I had a bad feeling about this. Nothing I could pinpoint, but the sickening pressure in my gut kept intensifying with each passing moment. Ever since Santiago called Adam up to our drive to Eary Lake, that ominous feeling grew. Adam wanted to go alone, but I told him it would happen only over my dead body, so he yielded, to my everlasting surprise. Things went from bad to worse after Adam found Santiago dead in the car. When I got there, he was exasperated and itching for a fight, to little or no surprise. We called it in, and the backup arrived, but nothing could improve the fucked-up situation. Still, things couldn’t be worse, right? Wrong!
“DO YOU KNOW HOW THIS LOOKS? IT LOOKS BAD, MARKLAND! IT LOOKS AS IF WE’RE DIRTY! THIS MAY BE THE LD, BUT NO ONE HERE IS DIRTY, NOT UNDER MY WATCH!”
We could all hear Chief Bibb yelling at Adam, even through the closed door of his office.
“WHO KNEW ABOUT THE MEETING, MARKLAND?”
I buried my face in my hands, unable to listen to him any longer.
“WHO KNEW IT APART FROM YOU? THINK, MARKLAND! GOD DAMN IT, THINK!”
“No one.”
Adam’s voice was barely audible, but it sounded as if he’d shouted it.
I stood up abruptly when Maddox grabbed me by the arm, stopping me.
“Don’t do it, Slade. You’ll only make it worse.”
“I don’t care,” I growled, pushing him away and barging into the chief’s office. “Chief, none of it is Adam’s fault. I was with him the entire day. He found Santiago—”
“Enough!” Chief Bibb shouted. “How dare you barge in here, Detective?”
“Leave,” Adam hissed. “Have you lost your mind, Slade?”
“I won’t listen to this,” I growled, unable to stop myself. “Not when we did all we could to—”
I paused when Chief Bibb’s phone rang, cursing my luck.
“WHAT?” Chief Bibb bellowed. “Oh… fine, send him in.”
Both Adam and I looked towards the door, and then… then my world came crashing down. My heart stuttered, reminding me of those adages about actions and consequences. Truth and lies. Secrets that you let fester, instead of flushing them out. I always knew this moment would come, no matter how much time had passed or what I did to postpone it.
The man who walked in gave me a curt nod, while I collapsed into the chair next to Adam because my legs gave out.
“Agent Corcoran,” Chief Bibb said. “Meet the two of my finest and dumbest. Markland and Slade. Boys, meet Internal Affairs.”
Adam laughed. “Oh, really? You guys are quick, huh?”
Agent Corcoran raised his hand. “I’m not here for you, Detective Markland.”
“I hope so,” Chief Bibb threatened. “Because I would vouch for Detective Markland with my life.”
That was our Chief Bibb. Loyal to a fault. Once you earned his trust, you had it forever.
“What I will say to you is confidential,” Agent Corcoran said. “But it concerns today’s events, and also certain events from the past.”
I swallowed a piece of my vomit, or it felt like it. I prayed for an earthquake, a nuclear blast, anything to make it stop, but my prayers fell on deaf ears.
“There’s been a mole in the police force,” Agent Corcoran continued. “Someone who has been leaking confidential information to the highest bidder for years. We couldn’t identify him because he worked with everyone, and he covered his tracks well. The only thing we knew about this mole was that his name was Adam.”
At the mention of a name, I flinched, while Adam burst into laughter.
“Oh, wow. And you call yourselves investigators,” he said. “A mole named Adam. Breaking news.”
Agent Corcoran raised his hand. “Hear me out. Our awareness of this mole set off the biggest investigation in the history of the state. It was a massive operation that took a lot of planning and risk, but it paid off.”
“Let me guess,” Adam said mockingly. “Today, you discovered I’m your guy.”
