Chapter 7 - Cassidy's Second StoryCassidy Wynn asked for Jude by name.
By then, she had been formally charged.
Attempted robbery conspiracy.
Possession of stolen property.
Fraud related to staged roadside incidents.
She knew prison was possible.
Her lawyer knew cooperation mattered.
Jude entered the interview with Celeste Grant.
Cassidy looked at Celeste.
“Who is she?”
“Someone I trust more than most people today.”
Celeste didn't smile.
Cassidy accepted it.
“I remembered something.”
Jude sat.
“Go.”
“The fourth guy. Noah.”
“What?”
“He asked me about you before tonight.”
Jude leaned forward.
“You said he didn't know the target.”
“He didn't know it was you. I think.”
“Then what did he ask?”
“Rafe mentioned Barrett Recovery.”
“Noah asked which Barrett.”
Jude's pulse jumped.
“What did Rafe say?”
“‘Not the cop.’”
That mattered.
They distinguished Roman from Jude.
Then Rafe said:
The cop will take care of himself.
Cassidy didn't understand.
Noah did.
He became agitated.
Later he asked Cassidy privately whether Rafe ever mentioned “the old man.”
“What old man?”
“I thought he meant Roman's dad.”
Henry Barrett had died seven years earlier.
Noah would know that.
Maybe not.
“What did Cassidy say?”
“I told him Rafe called somebody ‘the old man’ on the phone.”
“Name?”
“No.”
“Description?”
“Never saw him.”
“What did you hear?”
Cassidy closed her eyes.
“Rafe said, ‘Shaw is getting nervous.’”
Jude and Celeste exchanged a look.
“And the old man?”
“Voice said, ‘Then remind him who made him captain.’”
Jude's blood went cold.
Above Shaw.
Someone powerful enough to make a police captain.
“Did you record?”
“No.”
“Number?”
“Rafe used a separate phone.”
“Where is it?”
Cassidy looked down.
“He keeps it in a red toolbox at a garage.”
“Which garage?”
“Sunset Auto.”
Celeste searched.
Small repair shop in Sparks.
Owner:
Peter Voss.
Of course.
They obtained a warrant through state channels.
Garage search produced weapons, fake titles, cloned keys, prepaid phones.
No red toolbox.
Someone had cleared it.
But one employee said Rafe removed a toolbox two hours after arrests.
Who told him police were looking?
Rafe had been booked.
Released? No.
He remained in custody.
He could have called someone.
All calls recorded.
One call to attorney.
One to mother.
One to unknown number via attorney conference? Maybe.
Cassidy continued.
“There's something else.”
Jude looked.
“I wasn't supposed to survive tonight.”
Silence.
“What?”
Her lawyer leaned in.
“Cassidy.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
Then to Jude:
“Rafe told Cole after our last job that tonight was my final run.”
“Could mean retirement.”
“I thought that.”
“What changed?”
“I found a photo.”
“What photo?”
Cassidy opened her attorney's folder.
Printed image from her cloud storage.
A dark sedan.
Cassidy herself getting into it two weeks earlier.
Taken from across a parking lot.
On back, Rafe's handwriting photographed later:
C.W. CLEANUP AFTER THURS.
Jude stared.
“Where did you find it?”
“Rafe's apartment.”
“Why were you there?”
“I was sleeping with him.”
Her voice carried disgust toward herself.
Not because of sex.
Because she trusted him.
“He told me we'd leave Reno after one last job.”
“Instead he planned to kill you?”
“I don't know.”
Celeste said,
“Cleanup rarely means vacation.”
Cassidy laughed once.
Then wiped her eyes.
“I thought the fake pregnancy thing was ugly but nobody got seriously hurt.”
“How many robberies?”
“Seven.”
“Seven people would disagree about harmless.”
“I know.”
No excuse.
Good.
Cassidy continued.
“Last week one victim fought back.”
“What happened?”
“Cole broke his wrist.”
Jude stared.
Cassidy whispered,
“I wanted out.”
“Then why tonight?”
“Rafe said he'd give police videos showing me as the leader.”
“He had leverage.”
“Yes.”
Again.
Fear creating compliance.
“What does this have to do with Noah?”
Cassidy looked at Jude.
“He saw the photo.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“What did he say?”
“‘You're not leaving after Thursday.’”
Jude's chest tightened.
Noah knew what cleanup meant.
“He told me to keep my car keys on me.”
“Why?”
“Didn't say.”
“Did he have a plan?”
“I think he was going to get me out after the robbery.”
But seeing Jude changed everything.
Cassidy reached into evidence photo folder.
“There was also this.”
Another image.
Rafe's red toolbox before it disappeared.
Cassidy had photographed contents secretly.
Phones.
Cash.
Notebook.
And a keychain.
Metal tag.
H.B.
Jude stared.
Henry Barrett.
His father.
“Where did that come from?”
“I don't know.”
Jude zoomed.
It was not just initials.
A familiar brass keychain from Barrett Recovery.
Henry had hundreds made in the 1990s.
Employees received one.
Jude still had his.
Roman too.
So did several old mechanics.
Peter Voss had likely received one.
Not enough.
Then Celeste spotted something.
“What's behind the toolbox?”
Cassidy zoomed.
A framed photograph.
Rafe.
Peter Voss.
Captain Shaw.
And an older man.
Silver hair.
Heavy build.
Jude recognized him.
For a second, he refused to.
Then memory won.
“Chief Hal Mercer.”
Former Reno police chief.
Retired twelve years ago.
The man who had promoted Everett Shaw.
The man who gave Jude his first detective badge.
Celeste looked at him.
“Old man?”
Jude stared at the photo.
Hal Mercer was seventy-two.
Respected.
Decorated.
Publicly involved in police charities.
He had been Henry Barrett's close friend.
Fishing trips.
Barbecues.
Family birthdays.
Jude had called him Uncle Hal as a child.
Cassidy said,
“I've seen him.”
Jude turned.
“Where?”
“At Rafe's.”
“When?”
“Twice.”
“What did he do?”
“Nothing.”
“Cassidy.”
“He sat in the kitchen.”
“With Shaw?”
“Once.”
“And?”
“They argued.”
“About?”
“Noah.”
Jude felt cold.
Cassidy continued.
“Shaw said, ‘Keene is dead.’”
“And Mercer?”
“He said…”
She swallowed.
“‘Then why did Peter find him breathing?’”
Jude's pulse pounded.
Hal Mercer knew Noah survived.
Maybe from the beginning.
Cassidy's voice dropped.
“Then the old man said, ‘If Noah ever sees Jude again, we lose both.’”
Jude sat back.
Both.
Noah and Jude.
Why would Jude matter so much?
Cassidy looked frightened.
“I thought he meant you knew something.”
Jude stared at the photograph.
Maybe not.
Maybe Jude didn't know something.
May you like
Maybe he was something.
And the conspiracy had been protecting a secret tied to him since before he became a cop.
