Page 46 of Caleb's Cause
“What’s PITA?” Hank asked in confusion, and Erin took the next twenty minutes telling him the trouble she had with a local rancher, and then the trouble Naomi had from her own father.
“Where are these people now?”
“Sitting in jail, waiting for trial. Their bail was finally revoked, all accounts and assets are frozen, and last I heard, no lawyer in this area will take their case. They have to represent themselves, or take someone from the courts. They aren’t happy with that.” She looked Hank dead in the eye. “No one messes with me or my people. Since the second Katherine walked on my property, she became mine. I will do everything possible to keep her safe.”
“Good, now, let me turn this over to Duane for a few minutes so he can explain a few things, answer questions, then I’ll tell you what we came up with.” He nodded to Duane and went to the back and refilled his coffee mug, but went back up to stand with his men.
“Okay, you all know that I’m Duane Manchester and I worked many, many years as an undercover FBI agent. I worked in narcotics, and vice. When I worked vice, I posed as a pimp, and my workers were undercover female agents. During my time doing this, there were several local police reports where prostitutes were severely beaten, some were murdered, and some were even kidnapped, if not really kidnapped, they dropped off the face of the earth and their bodies were never found. There one day, gone the next. When all was said and done, we were able to take down a sex trafficking ring where they targeted prostitutes.” He looked out and saw shock on everyone’s faces, and then it turned to outrage.
“When I was undercover for the narcotics division, I lived as a homeless person and was able to document drug sales. Sometimes, hell, it was most times, that once I gained information as a homeless person, I was able to change my appearance and become a buyer. I wore many, many hats while in the FBI. Now that you know this, let me tell you about why I left. Legally, the FBI won’t hire anyone until they are twenty-three, and they retire you at fifty-seven. I knew my director was reaching the retirement age, I felt for him, but knew I still had ten more years on me before I could retire. However, the guy that was coming in to take my director’s position started sending me e-mails that strongly suggested that I stop doing undercover work and ride a desk. That’s not me. Anyway, the only time I met the new director was at my old director’s retirement party.”
Duane shook his head and took a sip from his bottle of water. “I had one more assignment to do before he left the FBI, and because of all the harassing e-mails I received from the new director, I decided to turn in my badge after the last assignment. The new director wasn’t in the office when I retired. Other than that one time at my former director’s retirement party, I never saw him again.” He looked around and his eyes landed on Katherine.
“The next time I saw him was when I was supposed to take Katherine to meet my director and she freaked out, asking if I was bat shit crazy.”
“Why?” Several people whipped around to look at Katherine, then back to Duane.
Katherine stood, and drew in a deep breath. “How many know my story?” Several did, but several didn’t, and she told the men from Brotherhood Protectors, and the more she talked the more anger she saw on their faces. She only hoped it wasn’t directed at her.
“Wait,” Pru said. “You’re saying the asshat that cheated on you, caused you to wreck, who was fucking that woman while you were driving, who was sent to prison for life, hisfatheris the new director of Duane’s old unit in the FBI?”
“Yes,” Hank and Duane said at the same time, and Hank joined Duane at the front again. “After you guys returned from the meeting, Duane reached out to Jake to explain the situation.” He pointed and Jake Cogburn stepped forward. “If you guysdon’t know him, this is Jake Cogburn, he’s the director of the Fool’s Gold office.” He saw everyone nod that they all knew him. “Anyway, Jake did some digging, and he called me. I let my people do what they can, but sometimes certain cases need to be looked into further. That’s where I come in. I have my fingers in several pies, and I can get information that others can’t.”
“What information did you uncover?” Erin asked.
“The person Duane knows is Director George Grayson. The person that Ms. Miller recognized was George Babcock. I have people in Los Angeles, they were able to get me some DNA samples from Babcock, and I was able to run it against something someone gave me. I can’t and won’t disclose that information. All you need to know is that it’s legitimate and it will stand up in a court of law.”
“What was the findings?” Katherine asked.
“George Babcock and Director Grayson are the same person. With some more digging, it turns out that ‘Grayson’ was his grandmother’s maiden name, while ‘Babcock’ is his birth name.”
“Wait,” Katherine cried out in shock. “Are you saying that he’s posing as an FBI agent?”
“That’s what we think.”
“Remember when I said I was undercover for narcotics?” Duane asked then. He didn’t wait for a response. “Since this happened, I reached out to others that had been pushed out, and it turns out that George Babcock and Larry Mason, both work for the FBI, but instead of arresting the drug dealers, they cut them a deal and are able to get drugs and money for themselves.” He shook his head and sighed heavily. “I won’t get into the details, but I have feelers out for a certain lawyer that I think can take this on. As far as I know, no one knows the correlation between Babcock and Grayson.”
“Holy shit,” Adele said. “You’re saying that he’s using his connections as a director of the FBI to line his own pockets withcash, and get drugs to sell or use on his own, without paying the dealers?”
“That’s what we’re thinking. However, we don’t have all the information. It’s being gathered as we speak, and I have a feeling this will be a long time before it gets solved. In the meantime, we have a bigger problem.”
“What’s that?” everyone asked.
One of the men who stood from the side walked forward and set a laptop on the table. Hank looked around, and then pointed to a wall. “It’s distorted because of the background, but I think you can get the gist of this.” He looked directly at Katherine. “I’m sorry.” Then he pressed play. Three rotations of the film later, Katherine jumped to her feet.
“That’s a fucking lie!” Katherine screamed. She shrugged off Caleb’s hand and planted her fisted hands on her hips. “Iwas found innocent in a court of law. It’s that scumbag’s son that was found guilty and is sitting in prison right now because ofhiscrimes. How can he announce on the national news that I’m a wanted fugitive for that accident?”
Hank held up his hand and nodded. “I understand, we all do. That’s why we’re here, and why your mother is being protected up in Seattle.”
“What do you mean, why you’re here?” Caleb asked.
“I want to talk to the guys and gals who are former military and work out a strategy to keep Ms. Miller safe.”
“Katherine, my name is Katherine.”
“Okay, thank you for that, but I feel that if we work with the former military here, then we will be keeping you safe.”
“From my point of view,” Erin said as she rose and stood beside Katherine. “Katherine is safe here. I know we’ll have to beef up security, and I’m not saying anything bad about it, but would you guys be willing to stay for Ryan and Pru’s weddingnext weekend? I have some bunktels you can stay in.” She turned to her brother with a raised brow. “They’re done, right?”
