Page 90 of Shadow of Doubt

“A hell of a message,” the cop agreed. Taking his cigarette out of his mouth, he picked a piece of tobacco off his tongue. “Where’d all this information come from?”

Brunelle held up the key-fob flash drive she had taken from Jadot’s apartment. “From this.”

“What’s that?”

Taking it apart she showed him. “I removed it from Jadot’s key ring.”

“After lecturingmeon professionalism? After I toldyounot to touch anything at the crime scene? Jesus, you really are a piece of work. When were you going to tell me?”

“As soon as I knew whether it had any value, which is why you’re standing here right now.”

“And what exactly is going on here?” he asked.

“When I figured out that the fob was a flash drive, I set MoMo loose on cracking it. When he couldn’t crack it, he overstepped and, without permission, brought it to someone who could. That someone is about to be escorted out of the building with a bag over his head.”

“You’re taking him into custody?”

“These are exigent circumstances,” she replied. “He needs to be kept someplace quiet. Someplace safe. At least until we can figure all of this out.”

“Even for you, Karine, this is really pushing the outer edge.”

“I’m just trying to do my job. But I can’t do this part alone. Will you help me?”

The cop feigned ignorance. “Help you with what?”

“You’re going to make me say it?”

“No,” said Gibert, fishing for his phone, “I’m going to record you saying it. Just to cover my ass. I’m not losing my career over this.”

“Can we please take two seconds and not make this about you?”

“Aboutme? You’re the one who’s asking for a piece of crime scene evidence to be logged as if it never went astray.”

“Not just logged,” she replied, acutely aware that she was pushing her luck. “I’m also going to need it backdated and cataloged as having been signed out to me for analysis.”

“Is that all?” Gibert dryly asked.

“Vincent, if Jadot is correct, this isn’t just a colossal breach of national security, it’s one of the biggest scandals in French history. If we can’t use what’s on that drive, then the Russians will have won.”

The cop remained quiet and took another pull on his cigarette.

After several moments of uncomfortable silence, she gave in. “Okay,” she said, “you’re right. I shouldn’t have removed the drive from the crime scene. I’m sorry. Happy?”

“No,” he replied. “I’m not happy about any of this. But I am going to help you. There’s just one small thing I want in return.”

Brunelle didn’t like the sound of that. She had little choice in the matter, however. Without Gibert’s cooperation, she was dead in the water.

“Fine,” she replied, as the DGSI’s unmarked van rolled up and double-parked in front of the building. They were about to bring out Amir. She needed to get going. “What do you want in return?”

“It doesn’t matter now,” the cop replied. “When all of this is over, I’ll tell you what it is. Until then, I expect you to honor your word. You keep me in the loop. Understand? The moment you track down the Russians’ getaway car, or you learn anything else about Jadot’s killer, I want to know about it. Are we clear?”

“Crystal,” Brunelle replied.

With that behind her, she turned and moved quickly back to the tactical team. What lay ahead at the DGSI command center would be some of the most difficult and important work she had ever done. The implications of taking down so many members of the French government were practically unfathomable.

On top of that, they still needed to locate the getaway car and apprehend Jadot’s killer.

As the team loaded Amir into the van, Brunelle climbed in behind him, praying that nothing came along to screw any of it up.

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