A Path Well Traveled

Chapter 7

When they arrived at work the next morning, Sharon and Andy were exhausted. The previous evening had been a long and emotionally taxing one. After their long conversation, they had resolved to review the video together, even though Andy had tried to convince her that she did not have to do it. She would not allow him to face that on his own, no matter how hard she thought it would be for her. They were partners, after all.

As they sat huddled on her bed in order to avoid being surprised by Rusty, they found themselves thrown back to an entirely different time. Watching their younger selves brought with it many conflicting feelings. Primarily, they were both mortified, knowing that one of their most intimate moments was out there for everyone to see. People would draw conclusions based on the nature of the filmed scene without having any notion of the circumstances that brought it about or the fact that it did not depict something that had happened more than once.

It also reminded them of the pain and uncertainty of that time. Sharon had spent years working her way out of the debt Jack had left behind, pulling as many shifts as humanly possible while taking care of her children. For a while, she even did a little work from home on the side. One of her college friends, who worked for a law firm, had suggested her when someone had been needed to type up dictations while their secretary was on maternity leave. It was an easy job that she had been able to do while watching her children play or supervise their homework. During that time, she had survived on little to no sleep for weeks on end, pushing herself to complete exhaustion.

Her parents had loaned her enough money to get back on her feet and pay off the second mortgage, but she had insisted on paying them back despite their insistence that it was not necessary.

For Andy, remembering that time held its own darkness. It brought him back to the acute loneliness of losing his family, the despair that had led to more drinking, and the loss of control that came with it.

What Sharon had not expected was the small spark of something more pleasant that came with watching a part of their joint past play out on the screen in front of them. Despite everything that had happened leading up to that moment and the heartbreak that followed it, that particular moment in time would always have a special place in her heart.

She might have been at the very lowest point of her life when she had come to him that day, but Andy had managed to make her forget for a little while, to make her feel safe, and wanted, and by taking control from her in that particular context, he had helped her regain a feeling of being in control of her life.

Never again had she trusted another person as much as she had Andy that night. It was a feeling that had not gone away over the years, even when they had been at odds professionally. She always trusted him with her life and, more importantly, with her heart.

After watching the video, they had talked long into the night about their theories, about who might have taken it, who might have distributed it, and what their motive might have been. That was precisely what they were about to discuss with their colleagues.

Everyone was gathered around the conference room table, sipping from coffee that Sharon and Andy had gotten on the way to work. They looked all kinds of uncomfortable as they studied the evidence that was attached to a small, mobile whiteboard. They had decided to use that instead of the large one in the Murder Room to limit the number of people who would see what they were working on. The nature of their case was already spreading like a wildfire through the LAPD, but there was no need to give people any more to gossip about than absolutely necessary.

When everyone was settled, Provenza began to brief them on what he had achieved in regards to having the video pulled off the air.

"It wasn't easy to convince them that it's in their best interest, but I got Gavin to help me out. I guess no one here is surprised that he got the editor to take the video offline. Our favorite lawyer also sent out notifications to any and all other publications that might be interested in publishing this type of thing that warned them about the consequences of such an action."

The old Lieutenant looked extremely smug, indicating that he'd had a great time watching people squirm while being subjected to Gavin Baker's charm.

"Some more serious news outlets still covered the story, but they were very vague and did not show any photos or videos, so I think it is safe to say that, at least for now, the damage has been contained."

Provenza leaned back in his chair and folded his hands over his stomach, looking at his colleagues as he waited for the next person to report. Sanchez and Sykes sat up, the latter indicating for the former to explain the status of their part of the investigation.

The two younger detectives had interviewed the editor and reporters of the gossip site that first published the incriminating material in an attempt to figure out the source.

"I don't know how useful the information is that we got out of our friends, but we got the guy who wrote the pieces to talk. If you hear any complaints about that chat, ma'am, I'm sorry, but he needed a little convincing."

When Sharon's eyes widened at Sanchez' words, Amy grinned and jumped in to reassure her.

"Don't worry. Julio only irritated him a little. He didn't even touch the guy. He might have implied that not cooperating wouldn't be appreciated, but no force was used at any time."

"Yeah, I figured you didn't need to deal with FID on my behalf right now, ma'am. It chafed a little, but I behaved," Julio added with a grin aimed at his boss.

Sharon appreciated his attempt to lighten the mood and gave him a grateful smile that almost reached her eyes. Their loyalty and the professionalism with which they treated this case made it much easier to hold on to her determination and anger when it would have been only too easy to slide back into that dark place of shame and resignation.

"That was very considerate of you, Detective," she replied. "So what did you irritate out of the man?"

Taking a quick look at his notes in front of him, Julio began to recount the conversation they had with Samuel Hayes.

"Mr. Hayes told us that he was approached via email by a person who did not want to disclose their name. This person told him that they had some juicy photos of a high-ranking member of the LAPD that they were willing to share for a price."

At that, everyone perked up a little. If money had changed hands, there might be a trail they could follow. The email was another lead they would try to look into, but no one held much hope for that. Unless their perpetrator was incredibly stupid and sent the email from their regular account, tracking them down that way would be far more difficult than tracing money.

Sykes' frown and the almost imperceptible shake of her head already gave them a pretty good idea that they should not hope for much, even before Julio clarified what the price had been.

"Unfortunately, whoever sent the photos to Mr. Hayes wasn't interested in money. They wanted his guarantee that the story would spread beyond his website. He told the person that it would take more than one post by him and that it would have to be really good material to make any of the more reputable news sites pick it up. He was promised three deliveries and received them each a few days after the other, all from the same email account."

That was when Mike Tao picked up the story as they were entering into his area of expertise.

"It's a free email account that's easily set up without having to give any personal information. The address itself doesn't give any obvious clue as to the person's identity. It seems to be a random sequence of letters and numbers or it could hold some meaning for the owner of that account, but we won't know until we can ask them. We got a warrant for the email provider to turn over all the user data they have, and that will be sent to us in the next hour or two. If we're lucky, the IP address that was used to log in can help us identify our guy."

It was hard to imagine that their mystery could be solved that easily, but they would explore the possibility, anyway. Quite often, criminals made the most basic mistakes, no matter how smart they were or how well planned their crime was. Most of them tripped over something small at some point, and they all hoped that their guy would do the same, and soon.

When none of the team had any more to add, Andy sat forward in his seat, leaning his underarms on the table and folding his hands. The pad of his thumb went back and forth over a barely healed injury at the side of his hand. He had burned himself on the oven a few days earlier and was dying to pick at it, but he was convinced that he could feel Sharon's admonishing stare burn into the side of his face. She had kept telling him to leave it alone more than once and always narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips in a way that said I told you so when he had managed to make it bleed again. It was even harder to restrain himself as he prepared to share with the team part of what he and Sharon had discussed the night before.

"Okay, so the Captain and I worked some more on our timeline last night, and from what we have so far with the photos and the video, it looks like one of us was followed for over a year, at the least."

He took the small notepad that Sharon pushed over to him and took a moment to look at the notes she had taken the previous night before he looked up at the whiteboard and the timeline they already had established with the two sets of photographs.

"The video was taken at my apartment in North Hollywood a few days before Christmas '94. It was a pretty run down place, so I'm not really surprised someone got in there to install surveillance equipment."

Even all those years after the fact, Andy was still livid at the thought that someone had broken into his home to spy on him. The fact that they had no idea how many more videos might still be out there only fueled his anger. If possible, Andy would like to give his former landlord a piece of his mind, but the old man had died over ten years ago, and the building had long since been torn down and replaced by something more up-to-date.

"Since witnesses and physical evidence of the break-ins aren't an option, we tried to figure out who might have wanted to get dirt on us back then and who would've held onto their grudge for almost twenty-five years."

He looked around the group of people he considered friends, and when his eyes landed on his partner, the older man rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. If anyone knew about the kind of person who would harbor hard feelings for decades, it was the man who had been married more times than the rest of them combined.

"So," Provenza drawled, "Sandra or Jack?"

"Sandra sure hated my guts back then, but I doubt that she cared enough about what I was up to by the time she kicked my sorry ass out of the door. And we've been getting along better lately, so I don't see what reason she'd have to screw me over like that. Besides, she seems to really like Sharon. It doesn't make any sense."

Andy shrugged, looking over at Sharon, who studied her hands that lay folded in her lap. They had discussed at length who would hate them enough to do this to them, and they had both agreed that Sandra was not it. In fact, the two women got along so well that it scared Andy a little bit. Both had known him long enough to know all of his dirty little secrets, and they were not afraid of teasing him in front of the children. More than once, both women had teamed up to give him a hard time, to the amusement of their five kids. While he grumbled about it, he really did enjoy the time they all spent together. It was still awkward and tense occasionally, but it was getting easier.

It was the Captain who picked up where Andy had left off. Her voice was strong, a hard edge to it that everyone in the room associated with danger. She was thoroughly riled up, and anyone who dared cross her would pay the price. Provenza gave Flynn a satisfied nod, relieved to see their boss back to her old self. An angry Raydor they knew how to deal with.

"You all know Jack," she began, her lips curling in contempt at the mention of her ex-husband's name. "He does not like losing, and while I don't see why he would have cared at the time, he tends towards rash actions. Before he went off to Las Vegas the first time, he worked for one of the bigger law firms. They retained private investigators, so it is not impossible that he asked one of them to follow me around for a while."

Her cheeks burned with the heat of embarrassment. While her marriage had always been fodder for the LAPD rumor mill, she had tried to keep as many details as possible away from public scrutiny. Even years after the fact it was still difficult to talk about all of it, to admit that she had not been able to keep her husband. It had taken a lot of time and many long conversations with her priest for her to stop blaming herself for that failure, but she still did not like discussing it, especially at work. She resented that their current situation forced her once again to mingle her private and professional life, and if Jack was indeed behind it, she would make him regret it.

"But why would he choose to publish all that now, so many years after he collected it? Why didn't he do anything with it sooner?"

There was a furrow between Amy's brows as she looked at her colleagues, clearly frustrated with the lack of a clear motive. Sharon almost smiled indulgently at the young woman's naivety. The detective had surprised her with her insight and understanding of human nature many times, but there were still some situations that showed just how young she really was. Although, Sharon had to admit that she would very much like to understand exactly why things happened the way they did as well. That was something she intended to find out. In the meantime, all she was able to do was guess.

"I can't tell you why he never used the photos or the tape before, but he was not very happy about the divorce, and he was even less enthusiastic about the fact that I intend to marry again. Not to mention that he picked a time when the publication of that material would do the most damage to me professionally. Ten or twenty years ago, no one would have cared a great deal if he had sent it to some gossip magazine."

She did not mention that Jack had never been around when she had been up for a promotion before. He would have missed the two previous times when he could have inflicted serious professional damage to her. Of course, he probably did not realize that he picked the one promotion she did not want. She would make a point of telling him that once she got him to admit what he had done.

"Yeah, and it doesn't help that it's me you're planning to marry," Andy interjected. "The guy hates me."

Sharon gave his arm a pat, her lips twitching as Lieutenant Provenza laughed. Andy was right, Jack did not particularly like him, but that was very much mutual. Sharon had to admit, though, that she was not exactly fond of the women her ex-husband had been sleeping with while they were still married, either.

"All right," Provenza exclaimed as he slapped a hand against his thigh, his tone and expression almost giddy with excitement. "Let's ask Mr. Raydor nicely if he wants to join us for a friendly little chat while we wait for…" He gestured towards Mike and his laptop, indicating that he had no clue what the younger man was working on. "Whatever it is Tao is doing. Captain, do you want to do the honors or would you like me to call your ex?"

He was well aware that his boss tried to limit her contact with Jack as much as possible. That was a sentiment he could easily relate to. Most of his ex-wives were nice enough people - as long as he didn't have to see them. He did not mind sparing her at least some of the headache by inviting the man over himself. If being the one to ruin Jack's day made him happy, he doubted that Sharon would mind.

"I appreciate the offer, Lieutenant, but I believe Jack will be more likely to join us without giving us too much trouble if I call him."

At least that was her hope. It all depended on whether or not he was actually behind the photos and tape, and if so, how confident he was that she wouldn't be able to prove anything. They would have to play him exactly right if they wanted to nail him.

It was late by the time they had any news on the IP address used to send the emails. Mike told them in great detail what he had done and to what length he had gone to in order to get a useful result. Buzz was probably the only one who had been able to follow him all the way through his explanation, but no one had any difficulties understanding what the Lieutenant had discovered.

Whoever sent those emails had used an LAPD computer. They had tried their best to hide their tracks, and it had taken Mike a lot of time and effort to finally find them, but find them he did.

Now, they were waiting for IT to call them back and let them know who the terminal belonged to. At first glance, the lady Tao had spoken to was able to tell him that it was most probably someone in Narcotics, but she needed acting Assistant Chief Howard to give her the okay to share any more detailed information. So they were waiting. Again.

"Captain," Provenza piped in from behind his desk, where he sat leaned back in his chair. "When was the last time you stepped on any toes down in Narcotics?"

It was a well known fact within the LAPD that the Gang and Narcotics unit had a particular knack for drawing FID's displeasure. There were several rather hot headed detectives in that division, most of which had at some point been on the receiving end of Sharon Raydor's ire. During her days as head of FID, she had been one of the most hated individuals on that floor. No one in the force particularly liked Internal Affairs, or Sharon Raydor when she had still been on the hunt for rule breakers within the force, but the animosity between the FID captain and Narcotics was legendary.

"Not in a while, Lieutenant. Since I am no longer responsible for keeping them in line, I haven't had any reason to annoy them in the last five years," she responded with a smirk. Remembering the way entire rooms fell silent when she walked into them still gave her a little thrill. She might not miss being despised by most of the building, but it had given her a strange sense of power that no one expected her to even attempt to be likable.

As everyone chuckled at her reply, Julio raised his hand, still grinning when he offered another possibility.

"Maybe it wasn't you they were mad at, ma'am. Lieutenant Flynn is not the most popular guy down there, either."

Sharon had to look down and roll her lips between her teeth to keep from laughing. Sanchez had a point. Andy had on occasion been involved in the odd shouting match with one or more detectives from that unit. More than once, she had been forced to reprimand him for that. Twice, it had gotten so out of hand that he had spent a few weeks at an anger management seminar.

Andy seemed to remember that as well. He gave her a slightly wide-eyed look, raising his hands as if to say that he had not done anything.

"Hey! I've been nothing but good during the last few years."

Provenza scoffed at his friend's protest. "Yeah, and why's that?" He rolled his eyes as Andy frowned angrily at him.

Raising her hand, the Captain put a stop to the bickering that she knew would just get worse if she let them continue.

"Gentlemen," she warned them, shaking her head at Andy when he was getting ready to protest. "Let us focus on the case, please."

When she had their full attention, she stood from where she was leaning against Flynn's desk and walked around it to peer over his shoulder at the computer screen. As she had suspected, Andy had already pulled up a list of everyone working in Gang and Narcotics. He looked up at her for confirmation before he sent the list to the printer. Sharon gave his shoulder a squeeze and went to retrieve the sheets from the printer, casually dropping money into Provenza's jar on the way back.

"Even though neither the Lieutenant nor I have had any recent problems with anyone from Narcotics, we should run through this list of names and check who might have a serious enough grudge against one of us."

As she handed everyone their own list, Andy added another thought, maybe sounding a little too pleased for her taste. "Yeah, and while we're at it, we might want to see if one of them has any connections to Jack."

Taking a second to consider his suggestion, Sharon finally nodded, but gave him a stern look as she replied. "Yes, we might want to do that. Just remember that, right now, we don't have any evidence against him. We can look into anything that is a matter of public record, but there will be no bending or breaking of the rules here, is that clear? As soon as we talk to Jack and put our cards on the table, he will try to find a way to get out of this. Let's not give him one."

They all nodded and went to work, checking names and case histories, cross-referencing them with cases Jack had worked on. It was all they could do for the moment.

Sharon had gotten a hold of her ex-husband earlier in the day and convinced him to drop by for a visit at his earliest convenience, which happened to be the following morning. She hoped that, until then, they would have a little more information. She would prefer to have a better idea of the way Jack might or might not be involved in the entire matter before she talked to him. He might not have been a very good husband or father, but Jack Raydor was an excellent lawyer, and there were very few people who knew Sharon better than he did. He would be able to tell if she went on a fishing expedition.

She was just thinking about telling her people to head home for the night in a little while and get some rest, when Commander Mason stepped into their Murder Room, a large file clutched in his hand. He nodded at the team as he waved the folder, drawing everyone's attention.

Sharon frowned as she stepped over to Amy's desk, where Mason was in the process of spreading out the papers he had brought with him.

"What have you got for us, Commander?"

They were not aware that Mason was working their case as well, but if he had something that would help them, they would not complain about it.

"When IT came to Chief Howard with your request for identifying the specific computer used to communicate with that reporter, he decided that it would be better if I looked into this instead of you. No offense to Lieutenant Tao's technical skills, but we're a little better equipped in Criminal Intelligence. Besides, you guys going down there and asking questions would raise a lot more red flags with our perpetrator than me doing some delicate digging."

Sharon bit back a sarcastic remark, resenting his insinuation that her people were incapable of doing low profile inquiries. From the looks of it, her team was doing the same, and she was grateful that they were successful. The last thing she needed was a turf war with Mason and his unit. It was a miracle that he shared his information, anyway.

"I take it that you found something," Provenza prodded, leaning over his desk to get a look at the files.

"I did," the younger man confirmed. "The computer from which the emails have been sent belongs to Sergeant Juan Mendez, a veteran member of the narcotics division. I understand that you're familiar with the man?"

The Commander addressed both Raydor and Flynn, taking her narrowed eyes and the way she drew her lips into a thin line, and the Lieutenants exasperated sigh and eye roll as confirmation. Mendez' file documented an impressive history of disciplinary problems, many of which involved Flynn in some way, and even more of them having been dealt with by Raydor. It did not take a great deal of imagination to think that the Sergeant might hold a grudge against one or both of them.

As Mason studied the reactions of the people around him, he saw that they had all jumped to the same conclusion. Mendez had been around almost as long as Lieutenant Flynn, making him somewhat notorious among his fellow officers, mostly due to his bad temper and perpetually foul mood. There were few people within the department who had not at some point found themselves at the business end of one of the Sergeant's rants or even his fists.

"Yes, that was my first reaction, as well," Mason said of Nolan's almost enthusiastic acceptance of their new suspect and his possible motive. "However, when I pulled his key card records, it turned out that he was not in the building during the times that any of the emails were sent. Surveillance footage confirms the movement his key card indicated. It shows him leaving at least half an hour ahead of any of the instances in question."

He gave them a moment to digest that information, studying the way they communicated effortlessly with nothing but their eyes. He was looking at one hell of a team, and he sincerely hoped that, once they put this regrettable case to rest, they could all go back to normal.

With the scandal around Captain Raydor, it was pretty clear that she would not be getting Taylor's old job. It did not matter how long ago her affair with Flynn had been or that it had never impacted their jobs. It did not matter that the Chief of Police himself had made many questionable decisions in his personal life. Those images were out there, and they would dominate the public narrative for a long time if Raydor got the promotion. It was unlikely that anyone would talk about her actions as Assistant Chief. They would focus on her past, and it would taint the image of the office and the department. Neither Pope nor the Mayor would risk that, and everyone in the Murder Room knew it. Mason was able to sense their unease, and he did not blame them. With Raydor out of the race, most people thought that Davis would get the job. She had the higher rank, experience, and seniority, and she was a woman. The thought of Davis as their new boss hung over the division like a dark shadow, as they were almost certain that things would change for them, and that they would not like it. There was something about the case that they were not aware of, however.

"So someone else used Mendez' computer while he wasn't there." Buzz looked at no one in particular as he thought aloud, but Mike picked up his cue.

"The question is, did he forget to log out when he left or did someone know his password? I doubt that anyone would risk hacking into an LAPD computer. Not from inside, anyway. It would take –"

Provenza interrupted the younger Lieutenant before he could go off on another long-winded explanation that no one wanted to hear.

"Maybe he kept his password somewhere at his desk," he mused, thinking about the annoying fact that they had to change passwords every other month and how hard it was to remember the current one. That was why he carried a small piece of paper with that information in his wallet. He was not stupid enough to keep that in his desk drawer, but he figured that Mendez might be.

Buzz, Tao, Amy, and Nolan seemed scandalized by the notion, but the others nodded, agreeing with Provenza's idea.

"Yes, that's possible, and it is something the Sergeant will be asked about first thing tomorrow morning," Mason informed them. "Figuring out how the person gained access to the computer might help us make our case."

He had to fight a smile when he thought about revealing the next piece of the puzzle to the detectives in front of him. It was not really something to be happy about, but he would be lying if he denied feeling a certain sense of satisfaction.

"While I was looking into the access logs, I noticed something very interesting. I compared the names of the officers who were present in that part of the building during the times in question, and apart from two supporting officers who just made it out of patrol a few weeks ago, no name appeared all four times. Except one."

That got their attention. The Commander looked into the faces of the people who stared at him, waiting impatiently for him to drop the clue. Even the most seasoned among them were eager to pounce on whatever he would tell them, ready to jump into action. The weariness he had detected upon entering the room was suddenly gone, and the air was crackling with energy. He locked eyes with their commanding officer as he drew out the suspense for another beat. Their shocked gasps and wide eyes upon finally hearing him utter the name were no surprise at all.

~TBC~