CHAPTER 7

 

COVERT

 
"We have to go in, Thomas."

"I think you're right, Bud. You know they suspect you for what happened to Stens. When we go in, they'll be on you like flies on shit though. Lonnie won't be the first concern. Can they pin you with a motive?"

"How the hell should I know?" Bud snapped back.

"Think about it. Is there anything they could use against you?"

Bud pursed his lips and sighed but he refused to make eye contact with Thomas. "There's some fucked up rumor that I've been fucking his wife. What kind of man would do that to his partner?"

"Were you?"

"Don't even fucking say it. No, goddamn it. I was not fucking his wife. Neither was he. Alice Stens was neglected in a lot of ways. I just helped her out with some other shit." Pounding his fist on the dashboard of the car, Bud finally looked at Thomas. "We gotta do whatever it takes to find Lonnie. If Archer doesn't have her, who the fuck does?"

Thomas measured his words. No matter what he said it wouldn't calm the man. "Whoever killed Stens, I suspect. Did you notice the look on Archers face? He tried to hide his surprise but he didn't do a great job of it. He doesn't know where she is."

They were headed to HQ. Thomas wasn't sure that walking right in to the building would be the best move. He had an idea. "What's that cop's name who took the report on Stens?"

"Exley."

"I don't figure you're going to get too far beyond the door. How about we do this, I'll drop you at my house, and then I'll go talk to Exley. I'll bring him back, alone."

"How do you think you'll manage that? You think he'll waltz right out of there with you?"

"If I use the right words." Thomas knew Edmund Exley. He knew a lot of cops in the upper echelon. "Let me ask you something. How well do you really know Lonnie?"

"What's that have to do with it?"

"You know she worked for Philly PD, right? Did she ever tell you why she came out here?"

"Maybe she likes the climate..." Bud replied sarcastically. He was not a patient man to begin with and this beating around the bush wasn't doing anything for him.

"All right, I'm just going to tell you. Lonnie is a plant. The LAPD is, as you know, one of the most corrupt police departments in the country. Lonnie came out here to help the FBI bust it up." He glanced at Bud as they turned onto his street. Thomas expected an explosive response from him but what he got surprised him. Bud was silent but whatever was going through his mind wasn't good. Moments passed before he said anything.

"Fuck her. What the fuck do I care who has her. If she's a snitch then everything's a lie, all of it. I should have known."

"Listen to me. She wouldn't have brought you to me if she didn't think you were worth it. She wouldn't have risked it if there was any question in her mind at all about you."

"Why should I fucking trust you? How do I know you're not feeding me bullshit?"

"You don't have a choice."
w
Lonnie Brannigan paced the room she was held in. They'd taken her clothes and jewelry from her leaving her dressed in a set of FBI sweats. Why did she take this goddamned job anyway? Why did Angel have to make it look like she was being brought in as a perp instead of an operative? Her answers would come.

There wasn't much to look at in the small room where they'd put her. Certainly there was no way she could escape from it. Without windows it was obviously an interior room centered somewhere deep within the guts of federal building. Two chairs, one table and a slat bunk completed the furnishings and the only light came from a small bank of headache producing fluorescent fixtures in the ceiling. She would have sat down if she could but it was impossible to rest.

"Miss Brannigan." The man's voice almost entered the room before he did.

"Who are you?"

"My name is Raymond Foster. I'm director of operations here. I understand you've been compromised."

Crossing the small room, she moved to stand directly in front of him. Lonnie examined him briefly. He didn't come off as the type of man who'd be in charge of something like this. He was short, shorter than her and he had dark unexpressive eyes. His thin lips displayed his tension though. The center of his bottom one was almost white from the way he pressed them together.

"Explain." She stood with her arms crossed. "Compromised how?"

The press of his lips relaxed into a sneer-like smile. "I'm going to be honest with you, Lonnie. Can I call you by your first name?" Not that he waited for her to say yes. "I find distaff operatives to be a burden to the bureau. Why is it that they think with their hearts instead of their brains? A male will have his fun but he'll rarely become so deeply involved with his subject that he'd go to lengths to protect them."

"Oh please. How sexist can you get?"

"Officer Bud White is hardly a pillar of equality when it comes to woman."

"Oh, I see. That's where you're going with this. I didn't tell him who I was working for, but now I wish I had been honest with him from the start. He's not in this. He was not up to his ass like Stens was."

"What proof do you have?"

Lonnie didn't step back when he moved close enough to her for her to smell the cigarette he'd recently smoked. His intimidation techniques were elementary and she was beyond it.

"The proof is my judgment. I trust him."

"Ha!" he laughed, throwing his head back. "I think it's more a case of you fell in love with him and now you want to protect him."

"I couldn't love someone unless I trusted them."

"There in lies the problem." He waggled a finger at her. "Love is an intense emotion and intense emotions cloud our judgment. You're a failure."

Was he correct? No, she couldn't believe it. There was no way she'd misjudged Bud. He was imperfect and up front with her about it. Guilt washed over her. She was imperfect and had lied to him, albeit by omission.

"Let's cut to the chase, Raymond. You don't mind if I call you that by the way, do you?" she mocked him. "What's going to happen to me."

"You're dead."

"Yeah, okay. I'm dead. What's going to happen to me?"

"Miss Brannigan. You are dead. The LAPD will be fishing you out of a drainage canal. Believe me; it took us a while to find a body that resembled yours, a good three or four hours."

"Give me a moment to recover from the rigor mortis." There was a quiver of anger to her voice. "Are you telling me you killed some innocent woman for this? What the fuck kind of an agency is this. Holy shit. I'm starting to believe all of the conspiracy theories."

"Don't get too comfortable. We had to stop anyone who might have been looking for you from doing it. All this did was to buy you some time until we decide if you're useful or not. Whatever the case may be the name Lonnie Brannigan doesn't belong to you anymore."

Through all of it, she'd maintained her cool. The glimmer of hope that she'd see Bud again was ever present until this bomb was dropped. She could feel the nerves in her cheek twitch and she had to gulp for a breath. Turning away from Raymond, she swallowed back tears. "Can you ...give me some time alone? Just leave me alone for a while."

He snickered lightly. "Don't worry. You'll get used to not knowing who you are…or you won't. Either way is fine with me."

For a passing moment, he remembered the day this happened to him. He was one of the lucky ones. He got to assume a new identity ...and live.
w
Bud circled the living room of Thomas' house like a caged lion. His mind waged war on itself as he tried to piece things together. How could she lie to him, tell him she loved him and make it feel so real?

"Son of a bitch!" he mumbled to himself. What was taking Thomas so long? Was he caught? It seemed to be hours before the sound of a car door in the driveway turned Bud around. He eased up to the side of the front windows with one hand on his gun. Using the other he parted the curtain away just enough to see. Thank Christ it was Thomas and he had that prick Exley with him. Bud put his game face on. He stood back with his arms at his sides. There was no thought to the fact that he was prepared to lunge at Exley the moment he walked through the door and his chance came fast.

Thomas entered first and he felt the tight wound tension the moment he looked at Bud. He ran interference, covering Exley as best he could but he was no match for the imposing man. Fists flew and the moment Bud found a clear path, his hands were on Exley's throat.

"Get off me, White!" Exley's hands went to his neck to try to pry himself loose.

"Bud, let him go!" Thomas struggled to separate them.

For as angry and wild eyed as Bud was, his voice was eerily controlled. "I didn't kill Stens."

Exley strained to speak but he couldn't muster up the voice as his eyes began to roll back.

"Damn it, White, let him go!" Thomas ordered. He didn't want to use what he had to say to stop this attack but he had no choice so he blurted it. "Lonnie is dead."

For a split second, Bud's hands tightened but then the color drained from his face and he released Exley. The man slunk away, coughing and gagging. Bud stepped back and his eyes fell to the floor. He seemed to be searching it for the words. The only ones he could find were the ones Thomas spoke. Lonnie? Dead?

"It's true, White." Exley barked hoarsely as he slowly raised himself up. "I'm sorry."

The big cop's expressions ran the gamut, anger, confusion, pain. He blinked against the sting in his eyes and shook his head. "No, she's not. It's a mistake." He looked up at Thomas and the man's face provided no comfort.

"They have a body and her jewelry ..."

Bud White would never remember the next hour of his existence...His emotions melded together so thickly that he saw red, then black. If nothing else, he felt now he'd never be able to tell Lonnie Brannigan to go fuck herself. At least that's what he felt overtly. Deep down inside, his heart was in a million pieces.

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