Duane’s Determination (Broken Wheel Ranch #9)

Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

“You ready?” Duane looked at Laurie as they stood outside the office where they were supposed to meet with an agent from the FBI.

“As I ever will be. I only hope that after this meeting, I can get Beatrice and Peter Stanton out of my life permanently.”

“I’m sure you can, but it might take a while.”

“Yeah,” she sighed heavily and looked at him. “I don’t have to put my life on hold as I wait for them to get caught, do I?”

“No.” Duane nodded his head and reached for the door. He allowed her to enter first, and at the reception desk, they didn’t have to wait after giving their names. The receptionist jumped to her feet and escorted them down the hall. It was a little slow going with Laurie using her cane, but no one said anything to tell her to hurry up.

As soon as they entered the room, three men already seated there stood when they saw her, and Duane escorted her to the seat one of the men told them was reserved for Laurie. After settling her, he went to get them each a coffee and a Danish. Since it was an early morning meeting, barely seven, he thought it would hold them over until they went out to breakfast after the meeting. Laurie already said she wasn’t due in the office until noon that day.

Just as Duane sat beside Laurie with the sweets, the door opened and three men dressed like him entered. He pegged them for FBI agents immediately.

“Thank you all for coming,” the lead man said. “I’m Special Agent Haller with the FBI. I am the lead investigator on this case. With me are Agents Michaels and Scott.” He looked around the table and nodded only once before he looked at a paper in his hand. “I have a list of names here, please tell me if you’re here.” He looked around again, and they all nodded.

“Laurie Gibson?”

“Here.”

“Geoff Shyster?”

“Here.”

“Harmon Brooks?”

“Here.”

“Who else do we have here?” he asked when he saw three more people he hadn’t had on his list.

“I’m Duane Manchester, retired FBI from the Los Angeles office.”

“Correct, you’re the one that brought this case to my attention.”

“Yes, and I only reached out to you after getting all the details from Ms. Gibson. I contacted my former boss, and he told me to contact you.”

“Thank you for reaching out. If you hadn’t and Griff Franklin had succeeded in what he asked Ms. White to do, then all hell could have been unleashed onto Ms. Gibson.” He looked at the only other woman sitting there. “I know your name is Allison White, but for this case you will be referred to as Jane Doe. If anyone asked, then we will say that Jane Doe tipped us off and we are withholding her name to protect her.”

“I understand. I know this might not be the time, but after today, may I continue to work remotely from home?”

“We would prefer it. After today, things will be moving forward quickly. When you leave here today, you will have a female agent with you. She’s on her way in. Do not, and I repeat, do not think you can ditch her. She is your protection against Franklin and his cohorts.”

“I won’t.” Allison reassured him.

“And you, sir, who are you?”

“I’m JJ Smith. I’m Harmon Brooks’ lawyer.”

“Good, good. Now, I see you all have coffee and a pastry before you. Feel free to replenish anytime you want. I’m hoping this won’t take long, but definitely a couple of hours. Let me tell you what I was told by Agent Manchester, and this was based on a conversation he had with Ms. Gibson.”

Agent Haller took the next thirty minutes to tell him what he understood to be the concern of Laurie, and then turned to Allison, ‘Jane’, to confirm it. Once it was confirmed he nodded and turned to Laurie.

“Because we are ahead of this, I don’t see there will be any blow back on you. You are aware of what Franklin is trying to do, so when he’s taken into custody, no matter how many times he tries to point the finger at you, we’ll tell him and his lawyer that we’ll look into it, but we won’t. We know you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Thank you.”

“Now, Mr. Brooks, are you still wanting to purchase Gibson Associates?”

“Yes,” Harmon said with no hesitation. He chuckled. “I’ve been trying to get my hands on it for the last few years, but Laurie wouldn’t even discuss me buying her out.”

“How soon do you want this to go forward?”

“What do you have in mind?”

Agent Haller looked at Laurie. “Do you mind if I explain about your knee?”

“You know about that?”

“I do, I know everything.”

Laurie sighed deeply, then nodded. “Go ahead, and to answer your question, the sooner the better.”

“Okay, since I don’t believe in frivolous words, I’ll get right to the point. Over a year and a half ago, Ms. Gibson divorced her husband, Peter Stanton. The why’s and whatnot’s aren’t important. The important thing is that she divorced him, and because of a pre-nuptial agreement, she was entitled and received a substantial amount of money. Peter Stanton dragged the divorce out for over a year before it finally went before a judge. Ms. Gibson was granted her divorce.”

He nodded as he looked at everyone, then continued, “Six weeks after the check he had to write her as the settlement cleared the bank, he showed up at her house with the ruse that he had left something of his father’s there. While there, words were exchanged, and Peter Stanton attacked Ms. Gibson with a baseball bat. He took out her knee. Can you tell us the prognosis now?”

“I’m as good as I’ll ever be. I’ve had four surgeries in the last seven months, extensive physical therapy, and both the doctor and therapist said I won’t get any better.” She saw his raised brows and continued, “I found a place in Colorado that works with people like me, and that’s why I approached Harmon. I want to go there and see if I can improve a little. I’m not hoping to be completely cured, but I want to get to the point where I don’t have to use a cane. I’m not even fifty yet, so I have a lot of life left to live. Anyway, when I go to Colorado for this program, it’s a six-month session. I don’t want to have to worry about Gibson Associates while I’m gone. I’ve been doing this for over thirty years, it’s time to live my life the way I want now.”

“Okay, thank you for being honest with us.” Agent Haller turned to Harmon. “Are you still wanting to purchase Ms. Gibson’s company?”

“Yes. JJ and I have gone over the contract together and I agree to everything.” Harmon looked at Laurie. “You, your daughter, and your mother will still hold five percent in the company, and I will take the remaining eighty-five percent for myself.”

“I’ll agree to that.” Laurie nodded and right then and there contracts were signed and witnessed. When that was done, Agent Haller turned to Allison.

“Ms. White, could you please tell us how the conversation came about where you got the name of the person that we believe Griff Franklin is working with?”

“He approached me in the hall at work. I don’t know if this is being recorded, but for the record, I work for Laurie Gibson at Gibson Associates. That’s where he first hunted me down. I don’t know if it was because I’m a woman, or young. I’m only twenty-two. Maybe he thought he could intimidate me, I don’t know. What I don’t think he knows is that I’m the youngest of seven children. All my siblings are men. They’ve taught me over the years how to protect myself while acting like a ninny.” She grinned when everyone snorted a laugh.

“When Mr. Franklin approached me, I listened to what he had to say, and I said I would have to think it over. To give me time. I said at least forty-eight hours. When I got home that night, he contacted me. I have no idea how he got my unlisted home number. Because of the way my brothers raised me I immediately started recording the conversation. No, I did not tell him I was recording him.”

“That shouldn’t matter. What matters is that we got our smoking gun,” Agent Haller said. “Please, continue.”

“Oh, sorry. But Franklin kept saying that BS wants me to do this, BS wants this to happen. I will admit, that I felt like a ninny at that time because I had absolutely no idea what he was going on about. I called him on it.”

“How?” Agent Michaels asked, speaking for the first time.

“When he kept saying BS this, and BS that, I laughed. I told him that if it was all bullshit then why should I help him? He then got extremely angry, calling me a no-for-good twit and said that if I had any brains in my head, then I would know that the BS he was referring to was Beatrice Stanton. She was telling him what to do because my boss was a liar and a thief, that Ms. Gibson stole a substantial amount of money from her and her son, and it’s up to me to get that money back from her.”

“What exactly did Mr. Franklin ask you to do?”

“He wanted me to give him information on stocks that might be selling at a high price. When I flat-out asked him if he wanted me to get arrested for insider trading, he was stupid enough to say that it wasn’t insider trading if Beatrice and Peter Stanton didn’t work for Gibson’s.” She shook her head and looked at Laurie. “Yeah, he was that stupid. Thank you for letting me know that you have the first initial conversation on tape. If you hadn’t let me know, I don’t think I would have been ballsy enough to tell him I would try to help him.”

“You did everything right,” Agent Haller said. “Now, this is what I think should happen.” He spent the next hour laying out his plan, and with everyone’s input, they came up with a plan that would make everyone happy, and take out one third of the offending party. They hoped that once they had Griff Franklin in FBI custody, they could get information on the whereabouts of Beatrice and Peter, get them arrested, or if they were still out of the country, have them brought back, and then they could charge them with the plot and actual attack on Laurie.

By the time they left the FBI building, Laurie was exhausted. At least mentally.

“Are you okay?” Duane asked as he reached over and took her hand in his and gently rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand.

“Yeah, but I’m mentally drained. That was a lot of information to take in, and it’s going to be a lot of shit on my shoulders to be able to pull this off in two weeks.”

“I know, but I want you to know that I will be there with you every step of the way. I’m not leaving until Gibson Associates is in the hands of its new owners.”

“You’re determined to keep me safe, aren’t you?”

“I am. After what we shared last night, I’m determined to do everything in my power to not only keep you safe, but also to have you in my life for the rest of our days. I’m starting to fall in love with you.”

“Well, rest assured, Duane Manchester, I too am beginning to fall in love with you.”

He grinned as he reached over and brought her to him and gave her a quick kiss before he started the vehicle and drove them to her office. When he got out, and only raised a brow when she started to say something, she let it go and went into her office building.