I went inside the little run-down diner, put in my to-go order, and took a seat at the counter to wait. The dining area was busy, with probably ten or fifteen of the town regulars, all wearing the usual flannel, denim, boots and trucker caps and eating badly cooked steaks and pork chops and beautifully cooked burgers.
Richard came in a few moments after me and ordered his food to-go.
I was careful to not glance at him more than once but, God, it was hard to control myself.
He, for his part, didn’t even look my way once. He just pulled out his phone as soon as sat down at the other end of the counter and began to scroll down the screen.
I frowned and pulled out my own phone and began to read the news.
I couldn’t stay focused on the words on my screen, though. Worry upon worry began to pile up as I tried to read. I knew I needed to go to the safe house, but that still somehow felt like I was giving in. Of course, with Wyatt Axelrod in the picture now, maybe Richard was right. Maybe it really was the best course of action. I could just close the gallery down for a couple days and hope this all sorted itself out.
Little did I know, though, by the end of the day, my feelings on the subject weren’t going to matter.
My decision was about to be made for me.
Chapter Nineteen – Richard
It took every ounce of self control I had to stop from staring at Jessica like a buffoon while we both waited for our orders at Dixie’s. Thank God I’d managed to keep my impulses under control, otherwise I would have felt like an absolute moron. She never even glanced my way once while she waited.
Now, as I was sitting in my Jeep keeping an eye on her and the Curious Turtle, I had to fight the urge to call her again, just to check in on her. But who was I kidding? I knew exactly why I wanted to call her. I just needed to hear the sound of her voice again.
I almost wanted to punch my steering wheel in frustration. Why was I feeling this way?
That frustration, though, must have been more than I could handle, because I almost jumped out of my skin when Lacy knocked on the passenger side window.
She cackled as, after regaining a small piece of my composure, I leaned over and unlocked the passenger side door so she could climb in, manila file in hand. “Shut it,” I grumbled.
“Off in la la land?” she teased as she put the empty takeout bag from Dixie’s on the floorboards and climbed into the passenger seat. “Thought you wolfies were supposed to be finely tuned predators, aware of the slightest changes in your surroundings?”
“I said to shut it, didn’t I?” I growled, glancing over at her and at the file in her lap. “What’s that?”
She grinned as she thrust the folder at me. “More detailed information on the Skull and Bones gang. Looks like they’ve been moving heavy through Colorado, have some ties to the marijuana grow ops here, and are investing some of the clean cash they have that way.”
“So, ferrying legal marijuana over the border to other states?”
She shook her head and laughed. “God, no, why would they do that? Over state lines they’re competing with drugs out of Mexico and other places where the competition doesn’t pay taxes.”
I gave her a perplexed look as I flipped through the report, with its tightly spaced lines and tiny penmanship. “What then?”
“They’re taking money from other sources—their primary sources like meth, heroin, trafficking women, guns, all that. Then, they launder it through looser, cash-based businesses like dive bars, car washes, even laser tag places. They take that money and they turn around and invest it here, in grow operations, then take the proceeds and invest them in other businesses.”
I shook my head. “Why do the last two steps?”
“Well, weed’s a booming business, right? But it’s tightly regulated to keep it from laundering money. Besides, why would you need to, it’s making cash hand over fist right now. You can grow and sell it legally here. But there’s one problem with selling weed here. It’s not legal on a federal level, so banks won’t touch it. They pay all their employees and vendors in cash. You can’t do electronic transfers with it. Nothing like that.”
“But,” I continued, seeing where she was going with this, “because it doesn’t need to be metaphorically cleaned the way real dirty money does, you can take the cash from the weed shops and invest it in other legit businesses, and then use the proceeds from that.”
She tapped the tip of her nose. “Exactly.”
“So it’s definitely what they want the gallery for, then?”
“Unless we got a real art lover,” Lacy replied. “And, from the looks of Wyatt, I’m gonna say he can’t tell a Monet from a Picasso. Wyatt could run that place through a front partner, buy up art at inflated prices. Sure, you get a cut taken by the artist, and all the taxes and stuff, but you’re cleaning your cash for twenty-five cents on the dollar. That’s a pretty good deal, from my understanding.”
I laughed. “You know, you’re probably on a blacklist somewhere for looking all this up.”
“Come on, Richard, you think they can tell what my IP address really is?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know what that is.”
She laughed again. “Don’t worry, I’m safe. Besides, if the NSA shows up at my door, I’ll just show them my boss’s Top Secret clearance from his time in the service.”
I closed the file, flicked the hard cardstock of the folder with my finger as I leaned back in the seat. “Okay. So we know why Skull and Bones would want the Curious Turtle. Any luck on the fax machine?”
“Right,” she said. “Almost forgot. It came from right there.” She pointed up the street.
“Where?” I asked, leaning forward.
“The mailbox place just up the block.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me.”
“Why would I shit you, Richard?” she asked.
“Any chance we can find out who sent it?”
“Well, they should keep records, right? Billing statements, credit card records, that kind of thing. No one pays cash anymore.”
“Can you, like, hack the information or something?”
She cackled again, and I shot her a dirty look. “What now? Already get it for me or something?”
“No, stupid. You can’t just hack everything you want. This isn’t NCIS, silly.”
“How do we get it, then? I doubt they’re going to let me go in and search through their files without a warrant.”
She scratched at the front of her chin with just the index finger of her right hand. “No, probably not. But they may let me take a look.”
Immediately, I thought about Peter’s warning to me about not letting Lacy get too close to this thing. She wasn’t a field agent, and she wasn’t equipped to deal with the fallout if things went south and got dangerous. But, come on, what was the worst that could happen? Her piss somebody off because she was being pushy about getting some billings records or asking too many questions?
Besides, who else was there to do it? I couldn’t take my eyes off the Curious Turtle or our client long enough to go follow up on the lead. I was running security here, and even going inside the shop across the street for too long could be a bad idea. And, even if Frank was due back this afternoon, this information was time sensitive.
I bit my thumbnail for a moment, trying to think of a better alternative. Unfortunately, there really wasn’t one. This was a problem that needed to be take care of right now.
“Okay,” I said after a long moment of consideration. “But only because we don’t have any of the guys in town to do it instead.”
She balled up her fists and squealed a little at her new task.
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t get too excited or anything. You need to play this cool.”
“Oh man, Richard, you have no idea how cool I can be,” she said, literally bouncing up and down in her seat so the whole Jeep was rocking. “I’m like a fucking cucumber, dude, in the zone, everything.”
I sighed and she
came to a stop with a small, this time more muted, squeal of delight. “When do you want me to go? Now?”
“Get to it,” I said, making a skedaddle hand motion. “Go.”
She hopped out of my Jeep. Before she slammed the door shut she popped her head back in. “Does this mean I get a gun or something? Just in case?”
I just glared at her. “This can wait until Frank gets back. You know that, right?” I was bluffing but she didn’t know it.
She groaned. “I was just joking, dude. You don’t need to take everything so seriously.”
I jabbed a finger at her. “No, dude, I do need to. Now go and bring me back the name of the person who sent that fax.”
She closed the door, her late-teen eyes rolling so hard they almost rolled out of her head.
“One more thing,” I said before she could leave. “Don’t tell Gen about this.”
“Grandma?” she asked, smiling. “Fuck no.”
As she walked away, her hands stuffed into her hoodie’s pockets, I grabbed my phone and checked the time. There were four more hours before the gallery closed down for the evening, which meant just a couple more hours of sitting and waiting.
Thank God, too. With nothing really happening, this shit could get boring.
Of course, I didn’t know this, but by the end of the day, I would be more than happy with just being bored.
Chapter Twenty – Jessica
With a greasy, salty, ketchup-coated french fry pressed between two fingers, I groaned at Sheila across my desk. I was the one seated in a visitor chair this time as she plowed through the rest of the Curious Turtle’s accounting work on my computer.
“He didn’t even look at me,” I whined.
“You’re just overthinking things,” she explained between bites of fries. “He’s doing his job, girl. Why are you all upset about this guy anyways? He’s totally not your type.”
“But that’s the worst part,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “I don’t freaking know why I am!”
“I mean, I get it,” she admitted, “he’s sexy.”
“You don’t even know which one is working as my bodyguard!”
“Oh, girl, they were all sexy,” she said with a grin, followed by another bite of fry. “You just haven’t seen all of them yet.”
I laughed as I crumpled up my burger wrapper and tossed it in the takeout bag.
She grabbed her shake and took a long drink from the straw. “You thinking about doing the safe house thing? Like he suggested?”
I sighed and nodded. “Yeah. I just, I don’t know, want to feel safe. And if that’s what it takes to feel that way, that’s what I’m going to do. I just keep closing my eyes and thinking about that tortoise, worrying that next time it’ll be Walach or Eli. Or me, even.”
“Don’t say that!” Sheila said, looking uneasy. “Think it’ll really get that bad?”
“I don’t know,” I replied with a shake of my head. “But if it is these Skull and Bones guys, what would stop them? Sheriff Peak? He couldn’t even stop the random stalker when we thought it was just some nobody looking for trouble. What could he do to these guys?”
She popped another fry in her mouth and seemed to weigh my options as she chewed. “That’s true,” she said. “But have you thought about just taking their money and leaving? I mean, Daddy’s rich, but even I know two hundred grand is a lot of money.”
Honestly, the thought had entered my mind, if only for a moment.
“I mean, it would be enough for you to start over, open up a new gallery somewhere.”
“A new one?” I groaned. “I mean, I see what you’re saying, but I don’t think Enchanted Rock could really support another gallery specializing in the same thing. I’d have to move out of this town, and I don’t think I could handle that.”
“Good point. I don’t think I could handle you leaving, either. Everyone else around here is, I don’t know…lame.”
“Well, you’d still have Karen, right?”
She made a face as a little shudder went through her body. “I don’t know. Karen and I just aren’t as close as we used to be.”
I had no idea she felt that way about her! We’d always been friends through the years. Well, at least I thought we were. “You don’t like Karen anymore? You two were bosom buddies before I got back. What happened?”
“She’s okay,” Sheila replied with a shrug. “But I’ve just never liked the way she looked at the guys I brought around her. Or, remember how back in high school, when I got my first car?”
I shook my head. “Girl, high school was almost ten years ago.”
“Okay, so I got like some Jeep Wrangler or something, a brand new one that Daddy bought me. Guess what? She had her father turn around and buy the exact same one for her the next week.”
I laughed. “That’s what half the class drove. All you rich girls wanted one for your sixteenth birthday.”
“She got the same color as me, Jess! The same color! That’s such a copycat move!”
I shook my head and laughed. “So what you’re telling me is that two spoiled daddy’s girls can’t be friends? This town’s not big enough for the two of you?”
She kept her eyes leveled with mine, but finally smiled. “Oh, fine, you’re probably right. But please don’t leave me with Karen! I don’t think I could live with just her around. Not after I’ve tasted the sweetness that is Jessica Long.”
I smirked. “What else is there, then? Take the money? Or let Frost Security do its thing?”
Sheila slapped her hands clean of salt and oil as she leaned back in her chair. “How about this? Say they really want the place to launder money. Hypothetically. What about it would be so bad?”
“Excuse me?” I asked incredulously.
I was not about to seriously contemplate committing a felony.
“What?” she asked, faking innocence. “I said hypothetically, didn’t I?”
I shook my head. “Okay, so hypothetically? For one, I’d still be involved in their criminal organization and activity. If something happens, I’d still go down with them. Other than that, though, I don’t think I could sleep at night, Sheila. Gangs like this, they get their money from drugs and gambling and all sorts of shady, illegal stuff—illegal stuff that hurts people. That’s why they need their money laundered, right?” I popped another fry in my mouth and shook my head as I chewed. “I mean, there’s doing some things for money, then there’s something beyond that, you know? Like, this isn’t talking about stripping to pay for college or something. We’re not talking about working some crappy job that I don’t like, we’re talking about organized crime here. Going to the big house kind of crime.”
She shrugged and sighed. “Well, I still don’t think it’s what they want your place for, or what Wyatt has in mind. But what do I know?”
“Hey,” I snapped in her defense. “You’re still the smartest woman I know. Just because you have atrocious taste in men, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid. You just, I dunno, turn your brain off sometimes.”
She laughed. “You mean that I know how to have fun, right?”
Chapter Twenty One – Richard
Lacy casually walked up the street a little while later, her face neutral as she climbed back into the Jeep.
“Find out anything?” I asked eagerly
She frowned. “I’ve got a coffee date.”
“A coffee date?” I asked, confused. “I sent you down there to get customer records, and you’re picking up dates?”
“Guy that works there is someone I went to school with, okay? And he thinks he remembers who came in to use the fax yesterday around that time, but he can’t remember for sure.”
Oh, man. Lacy got conned while she was trying to pull her own con. She was counter-conned. I stifled a fit of laughter. “Can’t remember for sure?” I asked, grinning.
“Shut up, Richard. Or I’ll take compromising photos of you in wolf form and post them all over the internet.”
I laughed. “Let me
get this straight, so this guy is going to get you what we need, but you have to go out on a date with him? What’s his name, this oh-so-eligible bachelor?”
She shivered. “Terry. His name is Terry. Everyone made fun of him because he would just watch Japanese anime porn during class and draw tentacles.”
I tried to hold back my peals of laughter, but couldn’t.
“Are you happy?” she asked, eyes narrowed.
“Hey,” I said as I caught my breath, “don’t lay this at my doorstep, young lady. You volunteered.”
“If you’d given me a gun we wouldn’t have this problem. I could have just threatened him till he gave it over.”
“We? We don’t have a problem,” I replied. “You, Lacy. You have a date.”
She groaned and laid her head back against the headrest.
“Think this copy jockey has the info you need?”
“Unfortunately, yeah.”
“Well, guess you’d better go home and get ready for your date, then,” I said with a smile. “You don’t want to keep Terry waiting, do you?”
She grumbled and climbed back out of my Jeep.
“Don’t forget to shave your legs,” I teased.
“Ew,” she said with a cringe. “Gross. Nothing like that’s going to happen.
Poor kid. She looked really down on her luck about this one. As far back as I could remember, I don’t think I’d ever seen her dating a guy in person. There was always some online, long distance thing going. I think the only people she ever interacted with in person were me and the other guys at the security office. And her Grandma Gen, of course.
And us guys, well, we weren’t exactly the kinds of people a teenage girl wanted hanging around them all the time. For one thing, we didn’t really hang, so much as we loomed.
Still, I couldn’t contain my laughter as she slammed the door shut.
My laughter, though, was cut short by a text from Jessica. Wiping tears from the corners of my eyes, I picked up my phone from the dash. Leaving in 30.
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