“Believe it or not, back when I was a cop in Ohio, I worked undercover. My naturally scruffy appearance seemed to fit right in. And I’m a big guy. Most people bought the fact that I was an enforcer looking for work. And I wouldn’t check in for days because the bad guys keep a close watch over you. It’s not likeyou can run off and text the cops every five minutes. You go undercover, you live the role. You’re freewheeling. You have to build your cred. You have to breathe with the scum. So what were they doing?”
“No one in this room is cleared to know that other than me and my team,” said Kemper sharply.
“Makes it pretty difficult to work together, then,” noted Decker.
“Isaid I was the clearinghouse, not that we would be working the investigationtogether.”
Decker looked at Green. “Okay, I guess we just investigate the other four murders, which are not officially part of DEA’s pissing contest, but are squarely within your jurisdiction. Then if we find out there’s overlap, we can call in the FBI to come and run point. We solve the whole case and DEA lookslike the chumps they are.”
“You are way out of line, mister!” barked Kemper.
Decker eyeballed her. “No, what’s out of line is we’ve wasted so much time over absolutely nothing but bullshit because your agency’s ego is apparently more important to you than finding out who murdered two of your guys. If this is how you run your investigation, knock yourself out. But it’s not howI run mine. So, speaking on behalf of the FBI at least, screw this, and we’ll see you around.”
He walked out of the room.
Kemper watched him go and then eyed Jamison. “It that your position too?”
“He’s my partner, so, yeah, it is. And you know what else? He happens to be right.”
She walked out. A moment later Green followed, along with Lassiter.