“Unreal,” she said when he was gone. “I deliver this guy on a silver platter, and he wants to cut me out of it.” She looked over at the chief. “Thank you for standing our ground.”

“No problem. I’ll check in with his supervisor to let her know what’s going on so there’s no chance he might decide to go it alone.” He got up to leave the room but stopped short of the door. “Very fine work, as always, Lieutenant.”

“Thank you, sir. We got lucky.”

“It’s not luck. It’s never luck. I’ll see you in the morning at the funeral.”

“See you then.”

“You did good, kid,” Malone said when they were alone. “When I told Cooper you’d located Vincent’s operation, his mouth fell open in shock.”

“Was it full of food when that happened?”

Malone cracked up. “Thankfully not.”

“You got lucky.”

“You have everything locked and loaded with the USA and Leslie Lawton?” Malone asked. “Our case is riding on her.”

Leslie had agreed to testify in exchange for immunity from prosecution. “Yes, Faith has coordinated with the FBI to move her to one of their safe houses. That’s all set, and they’re hammering out the immunity deal.”

“As the chief said, very good work, Lieutenant.”

“All thanks to my longtime informant, Roberto, who came through for me big-time. He’s the one who told me to take another look at her.”

“However it happened, you got it done for your sister, her husband and all the other victims. Getting these people off the street will be a huge public service.”

“Let’s just hope Vincent doesn’t slip through our fingers before we can get this done.”

“He won’t. He thinks he’s untouchable. We’re about to show him otherwise. What’s your plan for Matthias Foster?”

“Oh shit. I forgot about him. Is he still in interview one?”

“As far as I know.”

“Let’s go have a chat with him.”

They burst into the room.

Matthias, who’d had his head down on the table, sat up so fast, he nearly toppled his chair.

“Hey there, Craig,” Sam said. “Or is it Matthias Foster?” She glanced at Malone. “These people who use multiple names are so annoying.”

“So annoying indeed, because they think we won’t figure out who they really are or who they really work for.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Foster said. “Those hookers set me up! They gave us the pills!”

“Save it,” Sam said. “We already know you were double-crossing Lawton and Vincent by working for them both. Vincent must’ve been upset when he found out you’d continued to work for your old boss after he hired you away from Lawton.”

Foster’s expression registered shock that she knew so much about him.

“How do you know Spencer Radcliffe?”

Sam was relieved to see a hint of remorse in his expression. “We played basketball together for years.” There it was. The connection she’d been searching for. Too bad there was no pleasure in putting those pieces together as Spencer was still dead.