Two hours later, Gabriel met with Captain Raydor.

"Sergent, how can I help you?"

"Captain, thank you for giving me your time. I'm here to give you a heads up and to ask for a favor."

She looked at him quizzically. "Not for me, but um …"

"Why don't you start at the beginning?"

"So the special prosecutor, Jacobs, asked to talk to me about Flynn and Chief Johnson, and I don't know exactly where she's going with this, but it's not good."

"And what did Jacobs say?"

"She asked if we were investigating the Harris/Wescott murders (Flynn's son in and his son in law's boss) and I told her the truth, we were not, but we had investigated the rumored killer, Richards, for wire fraud. After that, she asked if Chief Johnson met with Flynn the Monday before Richards was murdered and I had no idea. No such meeting was scheduled, and according to the Chief's schedule," which Gabriel had checked after meeting with Jacobs, "she was meeting with the DA at the time."

"And what do you think of this?"

"I think that she's trying to establish that Chief Johnson gave her information on Richards to Flynn and Flynn used it to find and kill Richards."

"And what do you think?"

"I think she has a lot of name smearing and no evidence. One, she can't prove Flynn killed Richards or else he'd be in jail and two, if she can't prove that Flynn's the shooter, then Johnson as an accessory doesn't make sense. She had no personal vendetta against him."

"So Chief Johnson's only in trouble if Flynn's in trouble?"

"Exactly."

"And what is the favor?"

"Can you exonerate Flynn?"

"I can't get involved in a case where my subordinate is a person of interest."

"You can't personally, but you could hint hint wink wink someone who could."

"Are you serious?"

"Um, yes?"

"I can't just use the LAPD to do my personal bidding?"

"Why not?"

"I'm not Chief Johnson and didn't her past behavior get her in this mess in the first place?"

"I'm not saying everything she did was right. You know how I feel on the matter, but she always went after bad guys and protected good ones. She got screwed out of her LAPD career in part because of my poor judgement, and I can't watch her lose her shot in the DA's office without a fight. She's changed. She's no longer working a million hours a week or looking for loopholes everywhere. She's actually trying to play by the rules and she shouldn't get pigeonholed because of prior actions. Aren't the rules of evidence designed to prevent what Jacobs is trying to do?"

"And what is Jacobs trying to do?"

"Decide on her killer and her theory and then look for evidence instead of starting with the evidence and working out. We can't get a fair resolution from someone who's already decided the truth. If Flynn didn't do it, and we both know he didn't, then Chief Johnson didn't do it either."

"I can't promise you that I will do what you want, but I will do what the law allows me to in order to help."

"That's all I ask for, Captain. Thank you."

Captain Raydor looked at her short tenure with Major Crimes. She never pulled a "Chief Johnson" as she would call it, but sometimes she found herself dancing closer to the lines than she ever thought herself possible. She wasn't ready to excuse her predecessor's conduct, but she was increasingly sympathetic with her motivation to seek justice even with a bit dubious behavior. Now she needed someone who could poke around and see if there were any other people who would want Richards dead.

She made a call. "Mendoza, it's Captain Raydor. Remember that favor you owe me? I'm cashing in."

Present

Brenda answered the call. She was expecting to hear the command and to pull the trigger. "Change of plans!" It was Caitlin, her former protegé and now leader of her own team at the CIA.

"What?"

"We need you to take her in alive."

"How the heck am I supposed to do that?" The FBI is securing the party along with LAPD.

"We have the route planned and a getaway vehicle for you. You still remember how to ride a motorcycle."

"Oh for heaven's sakes!"

She rushed to the location where the bike was awaiting her. She had rope, a grappling hook, chloroform, a caterer's uniform and a sack that was just large enough to hide Ghostface inside