“Yes,” Petra and Paul answered.
“Now that you know a little history of what a club is like to join,” Paul began.
“Wait, did either of you have to do anything like that to join Devil’s Scorpions?Should we be worried about our other agents out in the field?”
“No, and no.Because you had my handler come to me and show me the tattoos I needed to get to prove I had done wrong in my past, I didn’t go through the wannabe, or hang around phase.It only took me nine months to be a fully patched member.The handlers and the tattoos help us maintain our covers.”
“Thank god for small favors,” Flynn said.“What did Ted tell you?”
“Oh, sorry to go off on a tangent, but at the event, he said that Eddie was a pain in his ass and he would never, not in a million years, ever be asked to join his club.He stated this in front of two other presidents of their own clubs, and they agreed that he would never join their clubs either.I didn’t want to press, you know, I didn’t want to ask too many questions, I’ll save them for a later date, but basically they all agreed that Eddie doesn’t follow directions and they also openly admitted that they deal drugs, pills, powder, and guns.They refuse to pedal flesh.”
“Got it,” Kessler said.“What was in that notebook?”
“As much as my clearance allowed me to check,” Paul said with a sigh.“There’s a name in here that keeps popping up.I ran it.”He looked into the computer camera and shook his head.“The name is Fred Dawson.However, it gets worse.”
“How?”
“The Dawson that I keep seeing in my research is a high ranking officer in the Iowa State Police department.”
“Shit, I know you’re not saying this, but you’re thinking this might be why Warren Mott thinks the one percenters are being warned ahead of time?”
“Yes, it looks that way.”
“What’s the connection between Dawson and Brickman?”
“Again, my clearance only allowed me to go so far.It’s convoluted.”
“Take us on the trail.”
“Okay, I’m going to have Petra hold the laptop.I’ve written it down so I could follow the trail.Again, it’s confusing, but once the dots are connected, it makes sense.”
“Wait,” Kessler called out.“Give us five minutes.I have to hit the head, then we can continue.”
“Okay, I’ll explain it to Petra while you’re gone.Do you want to hang up?”
“No, we’ll be back.”They disappeared and they left the computer on the desk to walk over to the board Paul had tossed a sheet over earlier, stepping back so Petra could read what he had written.
