Chapter 10
Larry Mason sighed heavily as he looked at the slew of text messages coming across his phone screen.
Based on the wording, he knew his boss was pissed.
He knew he was in trouble, not only with his boss, but also with what he had been doing for years.
Maybe it was time to come clean, but he had no idea who to go to.
He was an agent with the FBI for god’s sake, who could he go to for help?
As he looked at the incoming messages, the next one getting angrier than the last, a name and face popped into his head, and he paused, closed his eyes, and after about ten minutes of self-reflection, he made a decision.
As he walked to his Bureau issued vehicle, he sent a text that he hoped would appease his boss.
Oh, he knew it wouldn’t be totally calming, but it would buy him time.
Once in his vehicle, he used one of the button cameras he’d confiscated from the FBI, and made sure it went to an app on his computer at home.
He only had to trust the technology, and then he would verify it when he got home.
On the twenty-minute drive, correction, what was supposed to be twenty minutes turned into an hour and a half due to traffic, he reflected on what he had to do.
He didn’t know whether he was shocked or not when last week, while at home, he had answered a knock on the door, expecting it to be his pizza delivery, but he had been served papers.
Turned out his wife wasn’t asking for a divorce, she had sought one out and had been granted one.
Not that he didn’t blame her, he would divorce himself if he had a chance.
Maybe he could do good in the near future, all he knew was that he couldn’t live like this any longer.
Since he was already running behind, Larry decided to swing in a fast-food drive-thru.
When he arrived at the parking lot at his office, he sat there and ate his late lunch.
If he was going to get reamed out, and berated by the man in charge, then he might as well have a full stomach, and took twenty minutes to enjoy the tasteless, but fulfilling meal.
On the way into the office, he tossed his trash in the trash bin outside the door, and wandered in.
He was in no hurry to be berated and belittled.
As soon as Kevin stepped off the elevator, the receptionist only shook her head at him, leaned forward and whispered.
“I don’t know what you did, but I hope your life insurance policy is up-to-date. He’s fit to be tied.”
“Yeah, but I don’t control the traffic. There was an accident on the one ten.”
“Shit,” she whispered, and waved her hand for him to go down the hall to Director Grayson’s office.
Kevin knocked once, not waiting for a response, turned the handle and walked in. He braced himself for the onslaught of angry words headed his way. It didn’t take long for them to come.
“Where the fuck have you been?”
“Taking care of that matter we discussed three days ago.”
“What matter was that?”
Larry held his breath when he knew he would get some incriminating information on tape. Finally, Director Grayson was so frazzled about something, his cool demeanor was cracking.
“The girls we took off the streets last week. There was a problem with a couple of them.”
“What sort of problem?”
“The guys you hired to handle them got a little rough with them.”
“Rough how? How can anyone get rough with prostitutes? They’re nothing but whores and should be treated accordingly.”
“Yeah, you may think that, but what about the buyers you have lined up with them? Don’t you think they don’t want the women they paid you good money for not to be bruised and battered?
That’s what I was dealing with. One of your thugs took it upon himself to try to test the merchandise.
They said no, and he almost raped one of the girls, but not before he beat her up.
Thankfully, you have a doctor on call. I had to call him so he could set her jaw and nose. ”
“Was she taken into the hospital?”
“No, he said it wouldn’t be necessary.”
“Where’s the thug now? And who was it?”
“Guy that goes by the street name of Mouse. The women did a number on him. I locked him in one of the empty cages waiting for more women to arrive. I didn’t want him out on the streets to run his mouth.
I told him that you would deal with him.
” Larry shook his head and held up his hands at the look on the other man’s face.
“No, we had a deal, I get the girls, you get the thugs, and you deal with them. I have my hands full with the girls.”
“Fine, I’ll deal with him when we’re done here.” FBI Director George Grayson sat heavily in the chair behind his desk and pointed in the general direction of the small kitchenette. “Help yourself to coffee or water.”
His statement shocked the hell out of Larry because Grayson never offered refreshments. Larry declined, feeling like it might be a set-up, and took the offered chair before the desk.
“What’s up? Your messages sounded desperate.”
“Not so much desperate as frustrating.”
“Talk to me, George,” Larry said calmly. But he was anything but calm on the inside.
“Where’s your bitch of a daughter?”
“First, she’s not my daughter, she’s my step-daughter, and I have no clue where she is?”
“What does your wife have to say about her whereabouts?”
“Nothing,” Larry said on a sigh.
“What do you mean, nothing?”
“My wife left a couple of months ago, I came home and found a note that she was taking time off to regroup, not to contact her. Three weeks ago, I was served with finalized divorce papers, along with a note to take my stuff and vacate her house.”
“Did you?”
“Yes, I moved permanently into the apartment you told me to house the girls in when we got them off the street. You know, until the doctor could come and give them a clean bill of health.”
“Shit.” George scrubbed his face and shook his head. “I need to find that bitch.”
“Which one?” Larry winced as he asked that question.
“The lying bitch, Katherine. I know she lied while on the stand. Her lies sent my baby boy to prison for the rest of his life. He doesn’t belong there, he belongs with me. He was moving up in the organizations.”
“You’re not going to like what I have to say, here.”
“Just fucking say it.”
“Well, first, a court of law, and twelve jurors found Katherine not only not guilty, or innocent, they exonerated her. That means she can never be tried for a murder she didn’t commit in the first place.
Second, and I mean no disrespect, but I’m only stating facts here, but if your precious baby boy hadn’t been fucking someone in the back of the car while Katherine was driving, then he attacked her while driving, then in my opinion, he is right where he belongs.
Third, you’re either going to fire me or shoot me here on the spot for this next thing I’m going to say. ”
“What’s that?”
“You fucked up.”
“How?”
“Why did you put a BOLO out on Katherine stating she’s wanted for questioning by the FBI in this investigation? It’s fucking closed. She had nothing to do with it!” Larry could feel his cheeks heating up, and his insides were beginning to tremble in his rage toward the other man.
“Because I need that fucking bitch!”
“Why?”
They were screaming at each other now, both on their feet with their fists clenched. As much as Larry wanted to pummel Grayson, he knew it wasn’t time.
“Because when I get my hands on that fucking whore, I’m going to sell her with the other whores, but not before I have her so strung out on drugs that she will be pliable to her buyer.
I know just the right sick fuck to control her.
He’s promised me that no one will ever find any part of Katherine ever again. ”
“That’s sick, all because you’re fucking butt hurt that your precious baby boy couldn’t keep his dick in his pants and wanted to shut up his girlfriend, and not his side piece of ass?”
Larry stumbled back when Grayson’s fist connected with his jaw, and he only shook his head and glared at him for a good two minutes before he turned on his heel and walked out of the office.
He ignored the shouts following his departure.
He went to his office, gathered the information he knew he would need as an insurance policy, then left the building.
In the parking lot, he ignored his company issued vehicle, walked six blocks, hopped on a bus, and went as far as it would go to his ex-wife’s house.
Once there, he didn’t waste any time gathering what he had hidden there, and once he had the files, cash, and a passport, he left the home, locking it behind him, and shoving the key in the mail slot.
He then went several blocks, and caught a different bus to go in the opposite direction.
Once he was there, he was able to retrieve a vehicle registered in a fake name he’d had stored there for months.
After driving around aimlessly, he stopped to fill the tank, then headed toward his intended destination.
His hands were in white-knuckled grips the entire way to his destination, and when he arrived, he couldn’t seem to release his grip on the steering wheel, but he did it.
He grabbed the two duffel bags he’d packed from his office and former home.
He made his way to the front door, held his breath as he rang the doorbell.
It was a few minutes before it was answered and he got the response he thought he would when Lyle Anderson opened his front door.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Mason?”
“I need your help.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m in trouble, and I don’t know where to go, or what to do.”
Lyle leaned out, looked in both directions, then back at Larry. “First, drive your car around back, does anyone know you’re here?”
“No, I left the office six hours ago, did some bus hopping, retrieved some vital information, and took over two hours driving around to get here.”