An anonymous caller tipped the police, and the cops arrived while I was with him.

Think they set you up?

They couldn't know I would find him. They couldn't know I was at his house.

Someone watching the body would know.

I drank more of the beer, then went through the rest.

They sweated me for a couple of hours, then Marx told me if I didn't back off he would bring Lou up on charges for disobeying his orders. He would ruin Lou's career.

He threatened Poitras.

Yeah. For letting me into Byrd's house.

He actually made the threat.

Yes.

The corner of Pike's mouth twitched and he leaned against the counter.

What did he mean, back off?

I described how Marx was involved with Leverage Associates.

Marx ran interference for Leverage during the original investigation into the Repko murder. He shut out Darcy and Maddux weeks before Byrd's body was discovered, and those guys never knew he was involved. Darcy also turned up a security vid made in the alley where Repko was murdered. SID couldn't do anything with it, so Darcy sent the disk to a CGI house. Thing is, when Byrd turned up, the task force sucked up the disk before the CGI house finished their work. Now nobody knows what happened to it.

You think Marx is sitting on it?

I don't know what to think. If it showed Byrd committing the murder, Marx would have used it. If it was garbage, why make it disappear?

Maybe it showed someone else.

Maybe. I don't know.

Pike took a careful sip of his beer.

You're not just talking about Marx, Elvis. You're talking about an entire task force. Someone would be talking about it. You can't keep secrets like that.

Lindo told me the task force was vertically integrated. Only the people at the top knew the full picture, what Lindo called the inner circle. He said the guys on his team even used to joke about it. Secrets are a lot easier to keep when people don't know what's going on.

Who ran the show?

Marx on top with Bastilla and a dick named Munson. Lindo heard Marx and Munson have some kind of history together.

Pike put down the cat. He slid from Pike's arms like molasses and puddled at his feet.

If Marx is shading the case, Bastilla and Munson would have to go along.

He's a deputy chief, Joe. He can make their careers before he retires.

The cat peeled himself off the floor. He gazed at Pike, then came over and head-bumped my leg. I poured some of my beer in his beer dish, and watched him lap it.

Pike said, So what are you going to do?

Dig into Leverage. It's all about Leverage and Marx. While I'm doing that, maybe you can try to dig up something on Munson and Bastilla. Dirty cops leave a dirty trail.

Pike grunted.

Have you told Lou?

I finished the rest of the beer.