Hockley sighed. “Our guy thought they did it too. Wasn’t sure why, though.”
“Is your guy closer to Larry or to Mike?”
Hockley didn’t answer right away. Finally, grudgingly he said, “Mike.”
“And Mike was the one who took me out to be referee when he met with the Chicago guy. Maybe the Chicago crew are Mike’s allies, and Larry’s getting pushed out?”
“And pushing back.” Hockley nodded. “Okay, yeah. I like that theory. Except it seems like they united long enough to come together for their little joy ride last night.”
“Show of strength. Never hurts to appear strong, no matter who you are.”
Hockley frowned and peered down at his watch. “I need to go shower and get to work. Look, the reason I came over to talk to you—it’s been good to bounce ideas around, but the real reason—you think there’s a chance Granger would talk to you about this? You think you can get anything out of him?”
“I’m sure as hell not going to be able to trick it out of him,” Jericho said. “He’s about ten times smarter than I am and about twenty times sneakier. If he tells me something, it’ll be because he wants me to know it. He’s not going to help just because I ask him to.”
“He helped you before. Saved your life, as I recall.”
“He got the thumb drive out of that deal. And I’m not saying he wouldn’t save my life again, to be honest; I’d like to think he might. But that’s totally different from giving me information he knows I’m going to use for a criminal investigation.”
Hockley nodded as if he wasn’t surprised by Jericho’s answer. “It might still be worthwhile for you to talk to him. Don’t tell him what we’re up to or what we’re thinking, just . . . give him the opportunity to tell you what he might want you to know. We can take whatever he says with a grain of salt, but even knowing the lies he wants you to believe could help us understand what his goals are.”
“Wasn’t too long ago you were throwing fits and warning me to stay the hell away from Wade,” Jericho said.
Hockley nodded. “I’m not sure they were ‘fits,’ But, yeah, my approach has changed. You willing to change with it?”
“He’s not going to give me anything useful.”
“Everything’s useful.”
“So, what, I just give him a call and see if he wants to hang out?”
“I don’t know—how have you contacted him in the past?”
“I don’t, usually. I mean, I did when I needed his help when the kids got grabbed, but since then? He contacts me, not the other way around.”
“You know what they say. Variety puts the spice back in a relationship. Maybe he’s waiting for you to make the first move.”
Jericho squinted at him. “Are you enjoying this?”
“I’m sleep-deprived.” Hockley heaved himself to his feet. “Oh, and so you know—there was another big shipment across the border last night, and the Canadians let it go because they’re building their own case up there and didn’t want to mess it up to help us out.” He shook his head. “I thought Canadians were supposed to be nicer than that. Anyway, they’ve got remote cameras, motion-activated, on their side of the border, and they sent us the images.”
“Did the cameras show anything on our side?”
“Someone in a yellow slicker riding an ATV. Our guys went to the site and followed the ATV tracks, but it looks like the perp drove to the nearest logging road, loaded the ATV onto a trailer, and took off.”
“Same crossing spot both nights?”
“Different spot. Same yellow slicker and ATV.”
“A yellow slicker? Seems like a strange thing for a drug mule to wear.”
“I don’t think they have a dress code.”
“Fair enough.” Jericho frowned. “So, we’ve got two big shipments the last two nights. Maybe the biker parade last night was a distraction? We pulled in every law enforcement officer we could find to deal with that, and then it just fizzled out. Maybe the real action was going on at the border.”
“Which suggests that it was either a biker at the border, or someone who can get the bikers to do what he wants.”
Jericho tried not to remember the“Granger said”that had come out of Mike’s mouth before his uncle cut him off. “Wade?”
