“Are they a club?” Haze asks from his spot about halfway down to my left.
“Not that I can find.” Cypher talks as he taps more keys. “And I even checked the FBI criminal organization database. They’re not acknowledged or recognized as anything by anybody.”
“Need me to call my guy at the bureau?” Trooper asks.
“Nah,” I reply. “Let’s see what we know before we start using outside sources. I don’t wanna raise any red flags if we can handle these guys on our own. The less the feds know, the better.”
Trooper came to us as a recently retired, very pissed off, federal agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He is the one and only fed that I’ve met that I didn’t want to punch in the face, and that’s because he came highly recommended by myVP. Steel met him during the time he was being sent to prison, and when Trooper became fed up—no pun intended—with how the justice system was handling the case, he quit the bureau and asked Steel if joining the club was an option.
I’m not going to lie, I was very hesitant at first, I didn’t even want to meet him, but when Steel asked me to give him one chance, I agreed to meet on neutral ground but went in with all my defenses up. When we left that diner four hours later, I agreed to give him a shot as long as the other club officers agreed. It took him a little longer to win some of them over, but by the time Steel was released from prison just over two years later, Trooper had gone through a grueling Prospect trial and was a fully patched Brother.
I spin my seat around so I can see what he’s showing.
“Meet the six employees of Gearhead’s Auto. Drake, Dean, Harry, Jason, Josh, and Quinn. It is located on the north side of Wisconsin Dells and they also all live in a house right across the street. No club affiliations, but I don’t doubt for a second that they aren’t trying to be one. None of us are squeaky clean, but these guys are what gives MCs a bad name. Each one has a criminal record a mile long.”
“Looks like two of them are brothers.” Steel says as he reads the short bios Cypher has listed below each of the six pictures on the screen.
“And how are they all connected? Is it just from working at this shop?”
“Nope. The shop was started only seven months ago, but they all have ties to each other through the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.” The pictures Cypher has of all six are their mugshots.
“Ray and I met Drake when we were in New Lisbon Correctional,” Steel tells the others. “He was in a cell between us for a while and was loud and annoying as fuck. I don’t rememberexactly what he did, but he pissed off the wrong person and got moved to a different block. The last six or so months I was there, I never saw him again.”
“He got moved ‘cause one of his visitors got caught smuggling in a phone,” Cypher fills in the gaps. “After that he was denied any visitors and moved to solitary. He got out a year ago.”
“Fuckin’ loser,” Brewer snaps a sharp laugh from down at the end.
“This whole crew is a bunch of losers.” Mountain adds. Everyone else does too.
“Where are these guys all from?” I ask because being in prison in this state doesn’t mean that you are actually from here. Where you do your crimes, along with overcrowding, can have you locked up far from home.
“They are from all over the Midwest.” The screen switches to a map. There are five green dots. “Drake is Dean’s older brother. They are from Wisconsin Dells. Best guess is everyone is there because of them. Drake seems to be the leader and his name is listed as the owner of the business and the house they’re living in.”
Steel shifts in his seat. “How do the rest fit in?”
“Only thing they all have in common is being in prison with another one of them. If I drew a line to connect each of them to another, it would look like a bunch of squiggly lines drew by a two year old.” Cypher switches the screen back to the six mugshots. A red dot appears and he starts drawing lines. “Drake served time with Harry and Jason. Dean overlaps with Harry and Quinn. Harry was in Waupun with Drake and Dean, but not at the same time. Jason crosses with Drake and Josh. Josh served time with Jason and Quinn. Then, last but certainly not least, Quinn was with Dean and Josh.”
“Holy fuck.” Tiny lets out a low, slow whistle. “They may be dumb for trying to mess with us, but they keep tabs on their buddies.”
“No kidding,” Cypher adds his agreement as the red lines disappear. “And that’s not all I’ve learned about them. Their new thing is robbery. There has also been an uptick in homes and businesses being broken into in the area since these idiots have been in business. And those Harleys they were riding have all been reported stolen. When I looked back at the bar’s outside security footage, all the bikes had plates, but they were all from different states.”
“Don’t tell me they were stupid enough to leave the same plates on the same bikes they stole.” Smoke leans back, pulls the flathead screwdriver from his belt, and starts spinning it around his fingers like a baton.
“No. None of the plates match the bikes,” Cypher answers.
“Anything else you got for the class?” I ask as I spin back to face the table.
“Not unless you want a detailed bullet point list of all their crimes and charges.”
“How ‘bout a highlighted version?” Steel turns back too.
“Aggravated assault, aggravated battery, failure to pay child support, grand theft auto, domestic abuse, geriatric abuse, arson, kidnapping, robbery, armed robbery, fraud, attempted murder, tax evasion, forgery, sexual assault, rape, manslaughter—”
“Okay, okay, we get it.” I interrupt. “Very bad dudes who make us look like saints.”
“Why don’t we send a few of our guys down to the Dells to scout them out? They obviously rode up here to see at least one of our businesses, I don’t see why we can’t return the favor and do the same thing?” Hammer makes a good point.
“They saw more than just The Lodge.” Cypher says as he shuts the case on his tablet. “I have them riding on front security cams riding around all over town. It’s like they rode in, made a couple laps, stopped at The Lodge for the one beer, then rode right back out. Once they went west toward Henderson, they haven’t reappeared. If they were smart, they woulda hit the highway and never looked back.”
