Behind the Ice Queen part 3
It had been a long day for the major crimes squad after Raydor withdrew from the case. Each member of the team was trying to focus on the case but so far none of them could get over the fact that their case was quickly becoming intertwined with Raydor's past. Provenza in particular was concerned with how this case was going to affect her but that was not the only thing worrying him.
"Is it just me or is it rather…odd that this case would come to our desks at the same time that Anthony and Raydor's kids are visiting? Would it be bad timing or is there something else going on?"
Tao looked up from his paperwork. "It feels like something else is going on here. Should I look at their backgrounds? It might tell us something."
Provenza thought about it for a moment. "Yes. Look the three of them up. See if their financials match up or if they've had any problems lately that could point to a payoff. Sanchez, didn't you have a friend in the FBI that could help get information on Anthony?"
Sanchez thought for a moment and then he picked up the phone to make some calls. Now that the team had the beginnings of a theory they all went to work digging up information about Raydor's family.
It took a few hours but eventually the team gathered in the murder room to share what information they had about the family. James and Elana turned out to be completely clean but when the team looked over Anthony's information they noticed some problems.
"So this Anthony has been depositing more money into the bank than he is supposed to be earning? Do we have any idea where the extra money is coming from?" asked Provenza.
Sanchez shook his head. "According to my friend Anthony started these deposits almost three months ago. They total up to about eight thousand dollars."
But Flynn wasn't convinced. "But even if the guy has something to do with the case it still leaves questions. Like how would he get the prints of the people that killed his son and why would he plant them at the scene?"
Buzz looked up from his computer. "Maybe he broke into the police mainframe and took the prints. There are ways to copy a print onto a mold that would make it seem like a real print. I've been looking at the prints and they don't seem quite like normal prints."
"Anthony doesn't seem to have a reason to want the files. Maybe he was paid by the person that stole the files. What were in the files that anyone would want?" asked Sykes.
"The files were for a joint case between the FBI and another department here. Apparently they were about a crime ring that killed a police officer. An informant was found that brought down the ring and the files had the name of the informant. That could be the reason that they were stolen. The major players could have paid for the files to be taken so that they could find out who ratted them out" suggested Sanchez.
Provenza frowned in thought and turned to Tao. "Find out if Anthony has any connection to the crime ring."
It took a few minutes but Tao managed to find a connection. "Turns out Anthony have been on a few cases that involve the crime ring. According to the database every case was thrown out because key evidence or witnesses disappear right before the trial. The police couldn't figure out how the ring was getting their information. I also looked into Anthony's finances for each incident and there always seems to be extra cash in his account after the cases end."
That got everyone's attention. Provenza got up from his chair and started towards the door. "Looks like we need to talk with Anthony and find out what he has been doing with…."
But Provenza didn't get the chance to finish because Anthony was standing in the door with a gun pointed towards Rusty.
Anthony didn't give the team a chance to speak. "You guys couldn't just leave the case alone. Now look at what you have forced me to."
Sharon came out of her office and saw Rusty. She started to rush towards him until she saw Anthony's gun. "Anthony, what are you doing? Let him go!"
Anthony just shook his head and grinned at her. "I had a system watching to see if anyone accessed my information. Once you guys were on to me I knew that I had to do something. Since I'm going down anyways I figured that I should do something just for you. You always blamed me for Tim's death so now you can blame yourself for Rusty's."
Anthony's attention to Sharon gave Rusty a chance to break free so while Anthony was talking Rusty elbowed him in the stomach. Rusty got away but when Anthony realized that he had lost his leverage against Sharon he became even angrier. Anthony pointed the gun at Rusty but before he pulled the trigger Sharon dived in front of Rusty. The shot hit her hard enough that she flew into Rusty, knocking him to the ground. The rest of the team had been pulling out their guns and when they saw Raydor go down they shot Anthony. Buzz called for an ambulance while Provenza pulled Raydor off of Rusty. Everyone could see the blood from the wound so Sykes attempted to put pressure on the wound.
When she felt the pressure on her back Raydor's eyes opened. "Rusty?" she whispered. Rusty moved into her line of sight but he was too horrified to speak.
Sharon gave him a small smile before finally going unconscious.