“I do know that.Let me ask you something.Are you an LLC?”
“What’s that?”
“Just a way to protect your ass.”Paul shrugged.When Ted looked like he didn’t have anything else to say, Paul reached out and slapped him on the upper arm.“You take care of yourself, and thank you for telling me about Eddie.I’ve been so busy trying to get my shop set up that I haven’t had time to turn around.”
“You got guys coming to help?I’ll have to come out and see it when you’re set up.”
“I look forward to that.Yes, I have a guy coming within the next two weeks.”
“Good, looking forward to meeting him.”They shook hands, and Paul turned on his heel to join Warren a few feet away.He had stepped away, but stayed close enough to overhear their conversation.
“You good?”Warren asked.
“Yeah, he told me about Eddie being arrested this morning.”
“Did you have anything to do with that?”
Paull looked at him and grinned.“My place at ten tomorrow.”
Warren laughed.“Your place at ten.”They walked around until they met up with the women.Instead of sticking around for the rest of the afternoon, they opted to leave and they stopped halfway home at a restaurant for a meal, enjoying each other’s company.
*****
At nine thirty thenext morning, Paul went out to his shop, and made a fresh pot of coffee.He had made extra cinnamon rolls, and brought them out with him, not knowing if Warren would want them or not.He didn’t know why he was so nervous to be talking to Warren about his boss.
He walked around his secure room and made sure everything was in order.At ten minutes to ten, he went to the shop, and nodded when he saw some dust coming down the road.Since Petra was still in the house, he could only assume it was Warren.He poured himself a cup of coffee, then walked to the side door to watch a red truck pull in and park beside his green one near the shop.He watched as Warren exited, and called out when he looked around.
“In the shop,” Paul called out.He lifted his coffee cup in greeting, and turned to walk into the shop when Warren started forward.
“Coffee?”Paul asked when Warren entered.
“Sure,” he said and filled a mug.“These for me too?”He pointed to the cinnamon rolls.
“If you want one.”
“Yeah, for some reason, I was too nervous to have breakfast.”He took one and ate it as he looked around.“Is this going to be the bike shop?”
“Yeah, it’s empty now except for my tools, I’m planning on the others to bring their own, if not, we can go get more.This is where the other agents will be working.”
“Is that so you can discuss cases without anyone questioning why everyone’s always here?”
“Correct.”Paul waved him to follow and he walked to the back of the room.“This is the room where the action will be.”He opened it using his fingerprint and eye scan.Once inside, he closed the door behind them, and pointed things out.“The drugs from Eddie’s pack that Paula gave me were over there.”He walked over to a bulletin board and pointed to some print outs.“How much do you want to know about my operation, and what Tainted Shield is going to be doing?”
“Why?”
“Because there’s some information that you’ll learn today that will fucking piss you off.However, you need to keep an open mind.You’re going to learn some mind-blowing shit today, and I need you to promise me you won’t storm out of here with guns blazing.Just remember, I have more federal agents coming and we’ll figure this out.What you’ve been doing to help me so far, I would like you to continue doing it.I feel if you know what I’ve learned so far, and that you’re in on the bottom line with us, we can do this properly.”
“Okay.”
“Promise me you won’t go off half-cocked.Remember, this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.You heard me yesterday when I said I knew nothing about Eddie.I saw the arrest on the laptop before you and Sally arrived yesterday.”He looked at Warren intently.“Promise me.”
Warren studied Paul, and released a sigh.“Fine, I promise.”
“Okay, then I can tell you this.My handlers in Washington, DC are Paul Flynn, yes we have the same first name, but we call him Flynn.He’s a director in the DEA.Duane Kessler is a director in the ATF.When I unloaded the things from Eddie’s there were bags and bags of white powder.I had no way of testing it to see what it was.”
“Fuck, and you couldn’t reach out to me to run them through the State Police lab.It would be questioned.That would have opened several cans of worms that doesn’t need to be opened at this time.Not without playing your hand, or revealing my somewhat limited involvement.”
“Correct.I reached out to Flynn and Kessler.I don’t know if you know this but there’s an ATF office down in Des Moines.The DEA office closed a couple of years ago, so it’s only the ATF.”
