Page 32 of Saltwater Promises
Chapter 14
As it turned out, Claire was not bluffing. Mike got a call on Monday from the attorney general’s office to set up a meeting. He requested to see Joe in person, and surprisingly, the office agreed to it. He was given a prompt appointment on Wednesday afternoon.
He spent the interim looking for Lenny. It seemed that the delinquent had gotten smarter all of a sudden. He was no longer posting updates online about where he was every few hours, there were no pictures in front of expensive cars, and he wasn’t publicly RSVPing to parties. He wasn’t being his usual, loud self.
Except for the shooting, of course. That was full Lenny.
If the FBI was using him as an informant, they seemed to have a handle on him.
But Lenny was still Lenny, deep down. If he was hiding something from the FBI, he would slip up. Mike was waiting for it.
It was tricky finding an in, though. He’d set up cameras to surveil Lenny’s old apartment. That led to nothing. He set up a few cheap cameras at his old hangouts, too, but again found nothing.
He’d probably been instructed by the FBI to abandon these places – his old apartment, his old phone, and even his old car. Mike had placed a tracker on Lenny’s cherry red Mercedes ages ago, but it hadn’t moved from the lot in Burlington for months.
Until that Tuesday. Mike got a ding on his phone that the car was on the move. It was possible that it was just being towed, or sold, but he had a feeling that it wasn’t the case. He watched as it traveled to Seattle, then Olympia, and then finally to Lakewood for the night.
Mike flew into Tacoma, rented a car, and tracked down the Mercedes to a shabby house. From the cover of darkness, he sat in his car and watched. And waited. An hour later, Lenny walked past the window, wildly gesticulating as he talked on the phone.
Bam.
Just like that, Lenny was back in the picture. Mike didn’t have time to stake out the place now, but at least he knew where Lenny was staying. It didn’t seem like there was any protection here from the FBI. It also didn’t seem like the sort of place that Lenny would normally live. All signs pointed to this being a hideout so he couldn’t be tracked.
But why? It didn’t make sense…unless Lenny was protecting Benzini. But if he’d sold him out, then Benzini would’ve been arrested by now.
No, Lenny must be feeding the FBI other information, dummy stuff. He used them to get out of jail, and now he was trying to keep up his business on the side.
Mike would have to come back and try to bug this place later.
But first, he had to meet with the attorney general. He pulled out of his hiding spot as quietly as possible, got back to the plane, and flew home.
The next day, Mike flew out to Olympia in the seaplane, landing on Capitol Lake and making sure to be an hour early for the meeting. Joe Martin, despite being Claire’s friend, was a busy and important man.
He sat in the lobby, and as he waited, Mike watched the staff. Overall, it seemed like a pleasant place. They were busy, yes, with people coming and going, but the employees looked calm. They smiled, chatted with one another, and things seemed generally under control.
Harried employees were always a bad thing, a symptom of poor management or bad values. It was a good sign, then, that people looked so happy, and another testament in Joe’s favor.
When it was time, Mike was called back to the rather humble office of Attorney General Joe Martin.
Joe met him at the door with a handshake. “Agent Grady, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Please, call me Mike.”
Joe smiled and motioned for him to walk in. Mike took a seat in front of a desk overflowing with stacks of papers.
“I hope that your office had a chance to look into my background,” Mike said, crossing his legs.
Joe smiled, which highlighted the laugh lines around his eyes. “We did.”
“Good. Then you know that I’m not here to waste your time.”
“And I’m not here to waste yours.”
Mike nodded, then quickly went over the happenings on San Juan Island and the rough details of his abrupt retirement.
“Please don’t mistake me for a disgruntled employee,” Mike said. “Because I am not. But I can’t let this case go unfinished, especially considering the personal nature of it, and the fact that it’s followed me to the islands.”
“I understand.”
