Chapter Twenty #14
I set Lany's tea down in front of him and then sat down in my chair. I knew Mrs. Martinez was cooking breakfast, but I needed caffeine right now, or I'd never make it to my office. Lany was right. It was too damn early.
I took a sip of my coffee before reaching over to push Lany's hair back behind his ear. “It's getting a little long.”
Lany was apparently awake enough to smile at me. “I thought you liked it long.”
Oh, I did.
Probably shouldn't be having the erotic thoughts that instantly filled my head while I was sitting at the breakfast table, but the image of Lany sitting on me and his hair sliding along my skin as he rode me wouldn't leave my mind.
I covertly reached down and adjusted my thickening cock. I narrowed my eyes at Lany when he smirked at me. He knew exactly what was going on, the little bugger.
When Clarke and Lyn walked in a few minutes later, I glanced down so my second-in-command wouldn't see the amusement on my face. The man looked like road kill. His hair was in disarray, his eyes were red, and he had wrinkles pressed into one side of his face.
He'd obviously had a bad night on the couch.
Served him right.
I gestured to the left side of the room. “Coffee is on the sideboard.”
“Oh, thank god.” Clarke stumbled in that direction.
Lyn rolled his eyes as he made his way over to the chair next to Lany. “How are you feeling?”
“Better,” Lany replied. “I'm still a bit sore, but at least I can breathe now without feeling like I punctured a lung.”
I almost growled at the reminder that Lany had been beat to shit. I felt better when I saw Lyn shoot his husband a narrowed-eyed glare.
“How is CJ?” I asked.
Lyn beamed at me. “He's good, really excited to be in school, although his favorite class is recess.”
“The exercise will probably do him good.”
I couldn't believe CJ was almost eight years old. It seemed like just the other days Lyn was announcing that he had bought a house and he was going to be a father. It was right after that that he got together with Clarke.
“Next month they are having parent career day.” Lyn's grin was totally evil. “I'm making Clarke go.”
My chuckle was just as mean. “That will probably do him good as well.”
“Like I care.”
Yeah, Clarke had not been forgiven yet.
“I'll make sure he has the day off.”
I hadn't fully forgiven him either. I would, just not today. Maybe when Lany no longer has bruises on his face and ribs.
“Were you able to gather any more information after I took Lany to bed?”
“I have a few feelers out, but nothing concrete yet,” Lyn replied. “I checked my email before we left the house this morning, and I have a lead I want to follow up on.”
“What lead?” I asked.
“Okay, look, I am totally taking a page out of Lany's playbook here, but something he said yesterday stuck with me.”
They were best friends. It made sense Lyn would think like Lany on occasion.
“I'm listening.”
“He mentioned that he thought this guy's name might be Fernandez and he might be part of the Fernandez Cartel.”
“I remember.”
“Well, that got me to thinking. Brett Carson was an alias used by Brett Carbonados, the son of Jose Carbonados, the man in charge of the Fernandez Cartel. Brett was killed while in police custody, and his father is behind bars. With me so far?”
I nodded. “Go on.”
“What if he wasn't killed?” Lyn asked. “Dirty cops are a thing, as we are all aware.
What if one of them helped stage Brett's murder and then got him out of police custody.
It would be the perfect hiding spot for him, and as we all know, he likes to hide in plain sight.
He tried hiding on the right side of the law.
What if he's trying to hide on the wrong side of the law now?”
I hated how much that made sense.
“Call Jerry,” I ordered Lyn. “He said he was going to swing by his office before coming here. Have him track down the records on Brett. I want everything, even autopsy pictures.”
I also needed to call my in-laws and give them a warning.
If there was the slightest possibility that Brett was still alive, he could be a threat to Todd, my in-laws’ foster kid.
During his time with Brett, Todd could have very easily seen something he wasn't supposed to and—assuming Brett was alive—he'd want to eliminate any witnesses to his actions.
“I'd be happy to look any of the medical stuff for you, Sal,” Skip offered up.
“I appreciate it, Skip.” My face was grim when I glanced back at Lyn. “Keep digging on that idea. I really don't like how much it makes sense.”
Lyn's frown was deep. “Yeah, me either.”
“Could Brett be Anton?” Lany asked.
I groaned as I looked at my half-drunk cup of coffee. I had a strange feeling I wasn't going to be able to finish it. “If he's alive, yes.”
“I'll play devil's advocate here,” Clarke stated. “If it isn't Brett, and he's really dead, who else could it be?”
“His father is in jail, right?” Lany asked.
“He is,” I replied. “I had Jerry check.”
Lany squinted at me. “And Eben Juarez is still in jail, right?”
I didn't have an answer for that.
“I believe so, but it might be a good idea to have Lyn or Jerry double check.” The man was supposed to be doing life. If he wasn't, I damn well wanted to know why.
“I'm just trying to give us a list of suspects,” Lany stated, which was a huge win. It meant his brain had woken up. I just didn't like the direction it was headed in.
“This could be someone totally new, Lany,” Clarke said. “It doesn't have to be any of the morons we've dealt with in the past.”
“No, I know that. This just feels… Personal isn't the right word, but maybe familiar?” Lany’s hand waved a little in the air as he talked. “I know that doesn’t make sense because we’ve never been in a situation like this, but it still feels familiar to me.”
“I say go with your gut until we find evidence to say otherwise,” Lyn stated. “If you say this feels familiar, then it feels familiar. Let’s figure out why.”
“I’d love to,” Lany said as he dropped his head onto the table. “None if this makes sense if these guys are still in jail.”
The clacking of keyboard keys immediately filled the dining room. “I’m checking now, Lany.”
“I also want you to look into all the guards that were around Juarez,” I told Lyn. “See if any of them have suddenly inherited a large sum of money or something.”
“The money might not have gone directly to them,” Lany added. “See if their kids’ tuition was suddenly paid or anonymous payments made to medical bills, stuff like that. There are a lot of ways to launder money.”
“That might take a little time,” Lyn stated.
“Joe can help when he gets here.” I knew Lyn was better at this computer stuff, but Joe could hold his own, or he wouldn’t have been picked for my SWAT team.
I walked over to stand behind Lany, looping my arms around his waist. “What are you thinking?” He was staring at the storyboard kind of hard.
“This is going to sound really cliché, but we need to follow the money,” Lany stated.
“Both the money that I was transferring for the DEA and the money that might have gone to the prison guards. It might take a bit to get through the different routes, but I really think following the money will lead us to whoever is behind all of this.”
“Okay, so we follow the money.” Made sense to me. If we figured out who was funding all of this, we could narrow down the suspect pool.
“Okay, the good news is that Juarez and Carbonados are still in prison,” Lyn said after a while.
“And the bad news?” I asked, even if I really didn’t want to know.
“The bad news is that it looks like a couple of the guards have questionable finances.”
Figures.
“I’ll need to look into it a little bit more before I can positively say they are on the take,” Lyn continued, “but I know what a prison guard makes, and it’s not what these guys have in their bank accounts.”
I squinted at the man. “They seriously put dirty money in their bank accounts?”
How stupid was that?
“Unless they got this money somewhere else,” Lyn replied, “then yes.”
Idiots.
I swear criminals were getting stupider every single day.
“I want someone we trust to personally face-check Juarez and Carbonados and make sure the men that are supposed to be them are actually them.”
Lany turned in my arms and looked up at me. “You think they could be fakes?”
“I think if you pay a person enough money, especially a prison inmate, they’d do just about anything. That’s why I want someone we trust to go to the prison and personally lay eyes on them.”
“Call Officer Anderson and ask him to do it,” Lany suggested.
I’d forgotten about him.
“I’ll call him right now,” I said as I pulled my cell phone out and began to dial. “Lyn, I’ll need you to send Rory pictures of these two men if he agrees to go check for me.”
“On it,” Lyn called out without looking up from his laptop. “I just need his number.”
As soon as Rory answered his phone, I told him what I needed him to do. Once he agreed, I had Lyn send him the mug shots of the two men. I also warned Rory not to talk to anyone about this and that it was an ongoing case. He was to report to me directly.
My cell phone rang the moment I hung up with Rory. I checked the screen to see who it was and then swiped my finger across it to answer. “Carlos.”
“I have a possible name for you.”
“I’m listening,” I told him as I snapped my fingers at Lyn to get his attention.
“Eduardo Salazar,” Carlos stated. “One of my men overheard some guys mentioning that name as someone with some power both here and in Mexico. I don’t know if this is an alias or if this guy even exists, but it’s a place to start.”
“Thanks, Carlos. I’ll have Lyn look into it.”
“I’ll call you if I hear anything else.”
“Same.” I hung up and glanced at Lyn. “Look into a man named Eduardo Salazar. Carlos said one of his men overheard this guy’s name mentioned. Look here and in Colombia and Mexico.”
Lyn nodded and started typing.
“Lany, add that name to the storyboard as an unknown.”