"Aldarez being involved into drugs more than what his job allowed was nothing new to us, actually.", Olsen continued in a solemn tone, "We have evidence that sometime in the last eight months, he decided to switch sides. It could have been that he did it for the money. Or the drugs. Could be both."
With his lips pursed and his arms crossed in front of his chest, Mike had stood there unmoving for the past few minutes, not believing what he heard.
"That's why you had the personnel files sealed. This had nothing to do with a new procedure. You knew I would start to look into his records.", he argued, trying to keep his voice calm despite the anger causing his blood pressure to spike.
"That's correct, Mike. I couldn't jeopardize their investigation just as much as I couldn't jeopardize yours. I had to walk a very fine line and the best way I could think of doing so would be, by denying you access and keeping you focused on your case.", Rudy explained and took another long breath out of his pipe, as he sat down on the corner of his desk, "So eventually, IA became involved and after significant research, it was believed that Aldarez was working with Freddie Moreno, feeding him information about ongoing investigations to keep him always one step ahead of law enforcement. In return he received an undisclosed amount of money and quite possibly several nice-size shipments of China White…the case was getting so big that IA even tried to send in an undercover at one point, so you can see why I wasn't too thrilled when I found out that you had Dan and Norm stake out his apartment."
"It was the natural evolution of this case after you relentlessly pushed to have my partner sent in as an undercover into a situation he wasn't prepared for. I knew something wasn't right…", Mike argued fiercely, only to see Rudy raise his hands understandingly.
"I know, believe me, I do. I'll be sure to explain this situation to Keller as well…and apologize. Don't think I wasn't the least bit worried once your cases interlocked; as a matter of fact, I was horrified. But when I talked to Condon about it, he made a good point, a very good one, Mike. He said that if this thing is going to come to a head, at least you can rely on Stone and Keller to back up the law unyieldingly. He had all the faith in the world in the two of you, and so did I. So after clearing things with IA, we decided to play along and see if we could use your case to nail Aldarez."
Nodding at the compliment, Mike inhaled deeply and dropped his head to the floor, trying to clear his mind.
"So how much do you know about what happened to him this morning? Have you got a Homicide crew out there yet?"
"Looks like he overdosed on some heroin. Found the needle track in his vein but not the needle as far as what I heard. That or somebody helped him overdose. I need Bernie to get down there and do the initial examination, so if he's still talking to your men, let him know that we have a stiff ready for him. Also, if you could brief your guys on this situation and send a team down there to investigate, I would highly appreciate it. Condon is informing IA at this moment to let them know about the latest development."
"Something still doesn't add up.", Mike argued and looked back up, his eyes scanning Olsen intently, "Our cases interlocked in more ways than just one. We've got the tox results that match our victims, but what about McAllister's stolen car? My guys saw Aldarez climb into it and leave for a couple of hours…that timeframe coinciding with somebody shooting at Steve and Russel Henderson's daughter with a .38 automatic while they were riding alone in the arena."
"I've told you everything I know at this point, Mike.", Olsen justified and shook his head worriedly, "I will give Lieutenant Sterns down in Narc a call, see if he can assign some of his men to help you as well. They might be able to track down Freddie Moreno and help in finding out the link to the car. You have my permission to expand your research as far as needed and pull any resources you think would be helpful. As soon as we find out what happened to Aldarez, you will be the first to know. You have my word on this one, Michael."
