by Asia Marquis
That call Danny made, the one to Donaldsen… it puts me on edge. There's something else that I don't like about it. It raises doubts, doubts I couldn't have acted on five years ago when I decided I couldn't swallow his cum any more, even if I'd had them.
What I need is positive proof. Proof that he's letting the biggest God damned gang in the country run drugs through the border with impunity.
Is it some sort of tit-for-tat relationship? I don't know, and I don't care. I need to figure out who's at the bottom of this, and if it gets me shot, well, them's the breaks.
I suck in a breath. If they're anywhere then there's someone here who can talk to me. Beauchamp was taken here when he got himself picked up. Scheck was here only a few hours ago. It's not unreasonable to assume.
Somehow, reasonable to assume, and a good guess, doesn't help me to feel any better. The buzz of exhaustion has gone to my ears now, a high-pitched whistle that I didn't notice starting.
Now it seems impossible not to notice it, almost hard to hear anything over it. I push the breath back out and tighten my jaw. Then I pound on the door.
It takes a long time for someone to answer. Ten seconds. Twenty. I'm almost to thirty seconds when finally I hear a voice shout on the other side of the door.
"No soliciting!"
I can feel my jaw tightening up more. It's going to start hurting soon, if I don't slacken it, but it does its own thing.
"Donaldsen sent me."
There's no response, at least not right away. I wonder if they've got to go see how to respond to that. It's promising.
"What do you want?" The voice is different this time. That's a dead ringer for something that needed to be confirmed, then.
"He sent me to talk. Said that there's someone in the A.T.F. poking around."
The voice on the other side is muffled, but I can still hear them. They're talking for a second to the other one behind the door. Finally the guy on the other side of the door raises his voice. "Show your badge."
I flip my badge holder open and hold it up to the peep-hole in the door. It's a little unusual for a warehouse like this, but I didn't question it.
With the tenants living here, it isn't hard to imagine that they got plenty of use out of it. A minute later the door opens.
I don't recognize the people on the other side except tangentially. They look basically human, and a lot like the sort of person you expect. I might have seen them in the pictures of Marissa Scheck I looked through, but not enough to stand out.
The one who looks like he's in charge starts walking off with little more than a nod. I'm going to follow him, and he knows it. So I let him take me through the facility.
This place is a lot more carefully put-together than the actual warehouse I raided with Ryan and his boys. That place looked like they'd put it together in a week, and never had need to redo it. It had shown signs of heavy use, but it was all cheap stuff.
This place was less cheap. Solid walls. Most of them painted. The concrete floor gave away the game, though. It was still a warehouse, walls or not.
They sit me down in an empty room. "Someone will be with you in a few."
The guy leaves. I can hear his steps picking up speed as he leaves. I don't know whether or not to be worried. I already am, though, so it doesn't much matter. I just have to hope that it will work out. Maybe he's hurrying because a friendly A.T.F. visit is a big deal.
A few minutes later, I'm joined by a woman in a red dress. She's got long blonde hair and exhudes sex. It puts me immediately off her.
"Scheck."
"Agent Maguire. Good of you to drop by."
"So you know who I am?"
"Of course we know who you are, darling. You must be worried we're going to kill you."
The way her dress fits, she couldn't have a knife on her that I didn't see. Never mind a gun.
"It had crossed my mind."
"You're Martin's pet, though. So hands off."
She raises her hands. They're small and smooth and very feminine, setting my teeth on edge some more.
"So why meet with me?"
"I was curious. What brings you here? Right into the lion's den, and all that."
"You have Brian Beauchamp."
"Say we did, what about it?"
"I need him."
Scheck's attractively plump, ruby-red lips purse together. "I need him, too, and I have him. You're not doing your job, so we have to do it for you? Fine. But you can have him after we're done with him."
I take a deep breath. "Alive?"
"Sure. You were supposed to clean up this mess, Sara."
Being called by my name sets me on edge. "Don't call me that."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Is that a sore spot? I know that it can be, after a rough breakup."
I hold back the snarl. I'm not going to let her get a rise out of me. But the look on her face says that I didn't hold it back well enough, and she's already gotten what she wanted.
Chapter Forty-Two
RYAN
It's not my first time in an interrogation room. Hell, it's not my first time this week. I don't know what these locals are planning, but I don't like it one bit. I don't know how long it's been, not exactly. They're sweating me.
But I know it's been long enough that Maguire's not still waiting for me at that damned 24-hour spot. By itself, that means that Brian's in a bad spot. Everything past that is just icing on the cake.
Not for the first time, I wonder how much longer they're planning on keeping me in here, without any word from the outside. Without even telling me what they wanted.
My question is finally answered, though, when a big guy with a square jaw and a flat nose comes through the door. He's got a broad neck and broad shoulders, but he doesn't carry an ounce of fat on him. Built like a fire hydrant.
"Ryan Beauchamp. Aged twenty-seven, from Cleveland, Ohio originally. You've been down here for a while, though. Business?"
"I guess I just needed a change," I tell him.
"Well, Arizona sure is a big change from Ohio," he says, smiling to himself. "You want to tell me what you were doing in that apartment, Ryan?"
I consider what to tell them for an instant. For now, the truth will have to do.
"I got a call. Brian said he was in trouble, so I went to his apartment."
"That's good. Good. Because we've got witnesses that place you tearing the place up looking for him."
"Good. Can I go?" I hold my hands out for him to unlock. It's a meaningless gesture, because I know there's going to be a 'but' at the end.
"Not quite yet, son," he says. He couldn't be more than ten years older than me. "We've got a few more questions for you."
"Okay, shoot." I lean back into the seat, my hands as close to my lap as the cuffs will let them get.
"You say you got a call. He was in trouble. Is that right?"
"I just said that, yes."
"What kind of trouble did he say he was in?"
"He didn't. He said I needed to get there as soon as possible."
"But you must have had some idea, right?"
The guy hasn't introduced himself and it's frustrating me. Who the fuck is this guy? Is he even a cop? I really have no way of knowing, unless he tells me, and he doesn't seem interested in telling me anything. Just asking more questions.
"I don't understand what you're trying to ask."
"It's simple, Beauchamp. I know, if I called my brother, I'd say 'Ryan, I've got a problem, you see, my television isn't working.' And then you'd come over, because you're… what, a television repair man?"
"Sure. No, he said there was trouble."
"And you didn't have any idea what kind of trouble it could be."
"He sounded strange, but otherwise, no. He sounded like someone was telling him what to say. Or, what not to say."
"So you did know what kind of trouble, then."
"I didn't say that. I said that he sounded off, and I could make a guess at what was off about it."
"Right."
The guy writes something down and looks up at me through his heavy eyebrows like a shrink. I don't like it. He's asking useless questions. He's not waiting for me to give anything away, not far as I can tell.
He's waiting for something else, and it's probably something going on outside this room. That makes me extremely nervous. What the hell were they trying to hold over my head?
Still, the bracelets around my wrists say I can't leave until they tell me I can, so I get to stay.
"So take me through what happened when you got there. We found you armed—"
"Which is my right according to Arizona state law, by the way," I interject.
"Which is your right, afforded to you by the state of Arizona, yes. In a room full of blood. Christ. It looked like you slaughtered a pig in there, Ryan."
"I just got there, same as your boys. I didn't do anything in there at all, pig or not."
"That's not what we've heard. Folks across the way, they made it sound a hell of a lot like you were all over that room. They couldn't positively say whether or not your brother was there at the time, but they were very sure about you."
"And I was there. I checked around to see if there was any sign of what had happened to my brother."
"Other than the blood, you mean."
I roll my eyes. "Obviously other than the blood. What is this, your first day? Are you a disgruntled, out of work English professor who needs to play word games all the damn time to make up for the fact that nobody would hire you? What the fuck is it?"
The guy sits back and smiles for a minute. He likes that he's gotten a rise out of me, and I guess I understand why. It's step one to trying to knock down my story.
The problem is, there's nothing to knock down yet. I haven't had to lie, haven't had to mislead the guy. I haven't even avoided any questions.
"You know, Ryan, you have quite a lot of people looking for you."
The last part carries with it an implication that hits hard. I try to keep my face neutral, but I'm not confident that I manage it.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I mean that some folks from Washington, they say that you're an illegal trafficker of narcotics."
"Well, then they're mistaken. I own and operate a bar. Right on the edge of town. You might have seen it? Come on by some time, I'll pour you a drink."
"I'm aware of that cover story, Beauchamp, and I know as well as you do that is bullshit."
"Think what you want. I came down here because I wanted to go straight." The words came out easy. Easier still, because there was a tiny ring of truth to them, even after these years.
"Of course. You're right. Tell me about Ohio."
"Cold in the winter. Hot in the summer. Not as hot as here."
His lips press together. "Cute. Tell me about the arrest."
"I fell in with the wrong crowd, you know the story. I'm sure you've read the file."
"Of course I have," he says. He smiles again. He feels in control, and he feels that way because he is in control. "But I want to hear your side of things."
"I plead guilty. Read the file."
"I want to hear it in your words," he insists. I'm starting to dislike the guy. Well, if I want to get out of here, I might as well play along.
"I worked for a guy. He paid cash, and my job was to stand around and look tough."
"I heard you did more than look tough."
"I'm getting to that, boss, give me a minute. Now, there was this guy. Mike, I think his name was. We called him Slim, on account of he wasn't. So Slim, he owed some money. Twenty bucks, I think? Thirty? It's been a few years." I shrug.
He taps his fingers on the table. "So what happened with Slim?"
"Well, the boss—Brzezinski, he's still serving time up in Ohio—he says, I gotta make an example of this guy. So I draw the short straw, I guess, and it's my job. I'm not supposed to kill him, yanno? It's not like he's got the money in his goddamn pocket."
"Okay."
"So I went around and asked him for the money. He gives the usual bullshit. 'I ain't got it, but I can get it,' 'I need a couple days,' that sort of shit. Slim says that shit all the time, and he never pays up."
"So you…"
"We got a little friendly, sure."
"You know what happened to him after that?"
"Not really."
"You want to?"
"Sure, since we're such good friends now, and all."
"He's dead. Found him with a needle in his arm and his eyes practically popped out of his head. Puddle of blood from where he smacked face-first into the ground, bigger'n your brother's."
"So what now? Any other questions, or can I go? Or are you going to charge me with something?"
The guy looks at his watch. "Not so fast, Beauchamp. We've still got another forty-three hours we can hold you. But the good news is, you don't have to wait near that long. Someone's come to get you. Some fed."
I almost let myself get hopeful for a minute.
The guy turns to the door. "Send 'em in!"
A big motherfucker and an old man walk in. The big guy claps my new best friend on the shoulder. "Thank you, we'll take it from here."
The guy stands up, pushes his chair back. I still don't know his name, and it makes my teeth itch. The old man trades spots with him as the big guy guides the local boy out of the room.
"Hello, Ryan." The old guy looks about as friendly as a steel rake. "I'm A.T.F. inspector Martin Donaldsen, and I'm placing you under arrest for the trafficking of unlicensed firearms."
Chapter Forty-Three
MAGUIRE
I feel like I'm going to cry when I get back to fresh air. I'd like to pretend that all that is upsetting me here is the questioning. I wasn't worried that I would die, because there's absolutely no reason for me to have worried.
There's no real way for me to deny it, though. I was out-and-out panicking the entire time that I was there, and nothing that I say or do is going to change that.
But now, I'm out. I don't have to worry about whether or not this has all been an elaborate setup to shoot me like a fish in a barrel. It's over.
So now the much more important questions start to come to the fore. Brian Beauchamp looks like hell, but he's alive, and more to the point, he's right behind me. The only deal being, thankfully, that I use him for his 'intended purpose.'
Well, I'm not sure I can guarantee that, but it didn't stop me from saying I guaranteed it, when the question came up.
Of course I'm going to use him in order to bring Ryan in. That's natural. Why else would Donaldsen have sent me, after all? No, we're not going to fuck it up, and I'll have Martin call them as soon as he's done picking Ryan up from the local boys.
That hint by itself is enough to tell me more than I think they wanted me to know. After all, it's easy to say that somewhere, Ryan's in some sort of nebulous trouble.
He sure as hell didn't go off half-cocked and attack the Crazy Horses again. I know because I would've seen it. Would've seen some sort of damage, and there would have been some signs of a body if he didn't make it far.
Scheck wouldn't have been so worried about a dead man. But that only left open the fact that he was somewhere, and that place was one that he couldn't leave conveniently.
Well, hell, that could be just about anywhere, I thought, and I was right. Now he's out of that situation. He couldn't be just about anywhere.
He has to be right where they expect him to be. The reason being, of course, that they put him there, and they set things up so he'd get real damn embarrassed, at best. At worst, he looks totally solid for the murder with no real alibi.
Then all Donaldsen has to do is go and get him, from the locked room that he's neatly handcuffed inside, and boom. Easy extraction. Don't even have to oil your guns after.
I should like the idea. Cooperation, and all that. Bringing in the bad guys without firing a shot, without needing to risk a single life.
Well, I don't like it. I don't l
ike it one bit. I feel like I have to take a shower after I hear the news. The idea that they'd give us one of their types, gift-wrapped and waiting for us, and all because of a setup.
The idea that we would just take it and look the other way.
The idea that there are people inside the A.T.F. who are more interested in picking up petty, low-level criminals than getting the big boys out of the picture.
I can feel my stomach churning a little bit at the entire thought, as if Donaldsen wasn't a sickness inside the A.T.F., but a sickness right there in my gut.
I want to throw up, but I have to stifle it. I can't go green in front of Brian Beauchamp. Instead, I push his head down under the frame of the back door and close the door behind him, then slip into the driver's seat.
I don't say anything until we're already out of the area, until I can be sure that nobody's watching us, which is a little longer after that, even.
"Are you alright?"
He looks up, surprised to hear my voice.
"What?"
"I asked if you're alright. If you're hurt."
"No. Yes. Fuck. I think I need to go to the hospital."
"I'm absolutely sure you do. You lost a lot of blood, but it's going to be alright."
"Are you working for them?"
"Not a chance in hell. I'd let you out of those cuffs, but I don't have a key on me."
I don't have one anywhere that's readily available, really. I could go to my apartment. I've got a spare ring of keys there, just two on the ring. More than I've ever needed to have, though, so I don't exactly worry about it.
But there will be someone watching my apartment, no doubt. If I go there, they just get Brian Beauchamp back like I never even had him. Which means that I need to think about another place I can get a key.
The car nearly drives right by a military surplus before I realize that seems like as good a bet as any. I turn in at the last minute and park, then crane my neck around to face Brian.
"I need you to keep your head down, alright? I'll be two minutes."
He lays down in the seat, as much as you can. He looks rough. I knew it already, but every time I see him, I just think that he looks worse than he looked before. Rough doesn't really begin to describe it.