Enter the Truth

Angelo was significantly less convinced, so he let Roland handle it as he continued snapping the metaphorical pieces in his head together.

If Angelo was being honest with himself, he was pretty sure that Zora had been down at the docks. He was pretty sure she'd been with the man in red--Ain Augusta. He didn't know why, but considering that she was literally dealing with the dirtiest of dirty cops, her decision to lie to Angelo about it was pretty understandable.

"Alright," Angelo said. "Slight adjustment. If you hear anything from an officer who isn't the two of us, or if you hear from Ain Augusta, or if you see anything suspicious, then you should call us."

Angelo waited for Roldan to get back before he said anything, reaching out to collect the recorder in full and glancing to Roldan.

"I'm going to keep it short," Angelo said. "Miller's dirty. Zero question about that. I got a tipoff from a friend who knew enough to know I could be trusted, but it's pretty likely there's others in the department who can't, beyond Miller. It's not good, but it is. At this point, the only people who know are you, me, and Raphael. Well, them and a little team from internal affairs. They're looking into things. Serious stuff. And they're keeping it quiet."

Angelo tapped the record with a finger.

"I'm going to get this to him. And hopefully it'll help dig a bigger hole for our favorite detective."

"If you were dirty," Angelo pointed out. "You wouldn't have gone and gotten me. You'd have told her it's totally normal, part of protocol, and shoved her out the door while burying the report. Same reason I know Raphael's not dirty. He was second on the scene down at the docks, and if Nick Miller had wanted to know what we knew, he'd have just asked him."

Reasonably speaking. But also, if Raphael had been dirty, Angelo was pretty sure he'd have run into more resistance.

"We're not saying this to anyone else, for obvious reasons. They're already looking into it."

Angelo considered it. It was a problem, no question about that. But duos? Duos were probably fine.

"I don't think it's that bad, at least," Angelo said. "I'll make sure they're pairs going out. If it's a pair going around, it shouldn't be that big of a risk, but..."

They'd need more people to stack the patrols, and he only had two. "We'll have to take the risk. I'll see if I can't slide you into the route so you can check in more often than not..."

He considered, but in the end he couldn't think of anything else.

"I'm going to go drop this off. I'll keep in touch."