When she walked off, Hannah came over, looking more tentative than usual.
“How are you doin’, big sis?” she asked, using that term for the first time.
“I’m getting by,” Jessie told her. “Sorry for abandoning you to the care of relative strangers for the night.”
“That’s okay. Until a few months ago, you were a relative stranger. Besides, Kat and the snarky geriatric are both way cooler than you. So it worked out.”
Her wry smile indicated that she was mostly kidding.
“You didn’t ruin any of Garland’s doilies, I hope?” Jessie asked.
“Nope—didn’t even see any. He must have hidden them somewhere to keep my grubby fingers off them.”
“Smart move,” Jessie noted.
“Perhaps,” Hannah conceded. “But what he doesn’t know is that however much money he saved by hiding his home valuables from me, he’s about to lose in bowling. We just made a friendly wager. And I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but before my life went to hell, I was in the bowling club at school. And I was good.”
“Seriously?”
“Yep. I’m about to clean him out after I have a little cake. Don’t warn him.”
“I won’t,” Jessie promised, crossing her heart.
She watched Hannah head over to the cake table and felt an unusual sense of relief. Bowling parties, cake, and casual, pleasant interactions were at such a premium she wanted to savor the moment. When there was finally a lull in the well wishes, Captain Decker came over.
“It looks like half of Central Station is here, Captain,” Jessie noted. “Who’s going to solve all the crimes and stuff?”
“Actually, I’m about to announce that they all have to get back in a minute. But I figured the bad guys would give us a thirty-minute break. They do that, right?” he said, smiling sardonically.
“Well, thanks for coming, even if only briefly,” she said.
“I would have stopped by regardless, Hunt. I wanted to give you an update on things. I figured you wouldn’t mind, even at your party.”
“You figured right,” Jessie told him. “What’s going on?”
“First of all, what I couldn’t tell you last night was that after our little chat at the doctor’s office, I went directly to headquarters to talk to Chief Laird. I insisted on the immediate revocation of your suspensions and any disciplinary actions. He caved on that pretty quickly. Then I addressed your concerns about Commander Butters and Valley Bureau. It turns out that Internal Affairs was already conducting a months-long investigation of both. That’s part of why you were waved off. They didn’t want you interfering and screwing up a potential case.”
“How aggressively could they have been investigating if this stuff was going on in nearly plain sight?” Jessie demanded.
“A fair question—one I broached with him. He didn’t have great answer for me. But after I brought all of your allegations to his attention, he immediately called in the I.A. team and put the wood to them. In the approximately sixteen hours since our meeting, several things have happened.”
“Should I be sitting down for this?” Jessie asked.
“Maybe,” he replied. “First, Laird got court orders to immediately expand the use of the wires already up on several officers. He rightly suspected that there would be a lot of chatter in the wake of Kallas’s arrest. Investigators checked the footage from the Travelodge where you alleged Butters met with Michaela Penn.”
“And?”
“We have matches on the dates where her GPS phone data shows her there. We see him arriving, opening the motel room door when she arrives, and leaving separately hours later. There are also cash withdrawals earlier on each of those days that correspond with the rate she quoted on that agency’s website. In addition, your FBI agent friend, Dolan, is having the cash in Michaela’s envelope tested for fingerprints. It’s a long shot but if even one bill has his prints on it, it could be dispositive. And there’s more.”
“Please don’t let me stop you,” Jessie insisted, trying not to sound giddy.
“They found an unmarked car in the Van Nuys Station motor pool with paint scratches that match Hernandez’s car. They also have conversations on those surveillance wire recordings between Butters and Costabile, as well as between Costabile and multiple Valley Bureau officers, that will be hard to explain in court.”
“What kind of conversations?” Jessie asked.
“Without getting too specific, I’ll just say there were references to rushed cremations, and hiding evidence, as well as past and future threats and attacks against people who were ‘getting in the way.’”
“That’s pretty specific, Captain.”
“I may have said too much,” Decker replied, smiling. “In any case, it’s my understanding that a massive sweep arresting over a dozen cops, including at least eight in Valley Bureau, will be happening in about…what time is it now?”
“It’s one thirty-eight,” Jessie told him.
“In about twenty-two minutes, which is another reason we have to go. Some of our people will be assisting.”
“I’d be happy to help,” Jessie said, unable to hide the glee she felt.
“That’s okay, Hunt. I don’t want you anywhere nearby when this goes down. You should focus on eating cake and throwing that heavy ball down a long hunk of wood for the next little bit. We’ve got this.”
“Yes, sir,” Jessie replied.
Decker started to turn to leave but then seemed to remember something.
“One last thing,” he added. “Detective Parker in Vice wanted me to let you know that Filthy Films is being temporarily shut down.”
“Only temporarily?” she asked, aghast.
“I’m afraid so,” he said. “They’re investigating but she doesn’t think they’re going to be able to prove anyone knew Michaela Penn was underage. They did the minimum required to check her identity. I think we can both reasonably surmise that they knew her info was bogus. But proving that will be difficult. However, all of the Missy Mack films are being pulled from their site.”
“That won’t stop people from seeing them,” Jessie said. “Those movies will still be all over the aggregator sites. They may even become more popular because they’ll be extra taboo now.”
“You’re probably right,” Decker conceded. “But we’ve done all we can on our end.”
“So we move on and footage of a seventeen-year-old dead girl having sex continues to circulate on the internet?”
Decker sighed. It was clear that he didn’t have any good answer for that.
“Happy birthday, Hunt. I’m really glad you’re alive to celebrate it,” he said. Before she could respond, he turned and yelled to the bowling alley generally. “All on-duty personnel, it’s time to go. We have a pressing assignment.”
As the Central Station folks unhappily filed out, Garland Moses walked over.
“You don’t have to go too?” she asked.
“Me? No. I’m about to sweep the floor with your sister in bowling. Besides, my days of personally arresting multiple corrupt cops are well in the past, Ms. Hunt.”