in this crappy motel from hell. Maybe that’s what Diego wanted to talk to Zane about.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Alyssa said. “The team I’m on in the bureau has a lot of leeway when it comes to expenses, but a few extra hotel rooms in a city as pricey as LA are going to be noticed and raise questions. I’ll probably need to wait until after I drop the bill on them for the place we’re going to need for the stakeout. Once they finish crapping bricks over that, anything else will probably look like chump change.”
Rachel laughed again and opened her mouth to say something, but then looked sharply at the door. “Zane and Diego are coming back.”
Alyssa wasn’t sure how Rachel could possibly know that, but before she could ask, the door opened and both men stepped into the room. Diego looked more relaxed than he had a few minutes ago, but now Zane seemed tense. Maybe thiswasabout more than the rinky-dink, bedbug-ridden motel they were staying in.
“Do you mind if Diego goes with you to find that stakeout location instead?” Zane asked. “Something came up here I need to take care of.”
She had no doubt thesomethingthat had come up was whatever was going on between Rachel and Diego. Well, good luck dealing with that.
“Yeah, sure,” she said. “I’ll call as soon as we find something, so we can come up with a duty roster.” Alyssa glanced at Rachel as she headed for the door. “I’ll get in contact with the credit card rep for my team, too. See if I can at least warm them up to the idea of paying for another hotel.”
Rachel nodded. “Thanks.”
