Conspiracy

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A/N:

Chapter 21 (A Loyal Team)

"Did you hear the news?" Jade skipped over greetings when entering Sikowitz's office, she was far too excited to waste time with pleasantries. Sikowitz glanced up from some papers on his desk and flashed a smile. "Mrs. Oliver may lose some power, and Mr. Vega's losing his immunity."

"That leaves Ms. Shapiro." He leaned back and slid his hands behind his head. "The toxicology reports are back on what you found in that drink." She hesitated and dropped her gaze down to the papers. "It's a highly toxic poison that interferes with the heart and can cause failure of the heart or liver. It's also not easily traceable." She brought her hand up to her chest and winced as a sudden jolt of pain crashed into her chest.

"That's frightening."

"Yes. Still, it's traceable. The medical examiners either didn't catch it, or they were paid off. It would be wise to exhume the bodies of the suspicious deaths surrounding Lanie's past. Unfortunately, it's not an easy task. I'm used to working on cases alone, but I'm more used to working side by side with an investigative task force within the police."

First thought was to ask Gary's new team to help with the investigation. They knew the man, and Gary trusted them not to be corrupt officers and detectives. While it was a good thought in hindsight, Gary would probably not approve of such activity. "Can we even get a warrant to search Lanie's house?" Sikowitz raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

"She's not the only judge here. We could be granted a search warrant from a judge that has no history with her." He pulled his right hand down and planted his palm firmly against the papers. "Still, the fact that our labs detected such a poison is enough to warrant a search. The poison she has is illegal to possess at large quantities."

"Well, we know what to look for, then." Jade shrugged and crossed her arms. "So what's the problem? Are we going to be able to get in there at all?"

"She still has power that might hinder us." He scratched his beard and narrowed his eyes at the clock on his wall. "How many lawyers has she worked with, and how many judges? How many investigators ride on her coattails?"

"That might change though."

"We cannot assume that Denise will be able to come through on this. If she does, we have a wider range for which to work-but if she can't get Lanie pulled out, we have to consider that we're going to be running an investigation on a judge."

He spun his chair around, turning the back towards her. His right leg pulled up to rest on his left knee and he tapped his fingertips together above his abdomen.

Jade could feel the tension in the air, and with it came a sudden mix of despair. She didn't want to give up on trying to catch Lanie-they had to be able to get this woman. Rebecca and David, they could catch now; or at least David. They still had very little to go on with Rebecca.

Aside from her name having been behind the sudden unexplained promotions he received in recent years, there was still little else connecting her to the victims of the crime.

"I have some connections I can reach out to as a last resort, should Lanie retain her position if Denise fails. The fact remains, a highly dangerous poison found in lethal dosages is in that house of hers." He sighed heavily and turned his chair partially. "At least three people died after visiting her, each of a symptom caused by coming into contact with such a thing."

"Is that enough to arrest her?"

"And charge her with what, exactly?"

Jade approached the desk and leaned over it, pushing her palms against the surface. "Murder." She looked into his eyes, searching for a sign of certainty. Sikowitz turned fully towards her and reclined.

"Can we prove she murdered anybody?" His eyebrow slid up along his forehead. Jade pulled away from the desk with an exhausted sigh. Her hand moved up to her brow and scratched at the dry skin.

"She has a poison. People died." If that wasn't enough for an arrest, then what was? Or perhaps it was simply circumstantial. Her mentor was right, without a link, they couldn't prove that Lanie poisoned anyone. "She tried to have me poisoned."

"Unless we can exhume those bodies and have medical examiners that we trust check for this particular trace of poison, we have nothing to say that Lanie did it. Even then, we will have to search her home and find the poison in her house. Before she has time to get rid of it."

"Okay. I get it. It isn't going to be as simple as I thought." She fell into the chair across from his desk and slid her hand into her hair. Sikowitz studied her for a moment and dropped his hands to the arm rests on his chair.

"Nothing is ever easy, Miss West. You have to bear that in mind." She frowned at him and lowered her hand. There was a tremble in her throat, so she held back her own thoughts for fear that her voice would waver with her speech. "You do have the misfortune of stumbling onto a high profile case."

"High profile?" She scrunched her nose and lifted her head to an upright position. "It's that big?"

"Well, it would be. All of the suspects in this are important figures. I have to be honest, it is one of the more difficult cases that I have had to work with."

There was a loud knock at the door, startling the two. Jade turned around in her chair and glanced back to see three uniformed detectives in the doorway.

The one in front seemed the most serious. He was tall and had a strong build, and light blonde hair that fell in waves around his chin. Standing slightly behind him was a man and woman, both with short brown hair and curious expressions.

The three detectives were by no means young, but they were not as old as Gary was. So Jade assumed they were in their thirties, or very early forties at the most. "Can we help?" The blonde asked. Sikowitz looked up at him and leaned over the desk. His forearms folded on the top and his head tilted a bit.

"Who are you?"

"Oh. Sorry." The man cleared his throat and looked back at the two detectives with him. "I'm Detective Mark Jones, and with me are Detectives Velma Rodgers and Peter Franklin. The other two that work with us are back at the office, but they're willing to help too…as is our medical examiner."

Sikowitz sat upright, his right fingertips were tapping endlessly on the desk, one finger after another. "Let me ask again: Who are you?" Mark turned back to Sikowitz and crossed his arms.

"We work with-or for, now, Captain Richardson."

"Hard to get used to that," Velma replied, "It was a surprise. Not to mention our former Captain was demoted so suddenly and moved to another location…" Velma adjusted the glasses on her face and looked towards Mark. "Mark got all of us interested in Gary, we know he hired a private investigator, he just doesn't know we've been watching him."

"Yeah he always seemed upset about something. Never talked about his family or anything."

How long had these detectives been standing outside, Jade wondered. She was usually good about closing the door behind her, but this time she'd been so excited that she forgot to close it. Somehow, Mr. Sikowitz hadn't noticed.

"How much of our investigation did you hear?" Jade asked nervously. She felt her mentor's eyes on her now, burning into her with aggravation. "I thought I shut the door, I-"

"We heard enough to know that Captain Richardson is a victim of a crime," Detective Franklin answered. Mark nodded slowly while Peter continued. "You need help with an investigation, and we'd be more than willing to help. Those bodies you found, who was the medical examiner that examined them?"

Sikowitz seemed to hesitate, but after several seconds of silence, he grabbed the papers on his desk and read them out. "All three cases were found to be accidental deaths due to heart failure. All three autopsies were performed by Dr. Eric Morris."

Velma walked over to the desk and held her hand out for the papers. Sikowitz gave her the files and smiled slightly. "This man," Velma began, "Lost his license two years ago." Sikowitz's eyebrows shot up and he exchanged a look of surprise with Jade. "Many of the bodies he examined had to be reexamined. We could have these three vic's exhumed and checked by Julia. Our medical examiner."

"Does Gary know about this?" Jade was curious about whether or not they had the approval of their new boss, and if not, would Gary approve of his team trying to look into his past? "I mean it's great that you care about him, it shows loyalty and all that, but…"

"He's our friend," Mark answered, "We knew him when he was Detective Richardson. As for what we're doing now, it was mainly Sam's idea. Sam Valentine, one of the two on our team that couldn't make it here. He and Gary had the closest relationship as detectives." The name sounded familiar to Jade, but she pushed the curious thought aside for more pertinent matters. "He wanted us to figure out what's going on. Said he got Gary talking once and knows some bad shit happened with his family, and that's why he hired a P.I. He wants us to help."

"Alright." Sikowitz hung his arm over his chair and took the paperwork back from Velma. "The reason Mr. Richardson came to me is because one of the suspects involved in his case has a firm hold on the city's police." Mark's brow furrowed and the other two detectives looked to Sikowitz with earnest. "Any investigation by the city's police could easily be squashed, and the victims in this case would be at risk."

Sikowitz raised his right hand to his beard and turned his eyes onto the desk. "Even Gary's own life could be at risk. That is why he hired me. I would be willing to work with you on this, but I need to know two things first." He pulled his hand away and flipped up two fingers. "I know that your team can be trusted and I can work with you without risk of an investigation being turned away, and that Mr. Richardson is willing to let you do this."

"You can trust us because we're doing this for him, but he may not want us looking into his life. I don't know."

"Maybe Sam could talk to him?" Velma inquired. "Certainly we could get things done quicker. I know I'm not going to stop investigating if anyone higher up says not to."

"That's the danger," Sikowitz muttered, "You don't want to go rogue." He dropped his hand back to the desk and slowly shook his head. "I'm willing to share my evidence, along with anything else, but know that I'm still the lead investigator-should this alliance happen. While Captain Richardson is now your boss, he is still my client. I retain full rights and privileges concerning my client. So full cooperation with the LAPD is going to have to come from him. Furthermore, this means I am going to have to discuss the situation with him myself. I would happily accept your assistance with this case, but there are things I must deal with first."

Jade thought on herself for a moment, then looked at Sikowitz with a wide smirk. "Can't hurt." He shot a dull glance at her. "How much more pissed can he get with you after you hired on a teenage girl, right? You just don't want to have to deal with the shouting and questioning of your methods again." Sikowitz rolled his eyes and groaned.

What are your thoughts here? Do you think Gary's team can be a valuable asset? They are loyal friends, that's for sure. There's also a secret regarding the members of the team, but since it has nothing to do with this story I'll just say it. At least Mark and Velma are meant to be the inspired grandchildren of a much loved mystery group from the childhood of people my age and older. Ah Casey Kasem, may you rest in peace. And yes, Detective Sam is a relative of Cat's. Now on to the chapter. We've discovered Lanie does have poison, there's suspicion surrounding other deaths, and she may have paid off a prior medical examiner. A lot circulating there. In other news, an arrest may be coming for David fairly soon.