“No.”Paul sighed heavily, scrubbed his face and looked at everything laid out on a bench on the other side of the room.“I’m going to need to talk to both you and Flynn about this next matter.”
“Oh,” Kessler said, and Paul heard a heavy sigh.“I talked to him earlier and he said he had a meeting to get to.Can I reach out to him, and we can get back to you?Maybe a conference call?”
“That’s fine, but you might want to make it into a Zoom call.I have some things to show you, and I think that will help you grasp what I’m saying.”
“Okay, it may take a few hours.”
“That’s fine.I’ll continue to do my research so I have all my ducks in a row when you call me back.I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but could it be tonight?”
“I’ll make sure of it, even if it’s after hours here.”
“Perfect.I look forward to talking to you both.”They hung up, and Paul went back to his investigation to get ready for the call later that day.
*****
Hours later, he lookedup when he saw Petra standing there.“What are you doing here?”
“I just got home from work and saw you hadn’t touched what I put in the crockpot earlier.I fixed us both a plate.”She held one of them up and he sat back with a heavy sigh.“What are you doing?”
“Digging into the contents of Eddie’s pack.I’m waiting for Kessler to call me back.He said it was going to be after hours, but I didn’t think it would be this late.”
“Sally closed at seven, it’s not even eight yet.”At his look, she smiled.“It was extremely slow.By the time she locked the door, all the prep work and cleaning was done.”
“Oh, wow, good, then when I eat, I can explain what I found.”
“Please.”
He took the next twenty minutes explaining everything as he ate, and before she even had a chance to ask a question, the phone rang.He grabbed it and looked at her with a grin.“Kessler.”He answered it, and three minutes later, the four of them were sitting in on the Zoom call.After pleasantries were said, Paul got right to the point.
“Gentlemen, first, thank you for getting back to me.Second, I know when I came to you a few months back and told you what I had planned and that I basically told you that you were going to work for me, I knew you were skeptical and probably wanted to shoot me.”He grinned when the two men sitting in an office in Washington, DC looked at each other, then back at Paul with nods.
“Yeah, that about sums it up,” Flynn said.“What do you have?”
“First, I need to tell you what happened, the results, then I’m going to need help.Petra knows what happened, because she was there, she doesn’t know the results, she’ll be learning them the same time you will, then I’ll need help.”
He watched the three of them, and at their nods, he and Petra explained about a biker function they had been on the previous day, what happened, and how it had ended.
“Do you have this mysterious back pack?”Flynn demanded.
“I do, today, while Petra was at work, I went through everything.I catalogued it all, took photos, but this is where I’m going to need your help.”
“How?”Both senior agents demanded at the same time.
Instead of answering, Paul picked up his laptop and took it over to the bench with the drugs and money laid out.“Can you see this?”
“Yes,” they answered.“Shit you’re talking potential resale of narcotics if those smaller packages mean what I think they do.”
“Yeah, that’s what Petra and I thought.However, I refuse to send them to you.There is no way I’m going to send drugs through the mail, or any other shipping method.Here’s where you guys will come in.”
“How?”Flynn demanded.As he went back to sit down, he looked at Petra and nodded.
“I did some research before I came here with Paul,” she began.“There is an ATF office down in Des Moines.It’s almost two, possibly three hours away.However, in my research I’ve learned that the DEA office there has shut down.We have no way to test what kind of drugs these are, or if they’ve been stepped on.Without that information, we can’t issue a warrant or even press charges.Right now, from a layman’s point of view, there are one hundred and sixty-seven packages of baby powder sitting on that bench.We both know that’s not the case.We’re asking that you either come here yourself to see this stuff in person, or you reach out to someone in the Des Moines office to come here.”
“If you do that,” Paul said firmly.“Then you need to tell them that they don’t run the show.They can’t come in here and throw their weight around.If you know what I mean.Based on what happened yesterday, I earned respect from three presidents of the local clubs notorious for being one percenters.”
“So, you’re saying you have an in with them?”
“I do, again, this endeavor is a marathon not a sprint.I’m only reaching out to you because with the drugs and money I showed you, there was a notebook full of some very interesting information.Thatwill not go to any agent you send our way.I will be keeping that for research and follow up.”His fingers flew over the keyboard, but paused when Kessler spoke.
