Page 34

12

Mike listened to her words and fought fury. At the men responsible. He’d heard of those types of parties back when he had first hired on to the TSP. They’d been a popular pastime for a select handful of the uniformed officers. They’d been shut down fast once word had gotten back to the brass. He had been certain Daniel McKellen and Chief Blankenbaker had arrested the men responsible.

The entire side purpose of Major Crimes—the purpose most people didn’t know about—was to find that kind of corruption within their own ranks. To police the police. Even while solving the hardest and high-consequence crimes that plagued the city. To make it better.

“Who were they? What happened to them?”

“I’m not telling you names,” Daryn said, bluntly. “That will just cause trouble. For Shelby, for both of us. She doesn’t need it dragged back up. Neither of us does. I probably work with some of those men every day. And it terrifies me.”

It didn’t exactly sit that well with Mike, either. That someone had hurt her that way—it just pissed him off. Made him want to make the jerks pay.

“Did you press charges?”

“Yes. We tried. I tried. My brother tried. But it kept getting buried, especially since we couldn’t identify the ones responsible. Not with the great blue wall. Until it was completely erased and they threatened Darrell to keep his mouth shut. Or his career was over. And we never even learned their names. ”

“And Darrell just backed down? And you came to work at the TSP?”

“No. We finally had to give up identifying them, but Darrell and Zoey still work on the case sometimes. Zoey and I had to focus on healing Shelby. So… Darrell stepped in. He’s still looking, I think. We just don’t really talk about it. We’re just trying to get on with our lives.”

“He got a thing for her?” Mike asked. He could imagine it. He wasn’t blind. Daryn’s friend was flat-out drool-worthy gorgeous. Men would want her with just one look. She was the kind who stopped traffic when she walked by.

Mike had always preferred the cute pixie type, but he could see where Shelby Jacobson would make men into slathering idiots.

“No. I don’t think so. At least, he never said, and he was pretty hung up on Zo for a while there, I think. I think nothing came of that, either. Shelby has pushed men away completely since that day. I don’t blame her.”

No. Mike didn’t blame Shelby, either. But he wondered if the same could be said for the woman next to him. From every rumor he’d heard, Daryn was the one to end things with Naylor. And with Detective Lombard before that.

Gun shy? Literally. It made sense. He had read between the lines of what she was saying.

She’d been attacked that night, too. By TSP. By men that Mike most likely represented whenever she looked at him.

No wonder she was so guarded and angry with him.

“Is Shelby ok now?” Was Daryn? Mike couldn’t stop himself from wrapping his fingers through hers as they walked. He wanted to pull her closer, but didn’t dare.

Daryn shook her head. “I am not sure. She’s stronger than she realizes, but… Darrell said that she needed to feel more control. So as soon as she had healed physically, he showed up on her doorstep. Argued with her older brother about what he was going to do with Shelby. Darrell was just there when we needed him. Like Shelby’s brother and Logan were. The three of them sort of surrounded us for a while. I know people say Logan was a criminal, but he did a lot for Shelby, and me. I think he helped Zoey out once with some legal fees involving custody of her sister. Darrell basically dragged the both of us down to Garrity. Where he taught us what to do for Search & Rescue. I did not enjoy it at all—but Shelby did. She was considering going into S&R, Mike. Darrell wanted her to. But she didn’t want to work with the TSP. Around here, that was her only real option. She didn’t want to move away—not with her brother being her only relative. So she just practiced S&R with Darrell. Whenever she could. Until she inherited all that money from Logan Lanning, anyway.”

“And then Callum and I interrogated her. Hard.” Mike felt like a total ass. He hadn’t even considered what he had done that day to be that bad. He’d pressed hard, made a few wild accusations, said things to get the woman to trip up. Just like he would have any potential suspect. She never had. But he had been convinced back then… she had to be as guilty as Logan Lanning. Or she had known something she had kept back deliberately. “I was wrong.”

“You were. You were her nightmare personified.”

He winced, grateful she couldn’t see in the darkness. He pulled her closer, just wanting to protect her. Even if just from the rain.

“So tell me something—why did Logan Lanning leave her all that money?” For no logical reason at all, Shelby Jacobson had inherited just about everything Logan Lanning had been worth. Except for a few behests—that had gone to her older brother Allen. They were talking serious money. Tens of millions, easily.

It made little sense to him back then. Or anyone else in Major Crimes. It was driving his pal Jake MacNamara crazy, trying to figure out what Logan Lanning had been up to. Lanning had hurt Jake’s niece, after all. Lanning was Jake’s own personal obsession.

“Logan was completely alone in the world. Her brother had been his closest friend since college. He… had feelings for Shelby, I always thought. It was in the way he’d looked at her. Like he couldn’t believe she was real. Nothing more diabolical or sinister than that. I think he was in love with her and had been for a long time. He was a good deal older than she was, eleven or twelve years, and she was his best friend’s younger sister. There were boundaries he would not cross. I think at heart, Logan was a good man. Just… bad things happened.”

He wanted to say something, but didn’t. He had a vastly different opinion on Logan Lanning. Because they were still digging in to what Lanning had been involved in. Secretly. And probably would be for a very long time. Jake insisted the man had known more than what he had said. It wasn’t over yet.

Mike was convinced Shelby Jacobson was innocent. He just had no way to prove it yet.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that happened to her. I’m sorry it happened to you. And I’ll apologize to her, too. I never meant to hurt her before.” Mike stopped walking and scooped her closer into her arms. “I am sorry.”