“Darren, it’s Maggie. Do you remember that reporter, Mark Beane? Yeah. Well, I was wondering if you could tell me about what he was working on when he disappeared.”
She was silent for a few minutes, her brows furrowing as he spoke. “Of course. Okay. I’ll be careful. Yep. I’ll let you know when I have more to go on.”
She hung up the phone and sat down at the table.
“What did he say?”
“He said that he doesn’t remember what Mark was working on at the time. Doesn’t that seem weird to you? I mean, if you had an employee that disappeared, wouldn’t you look into anything that could potentially be connected to the disappearance?”
“I would. Is there any way you can find out from someone else?”
“There’s one person I could ask, but I don’t want to meet him in the office.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not sure what to think about Darren. I get the feeling he knows more than he’s saying. I don’t want to tip him off that I’m going to do more digging.”
“Wouldn’t he already suspect that you would? I mean, I barely know you and I know you wouldn’t just walk away.”
“He said that he didn’t remember and asked me to keep working on the current story so that he could use it as a headliner for the weekend. I agreed, so I’m hoping that will keep him thinking that I lost interest.”
“Okay, so what’s next?”
“Now I need to make another phone call.”
After fifteen minutes of making calls, Maggie tracked down her colleague that still worked at the paper. She set up a time to meet him tonight at a restaurant downtown. To anyone, it would look like colleagues going out for dinner.
At six thirty, Cal, Maggie, and I headed into the city to meet Keith Breckenridge. It was about a twenty minute drive, just long enough for me to get some information out of Maggie about her colleague.
“Okay, Freckles. Tell us about Keith.”
“Well, he worked in a different department than Mark. He’s not a reporter, but a researcher and archiver for the paper. He makes sure that the facts check out and then makes sure all the information is archived with the proper files. He’s basically in charge of all documentation on articles. Now, he normally doesn’t do the actual research. He’s more of a fact checker, but sometimes people go to him when they have a really big story because he’s really good at making sure reporters don’t look like total asses if the details are wrong. I could be totally off base here, but I think he’s the only person left that I could talk to at the paper.”
“What makes you think that Darren wouldn’t have already gotten to him?”
“Nothing, I guess. I’m just hoping that if Mark did share something with him, he would have been smart enough to keep it to himself when Mark disappeared. It’s a long shot, but I still want to check it out.”
We pulled up to the restaurant and Cal let us out and then went to park. Cal would be hanging out at the front of the restaurant, watching for any potential threats. Cal and I put in ear pieces before we left so that we could stay in contact and he could hear what was going on inside the restaurant.
I took up Maggie’s left side and walked her into the restaurant, scanning for anything that looked suspicious. I took note of all exits and patrons that looked like they might cause trouble. Maggie let the hostess know we were meeting someone and we were soon making our way back to a corner booth. I pushed Maggie to the inside of the booth and took the outside seat.
“Keith, this is my bodyguard. You can speak freely in front of him. He’s been helping me on my story.”
“What exactly do you want to know about Mark?”
“I need to know what story he was working on when he disappeared. I’ve found something that I think links him to my story.”
Keith glanced around the restaurant and then back at Maggie. “He was looking into the infrastructure bill that was set to be passed. He said that he found evidence that the Mayor was skimming money from the city when the construction company was paid for their services. He brought me some documents and I started to check into them, but then he disappeared. I stashed it away in case they linked me to Mark.”
“Can I have the information? I think that it might connect some more dots in my story.”
“What story are you working on?”
“A source at the Mayor’s office found documents that pointed to offshore accounts. She thought the money in those accounts might be the reason that the city is short on funding for emergency services. She also mentioned that the Mayor and his right hand man were talking about how they would benefit from getting to choose the contractors for an upcoming project. I feel like I’m so close to figuring all this out, but I’m missing some things.”
He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “If I were you, I’d quit while you’re still alive.”
“I can’t do that. I think my source is dead. She shouldn’t die for nothing.”
Keith looked towards the door once again and I followed his gaze. I didn’t see anything that would warrant suspicion. Still, I was paranoid.
“Cal, check in.”
“All clear, boss.”
Keith’s gaze narrowed on me. “Who were you talking to?”
“Earpiece.” I said shifting my head slightly. “I have backup to be on the safe side.”
Keith nodded and then looked back at Maggie. “Look, Maggie. I’ll give you what I have, but please be careful. I don’t think Mark was the first person that got in the way and was never seen again.”
“I promise. I have Sebastian with me at all times.”
“I have a USB drive that I use for sources. It’s stuck in the wall of The Downtowner, alley side. 101st and 89th. It’s about halfway down the building at about chest level. You can get the information tomorrow morning, but I’ll only leave it on until tomorrow night. Then, I’m wiping the drive.”
“Thank you so much, Keith. I appreciate this so much.”
“You didn’t get it from me and whatever you do, don’t tell Darren about it.”
She reached out and grabbed his arm as he went to stand. “Wait. Why would you say that? Is there something I should know?”
“Let’s just say that there are certain stories he doesn’t ever seem interested in pursuing. Maybe check into his connections with the Mayor.”
With that last tidbit of information, he stood and walked out of the restaurant. I glanced over at Maggie to see her looking dumbstruck.
“I’ve always trusted Darren.”
“You don’t know that you can’t. Let’s check out everything first and we’ll take it from there.”
✯✯✯✯✯
The next morning, the three of us went to the building where Keith had said the USB was located. The drive was slightly awkward because I had told Maggie that I had to stay up to work on stuff for Reed Security. While completely true, I would have gladly forgone all the work to go wrap myself up in Maggie.
However, I couldn’t stop replaying Cal’s words in my head from yesterday. If I continued to sleep with Maggie, I would want her for longer than just a few nights and that wasn’t something that would ever work between us. I needed to be logical about what was going on between us. More than that, I needed to talk to Maggie. We needed to clear the air so that we could decide if we were going to enjoy the rest of our time together or if we were going to take a step back. I didn’t think my cock could take a step back from her body, but I’d do whatever Maggie wanted.
“Up here on the right,” I said as Cal pulled up next to The Downtowner. He parked in front of the entrance, so we didn’t have a view of the alley, but parking directly in front of the alley would be suspicious. “Okay, I’ll go get the information. Freckles, you stay in the car with Cal.”
“What? No. It’s my information to get. I’ll get it.”
“Christ, Freckles. Will you listen for once? I’m going because we met with your colleague last night and if anyone followed him to the restaurant,
we could be walking into a trap this morning. So please, for the love of God, sit your ass in the truck and wait for me!”
I didn’t give her even a second to respond before I was out of the SUV and headed along the side of the building in the alley. Glancing around, I didn’t see anything that set off alarm bells, but the hairs on the back of my neck were standing tall. Something about this whole thing was very wrong.
I glanced behind me, but didn’t see anything but the street. I ran my hand along the wall so I could keep my eyes trained on the alley, only looking at the wall every few steps. When I got about halfway down the alley, my fingers brushed the end of the USB. I was just about to connect a cable to transfer the information when something cracked above my head, sending small bits of brick down around my head.
Fuck. I hated being in situations like this. There was absolutely no cover besides one dumpster on the opposite side of the alley. I ran behind it and took cover as I scanned for where the shot had come from. Whoever took the shot was either trying to scare me off or was a piss poor shot. Based on the way this case was going, I was guessing it was the latter. We were way beyond scare tactics.
Shots pinged off the dumpster and I peeked out seeing a thug taking shots from the corner of the alley. For some stupid reason, the Mayor was sending gangsters to do the job that he should be sending a hitman to do. Chances were in my favor that this punk ass kid wouldn’t hit me if I made a run for it, so that was my best option at this point.
Placing a few well aimed shots at the thug, I ran forward with my keys and started digging the USB drive out of the wall. My shots hadn’t delayed the guy for very long before he started shooting at me again. Bullets were ricocheting off the pavement, making me more afraid that I would be hit by a stray bullet than a direct hit. I almost had it out when that was exactly what happened.
I felt a sharp pain in my thigh as a bullet lodged itself in the muscle of my leg. Pulling the USB free, I turned once more about to lay down cover fire when shots were fired from behind me. I didn’t waste another minute as I turned and did a hobble run back to the SUV. Cal was standing at the end of the alley firing at the thug at the other end.
Maggie appeared next to Cal with wide eyes. She ran toward me, even with bullets flying around us.
“Damnit, Freckles. I told you to sit your ass in the SUV!”
“Put your arm around me.”
We were almost to the end of the alley, so I pulled her in close and gave her the illusion that I was leaning on her, when really I was blocking her body with mine. When we got to the sidewalk, I pulled her back against the wall out front and turned, taking several shots back into the alley so Cal could cross back to the SUV. When he was clear, Maggie and I ran back to the SUV and climbed in the vehicle.
Cal took off, tires squealing as we made a clean getaway. Lucky for us, this part of town was basically a slum town and shots fired weren’t abnormal. I did my usual call to Becky, asking her to send a clean up crew. I didn’t think we shot anyone, but the casings needed to be taken care of.
“You’re going to have to contact Keith and let him know what happened. Tell him to watch his back. I had to take the USB, so we’ll get it back to him later.”
I handed my phone over to Maggie and waited as she dialed Keith’s number.
“He’s not answering. Should I leave a message?”
“No. We can’t take the chance that someone else has his phone.”
I stripped off my long sleeve shirt and wrapped it around my thigh, tying it in a tight knot to stop the bleeding. I hissed in pain as I pulled it just a little too tight.
“Back to the safe house, boss?”
“Yeah. We need to see what was on that USB that was worth killing for.”
✯✯✯✯✯
“Holy shit.”
“You got that right,” Cal said as he sat next to me. The three of us were pouring over the documents on the flash drive, each document more incriminating than the last. The first document showed the transfer of funds to other city council members. Maggie shoved me to the side, holding her notes and pen in hand.
“Okay, look at this. These funds were transferred days before the city council approved box stores being built in the city. This transfer was in 1994, but I don’t have anything that I found for that date. The next one takes place in 1996, and guess what? Also transferred days before the council voted to pass the bill on new schools. There are a few more dates in here that I don’t have anything to match. It looks like the last transfer that matches my dates is the infrastructure bill in 2008.”
“Did the transfers stop after that?”
“It looks like there was one more, so either the council could no longer be swayed or the Mayor got nervous when Mark got ahold of this information. Maybe since the Mayor didn’t know where this flash drive was, he decided to stop the blackmail?”
Cal flipped through to the next item on the flash drive and what we saw was something I wanted bleached from my eyes. There were various pictures of city council members in compromising situations. Not something that could be dismissed either based on the amount of nudity. There were other pictures of a few council members doing drugs.
“So, the Mayor hires Rudy Moore, the private investigator, to dig up dirt on council members so that he can get his way on certain bills. He offers them cash, but they don’t agree right away, so he uses the pictures as blackmail and then records all money transfers as a secondary blackmail,” Maggie summarizes.
“But then the money transfers stop around 2008 when the reporter, Mark Beane, goes missing. The Mayor figures that he needs to stop until he can find what the reporter dug up on him. The Mayor never knew where Mark hid the information, so he’s hesitant to do anything further.”
My head pops up. “Until now. You started digging into those properties, and he started sending people to kill you. What are we missing with these properties? Cal, how much longer for the analysis from the brewery?”
“At least another day or two.”
“There’s still one thing that’s bothering me.” I looked over at Maggie. She was chewing her lip and her brows were furrowed. “Who would have thought to have Keith followed? How did someone know that he should be followed?”
“Inside job,” Cal said with resignation as he looked at me.
My mind immediately went to the day I found out Cal betrayed us. Judging by the look on his face, he was thinking the same thing.
“It’s not the same thing, Cal. I know I’ve been pissed at you, but that wasn’t the same situation.”
“Really? Cause I’m pretty sure that what I did posed just as much risk of someone being killed as whoever sent someone to follow Keith. We can’t even reach him now, so who knows if he’s still alive. Seems the same to me.” Cal stood and walked to the back door. “I’m going out for a perimeter check.”
I had to find a way to get through to him. I had kept him on the team, but done very little to get the team rallied behind him, even though they all understood why he had done what he had. I couldn’t have one team member working on the outside. He either needed to be accepted back into the team or I needed to cut him loose. So far, he had proven that he was still a member of this team. It was time I made it official.
I glanced over at Maggie and saw that she appeared quite upset.
“Sorry about that.”
“Huh? Oh, no I was thinking that if it was an inside job, there was only one person that I talked to about Mark. I don’t understand. Why would Darren hire someone to protect me, but then turn on one of his own staff? And if he did, that means he knew about Mark and probably had something to do with his disappearance. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“I would guess that Darren is also on the Mayor’s payroll and he tries to protect his staff as much as possible, but if Mark kept digging, there was probably nothing Darren could do about it.”
“But why did he hire you to protect me? It doesn’t make sense. He could have asked me to get off the stor
y. He could have given me something else to investigate. Also, remember that first day when we went to the property in Wilkinsburg? I told him I was going to start investigating there. He’s probably the one that sent those guys there that day. So, it doesn’t make sense that he would hire someone to protect me.”
She had a point there. So why did Darren hire me?
“He asked me to call him daily for updates. He assumed that if I was protecting you, I would call him and tell him what you were up to. Do you normally check in with him when you’re working a case?”
“No. I mean I do, but if I’m really deep in a story, I check in when I get the chance, not regularly though.”
“If I had called him every day and updated him on what was going on, he would have stopped us long ago. He was using me to keep track of your movements. We need to find Keith now. If Darren knows that Keith passed us information, he’s as good as dead.”
Cal walked in the door looking more at ease than when he left.
“All clear.”
“Good. We need to track down Keith A.S.A.P. Freckles, give Cal his number so we can put a trace on his phone. I need to call the office and talk to Becky. Also, we need to find out what’s so special about these properties. Let’s plan on heading out again tonight.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea with your leg being, you know, shot?” Maggie looked so cute with that skeptical look on her face.
“Freckles, this is a scratch. Nothing that I can’t handle.”
“Still, maybe you should lie down for a little bit before we head out. I mean, Cal and I wouldn’t want you holding us back.”
“That’s highly unlikely, Freckles, but if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll go lie down and you can come play nursemaid.”
She flushed bright red when Cal groaned behind us. “Can you two take it upstairs so I don’t have to hear that shit?”
“I have to make some calls and then I’ll be up.”
Maggie grabbed her notes and hugged them to her chest. “I’ll just be sorting through all this upstairs.”
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