Page 95 of Rules of Engagement

"It might have been very recently."

"No, why?"

I drew him and Maddox to one side, away from the gathering gawkers as the officers still struggled with the rope. "Maddox and I were concerned how the hit man got a gun into the hospital last night. I just got a tip-off that a crooked cop was seen here today. A cop linked to Boston PD."

"There's only one cop I know from Boston and that's Damien," said Garrett. He stilled as I stared at him.

"Oh, no," I said, freezing. "No, no, no!"

"Lexi? You don't think..." started Maddox.

"Is Damien behind this?" I spluttered, hardly believing what I suspected. It couldn’t be true. "What if the warning was for him? That would account for why Solomon got targeted. Anastasia lives too far away but Solomon doesn't."

"His own brother? What the hell for?" asked Garrett.

"I don't know. I only hope I'm wrong."

"I'll call his captain in BPD and get this cleared up. I don't want us suspecting him on top of everything else that’s going on." Garrett shouted a few orders before we dashed inside, jogging to his office. He grabbed his desk phone and asked for the Boston switchboard. As soon as he was connected, I waited breathlessly as he spoke. When he put the phone down, he was pale. "Damien Solomon isn't on vacation, nor is he up for any promotion. He was suspended last week in connection to a string of thefts from the evidence locker."

My jaw dropped. "What is he supposed to have stolen?" I asked.

"The cash evidence turned in from a crime scene that occurred a couple months ago. A hundred grand is missing. Damien was the only one in possession of the evidence but, according to his captain, he swears it wasn't him."

"Maybe it wasn't!"

"There's more. He was caught taking a bribe a couple of months ago but he said he was working on a new criminal informant so the captain let it slide even though it didn't sit right. This is bad, Lexi! No wonder he was so keen to get us looking at all kinds of other angles. He probably thought he could drown us in the detective agency's case files and distract us long enough to cover up whatever is really going on."

"It's not just bad, but terrible!" I said. "We sent him over to pick up Lucas's research!"

Maddox punched in the numbers before I finished speaking. "Lucas, it's Maddox," he began. "Did Damien Solomon arrive at the agency? Damn!" Maddox looked up. "Damien just left with all the research."

"What do we do now? Sit and wait until he comes back?" I asked.

"If he comes back," pointed out Maddox. "He has to know he couldn't keep this up forever."

"I don't know what else we can do if he doesn’t return here," said Garrett. "It will take hours, if not days, to get a warrant to tap Damien's cellphone and find a signal. By then, he could be out of the city."

"We don't have to wait that long," I said. I took Maddox's phone. "Lucas, find out where Damien went."

"Is something wrong?" asked Lucas.

"Yeah, very wrong. I think Damien is caught up in this somehow."

"He looks kind of familiar," said Lucas. There was a long pause, then, "I think he resembles a man in one of the photos, but I can't be sure."

"What was the man in the photo doing?"

"He was talking to the boss, one of the Copleys, and handing him an envelope."

"Are you sure it's Damien?"

"No. I only met him for a few minutes and the photo wasn't exactly perfect. It could have been him."

"Let's find him first and work out the rest later," I said as I hung up. "Damien must have freaked out about something. If he thinks we're close, he might try and sabotage the investigation."

"I think that's already happened," said Garrett, palming his face as he groaned. "He's had access to everything. We took him at his word when he said the Niners weren't of any interest. What if everything he told us is a pile of crap? I can't believe he played me!"

"Hey," I said. "Not one of us suspected Solomon's brother. Who would have?"

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