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But Noah thought there was far more to the scheme than killing sex offenders. After talking to Paxton in the course of another investigation over the summer, Noah got the feeling that Paxton was involved again in something very shady. Only it was impossible to get a warrant on a hunch and Paxton would use the law to his advantage.

In the course of his off-book investigation, Noah had learned that Paxton had paid Colton Thayer a substantial sum of money for consulting. Research into Thayer revealed that he’d been the subject of multiple investigations for hacking and high-end cybercrimes. Investigations that had been stalled because of lack of evidence.

And he had gone to college with Sean Rogan.

That’s when Noah took his suspicions about Senator Paxton to Assistant Director Rick Stockton. And Rick had decided to bring in Sean.

Noah wasn’t 100 percent confident that Sean was even now squeaky clean. He feared Sean’s past not only was going to continue to resurface but also would taint the one thing Noah knew Sean cared more about than himself: Lucy.

And for that reason alone, Noah was willing to do whatever it took to save Sean.

CHAPTER FIVE

 
Sunday

If Deanna weren’t so determined to put Sean Rogan in prison, she might have enjoyed Sunday afternoon in Central Park.

She sat on the bench directly across from the museum and glanced around. She didn’t know what Juan Martinez looked like, but by the name she assumed he was Hispanic. He’d most likely be alone. She was ten minutes early, so she tried to relax and enjoy her surroundings while keeping an eye out for Martinez.

The leaves in the park were starting to turn, just hints of gold and orange. Autumn happened so fast—it seemed that just yesterday the park had been green. Now it was multi-colored. When was she going to sit still again? When the park was dead in winter?

Today was even more beautiful because she would have the information she needed to do her job.

An attractive Hispanic man wearing Dockers and a crisp white polo shirt approached from the north. He sat next to her. Younger than she expected, in his early thirties.

“Deanna,” he said in greeting.

“Yes. Juan Martinez?”

He assessed her, nodded. “Let’s walk.”

They rose from the bench and started along one of the paths leading into Central Park. It was more crowded than Deanna liked, but what could she expect on a clear autumn day?

“I almost didn’t come,” Juan said, “except I promised Meredith. And, ultimately, it’s the right thing to do.”

Deanna had plenty of questions, but she started at the beginning.

“Meredith told me that you sat with her last year on the D.C. hiring panel.”

“Correct. From September until March. It was supposed to be a one-year assignment, but they disbanded our panel in March.”

“Because of Lucy Kincaid.”

“That wasn’t explicitly stated, but both Meredith and I felt that because we voiced our concerns over the process we were reassigned.”

“And this was Kincaid’s second panel, correct?”

Juan nodded. “The first rejected her application on a two-to-one vote; so did we. The third panel member, Nolan Cassidy, was originally from the Sacramento office, where Kincaid’s sister-in-law works as the SSA of Violent Crimes. I don’t believe he was impartial, and I felt he should have recused himself even though he said he’d never met Ms. Kincaid, nor had he worked directly with her sister-in-law.”

“Still reeks of nepotism.” Deanna stepped aside when two teenage bikers came up the path.

“I almost quit when Hans Vigo stepped in and over-ruled our decision.”

“Assistant Director Hans Vigo?” Dr. Vigo was way up the ladder and currently served as liaison between national headquarters and Quantico. He was well known among field agents because of his longtime stint in the Behavorial Science Unit and the three years he taught at Quantico.

“Dr. Vigo told us our decision was overruled and that we weren’t allowed to discuss the proceedings with each other, or anyone else. It was quite heavy-handed, and left a bad taste in my mouth.”

“I’d feel the same.”

“Then, nearly two months ago, an agent from the D.C. office came to both me and Meredith and asked if we’d told anyone about what happened, and then reiterated that we were forbidden from discussing it.”

“And had you?”

“I didn’t, but Meredith had. She didn’t admit it, but since I knew I hadn’t talked about it with anyone, and there was no reason for Cassidy to do so, it had to be Meredith. She’s worried about her career. She’s only a couple years from retirement; she shouldn’t have to stress over an upstart newbie agent who gets a pass on the process because of who she knows.”

“You’re loyal to Meredith.”

“I’m angry that the process has been perverted. As far as I’m concerned, Lucy Kincaid shouldn’t be a federal agent. I hope the instructors at Quantico see the same problems with her that we saw.” He glanced at Deanna, then motioned toward a bench across from the stone bridge that crossed the north part of the lake near 77th Street. It was quiet here under the shade of an oak tree. The few people who passed them didn’t pay any undue attention.

“You told Meredith that you were investigating Kincaid’s boyfriend, Sean Rogan.”

“Yes. I have been tracking him for years, but only recently have I uncovered a solid lead.”

“Tell me about the investigation,” Juan said.

Deanna didn’t want to share, because this was where her involvement could get dicey. Deanna’s boss knew she was looking at Colton Thayer for mortgage fraud, but she’d created that cover story so he’d give her some room to work. Technically, Thayer’s crimes would be covered under the cybercrime unit, but every time she’d tried to get back on the squad she’d been stymied—because of what happened at Stanford. So she made up a scam and her boss gave her some room to build a case.

But there was nothing on Thayer, at least related to white-collar crime. She falsified enough reports to give a hint of something fishy without having enough evidence to turn over the case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Her boss had bigger cases to manage, so her Thayer investigation slipped under the radar.

She told Martinez, “There have been a series of thefts in Manhattan that we believe are tied to Colton Thayer, a known computer hacker. He’s hard to track—Cybercrime has been working on him for years. His M.O. is to stay clean for long stretches of time. Because I have a background in accounting, I’ve been kept in the loop.” Mostly true. “Thayer and Rogan were at MIT together and suspected of a whole host of cybercrimes, but nothing was ever proved and the statute of limitations has long since passed. However, Rogan has been in New York for the last three weeks and has been seen at Thayer’s residence.”

“You suspect they’re working on something together? Like what?”

“Right before Rogan moved to New York he split from his brother’s security company. The only reason I learned this is because Rogan had high-level government security, which was suspended by RCK. However, Rogan had access to top-secret projects RCK was contracted for with both our government and defense contractors.”

Juan frowned. “I know a bit about Rogan, from our interviews with Kincaid. He doesn’t seem to be one for treason.”

Deanna couldn’t lose Juan now, not when she was so close. “But he
is
one for power and money. Probably not treason, but he can use his skills and knowledge to hack into any system he wants. Without his brother to rein him in, he’s gone rogue. His involvement with Thayer proves it.” That was Deanna’s theory. “And Thayer had a recent influx of cash. It appears to be legit, but my team is going through it with a fine-toothed comb.” Meaning her. She had no team—she was in this all on her own, with Steve Gannon’s help on occasion.

But she felt in her gut that this was it, this was her last shot. Taking down Rogan would fix her career and rebuild her reputation, which was still damaged even after all these years. She had nightmares about the continuing snickers and comments. How she’d stood on the stage at Stanford, in front of two hundred law enforcement professionals, and right after she had proclaimed that
her
system was foolproof, Rogan had hacked it and exposed one of his professors as a pedophile.

There were even some who said Rogan should have been hired to fix the security. Like he was some sort of white-hat vigilante.

But she’d prove he was a criminal. She might even get a promotion to SSA. Her own squad to run. Vindication.

Juan asked, “Do you think Lucy Kincaid is part of his scheme?”

“Not that I know of,” Deanna admitted. “She’s been at Quantico for the last ten weeks, but she and Rogan are still involved, and I know he’s guilty.”

“If you have proof, why hasn’t he been brought in for an interview? Or indicted? Do you have a grand jury working on this?”

Juan’s questions were all good, too good, and Deanna hedged. “I don’t have any authority to go after Rogan right now, not unless I can connect him to Thayer. That’s where Kincaid comes in—I want her to tell me what’s going on. Either she’s a total idiot and doesn’t know what her boyfriend is up to, or she’s part of it—and either way, she shouldn’t be an FBI agent.”

Juan scowled. “You’re right about that.”

Deanna gained confidence. Laying out her suspicions about Rogan hadn’t helped her case with Martinez, but tying it back to Lucy Kincaid gave Deanna the bait she needed to hook him.

“I need leverage. If I’m going to get her to turn on her boyfriend, I need to understand her. Unfortunately, her file is full of holes, redacted, or sealed.”

This was where Deanna hoped she had played her cards right—that Juan would tell her everything he knew about Lucy Kincaid and why he had voted against her hire.

“I’m not surprised you haven’t been able to learn anything about Kincaid,” Juan said. “My read on her is that she wouldn’t care one way or the other about financial schemes or computer hacking. Her sole purpose for being an FBI agent is to work sex crimes. She has a vendetta. She’s psychologically unstable, though she hides it very well.”

That information was more than Deanna had expected. She pushed. “A vendetta? Why?”

“When she was eighteen, she killed her rapist. He was unarmed. Essentially, it was vigilante violence on her part—which is almost funny, considering that she put another FBI agent in prison for allegedly orchestrating a vigilante group.”

“Fran Buckley.” Deanna remembered the case. “I read in Kincaid’s thin file that she’d worked with Buckley for a predator watchdog group.”

Juan nodded. “I believe that Kincaid is volatile and potentially dangerous to herself and her partner. She received little psychological counseling after her rape, and none of it on record with the FBI. Her rape was a traumatic event to be sure—it was digitally recorded and shown live on the Internet. I don’t blame her for killing her attacker—I think anyone in the same situation would have been justified. Except that when she emptied her gun into his chest, he was not a threat to her or anyone else. It was overkill.”

“She killed him in cold blood?”

Juan nodded, his lips pursed. “Kincaid has a master’s in criminal psychology. Her brother is a forensic shrink who is close personal friends with Dr. Vigo, who’s the one who cleared her psychologically. There are ethical and moral problems with Dr. Vigo doing the assessment. I think they conspired to rubber-stamp her acceptance because she’s this wonderchild to them. But there’s no way they can know what she will do when put in the line of fire. There’s no way to know how she’ll react. She has a history of panic attacks, but you won’t see that in her professional record. She discussed them with the panel.

“I’ll admit,” Juan continued, “she has an impressive background with a lot to offer—just not to the FBI. We don’t need any more wild or rogue agents. Kincaid’s brother is married to Kate Donovan, who was a fugitive for five years, but suddenly, because of her connections high up in the Bureau, she’s teaching cybercrime at Quantico after a six-month suspension? Hans Vigo was her training agent, and he’s the one who overruled our panel to get her sister-in-law into the program. There’s something not right about this whole thing.”

Deanna’s head was spinning with the many connections, but this was all good stuff. Kincaid was definitely the weak link. If she wanted to become an FBI agent so badly she’d break all the rules to get there, then she’d turn on her boyfriend in a heartbeat to protect it all.

“What would encourage her to talk to me about her boyfriend? What scares her?”

“Losing her slot. She was so determined, so certain she was going to be at the Academy, I’m pretty sure it was already established that if our panel rejected her she would still be admitted.”

“Arrogant,” Deanna mumbled.
Just like her boyfriend.

Juan nodded. “She’s already been reprimanded by her class supervisor at Quantico. She’s been before the disciplinary panel twice. Both times, a slap on the wrist. No expulsion.”

“How do you know?”

“I have friends.” He didn’t elaborate. He handed her a thick envelope. “These are my notes. We weren’t allowed to keep or copy any of the files, and though Kincaid’s file is sealed, we were allowed to review it during the hiring process. This is what I remember as important.”