Chapter 20
“You may call your next witness, Counselor,” the judge said to Jason.
Jason stood at his table, buttoned his suit jacket, and while looking forward, he called in a stern, loud voice. The reaction from the other table shocked him.
“I call Duane Manchester to the stand.” He waited until he heard a commotion from behind him, and glanced over at Ilsa, who gave him a subtle nod.
They were at the trial for George Grayson, and Jason had let the defense call their witness, and so far, in his personal and professional opinion, they had only called the people to make George look good.
None of them brought up how bad George was.
Jason waited until Duane was sworn in, took his seat, and settled in.
“Mr. Manchester, please state what you do for a living.”
“I’m head of security for a private business.”
“What gives you the experience to do this job?”
“Twenty-five years as an FBI agent.” As soon as he gave his answer, the defense attorney whipped his head to look at George, but the man in question refused to look at him. Duane’s response caused a stir with the jury, and the judge even raised his brows.
“Where did you work out of? Which branch?”
“The Los Angeles office.”
“For how long?”
“Twenty-five years.”
Jason walked back to his desk, rifled through some papers, and after he picked them up, he continued to hold them as he turned back to Duane. “What did you do for the agency?”
“I worked undercover for about twenty years. Off and on. I’d say more on than off.”
“Okay, without giving away agency secrets what did you do while undercover?”
Duane paused to take a drink of the water glass provided, then settled back in his seat.
When he received a nod and verbal directive to continue, he nodded.
“Without giving away agency secrets, one undercover assignment I was a pimp and my girls were female agents. We set up a sting when we learned some Johns would solicit prostitutes, then when they were done, they would beat the woman and steal her money. Or, in some cases, when she agreed to the transaction, then they would arrive at the hotel and there would be a multiple number of men there. The prostitute was gang raped. She was also beaten if she didn’t agree, and was gang raped anyway.
When she went to the local police, they basically ignored her because she was a prostitute. ”
“I’m sorry to hear that. Were any of the female agents one of the ones that this happened to?”
“No, after fifteen to twenty prostitutes reported the crimes to the police, they reached out to my boss, he in turn had me set up the sting. When the agents brought a john back to the hotel, they were arrested within minutes. I stayed on that operation for at least six months, and I believe we made over two hundred arrests.”
“Wow, okay, was George Grayson your boss during this sting?”
“No, I didn’t meet him until years later.”
“I understand, can you tell us about another undercover sting you were on?”
“Once I was acting as a seller of hot arms.”
“Can you explain to the court what that term means?”
“Hot, as is stolen, arms, as in firearms. Stolen guns. I acted as the front man to sell them. I made a sale, but my handler at the time said that I had to follow the guns, which I did.”
“Follow how?”
“Convince the buyer that because he was taking those guns across state lines, then as the seller, I knew how to get around checkpoints and things like that.”
“Did you? Go with them?”
“I did, and the people who used them to commission a crime were arrested.”
“Who was your handler that told you to go with the guns?”
“Supervisory Special Agent, Larry Mason.”
His statement caused a stir at the defense table, and George’s expression turned red with rage. Both Jason and Duane ignored him.
“Is there any other undercover operation that you can think of that might be important to this case?”
“After being undercover in Vice, which was the prostitution sting, I was transferred to Narcotics. Drugs. I worked undercover as a homeless person living on the streets for weeks and sometimes months on end gathering information on who the players were.”
“Players?”
“Major dealers, major buyers, people like that.”
“Why were you brought back into the office?”
Duane sat forward, scrubbed his face, and sighed heavily. “Honestly?”
“Please, you are under oath.”
“I think I was targeted by George and Larry to get rid of me. I knew too much, and I could hurt them.”
“Why do you say that?”
“My director retired, naturally.”
“What do you mean, naturally?”
“When you’re an FBI agent, you can’t be hired before the age of twenty-three, and you’re out the door at age fifty-seven.
It’s an agency rule. Before I entered, I got a college degree, did two years as an officer for the LAPD, then joined the FBI.
Those two years in the LAPD gave me a huge list of contacts and CI’s I used in my career as an FBI agent.
When my director retired, at his retirement party, I met his replacement, George Grayson for about three minutes.
Once Grayson took over, I started receiving e-mails from him directly. ”
“What type of e-mails?” Jason asked as he took the papers he’d been holding and distributed them to the defense table, the judge, and the jury.
He stated which number they were for evidence.
When he stood back before his table, he turned back to Duane.
“Are the papers I just handed you the e-mails in question?”
Duane looked at them and nodded. “Yes. As you can see here they started out okay, but after about five months of Grayson taking over, they became more urgent that I retire from doing undercover work and ride a desk. That’s not why I became an agent to begin with.
I had this burning desire to work the streets and take out the scum that preys on our society. ”
“What did you do?”
“After this last e-mail, the one where Grayson threatened to fire me for some bogus charge, did I retire. I went over his head to HR, and my last day there I had a brief conversation with Grayson. It lasted under thirty seconds.”
“Can you tell us what you said?”
“Objection!” the defense attorney yelled as he jumped to his feet.
“Overruled,” the judge said, and turned to Duane. “You may answer the question.”
“I had already turned in my gun and badge, and I saw Grayson outside his office. I told him that he had won, that I was leaving. I also told him that I knew what he was doing, and I didn’t know how long it would take, but I would take him and his goons down.
That he was using the Federal Bureau of Investigations as his own private pocket lining enterprise. ”
Jason nodded, and went to get more papers to distribute. They were discussed and four hours later, the judge called for a lunch recess. When Jason, his team of Ilsa and Lyle, along with Duane were alone, Jason looked at him with a grin.
“Thank you, you rattled Grayson’s defense team with your honesty, and the proof you gave me months ago.” They made their way out of the court room and were met with Grayson’s lawyer.
“Do you have time to talk?”
“No, I’m not making a plea deal for Grayson. He did the crimes, he’ll do the time,” Jason’s tone was so cold the others with him shivered. He walked away, and they followed them up to Lyle’s office where lunch was waiting for them.
“Question,” Duane said after he ate half his lunch, wiped his mouth, and stared at Jason. “Why did you tell him no deal?”
“It’s too early in the case. If Grayson’s defense is coming at me for a deal now, with just your testimony, then they’re running scared.
What are they going to do when Larry Mason takes the stand?
” He gave an evil grin, which he accompanied with a laugh.
“Besides, I literally want to see Grayson sweat.” The four of them shared a laugh, and when they went back to court, the afternoon was more of going over the paperwork that Duane had provided from his time as an agent.
They called it a night around five o’clock and were told they would reconvene at nine the next morning.
“You may call your first witness for the day,” the judge said at three minutes after nine the following morning.
Jason stood tall, buttoned his jacket, and said loudly, “Larry Mason.” He stood there and tried not to grin when the defense table started scrambling.
Everyone turned to look at the doors in the back of the court room, however, a door to the side, where prisoners were led in opened, and though he was dressed in a suit and tie, Larry wore handcuffs and a chain was brought down to the cuffs on his ankles.
Jason nodded in admiration when the other man ignored the glares coming from George’s table, and everyone watched as Larry’s escort took him to the witness stand, uncuffed him, and stood behind him as he was sworn in.
Once he took his seat, the guard stood off to the side of the back of the witness stand.
Jason knew he was going to be there, so did Larry.
It was in case Larry tried to make a run for it.
They had discussed not putting the leg restraints on him, because he has been cooperating in every sense of the word, but Larry said he wanted it for effect.
Jason got right to work with his first question.
“Mr. Mason, why are you testifying against your boss and friend?”
“He crossed the line when he went after someone I cared for.” When he didn’t say anything more, Jason asked him to elaborate.