Page 35 of Jason's Justice
“Or we could open our own law office, and maybe Kevin would want to be our investigator. I don’t know how much work we would have, you know, what clients we would have, but after being here for the last couple of months, I kind of like the slower pace. Not that the intense investigation we’ve been doing isn’t anything to sneeze at, but the hustle and bustle of the city isn’t intruding on my thoughts. I may be only fifty-two, but I’m sort of liking this smaller pace.”
“It’s something to talk about after the arrests,” Kevin said quietly. “I sort of like the idea of being closer to Caleb. Not thatI’m a helicopter parent, I could get a place to live in town, and if I’m not busy with your law firm, maybe I could help Jake out over at Brotherhood Protectors.”
“There is that,” Duane said with a nod, and quickly left to get his own investigation going. He walked into his office at the barn, and with nothing pressing facing him, he got out the secure laptop he kept in the bottom drawer of a locked file cabinet. Once it was fired up, he started doing his research in trying to find Greg Olsen. It took him thirty minutes, and when he recognized the man, he swore, realizing he had been played all those months ago. He printed out a copy of everything he could find, and instead of going over to Jason and Ilsa with it, he sent a text to Erin stating he had to run to his house for a few minutes. He didn’t move until he received the text back stating it was okay. He went to his house and immediately went to his office and started going through boxes to find the file he knew was there. Armed with both files, he drove back to Erin’s Way, and other than sending Erin a text that he had returned, he went to Jason’s office.
“Hey,” he said by way of letting them know he was back. He had grabbed a bottle of water from a refrigerator that had been set up, and sat down heavily. “I’m such a fucking gullible asshole.”
“Excuse me?” Jason asked in shock. “Why do you say that?”
“I’ll deny this in the future, but I have an extremely secure laptop.”
“How secure?” Ilsa asked with a frown.
“IT techs from the Bureau set it up. Because it was my personal computer, I went to them to beef up the security on it. They also downloaded some programs I could use without anyone from the Bureau knowing.” He shrugged and sipped his water. “It’s placed so I can search without getting into trouble, or anyone knowing I was in there looking around.”
“And?” Jason asked as he held his breath for the answer.
“And, I’m a fucking stupid asshole. The guy, Greg Olsen, is a known gang banger. I printed out everything I could find from the areas on the laptop, then I went back over to my place and dug out the file from the Royal mission.” He laid the two files on the edge of the table, and gently shoved them forward. “The Royal op is the only file I have, the rest I got off the computer and printed it today. You’re welcome to it if it will help nail Grayson’s ass to the wall.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, and if you need me to testify, I’m willing to do that.”
“I don’t think it will come to that, but thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Do you need anything else from me?”
“Not at this time, but if I have questions, I’ll reach out to you.”
“Okay, I’ll get back to work now.” Duane rose from the chair, finished his water, tossed it in the recycling bin, and walked out the door. As soon as he walked out, he wrinkled his nose, and swore.
“Great, just great, fucking snow.” He trudged back to his office and got back to work on what he had stopped when Jason called him to his office hours ago. He wasn’t very productive as his mind wandered back to what had happened when he had been asked by his former handler to meet with Greg Olsen. The only thing that kept him from going into a downward spiral was that he knew he had done nothing wrong. He had followed orders, and carried out the mission. Thankfully, the outcome had been in his favor by arresting Royal and his cronies and no deaths had occurred. On a sigh, he went back to work.
“Jake,”Stone said quietly, but when the other man didn’t catch his attention, he called out, but louder.
“What?” Jake looked up and when he saw Stone’s expression, he sighed heavily, tossed his pen on the stack of papers and shook his head at his friend. “What was missed?”
“A lot,” Stone said, and instead of having Jake come to him, he rose to refill his coffee, brought the pot over to Jake’s desk to do the same, then returned the pot. He knew he was stalling, but he didn’t know how Jake was going to react to what he had uncovered. Without being asked, he took the seat beside Jake’s desk, sipped his coffee and shook his head.
“Do you want me to remind you of the players?”
“Please.”
“Okay, I’m only going to use last names for now. Three boys grew up in the same foster care system. Royal, Biggins, and Miller. Miller Sr. and his wife went to jail for eighteen years because they tried to take Erin’s Way away from Erin. Fraudulent banking practices, along with Mrs. Miller, again fraudulent accounting practices, along with lying on people’s taxes. Their judge was new and wanted to make a reputation as being a hard-ass and threw the book at them. I don’t know whether it’s because they wanted that rep, or if the charges were that serious. Anyway, we have Biggins, who’s basically a thug, he’s a loan shark that works, or rather worked, out of a race track over in Wyoming.”
“Where Naomi’s ranch was?”
“Correct. That’s how Benson Alcott became involved with Biggins. He had a gambling problem and got loans from Biggins.”
“Okay, who else?”
“Royal, it’s just as Pru said.”
“How?”
“He arrived during the tail end of the trial for the Millers. He didn’t post bail, but he bought a hundred-acre farm, not enough acreage to be considered a ranch. He had one prize mare, and a few brood mares. I’m not belittling any horseflesh here, but the brood mares didn’t have the lineage the prize one did. He contracted with Erin to have one of her studs breed his prize mare. It took, baby was born, and he went after the stallion that knocked his mare up.”
“How? Why?”
