Crush - Alan Jacobson [124]
Dixon locked eyes with Benezra. “If you only knew.”
Benezra sighed deeply. “My PI found payoffs to Timothy Nance, Church’s District Director, in a private account. Two payments of twenty-five grand apiece. We think they came from Crystal Dahlia, which would make sense, but we’re not sure. And it seems the fifty grand was shipped out of the account a couple days later.”
“To where?”
“Don’t know. My PI hasn’t finished digging. It’s . . . sensitive work. We have to be very careful. But it looks like Nance was taking a bribe to influence government legislation regarding the minimum grape requirement for the AVA.”
Vail held up a hand. “Hang on a second. I’m not sure we can reach that conclusion. Those are pretty serious charges. Taking bribes, influence peddling. Corruption, graft.”
Benezra looked away. “Congressman Church is close friends with the director of the Regulations and Ruling Division of the TTB. And they administer AVA designations. Does that change your opinion?”
Vail raised her brow. Yeah, that’d change mine.
“Kind of strange for a man who’s thinking of running for governor to do something like this,” Dixon said.
“Governor?” Benezra asked. “That’s news to me.”
“How deeply involved is Church in all this?” Vail asked.
Benezra shrugged. “I couldn’t say Church is involved in any of this. Nance may’ve simply taken the money with the intent of convincing the congressman to talk with his buddy at the TTB. I wouldn’t be surprised if Church has no idea what Nance is doing.” He turned to face Dixon. “Can I trust you, Ms. Dixon?”
Dixon shoved her hands into her pockets. “I think you already have.”
Benezra nodded. “Fair enough.” He studied Dixon’s face, then said, “One of your law enforcement colleagues also appears to be involved.”
“Who?”
“Scott Fuller.”
“Involved, as in the AVA issue, the bribery?”
“His name came up, more than once. But I’ll leave it to you to look into it further. Fuller wasn’t the big fish, so I told my PI to first concentrate on Nance and Church.” Benezra tipped his chin back. “Now . . . the info you had to exchange?”
“Off the record,” Dixon said. “And not for publication. Fuller, along with a guy named Walton Silva and Nance, were involved in an arson plot. Fuller’s dead. Silva’s in custody. Nance is implicated, but free. I’m not sure that helps you much.”
Benezra considered that a moment. “I think it tells me this might be larger than we’d thought. We need to seriously consider turning this over to the Feds to investigate. Let them sort it out.” Benezra looked down at his watch. “I have to go, my ten thirty.”
Dixon extended a hand. “Thank you. This won’t go beyond us. From our end, anyway, we’ll keep you out of it. If you share this stuff with the Feds—and I do recommend you do that—they’ll obviously want to see everything you’ve got.”
Benezra nodded, bid them good luck, then walked back through the glass door.
VAIL AND DIXON headed to the sheriff’s department in silence, both working through the information Marc Benezra had given them.
“I kind of liked the guy,” Vail finally said. “He didn’t have to tell us shit.”
“Yeah, and what he did tell us . . . it kind of puts things in a different light. I’m now wondering about that arson. Silva and Nance lied to us.”
“If you were taking bribes, would you tell the police? Either that or Silva was kept in the dark and Nance and Fuller kept the money for themselves, figuring the promise about getting a post in a governor’s administration was enough for Silva.”
Dixon cocked her head. “Yeah, but that’s playing with fire. If Silva finds out they were taking money and not sharing it, he could get pissed and start talking.”
“Playing with fire?”
Dixon winced. “No pun intended.”
Vail shook her head. “I don’t think he’d start talking—not only would he blow his chance at a major career boost, anything he’d say would implicate himself. And for what? It wasn’t that much money, especially split three ways.”
Dixon tapped her fingers on the dash beyond the