“Yes,” both Flynn and Kessler answered.“What’s it for?”
“Felony drug possession with intent to sell, and failure to appear.”
“Damn.Where was this?”
“Over in Wisconsin.”He waited for several breaths before he spoke again.“So, gentlemen, I need higher clearance to run these things without it being dinged by the locals.Don’t tell me you can’t do that, because I know you can.Part of why I started this club to begin with is to get people like Eddie off the streets.He’s not a patch holder to any club, but with the drugs I found in this pack, there is enough here to issue another warrant for his arrest.Same charges as before.Felony drug possession with intent to sell.I would like an agent from the Des Moines office to come here so we can discuss working with them.”
“Wait!”Petra said as she looked at the screen.“I’m not telling you how to do your job, but if you send someone, for god’s sake do not, I repeat do not, allow them to arrive in a black SUV.That screams government, and we want to keep as low of a profile as we can.”
“What do you suggest we drive then?”Kessler asked with a frown.
“A pickup truck, a car, hell, even a motorcycle will do.”
“Okay, we’ll look into it.It might take us a few days.Do you have a secure place to hold the drugs?”
“Yes, I can continue to do some digging, but I’m going to need higher clearance.”He didn’t want to keep sounding like a broken record about it, but in his mind it was imperative that he have the tools to do his job properly, and that clearance would be a start.
“We can get that to you within the hour,” Flynn said.He sat back and sighed heavily.“Is what you’re doing with this case what you had in mind when you came to us after the take down of Devil’s Scorpions?”
“Yes, so far, the four of us are the only ones that know what I found out.I won’t read Warren into anything until I know that he’s not on the take.I don’t have concrete proof yet, but from what I’ve read in Eddie’s notebook, Dawson is involved with the drugs somehow.I don’t know if he’s purchasing them, distributing them, or what.”
“Or,” Petra said with a shrug when everyone looked at her.“Is he providing them.”
“How?”Flynn demanded.
“From police raids.What happens to the drugs once a case goes to trial?Once they don’t need the evidence anymore?”
“Shit,” Kessler said as he scrubbed his face.“Rankin, in your higher clearance, you’ll have the ability to run the serial numbers off those bills you found with the drugs.”
“Shit, I didn’t think of that.If what Petra says is true and the drugs might be from former police raids, there’s no telling that the money might be involved also.”
“Correct, or it could just be from people who bought drugs already sold.I’m thinking if the money is from a former raid, then is Eddie in possession of it to launder it for Dawson?We’ll look into how deep Dawson is in this mess, or is he just a pawn in Eddie’s scheme?But then again, is he the mastermind behind it all, and Eddie is blackmailing him for some reason?We’ll have to see who is the mastermind, Dawson or Brickman.”
“I concur,” Paul said.“Thank you for the higher clearance, and I’ll start tomorrow on digging deeper.In the meantime, please keep me informed as to what agent I will be working with out of the Des Moines office.”
“Will do, thank you for the heads up on this.You know, when you came to us about starting your own club, we never thought you would uncover something like this.This is huge.I feel it might have the potential to bring down some heavy hitters.I don’t care if they aren’t part of any one percent motorcycle club as long as we can get these players locked away to where they belong.I feel that eventually, you’ll get to the people you want or need to take out.”
“Yeah, and this is only with Petra and I being here for a couple of months.Wait until the others start arriving.We’ll be able to spread out further, and gather more intel.My goal is that in the next ten years, we can get these guys off the street.But remember, this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.I can’t stress enough to the two of you not to breathe down our necks to get answers.They will come when they come.We don’t need any undue pressure coming from DC.”
“We understand, and we’ll get back to you about the other agent.This can’t be done overnight, we’ll have to do some serious research into the people working in that office before we can reach out to that director.”
“I understand, and I concur.If I run into anything that can’t wait, I’ll contact one of you directly.”
“Thank you.”They concluded the call and once the computer screen went dark, Paul sat down heavily and sighed in relief when Petra came over and actually sat on his lap.
“Damn, when we got this bag from Paula, I didn’t expect something as big as this,” she said.
“Yeah, and this is only Eddie, a wannabe, what’s going to happen when we go after the actual clubs.”They sat there in silence for several minutes before they rose, put on rubber gloves, and a mask, before they gathered the drugs, money, and notebook to place into the walk-in safe he had installed when he’d purchased the place years ago.He had known he would need it, and it came in handy now.
Once that was taken care of, Paul shut down his laptop to take back into the house with him, while Petra gathered their plates from their dinner.She waited until he closed and locked up the shop, and they made their way to the house.
“What time is it?”Paul asked as he looked up to see how dark it was.
“Almost midnight.”
“Shit,” he said with a sigh, and once they were in the house, he took his laptop downstairs to plug it in, while Petra put the food from the crockpot away, and cleaned up the kitchen.By the time Paul rejoined her, she was ready for a hot shower and a soft bed.She looked at him with a small smile.
“I’m going up.”
