Chapter 8
“Excuse me?”
“I’ll tell you the same thing I’ve told everyone here, as well as, Jake Cogburn and Hank Patterson with Brotherhood Protectors.
” He took the next thirty minutes to tell the people who didn’t know his story about how he was pushed out by the man he knew as Director Grayson.
During his entire speech, both Jason and Ilsa took notes.
“I’m not saying my daughter is a liar, but had you seen the man you know as Grayson before you took Katherine to meet him?”
“Only once, it was at the retirement party for the director I had my entire career with the Bureau. I spent maybe ten minutes with him, but I was able to recognize him as Grayson when I took Katherine to meet with him.”
“Why did you do that?” Kevin asked. “Why meet with Grayson?”
“At the time, I thought he could help us to see why Babcock and Mason were after Katherine. It wasn’t until we saw them from the safety of my vehicle and Katherine freaked out that I realized Grayson and Babcock might be one and the same.”
“Where were you when this occurred?” Jason asked.
“Colorado Springs. We had taken Katherine there to purchase some more clothes. She was with Laurie the entire time they were in the mall. Caleb and I walked behind them, and went into the stores with them to make sure they stayed safe. Not once was she out of our sight.”
“What did you do when you returned here?”
“I wrote down what Katherine said, and I started to do research.”
“On?”
“Director Grayson. I knew Larry Mason, and had met him a couple of times in the past in the course of my work with the FBI. After I went as far as I could, I contacted Jake over at Brotherhood Protectors. It’s my understanding that he did what he could, then he contacted his boss, Hank Patterson, the founder of Brotherhood, and Hank reached out to someone in Washington, which turns out to be you. ”
“How?”
“Like I said earlier, I started out in narcotics, then they had a problem with something over in vice, and I went undercover over there for about a year.”
“Problem, how?”
“Some prostitutes disappeared, like off the face of the planet. There was suspicions on maybe a few pimps were involved in sex trafficking, and instead of taking regular girls and women off the streets, we thought they were taking the prostitutes. I don’t mean to offend anyone by saying that prostitutes aren’t regular women, they are, they are just down on their luck and in situations they can’t control.
This is just my personal opinion, but I believe they were preyed upon. ”
As Duane talked, the three scribbled notes. “What capacity did you do undercover work?”
“I posed as a pimp, and would meet with the men before I would allow my girls to meet them. Our play was that I had high end prostitutes that would only work out of a certain motel, and could only be reached through me. In the course of them meeting me, I was able to get their fingerprints and DNA from a contract they signed and a drink I served them. If they didn’t sign the contract they didn’t meet my girls. ”
“Who were your girls?” Laurie asked with a scowl aimed at him.
Duane turned and gave her a gigantic grin. “Female FBI agents.”
“Ah, so you didn’t use regular women?”
“No, it took two months to come up with this system. Once it was implemented we were able to arrest over five hundred Johns.”
“Holy crap,” Erin said. “That many?”
“Yes. We arrested them, then took them back to the office to question them. Toward the end of my time as a pimp, about two months before upper brass transferred me to narcotics, I started to gain information on the sex trafficking ring I mentioned earlier. Several of the men we arrested started pointing a finger at someone high up in the FBI, particularly the Los Angeles office, that someone was taking prostitutes off the streets, and selling them to overseas buyers. I had twenty-five different men we arrested give the same name over and over. I kept notes, but before I could investigate further, I was shipped back over to the narcotics division. Once I was there, I was sent undercover for weeks on end. At first I thought I was being punished, but after a while I was able to write notes on everything I saw.” He shook his head and looked around the room, then directly at Ilsa.
“The name of the FBI agent that was accused of selling the prostitutes was SSA Larry Mason.”
“What’s SSA mean?” Katherine asked.
“Supervisory Special Agent. He was in charge of a team.”
“Where did you keep the notes?” Jason asked and held his breath when Duane’s entire expression lit up into a gigantic grin.
“The originals, along with video tapes of the interviews with the people we arrested on that year-long sting are in a locker at the bus terminal in Denver.” He looked around the room and zeroed his gaze in on Erin.
“Remember when I stopped here months ago to see Scott? You said you wanted to talk to me. Before I even stepped foot in Fool’s Gold on that trip, I put what I had in that locker in Denver.”
“Why?”
“Because my apartment had been broken into three times. Oh, nothing was disturbed, or they thought they cleaned up after themselves, but when I would go undercover, I made sure all the housework was done. No dirty dishes in the sink, no clean ones in the dishwasher. All clothes were washed, dried, and put away.” He saw everyone nod, and then chuckled.
“Also, I kept all doors shut, even inside of rooms.”
“What’s that mean?” Ilsa asked with a frown.
“My closet doors in my bedroom, the closet door in the spare room, which was my office. The linen closet in the bathroom, and then the bathroom door was closed. I didn’t have an en-suite bathroom, you had to access it from the hall.”
“Are you saying that doors were left open?”
“Yes, and…” He paused for effect and chuckled again with a shake of his head. “One time I was gone for six months, and the dust built up. There were actual footprints in the dust. Oh, and I would put a piece of clear tape on the outside of the door, and it was gone when I would return home.”
“Did you ever figure out who broke in?” Ilsa asked, and sat back in anger when she got the answer.
“Larry Mason. I had a nanny camera.” He turned to Laurie then with a nod. “Remember how you had cameras in your grandmother’s dolls and the police were able to hear and see your ex assault you?”
“Yes, did you do something like that?”
“Yes, but mine was hidden in the spout of an old-fashioned teapot I kept up on top of a shelf in the kitchen.”
“The one Mom and Dad gave you for your wedding?” Scott asked in surprise.
“Yes. Right now it’s still in a box over at my place, I haven’t unpacked everything yet.”
“Do you think the camera is still in there?” Jason asked. “I know you said it was Mason, but I’d like to see if there’s more information on it.”
“I can dig it out and bring it over here tomorrow.”
“You stated,” Kevin said as he looked at his notes. “The original files from that sex sting are in a locker at the bus terminal in Denver. Do you have copies?”
“Yes, one complete set of copies are in a locker at the bus terminal in Los Angeles, you know, safety in numbers, and I have a copy here. Again, a complete set of transcripts, and video recordings, along with my own thoughts I’d written in the notes I’d taken.”
“Here where?” Jason asked sharply.
“Over in my office here at Erin’s Way. I can get them if you like?”
“No, tomorrow will be good enough. Thank you, and if need be, would you be willing to testify in a court of law about what you stated today?”
“Absolutely. I have nothing to hide, now that I think back on things that happened, I feel that both Mason and Grayson moved me around when I would get too close to something.”
“What makes you say that?”
Duane drew in a deep breath and let it out in a rush.
“Remember I said that there were several Johns that were arrested and they pointed a finger at Mason for sex trafficking? Well, I never arrested anyone, but on the streets of LA, there was talk that Grayson was shaking down the larger drug dealers and cutting them deals.”
“What type of deals?”
“Do you have any proof?”
“The proof is in that locker in Denver. Voice recordings.” He shook his head and scrubbed his face.
“I didn’t get too deep into anything, I thought I had plenty of time, but I was pushed out shortly after Grayson took control of the department.
The people talking weren’t low level drug dealers, they were higher up on the food chain.
What I’m about to describe is for everyone in this room, and it’s only for reference purposes. ”
“Okay, what’s that really mean?”
“Say there are ten levels of the drug life.” He moved his hand in a cutting motion to indicate the ten levels.
“You have the street level where they sell to anyone on the street, or have their regular customers. These would be considered level ten, important, but not that important, and they were a dime a dozen, easily expendable. Then it moves up the chain. The people who started complaining around me were around level six or seven, higher to the top.”
“Why were level tens expendable?” Clark asked in confusion.
“If they stepped on or altered the drugs they were given to sell, they would be taken out. The local police would just chalk it up to another drug deal gone bad. Sure, they’d look into it, but they wouldn’t dig too deep. There were other reasons also.”
“Like?”