18 Case 18 - First NY Case & Deposition at PSL

LA: <Events before The Rookie S1E12, Modern Family S9E13, SWAT S1E10>

NY: <Events 99 before Brooklyn S5E11, Suits S7E12, and 1.5 years after Castle S8 finale>

"Can you act like a grown-up for one second Jake? It's not his fault that his case was bigger and turned into national news! He was in a coma!" Amy chided after sitting both Ben and Jake in the meeting room next to the bullpen.

"Why were you flirting with my nemesis?" Jake countered while ignoring Amy's plea.

"We weren't flirting!" Amy exclaimed in exasperation. "We were working my grand larceny case and joked around!"

"I'm dying in the hospital, and you're already looking for my replacement? How could you?" Jake Peralta asked with grand gestures, and suddenly, the door burst open.

"You have a small sore that will go away with a blanket and warm bottle of water!" Amy countered, but Boyle already spoke up to defend his best friend.

"Yeah, Amy! How could you?" Detective Boyle accused even more theatrically than Jake Peralta.

Ben's eyes widened when he realised Boyle wasn't kidding around. What did he do that pissed off Peralta so much? And what was Boyle's stake in all this?

"I could excuse you flirting around with an underwear model or a city comptroller or a cross word puzzle creator or something... but him? Why Amy?"

"Listen to yourself! Ben is a good cop! And he is a nice guy who suffered terribly while undercover and got into national news through no fault of his own. You can't really be mad at him!"

He respected the badge, so his wife's words settled in and Jake calmed down, looked at Ben, and ordered, "Give me one reason why I should like you!"

Ben was stumped. He turned to Amy, then to Boyle, who looked at him with some hostility, and then back to Jake.

"Uh, I'll be gone in four weeks, and you'll never have to see me again?"

"Hmm, that is good news. Give me another reason."

"Jake!" Amy interjected with an exasperated look.

"I'm really impressed with your track record as a detective and hope to learn from you?" Ben unsurely offered.

'When in doubt, praise someone for something they likely take pride in,' Ben thought with a faint frown.

"I guess you are pretty smart for figuring that out," Jake confidently accepted and started to loosen his frown.

"Just don't try to befriend us. Jake already has a best friend," Boyle added and walked out after seeing the situation calming down.

"Look, I guess I'm sorry that me being undercover for five years and getting shot in the heart made national news at the same time you were released from prison. I read up on that case, and I can say it probably wasn't easy on you. Lieutenant Hawkings was a Class A bitch," Ben told Jake as he stood up and walked over for a handshake to bury the hatchet that Detective Peralta brought for no apparent reason.

"Tell me more about how Hawkings was terrible, and how you think I did amazing during the case," Jake instructed and walked Ben to his desk opposite Amy's after he accepted the handshake under Amy's incredulous look.

The two detectives talked about their time undercover, though Amy had to stop Jake from embellishing the story her fiance told a few times. Jake had pretended to be fired from the NYPD and spent 63 days with the Italian Mob while feeding intel to the FBI.

It was somewhat similar compared to Ben's circumstances, but Jake never even left the city during his two months sabbatical while Ben left the continent on several occasions and helped smuggle weapons and actual human slaves into the country.

As such, Jake slowly lost all his hostility after Ben talked some more about what he lived through and started to respect the LA detective despite still being miffed that Ben was apparently 'so much cooler' than he was. They changed to talking to each other on a first name basis that same day.

When the day was close to an end, Amy and Ben were booking Jack Peterson, the guy who broke his own safe to commit insurance fraud. The man was cursing up a storm on how he needed the money for his daughter's surgery and how they should let him go with a warning... but sadly, he committed a felony, several, in fact, and they couldn't not file their findings with the District Attorney's Office and the insurance he tried to defraud. Plus, Mister Peterson didn't even have a daughter.

With the day over, Amy was kind enough to drive Ben to his new home for the next four weeks. Jake had offered to come along, but Boyle abducted him for a boy's night out to stake his claim as Jake's best friend.

At his new temporary home, Ben got the keys from a neighbor and entered the apartment. It had an okay view toward Lower Manhattan over the East River, though most of it was obstructed by the building in between that had a giant billboard installed on the roof. The apartment itself was a rather small studio apartment with a living room that was also the kitchen and dining room with a small shoebox of a bedroom next to it that held nothing but a wardrobe, a queen sized bed and a small bathroom with a slim shower and toilet attached.

It would suffice for his stay, though the high ceiling and the simple glass windows made heating the place up almost impossible. He knew now why it was available.

He called Haley and Zofia once he settled in and talked to his daughter with Zofia's help for a while before hitting the pillows.

-----

The next day, Ben woke up at 3:30am due to a call from LA. The night raid on the Chinese Triad with the intel he got from Carice Smit was this night, and with the three hour time difference, Chris apparently forgot that Ben was most likely already sleeping.

Pressing the phone to his ear without lifting his body out of bed, Ben sleepily greeted, "This is Ben Weiss' phone. Please speak after the snoring."

"*Oh shit, I woke you!*" Chris gasped into the phone. "*I'm so sorry. It completely escaped my mind. Should I call you later?*"

"Nah, I'm up now. Talk," Ben groaned out but didn't move an inch.

"*The triad raid you wanted to sit out since you didn't want to disclose where the intel came from. The DEA confiscated 15kg of heroin, a cache of stolen meth from a biker gang that was hit at a New Years Eve party, some fentanyl and several million dollars in cash. We're looking at around 26 million dollars in street value altogether. This was one of the biggest busts in LAPD history.*"

"That's sick. Did you get the higher-ups?" Ben inquired as he inwardly calculated this bust.

"*All but two who the others claim aren't in the country. We're still looking, though. And, one of the bosses was screaming bloody murder on how we tortured his missing son to get all the info on their stashes and shipping routes. Know anything about that?*"

"I handed over everything I was given to Commander Hicks. If I had to guess, that son was retaliation for Antje Smit... but good luck proving that..."

"*Shit. That's where that came from?*" Chris incredulously inquired.

"Yeah, don't advertise it, though. I told Hicks and the lead agent at the DEA in confidence, but the Smits are apparently untouchable after three failed convictions by Interpol and local authorities in the Netherlands. I want nothing to do with the bust because I don't want to be seen as benefitting from such a career changing operation after I received the intel from a known drug lord. Well, known to the few who look past the sealed case files that declared them innocent..."

"*Got it, Ben. You really are a stand-up guy, huh? ...how was your first night in New York?*"

"Short," Ben snorted with a small chuckle and got Chris giggling a little.

"There's some real quality people at the 99th precinct. I think I'll benefit a lot from working with them these coming weeks..."

-----

Ben got to meet Detective Rosa Diaz the next day, who had been at court all day the day before, and the three - Amy, Ben, and Rosa - worked the possible angle on the first suspect, who sold the baseball cards worth around $4k on eBay, being a potential drug supplier. It was too bad that the first suspect had given up the dealer before the search warrant got through. It could have potentially ended it all before it started.

As they staked out the man's apartment in a cozy surveillance van stocked with blankets and hot soup in thermos, Ben grilled the two detectives on their usual case load.

"Really? Giggle pig? Some of these street names for drugs are so ridiculous," Ben asked while slightly shaking his head. "And it was just ecstasy with pink food coloring?"

"Yep," Rosa confirmed but didn't say much else. She was a woman of few words.

"And you got 'taxi' off the streets? Let me guess, yellow food coloring?" Ben asked with a grin as he looked at Amy.

"And 'it takes you where you need to be.' I was honestly surprised the cook didn't end up being a communications major who worked in advertisement with a slogan like that," Amy answered with a wistful sigh.

After a brief moment of silence, Ben pointed outside a tinted window, "Look. That's our second suspect. The dealer."

Amy and Rosa perked up after seeing the man walking towards the suspected supplier's apartment building. Rosa called it in, so they had reasonable grounds to search the dealer's belongings later on when he left, and so they waited.

The dealer entered and came outside again ten minutes later, looking visibly distressed. Rosa and Ben got out of the van to follow him while Amy stayed in the van to keep the surveillance going.

Ben walked ahead after giving Rosa a signal, and just after crossing the street, he caught up with the dealer.

"Hey, Clarence - right? Funny meeting you here," Ben called out, and the dealer - Clarence Hitower - stopped to look around with a paranoid look in his eyes.

"W-what are you doing here?" The man asked and looked around frantically.

"I'll be honest with you. We weren't looking for you. But you look like someone we should have been looking for. You promised me you wouldn't deal something harder than weed. Are you keeping your promise, Clarence?"

The man paled, his pupils dilated, and Rosa managed to sneak up behind him.

"Mister Hitower. We suspect you to be used as a mule or working as a high-level distributor for a suspected supplier of controlled substances, including but not limited to schedule 3 drugs and narcotics. As such, we have grounds to search your person after coming out of the known address of the suspected supplier," Rosa dictated in a no-nonsense tone and started to frisk the shivering man. "This will only take a moment."

With Ben on lookout, Rosa quickly gathered a rusted over revolver and a duffle bag filled to the brim with... well, a drug that certainly wasn't weed.

"You're coming with us," Rosa ordered, and the dealer was close to fainting on the spot.

After getting Clarence into the van as Detective Diaz read him his rights, they drove back to the precinct.

Clarence immediately took a deal without negotiating it and spilled everything. How Hector Fisher, the suspected drug supplier, had been supplying Clarence with weed for years. But after getting mugged and losing a huge delivery, Clarence was short 5 grand in paying Hector back after scrambling together the rest of the owed debt, and Hector did not take it lightly. Now that the police confiscated what Clarence used to pay him, Hector ordered Clarence to move more product. And faster.

So instead of simply peddling weed like he used to, Hector forced Clarence to sell something with a higher payout. Ecstasy worth 10 grand, and Clarence was to pay it all back to him.

Clarence was mortified for several reasons. Not only was his life on the line, but he fully agreed with Ben. Dealing weed was harmless. But getting kids hooked on E was something his moral compass wouldn't allow. When Rosa and Ben stopped him in front of Hector's house, Clarence was equal parts pleasantly surprised and horrified.

"Well. We have several options now, but wisest, in my opinion, would be to notify the DEA. If they come back to us with Hector Fisher being an unknown, we will do some more surveillance and do the arrest when we are certain that there are drugs in the building. Build the case. But it is your case Detective Santiago, so you decide," Captain Holt proposed as the three detectives presented the facts to him in his office. "Finding that connection was exemplary detective work, by the way."

Amy pointed to Ben and said, "It was Detective Weiss' hunch, actually. He just threw the question into the room on why Clarence Hitower would owe that kind of money to a man when he was a low-level dealer with high fluctuations of cash. Dealers are bad with money, but they don't owe anyone high amounts of money out of nowhere... unless it's their supplier."

"Like I said, well done," Holt praised after giving Ben a pleased nod.

-----

The DEA didn't have Hector Fisher on their radar, so they allowed Amy to make the arrest. After some more surveillance the following day, Ben had to excuse himself to get to a law firm in Manhattan with a cab.

Feeling severely underdressed in the checkered black and blue cotton shirt with the dark blue cotton tie and a grey wool coat, Ben was led to a meeting room completely furnished in luxurious, high-end decor and lots of open glass space.

"Welcome to Pearson Specter Litt. LAPD Detective Ben Weiss, I presume?" A gorgeous blonde greeted as she walked into the room with a file in her hands. "I am Katrina Bennett, junior partner. Mister Specter will be with us shortly."

"Hello, Miss Bennett. Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't there be someone from the opposing side with us as well?"

"And there is," a stern-looking brunette in her 50s chimed in as she stepped into the meeting room. "Despite Mister Specter's attempt to have me arrive at the wrong time, I had a hunch and came half an hour earlier. Hello Detective Weiss. I'm Anita Gibbs from the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York."

"Hello, Miss Gibbs," Ben greeted with a respectful nod.

"Say, why is it that Mister Specter took on this case? It's criminal, not corporate law," Gibbs asked Bennett.

"Because a major injustice is about to be done to an upstanding man," Harvey Specter gloatingly answered as he strutted into the room with a cocky smirk. It only slightly faltered when he saw Katrina Bennett instead of who he thought would be here, "Why are you here again? Where's Mike?"

"He had to deal with something else," Bennett answered in a whisper.

"I'll deal with that later. Are you up to speed?" Harvey asked and moved to sit at one side of the table. Katrina Bennett nodded and took the seat next to him.

The stenographer Gibbs brought along began setting up, and Harvey pointed a camera at Ben, who gingerly held up his hand.

"Yes, the guy in the cotton shirt," Harvey said as he pointed at Ben as if he was in a classroom.

"Ah yes. I've handed in evidence against over a hundred people over the course of 1845 days being undercover. I still have no idea why you summoned me here. None of the other cases required my presence for the trials since all the evidence I handed in was corroborated by the authorities. Your letter didn't mention why I had to come here and, honestly, I had every reason to refuse..."

"Christoph Kraft," Harvey answered and lost his smile. Ben's pupils constricted.

"That's not a name I hoped to hear today," Ben answered in a low voice.

"Well, Mister Kraft had his assets seized unlawfully, and many of his associates are under investigation. They are getting hassled, and I intend to put a stop to it," Harvey stated confidently, but Ben shook his head with a worried frown.

After Gibbs and Specter each got a few jabs in on each other since they clearly had a colorful history, Harvey Specter asked Ben to state his name and got the ball rolling on the deposition. Well, not before Gibbs made everyone present sign NDAs since she knew what Ben might reveal.

"Detective Weiss, isn't it true that you spent approximately five years undercover with the terrorist group White Front led by one Martin Kraft?"

"Yes."

"An op led by the FBI?"

"Yes."

"And yet there is no record that shows that this was an official mission. No case files were ever created."

"That is on the late FBI Special Agent Harry Owen Ford. My captain signed off on sealing my files, and Agent Ford became my handler. For two years he gave me orders and then they stopped."

"Why did you stay with the White Front when you didn't get any orders for three years?"

Ben furrowed his brows, wondering where this was going. But he still answered honestly, "For the first few months, I didn't think much on it. After a year, I was sure something was wrong, but I had gained Martin Kraft's trust. I was made responsible for his secure networks and gained unprecedented intel on his entire operation. I reported dealings that went much deeper than even Agent Ford originally thought was possible, including the front's connection to a US senator and a group of Marine Colonels planning to create a militia."

Harvey Specter was stumped for a moment since he hadn't known about that but got his wits back quickly. Gibbs still gave him a gloating smile since she was indeed aware of everything Ben had found out.

Before Specter could say anything, Katrina Bennett interjected with an incredulous expression, "Your mission revealed all that?"

Ben gave the woman a melancholic nod and added, "LAPD SWAT finally got me out was when the front received a large cache of incendiary explosives out of an Eastern European country that could erase whole city blocks. Had they not acted, I would have likely pulled the plug myself..."

"Back to the matter at hand. You identified Martin Kraft as the leader of this terrorist organization?"

"He and his three hands were the leaders, yes."

"Three hands?" Specter asked to get Ben to clarify.

"Yes. Most of us who got a higher rank were given animal code names. German animal names. For reference, I was Fuchs, which is German for fox. His leading cadre, his right hands, got mythical animals Kraft referred to as 'Die Königlichen', or the royals, because he lived in a fantasy world. These mythical animals were part of royal heraldry used by noble houses in Europe. Pegasus, which is the same in English and German, also known as Niklas Richter. Greif, German for Griffin, also known as Johan Hauser. Drache, German for Dragon, also known as Frederik Offert. The last two, to my knowledge, are deceased now. Niklas 'Pegasus' Richter is in a German prison last I heard. JVA Schwalmstadt. One of Germany's most secure high security prisons."

Harvey looked impressed for a moment and asked, "You seem to have a good memory for names?"

"I have excellent memory for the animals I endured living with," Ben clarified in a somber tone.

"Now, I don't know what these royals did, but you alleged in your reports that Christoph Kraft took care of money laundering for his cousin Martin," Specter proposed as he handed Ben a piece of paper after getting what he wanted as setup. "Despite the fact that Pegasus was responsible for the money in the group."

On the paper Ben was handed was a transcript of a video recording where Ben was talking to Martin about possibilities on laundering money. Martin claimed he got it covered, and Ben shouldn't ask questions since he was only needed for his computer expertise and some combat instructions. Curiously, Martin named someone named Christoph instead of giving Ben an animal name to explain who was in charge of the money laundering.

"Yes, that is correct," Ben idly answered as he remembered the conversation he had in a container in Los Angeles as he wired up a surveillance kit for a secret stash.

"And yet, in the recording, Martin only named him Christoph. Not Christoph Kraft. Not a known animal alias."

Ben looked at Harvey Specter with a raised eyebrow and asked, "And you think I made a mistake since I didn't get Christoph Kraft on tape admitting he was laundering money for his cousin?"

"I was merely proposing that you may have gotten the wrong Christoph. The only thing identifying Christoph Kraft in your evidence was you in a written report after the fact."

Ben looked at Gibbs in question, and she nudged him to answer with a satisfied smirk.

"Uh, possibly if you ignore everything else I added in the following weeks?" Ben asked with an incredulous expression.

"Yes. You detailed Christoph Kraft's presence in the same city at the same time as Martin Kraft on three different occasions. Yet, you fail to mention that you saw them meeting up. Or them having sharing any phone calls-"

"Which was rectified after we pulled the full phone records of every single burner phone Martin Kraft used to Detective Weiss' knowledge," Gibbs explained with a shit-eating grin as she handed Specter a double-sided piece of paper with phone records.

Specter looked through the page for a moment and handed it over to Bennett, who looked it over with a deep frown.

"Why wasn't I given this before today?"

Gibbs shrugged and replied, "It is an ongoing investigation."

"All this proves is that they are related and sometimes call each other," Specter offered sullenly. "You know, like they are family."

"And what about the dates for the money drop-offs? Were you able to prove that a new wave of record earnings for Christoph Kraft's business started at the same time?" Ben asked US Attorney Gibbs with a frown.

"We were indeed able to prove three such 'lucky coincidences' since freezing Christoph Kraft's assets," Gibbs admitted in a gloating voice and handed Harvey another stack of files. "So far."

The corporate lawyer looked it over, his frown deepening more and more.

"We'll take a thirty minute recess," Harvey insisted and got up with Katrina Bennett after giving her a look.

Next chapter