Jerome was struggling for words—that was clearly evident—and finally said, “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Shelby—excuse me, Agent Landry—came to the club a few weeks ago, claiming she wished to learn about the lifestyle and wanted me to be the one to teach her all about it.”
“Maybe it’s a coincidence,” Jerome said, frowning. “Jed says all the time how there’re all walks of life who enjoy kinky shit.” But as he said it, Mason was sure the man was questioning the probability himself.
“She brought her friend, Viola, with her to the club.”
“And she asked a lot a questions,” Jedrek said, eyes turning dark again.
“Okay, it does look bad, but after studying your file and learning about your lifestyle, maybe she wanted to give it try?”
“She told me she was a massage therapist. She lied about her job,” Mason challenged.
“Agents do that all the time. They don’t share their career to just anyone. Hell, I lie about it all the time,” Jerome said, shrugging. “I need more before I ask Rick about this. What if she approached you on her personal time and didn’t want anybody to know?”
“Except Viola, another agent she works with?” Jedrek asked incredulously. “Bullshit. But hell, for sake of argument, if she’s working a case that involves Mason at all, why wouldn’t she tell her boss she sought him out? That’s a conflict of interest if it’s not related to the case. Any idiot can see that.” He shook his head. “You seriously expect him to believe two FBI agents assigned to investigate Fieldstein and Baxter Investments were at the club just for kicks?”
Mason was glad Jedrek understood right away. But he was a private man, too. He would not like anybody taking advantage of him.
“And speaking of Viola, her husband is a real piece of work.” Mason stood and walked over to the package he got from Dave. He grabbed it and tossed it to Jerome. Jedrek loomed over his shoulder to look, too. “Everybody has a price, man. His was forty g’s. If that isn’t enough proof for you, I don’t know what is.”
Jerome opened it and pulled out the photos, his face darkening.
“He sold you that?” The question came from Jedrek. “He fucking sold out his own wife?”
Mason nodded. “He told me the FBI was investigating me and gave, er, sold me the photos to prove it.”
Jerome grabbed his phone as he stood. “I’ll get to the bottom of this.” He was grumbling something as he made his call. “Rick, hey. Something’s come to my attention, and I need some clarification on your team’s assignment.” He stepped into the hall as he listened. Mason watched until he heard some rustling and looked to his left. Jedrek had picked up the photos again and was scrutinizing them. He held the one that had Viola in the center of it. Mason couldn’t be sure what was going through the man’s mind, but his eyes stayed glued to the blonde.
“I’d heard about that,” Jerome said, drawing his attention again. “We haven’t discussed it yet.” He glanced toward Mason as he said, “He’s been out of pocket for a few days. We were just meeting, so I could bring him up to speed. He’d like to know why Agent Landry has been playing him, and frankly, so do I.”
The mention of her deception burned deep within him.
“I don’t blame you for getting drunk, man,” Jedrek said. “If it had been me, I’d have tied her up and whipped her ass.”
He laughed without humor. “Oh, I did.”
“What?” Jerome yelled, and Mason looked over, thinking the man was yelling at him for admitting that, but he was looking at a spot on the wall as he roared into the phone. “Why the hell wasn’t I told about this..? No, this is bullshit… This was our damn case… Well, where is she..? Yeah, got it.”
He hung up the phone and turned toward Mason, who was already staring, waiting for some answers. Jerome clicked on his phone as he walked back to the couch. He cussed and picked up the photos again, shuffling through them. He pulled out the photo with Shelby smiling and talking to Viola with another man in the background.
“Damn it,” he breathed, and went back to scrolling on his phone.
“What’s going on?” Mason asked, not liking the man’s behavior.
“Got it.” He held out his phone and showed Mason an image of a middle-aged man. “Have you ever seen this guy before?”
Mason took the phone and studied the picture. He got a flash of something, but it went away just as quickly. He frowned in concentration and then it came back to him. He had seen this man before, only his hair wasn’t as short.
“Yeah.” He tapped the phone, looking up at Jerome. “That’s the dude that came to the office with William that Saturday and accessed the system. The one he was supposed to play golf with. I called you after they left and told you about it.”
Jerome picked up one of the photos from the coffee table and handed it to Mason. “Look familiar?”
It was the one with Shelby partially hugging a man who wasn’t facing the camera. The neck and profile were the same, though. She was hugging the man who had been with William that day. “Who the hell is that?”
“That’s Darrell Tobin. He’s one of the guys on her team.”
Mason nodded slowly. “Darrell. She’s talked about him before. Said something about him being like an uncle to her. What the hell was he doing with William? Is he working another angle on the investigation?” If they were trying to get close to William, it wouldn’t work. Mason had known him for years, and his boss rarely let anybody into his inner circle.
Jerome fell to the couch beside him. “No.” The look the man gave him had his heart pounding. “Darrell is their mark.”
“English, Parker!”
“When you work for the government, your life is an open book. Somebody, somewhere caught wind of Darrell moving a large sum of money between accounts. Internal affairs got involved. They’ve been secretly investigating him and knew he had dealings with F and B. They weren’t sure if his involvement was legit or not, but when you came to me and we started investigating the firm…” He trailed off, shaking his head.
“Somebody found the link.”
“Yes. This joint task force wasn’t created to crack down on F and B. That’s solely the SEC’s job. It was assembled to flush out Darrell.”
Mason stood and paced as he let this settle in. She hadn’t only deceived him, but she’d turned on her friend Darrell. He battled with reason and anger. If Darrell was a criminal, then it was her job to take him down. Did she care that a man she’d told Mason was one of her close friends was possibly dirty, or was she able to turn off her emotions so easily? “And she agreed to do this?” he said aloud, trying to make sense of it all.
“No,” Jerome said softly.
Mason whirled. “No, what?”
“She doesn’t know about Darrell. She was picked to seduce you because she’s the closest one on the team to Darrell.”
“She didn’t seduce me,” Mason growled.
Jerome sighed. “You know what I mean. She was picked because of her connection to Tobin. He’s mentored her since she joined the bureau. William and Darrell apparently go way back, as in before college days. Rick said the director thinks Darrell has been helping William steal money and covering it up for years.”