A/N: The last chapter! Mostly tying up loose ends. It starts a little differently than most chapters do: with a "news story" - my version of Rachel's story. In most states in the U.S., the public records laws allow anyone who wants to do the work to get copies of filed lawsuits. Once the suit is filed, all the particulars are public record. Settlement agreements can be sealed, but the lawsuits themselves are public record. Also remember, nothing has ever been said about Goldman and a book deal. That's my own interpretation of why he was so rabid about getting Brenda. Money, money, money.

This also contains my musings on who the department leak is, and why, very much in keeping, IMHO, with the season 7 theme of "Love and loss." Enjoy and PLEASE R&R! Reviews mean a lot to writers and I appreciate each one.

Disclaimer: I do not own or operate "The Closer."


Chapter 7: Getting the Story Straight

"LOS ANGELES – Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, chief of the Major Crimes Unit of the Los Angeles Police Department, recently faced a federal lawsuit filed by attorney Peter Goldman, on behalf of the families of several alleged and convicted murderers, now deceased.

Johnson and her crew on Friday closed a cold case with the arrest of Taylor Austin Hunter, 38, of Los Angeles. Hunter was arrested for allegedly murdering 12 women in the Los Angeles area since 2001. LAPD spokesman Commander Russell Taylor said the Major Crimes squad found numerous "souvenirs" of the murder in Hunter's home, including body parts belonging to the victims, but he would not comment on specifics. He said this closes the books on the 'Red Hunter' murders, which involved sex workers in Hollywood's Sunset Strip area.

Johnson said she is unable to comment on the lawsuit, but did say she was glad the Red Hunter case had been solved and that a "dangerous killer" was off the streets of Hollywood.

The lawsuit, filed in September, alleged that Johnson acted with "malicious disregard for the rights of due process available to all citizens" and that her actions led to the deaths of these persons. According to LAPD and court records, each of those persons named in the suit had either been charged with, or questioned in connection with, a murder, or numerous murders. Although Johnson has been dropped from the list of defendants, the city of Los Angeles may still have to contend with the suit. Gavin Q. Baker, Johnson's attorney, said a settlement has been reached, but the terms of that settlement are sealed.

One of the persons listed in the lawsuit was convicted sex offender Roger Stimple. At the time of his arrest, Stimple was on parole for raping six girls under the age of 12. Johnson and her crew uncovered three more possible murders, and Stimple, according to the LAPD, confessed to the kidnapping, rape and murder of Ruby Williams, 8. Although an order for protective custody for Stimple was filed before he was transferred to the Los Angeles County Jail, he hanged himself in his cell the day after he recorded his confession. The protective custody order was signed by Chief Johnson.

A more recent case involves Turrell Baylor, a 110 Crip, who confessed to the murder of a 72-year-old man and his 8-year-old grandson at a convenience store. Fellow gang members, in retaliation for the act, mistook his twin brother, Tyrone Baylor, for Turrell and shot him, along with two friends outside a neighborhood bar, fatally wounding all three. The men were on leave from Afghanistan, where they were serving as Army Rangers. Reggie Moses confessed to the murder of Tyrone Baylor and his comrades and is on death row in San Quentin. Turrell Baylor was slain shortly after being released from police custody. He received immunity in the case from the District Attorney for his testimony.

A suit filed by Baylor's mother alleged Chief Johnson did not order police protection for Baylor, even knowing his life would be in danger when his fellow gang members learned he was the "Shootin' Newton" killer. Baylor was slain after arriving at his home, and four suspects have been arrested and charged with his murder. A Los Angeles County Circuit Court judge dismissed Mrs. Baylor's civil suit alleging wrongful death, shortly before the federal charges were filed.

Los Angeles businessman Marvin Evans, a former 110 Crip, was arrested by the FBI for conspiracy to commit murder and other money laundering charges in the Baylor case. Other suspects in the case have said that Evans, who had maintained his neighborhood connections, ordered Baylor's murder in retaliation for the convenience store deaths.

Lt. Andrew Flynn, a 25-year LAPD veteran and lead investigator on the Red Hunter case, said the charges against Johnson were "crap." He also said, "Chief Johnson gets killers off the streets. People in LA want safe streets."

Senior squad officer, Lt. Louis Provenza, agreed. "The chief is a skilled interrogator. If these people confess, they're in jail. Why would people complain?"

Detective Julio Sanchez, an LA native and the squad's gang expert, said of the Turrell Baylor case, "Look. He was a marked man. As soon as he fingered Reggie Moses for killing his brother, he wore a target on his back. There's not enough police protection in LA to keep a gang from killing another gang member if they want to. At least they did it at his house, and not in front of a grocery store or school, where other people could get hurt."

Peter Goldman also refused to comment on the lawsuit, except to say it was "justified." Goldman, according to media and law enforcement sources in San Francisco, San Diego and Fresno, also brought charges against highly placed law enforcement officers in those cities. The Times has learned that Goldman had a book contract with Random House for an advance of $100,000. The tentative title of the book was 'Busted: Dealing with Police Corruption in California.' The spokesman for Random House said the book was set for publication in March 2013. Schedules obtained from local television networks also confirmed he had been slated as a paid guest on at least four talk shows in the next five months. Network spokespersons have said his topics were to include his book deal and the lawsuit. However, since Johnson was dropped from the suit and the settlement agreement is sealed, Random House and the networks have stated they were "reconsidering" whether Goldman would still be offered the advance, and whether he would be appearing on the shows."

"Oh, my goodness," Brenda said, when she finished reading the article.

Rachel grinned at Brenda. "Our e-mail has been flooded with messages supporting you and your squad. They appreciate your work."

"Well, that's nice to know, at least," Brenda said.

"They do. Here's the two-page spread we had on every person named in the lawsuit who was charged with a crime. We got their photos and what they were charged with. Unfortunately, since he was never charged, we couldn't add Philip Stroh to the list, but I think we made the case that your unit has taken some really bad people off the streets."

"We have," Brenda agreed. "But thank you for your hard work on this story. This has probably been the most positive feature on the LAPD since I've been here."

Rachel smiled. "Thank you, Chief. But I did not deliberately spin it. This is the objective truth. People are still free to disagree with the article, and we've had some angry e-mails too, but they have been overwhelmingly positive."

Brenda gathered the whole Major Crimes squad to tell them the case against her had been dropped. Andy knew Goldman would be so disappointed because it meant cash going down the drain with the dismissal. No one would be interested in his book if he couldn't even get his case to trial. What still bothered Brenda, though, was that Sharon Raydor had not been able to wring the name of the leak out of Goldman while he was still in the police station. He had, though, been keeping a very low profile, considering the fact that members of the 110 Crips knew who gave the names of Baylor's killers to the police.


Julio called Brenda after she returned home from Atlanta and asked her to meet him at Provenza's place one evening, along with Fritz if he cared to come. When she got there, every member of the squad was there – except Gabriel. Even Sharon was present, sitting next to Andy.

When Provenza answered his door, he motioned Brenda and Fritz inside, and she looked around. "Where's David?" she asked.

"Have a seat, Chief," Provenza said.

She did and surveyed the faces in front of her. They were serious. "What's going on, here?"

"Call it a council of war," Provenza answered.

"A what? What in the world are you talking about?" she said, confused.

Provenza nodded at Julio. "Go ahead," he said.

"Chief," Julio began, "we know who the leak is. It's the person who isn't here." At Brenda's protest, he continued, "Hear us out, please. None of us think you did anything wrong in the Baylor case, and now we all know that, no matter how much protection you might have given him, he was a dead man. Marvin Evans ordered that hit and they were going to carry it out. But let me tell you why we know Gabriel is the leak. Neither of us told the rest of the crew what was said in the car on the way back from Baylor's house. But somehow, Goldman knew."

"Why David? Why not Taylor? He'd sell me down the river in a heartbeat!"

Andy shook his head. "Taylor can be the biggest asshole in the department. He's sneaky and he's a creep and I don't see how I ever worked for him, but he's not going to sell out a fellow officer to an attorney. He'll figure out another way to bring you down. But, you've saved his ass and you treat him like a member of the team, even though Pope really screwed him over after Delk kicked. Gabriel? He's a politician, Brenda. He's ambitious and he's used you."

Brenda pressed her lips together in distress and Fritz put an arm around her shoulders. "This is really hard to hear," she said.

"Brenda, I know you liked David," Sharon said, "I know he was your favorite. His career has benefited tremendously from your support. Plus, I know you like him as a person, and this makes this kind of betrayal even harder to accept. I suppose, for what it's worth, he would probably defend himself by saying he was doing what he thought was right, but we all know that's not the case. I'm not completely certain what his ulterior motives are, myself, but Brenda, you have to go on the assumption he will do what he can to achieve them."

"So what do I do now?"

"Same thing you've been doing, Chief." Julio couldn't quite bring himself to call her 'Brenda.' "Don't let him know. But don't include him like you have been. Any of us can drive you to scenes, or go with you to do notifications. Let us do it."

"In other words, don't say anything in the murder room at large you don't want Goldman to know about," Provenza put in. "You don't want him to have any more ammunition to launch another suit."

"No, and Gavin would probably choke me, anyway," she said dryly. She looked over at Mike Tao, who was as serious as she had ever seen him. "And Mike? You think it's David, too?"

He nodded sadly. "I do, Brenda. I didn't know what was said in that car. Andy didn't and neither did Provenza. Only three people knew and two of them are here. I don't know why he thought he had to do this. He has to know what will happen to him if he's found out. He won't be able to find a division in the LAPD that will work with him. We're doing it because we have to in the short term." Impulsively, Tao reached over and took Brenda's hand. "I'm sorry. We're all sorry. We all wish we had seen this much, much sooner. I know you thought you knew David and could trust him. I'm so sorry that wasn't the case. I wish you had waited until you knew all of us better before you put so much trust in only one of us."

Brenda put a hand to her mouth and nodded at Tao. Her tears were bright in her eyes. "I'm sorry, too. For some reason, I just liked David right off the bat and thought he was the one I could depend on. I don't know which hurts worse: knowing I was so wrong about one of my squad, or knowing someone I thought was a friend was putting a knife in my back." She leaned against Fritz's shoulder and he stroked her hair.

He looked at the group. "So now what? I have to believe you guys are on the money about Gabriel."

"We go on like before, but we'll be a hell of a lot more careful around him," Provenza answered. "Eventually, either Goldman is going to tell us for sure, or Gabriel's gonna mess up and we'll all know. Give him enough rope and he's bound to hang himself for us."

Brenda sighed and nodded. "I suppose so."

"The reason we had this meeting is so you'd know who your friends really are, Brenda," Andy said quietly. "I know it hasn't always been that way with you and me, in particular, but that's water long since under the bridge, and I hope I've earned your trust since then." At that, Sharon squeezed his hand and smiled at him.

"You have, Andy. A long time ago. Honestly, it hurts my pride to admit I really misjudged someone so much. I'm supposed to be a trained interrogator! I'm supposed to pick up on stuff like this about people."

"Don't beat yourself up, Brenda. We all liked David. A little jealous, yeah, but we liked him," Andy answered.

"We all thought he was a good guy," Julio agreed. "It hurts us, too. We've trusted him with our lives in the field, and it smarts a little to know this."

"I guess it does," Brenda replied. "Well, we've talked about this. Why don't we go get some dinner and give Provenza a chance to be the charming host?" She smiled at her crew.

Provenza rose and gave his boss a shoulder hug. "Sure. C'mon, Andy. Let's go get some stuff from that Lebanese place a couple of blocks from here. Since you're the vegetarian, you can make sure you get what you want to eat."

"O.K.," he said with a smile. As he went to the door, he paused next to Brenda and dropped a kiss on her cheek, and gave her a grin. She turned pink as a peony. "Andy!" she exclaimed. He winked at her and left with Provenza. She looked over at Sharon.

Sharon shrugged. "As you've found out, Andy's a good man," she said.

"Yes, he is," Fritz said. "Even if he thinks he can kiss my wife," he teased.

"So go kiss Sharon and pay him back," Brenda said.

"And risk having Andy Flynn castrate me? I don't think so," he returned.

Brenda chuckled. "That might be the outcome, now that you mention it," she said.

When the two lieutenants returned with the food, the crew turned to the pleasanter task of sharing a meal. Only the squad caught each other's eyes occasionally, wondering what Gabriel was doing, why he was doing it, and what they were going to do about it.

When Provenza had bid Andy and Sharon good night, as the last ones to leave, he and Andy had a quiet word. "We're the senior officers. It's our job to make sure Gabriel doesn't get to Brenda again," Andy said.

"Damn straight," Provenza answered. "The college kid is about to go to school."

Andy grinned at that and as he and Sharon drove home, he said, "I think this was the right thing to do."

"I know it was," Sharon answered. "Sometimes you have to hit Brenda with a sledgehammer to get her to see something. I just wonder what Gabriel is up to."

"Well, he sure picked the wrong division to pull this crap with," Andy replied.

"Undoubtedly. But things have a way of revealing themselves, given enough time," she mused.

"Yeah, they do. We'll just have to wait and see what happens." He reached to take her hand. "Until then, at least we don't have as many ghosts haunting our desk drawers."

"Thank God," Sharon said with all sincerity. "Red is one cold case I'm glad to see the back of."

"Me and you both. I think I could use a back rub when we get home," Andy said with a leer in Sharon's direction.

"I'll see what I can do," she answered. She leaned over as far as the middle console would allow. "Have I mentioned I love you today?"

"I don't remember. But we'll say you did. And we'll say I've said I love you, too." He grinned at her as they turned into the driveway.