Page 71 of What a Wolf Wants
“In the bureau.”
“Hell,” Ethan said. “I’m putting this on speaker so Charlene and Noah can hear the news.”
“Sure. The police officers are Lawrence Baker and Elias Davis,” Tori said. “They’ve been under investigation for a couple of shady situations. A woman and her teenaged son had witnessed the officers shaking down a drug dealer and pocketing his drugs. The officers had been too busy chasing off the drug dealer to notice the witnesses. They never turned in the drugs, never wrote a report about the confrontation, and for several hours, the woman and her son were afraidto tell the police. Which makes sense because they wouldn’t have known who else might be crooked on the force. Then they finally did, and the two officers have been under investigation ever since. Our boss has kept it a closely guarded secret until Adam and I talked to him about a possible mole with regard to your cases. He was so angry. Not with us, but to think these men had betrayed DEA missions and could have gotten some of your agents or our officers killed.”
“How much more corruption have they been involved in?” Noah asked.
“Lawrence Baker’s fingerprints were found on the scene of the recently murdered man that we’re investigating—a drug dealer who was in competition with Kroner. Baker wasn’t at the scene of the crime when the victim was found by a man walking his dog in a park,” Tori said. “So why were his fingerprints on the man? That’s really suspicious.”
“So, he could have been hired by Kroner to kill the other drug dealer?” Ethan asked.
“That’s what we think. We’re keeping the evidence of Baker’s fingerprints on the victim secret because we need further evidence to prove that he actually had something to do with the murder. Plus, of course, Adam and I smelled Baker’s scent there. Kroner’s too. But we can’t use that as evidence in a court of law. Baker could say he’d talked to the drug dealer before and must have touched him, not even remembering that he had. He wouldn’t have any corroboration with having made a police report of talking to the victim at some point though. Still, it would make it unlikely that we could prove he had murdered the victim without eyewitnesses or his own confession.”
“I can get it out of him,” Noah said.
Ethan smiled at him. “What about Elias Davis? Was there any evidence that could point to his being involved in the homicide?”
“No,” Tori said. “But we’re still looking into it. We didn’t smell his scent there at all. The victim had been encroaching on Kroner’s drug territory, and witnesses revealed to us that the two men had words several times where Kroner had threatened to kill him. So Kroner had motivation for sure. Kroner had killed his drug competition before—when he was a teen. His record was sealed in Medford, Oregon, but we were able to learn of it while we were investigating him further,” Tori said.
“With regard to the current murder case, Kroner was released from the jail and, an hour later, the dog walker found our victim. So timeline wise, Kroner could have been involved. Also, Baker had taken off to run some errands. He could have been at the crime scene and killed the drug dealer before the dog walker found the body.”
“What about a financial trail for Baker? What would he get out of the deal if he did indeed kill the drug dealer competition?” Ethan asked.
“Yeah, that’s just what I was going to ask,” Noah said. “Financial trails can really help to pinpoint a crime.”
“We just got some financial data back on both Davis and Baker. They both have been receiving some large amounts of money—payoffs? They’re not working anywhere else other than their regular police jobs,” Tori said. “So they’re not getting any extra income from moonlighting.”
“So Davis is involved also,” Ethan said.
“Yeah, in some criminal ventures, but not sure if he was involved in the murder of this latest guy. My boss held a news conference to see if we could get any new leads. We’ve had a ton of calls in on the murder, but nothing has panned out yet,” Tori said.
“Sometimes media coverage can really help,” Charlene said.
“Yeah, everyone’s shaken by the death. It was in a park that families frequent. I’ve got to go. But when I learn anything more, I’ll call you.”
“Thanks, Tori,” Ethan said.
“Yeah, thanks,” Noah said.
“If you want, you, Adam, and Sierra could come to the coast for a visit and we could talk about all this,” Charlene said.
Ethan smiled at her.
“I’ve got plenty of room at the DEA rental house. You all could stay with me,” Noah said.
“Okay, let me talk to the others and we’ll let you know. If we learn that Davis, Baker, or Kroner are in your area, our boss will most likely approve it,” Tori said.
“Or in Shelby Bay since it’s just down the road. We can set up a sting operation,” Ethan said.
“But they’re out of your jurisdiction, Tori,” Noah said.
“We’ll call the local police if we find any of the men involved in a crime in either Shelby Bay or Oyster Bay,” Ethan said.
Charlene mentioned having to deal with Agent Cohenat the convenience store and how she was pulled over by Officer Baker for a traffic violation that she hadn’t committed right after that.
“Ohmigod, so Baker could be in cahoots with Agent Cohen too,” Tori said.
“It certainly looks like that could be the case,” Ethan agreed.
