“The incident wasn’t even noted on her file. More, no one can now find record of the break-in. They’re calling it a computer glitch. I’m calling bullshit,” Maia said. “This is starting to feel like a setup to me, and I’m turning it over to Ian. I think you should hide your girl while he sorts this out, but I don’t think it’s going to take too long. If she’s there with you, I think you’re well set.”

“What kind of setup are you thinking?” He was willing to listen to her.

“Did you know a young woman was shot outside Vallon’s office building the day Lisa Daley called in her tip to the police?”

“No. I did not know that.” A chill crept across his skin. “Was she a brunette?”

“She was, and roughly the same age and general description as Lisa,” Maia replied. “I had one of our more intelligent investigators look into it. He said it was raining that day. The young woman actually worked two floors above Lisa, but she left that day at roughly the same time Lisa usually left. She was shot in the parking lot behind the building. She lived but it was a close thing. The police theory was a mugging gone wrong, but I have another one.”

“They thought they were shutting Lisa up.”

“I believe so. I think someone realized what she’d done. The feds arrested Vallon the next day, but obviously that was botched, and I’m not entirely sure that was an honest mistake. Someone is trying to tank this case.”

“Why haven’t they come after her again?”

“I don’t know. I do know that the next day she was brought into the prosecutor’s office, and she didn’t go alone. She went with a little entourage, as it was described to me.”

He could imagine who she took with her. “Her brother-in-law is a lawyer.”

“Her brother-in-law is Mitch Bradford. He’s not merely a lawyer. He’s a pit bull. Her brother was with her, and Ian Taggart was, too. I think Mitch requested his presence, or likely someone from McKay-Taggart, to go in with them as background muscle. It’s a smart play. It lets the feds know you’ve got money and power to protect the witness. Likely they’d already talked about protection for her. Taggart would have been there to assure them he could handle it.”

“And them, if someone came after her.” What a lucky play Mitch had made. The rumors would have gotten back to Vallon that she was protected by Taggart. “If Vallon has half a brain, he knows who Taggart is connected to.”

“Yes, I suspect someone in his organization does, and they do not want to cross the Denisovitch Syndicate,” Maia practically purred. “I think that’s why they chose to go after the evidence and not your girl.”