Page 63 of Bernadette
“That’s great news.”
“It is. Now for the bad news.”
“Which is?”
“As I was walking down the hall to check in on Wyatt, and I regret to say this has been the first time I’ve been able to make it over there to do it since the accident. I’ve been busy back at my regular office at BCI with Weis to get over here. Anyway, I was walking down the hall, Lucas was at the end of it talking on the phone. A doctor was ahead of me, several yards, he stopped and talked to the FBI agents at the door. The next thing I know, Lucas is yelling at the doctor, who then pulls a gun, tries to shoot Lucas, but he throws his phone at the guy like it was a fastball. The guy goes down, Lucas isn’t hit, and he’s cuffed. A few minutes behind me is my boss.”
“Owen?” Chuck asked.
“Yes, turns out Lucas recognized the guy.”
“From where? Is he another employee of the Flying E?” Bernie asked.
“No, he said when he came to the office at the compound that he saw his face on almost all the screens there.”
“Is it the guy that Rizzo said she knew, but couldn’t put her finger on how she knew him?”
“Correct. Since that time, she’s found out where she knew him from, and they’ve been doing their job, doing some digging.”
“Who is he?”
“He is the man that worked for her friend’s garage in California. He yelled at her when she sat in the boss’s office with her feet on the desk.”
“Okay, that doesn’t sound so bad,” Chuck said. “From your expression, there’s more?”
“Yes, Astrid ran the video from where Stella had been stolen and came up with a hit. It’s the same guy.”
“Who’s Stella again?” Bernie frowned as she looked between the two men.
“Her motorcycle,” they both answered. “It seems that most of this started with Stella.”
“Okay, I remember now,” Bernie said. “Are they investigating?”
“They are.”
“Wait,” Bernie frowned at Carl. “Remind me again how he became a person of interest. I recall that I had just finished reading all the reports, his face appeared on all the screens, you said something about a dead guy, then Lucas came barreling in the office.”
“His picture was taken at the reception. Astrid and I were going through the photos the security help took of all the guests, that’s how this guy’s face came to be on the screen. I was helping out by running the plate numbers from all the guest vehicles.”
“And?”
“And one of the vehicles came back as registered to Gus Carter.”
“But he’s dead,” Chuck blurted out. He looked at Bernie to explain. “He was the guy who stole Stella to begin with. Joyce had him arrested before she even met Morgan. That’s not right, they met the night she had Tom arrest Carter for stealing Stella. If I recall, it was the same night. He was denied bail here, why?” Chuck frowned at Carl.
“Because he was wanted for questioning in California. Then he had multiple warrants out for his arrest in the same state. That was also where Stella was stolen from. Because Joyce had the hindsight to file a police report, and Stella’s value, they issued a bench warrant for whomever was found with her in their possession. It just happened to be Carter. A week and a half ago, when we were going over all the information June had uncovered, my boss got a call that he had been killed in a prison in California.”
“Why don’t I recall reading that?” Bernie looked between the two of them.
“I think because that paperwork is still in the office in the basement of the house, not in the building we were in when Lucas told us to go look for Morgan and Wyatt.” Carl sighed his answer. “We kept that information there so we could work on it, and it involves a lot of shit. Don’t get me started on Idaho.”
“What about Idaho?”
“There’s been some information that we’ve put on the back burner for months, and again what June had uncovered, thinking we were closer to catching the bad guys here before we went over there to investigate with the BCI there. But my boss is starting to make noise that someone has to go over there and read them into the investigation.”
“Better you than me,” Bernie smiled at the man, trying to lighten up his mood, but when he didn’t even look at them, she exchanged worried looks with Chuck, then cleared her throat. “Talk to us, what else is wrong?”
“Well, I gave you the good news, the bad news, now for the bad, bad news.”
