Page 17 of Spark
Shit.Busted.But Chloe wasn’t about to admit she’d spent a sizeable chunk of last night stress-baking.It would only make Addison worry when she shouldn’t.“I was testing out recipes and figured you guys would want to reap the benefits at the Thirty-Third.I do also love you, though.”
“Clearly, since you know the way to my heart.”Addison polished off the rest of the brownie, then excavated another from the bag.“How are things going with Esme?”
Chloe selected the best version of the truth that she could.“As well as they can be.”She’d gone to the group home yesterday afternoon to meet the director and visit with Esme, who had—in a shock to exactly no one—been pretty standoffish.“How are things with the case?”
Addison’s pause was not a sign of good things to come.“Complicated.”
“Jesus, Ad.It’s not a social media status,” Chloe said dryly, and Addison held up her hands in surrender.
“Okay, okay.The forensics lab is still working on the DNA collected at the crime scene.I know it feels like it’s been a long time”—she kept one hand up to fend off Chloe’s frustrated exhale—“but it’s a process, and one we want to be sure is done by the book.Plus, they’re analyzing alotof blood samples.”
Chloe had made the mistake of Googling how much blood was in the average human body.Since the answer had turned out to be just under a gallon, there was really no arguing Addison’s point.“Fair.How about the sketch?”
“That’s where things get kind of knotty,” Addison said.“Camila’s sketch bore a lot of resemblance to a man everyone in Intelligence recognized.After some back and forth with the D.A.’s office, we put his photo in an array and Esme positively IDed him this morning.”
Wait… “Youknowwho this guy is?”
“We do.”Addison nodded.“His name is Leo Navarro.”
Shock burst through Chloe’s veins.“I don’t understand.If you know who he is and Esme identified him as the guy she saw in the warehouse, why is this complicated?Why can’t you go arrest him?”
Addison blew out a breath.“Because reasonable doubt requires hard evidence, for one.We can’t even get a search warrant with what we have, which means we definitely can’t get an arrest warrant.”
“Esmesawhim,” Chloe said, one of her whirling thoughts sticking hard.“If you guys recognized him, he must be pretty bad, right?”
“He’s been on our radar for some serious crimes for a while now, yes,” Addison said after a beat, and hell if that didn’t just strengthen Chloe’s argument.
“Okay, so aren’t there exceptions for things like this?This Navarro guy is clearly dangerous if he’s done other bad things.What if he tries to hurt someone else?”
“First of all, I want you to know that no one, including Esme, appears to be in danger right now.”Addison’s eyes lit with a fierceness Chloe knew well enough to believe on sight.“But even in exigent circumstances, where we think someonecouldbe in immediate danger, we still have to meet the burden of proof to do a search or make an arrest.”
“So, more than the ID,” Chloe said slowly, and Addison nodded.
“Yes.Otherwise, it would be too easy to wrongly charge someone with a crime.I believe Esme’s ID is legit, and so do Sinclair and Tara.But we can’t take chances on any charges being thrown out because we couldn’t back them up with more when we made the arrest.”
At the mention of A.D.A.Tara Kingston-Matthews, Chloe’s stomach buckled.“This guy isreallybad, isn’t he?”
Addison hesitated, but Chloe wasn’t in the mood to be tiptoed around.“I can handle it, Addison.”
“Yes,” Addison said.Chloe waited out the silence that followed, even though it almost drove her batshit, but was rewarded for her patience when Addison continued.“Leo Navarro has been on Intelligence’s watch list for about three years.He’s well-known in Remington’s business circles.He comes from an absolute shitload of money.His mother was a socialite who married well and inherited even better—twice.She left him her very sizeable estate when she died, and Navarro has turned it into an empire.Tons of investments.Involvement in very exclusive organizations.He even owns a few local businesses.A restaurant, a bakery, and a dry cleaner’s, to be precise, plus a few others where he’s more of a silent partner.On paper, they’re all legit.”
Chloe could practically hear a narrator’s voice following up with, “The businesses were, in fact, not legit.”
“But Intelligence thinks they’re a front,” she said.
“Oh, yeah, they’re definitely a front.”Addison paired the words with knowingly raised brows.“Drugs, weapons, people—you name it, and Navarro has moved it illegally across at least one set of borders.We’ve circumstantially tied him to over a dozen major crimes, but he didn’t get this far by being dumb.Even though all signs point to him as the head of the whole operation, there’s no actual evidence to back up so much as a parking ticket.Nothing ever directly connects him to any of the crimes, so all we end up with are suspicions that Tara can’t prosecute.”
A fresh batch of dread brewed in Chloe’s gut, and she pressed her fingers to her mouth for a second before asking, “You don’t think he’s going to get away with what Esme saw, do you?”
Steel flashed through Addison’s eyes, reminding Chloe exactly how good a detective she was.“I think we’re going to do everything in our power to use this murder to take him down,” Addison said.“But he’s smart and his lawyer is slicker than snot, so wearegoing to earn our paychecks.”
“Okay,” Chloe said, bolstered by Addison’s clear determination.“So, what happens now?”
“Well, first thing’s first.Everybody wants their mitts on Navarro.Both Vice and Homicide were particularly vocal about getting dibs on this case, so we had to do the jurisdiction dance.Thankfully, that’s not a fight Sinclair usually loses, and having Tara on our side helped.”
That tracked with what Chloe knew about the A.D.A., who, in addition to having a zero-tolerance policy for bullshit, was also exceedingly dedicated to getting justice.She’d even put her life on the line for a case she’d worked with Xander a few years ago.The two had gotten married earlier this year.
“That is a good thing,” Chloe agreed, her mind shifting gears.“What kind of evidence do you need for a warrant?”
