Jerome picked up one of the photos from the coffee table and handed it to Mason. “Look familiar?”
It was the one with Shelby partially hugging a man who wasn’t facing the camera. The neck and profile were the same, though. She was hugging the man who had been with William that day. “Who the hell is that?”
“That’s Darrell Tobin. He’s one of the guys on her team.”
Mason nodded slowly. “Darrell. She’s talked about him before. Said something about him being like an uncle to her. What the hell was he doing with William? Is he working another angle on the investigation?” If they were trying to get close to William, it wouldn’t work. Mason had known him for years, and his boss rarely let anybody into his inner circle.
Jerome fell to the couch beside him. “No.” The look the man gave him had his heart pounding. “Darrell is their mark.”
“English, Parker!”
“When you work for the government, your life is an open book. Somebody, somewhere caught wind of Darrell moving a large sum of money between accounts. Internal affairs got involved. They’ve been secretly investigating him and knew he had dealings with F and B. They weren’t sure if his involvement was legit or not, but when you came to me and we started investigating the firm…” He trailed off, shaking his head.
“Somebody found the link.”
“Yes. This joint task force wasn’t created to crack down on F and B. That’s solely the SEC’s job. It was assembled to flush out Darrell.”
Mason stood and paced as he let this settle in. She hadn’t only deceived him, but she’d turned on her friend Darrell. He battled with reason and anger. If Darrell was a criminal, then it was her job to take him down. Did she care that a man she’d told Mason was one of her close friends was possibly dirty, or was she able to turn off her emotions so easily? “And she agreed to do this?” he said aloud, trying to make sense of it all.
“No,” Jerome said softly.
Mason whirled. “No, what?”
“She doesn’t know about Darrell. She was picked to seduce you because she’s the closest one on the team to Darrell.”
“She didn’t seduce me,” Mason growled.
Jerome sighed. “You know what I mean. She was picked because of her connection to Tobin. He’s mentored her since she joined the bureau. William and Darrell apparently go way back, as in before college days. Rick said the director thinks Darrell has been helping William steal money and covering it up for years.”
Mason mulled that over. “Okay, but why use Shelby?” It felt as if the feds were going about it in a manner that didn’t seem functional to Mason’s business sense. He was a straight shooter, and they were beating around the bush. The wrong bush at that.
“Think about it. If Darrell is in cahoots with William and knows the SEC suspects his dirty business partner, Darrell will be busy making sure nothing points to him. He needs a scapegoat to divert their attention, so the FBI gave him one. They want him thinking they believe you are the guilty one. You have means and opportunity. And I would bet a case of beer that Darrell was the force behind William blackmailing you to move that money. He’s trying to frame you, steering the FBI’s investigation in the direction he wants.”
“But it’s really a distraction,” Mason said slowly. “Make Darrell think one thing while they build their case against him.”
“Exactly. And Darrell might get sloppy. Agent Landry knows him better than anybody else on the team. Putting her in the middle of this gives her the opportunity to stumble on something that might be overlooked by another investigator, allowing her to connect the dots for them.”
“Because Mason’s firm has a habit of leaving incriminating evidence lying around,” Jedrek said sarcastically.
“So she has no idea,” Mason said, feeling angry again, but for a completely different reason. “She’s being played. Her own fucking boss is playing with her. They used her to get close to me, and they’re using her friendship with Darrell to take him down.”
“Pretty fucking shitty,” Jedrek said, crossing his arms.
“Look, I’m not happy about this either. I should’ve been told about their plan. Hell, I’ve been trying to get in touch with you to tell you they were upping the ante, releasing doctored evidence that O’Brian was dead, hoping William would slip up. But I didn’t know it wasn’t only for William’s benefit.”
Mason’s body grew cold. “Darrell. They want him to think they’re closing in on William because, if he believed that, then he’d know it would only be a matter of time before his connection to him was discovered.”
“Bingo.”
“Fucking feds,” Jedrek barked.
“Hey. I said I didn’t know about it,” Jerome said. He looked at Mason. “I would not have gone along with them using you. Or her, for that matter. I respect you coming to me and would’ve lobbied to keep the F and B investigation separate from Tobin.”
“Which is why they didn’t say a word to you about it,” Mason said in resignation. Messed up didn’t even begin to describe this situation. He was still mad that Shelby knowingly used him, but she was in deeper than she realized. If the feds weren’t going to tell her, he would. She trusted Darrell, and that put her in a lot of danger. Mason could try calling her, but he didn’t want to risk everybody on her team hearing what he had to say. He had no idea who all knew the extent of the investigation and who could be trusted. “Can you arrange a meeting with Shelby?”
Jerome swallowed. “You can’t interfere with an ongoing investigation.”
“Fuck that,” Mason breathed. “You wouldn’t have a goddamn investigation if I hadn’t blown that whistle I found.” He unclenched his fisted hands and took a deep breath. “You will get that
