Chapter 10 #2
“Okay, like I said, drive around back and park beneath the carport. I’ll meet you at the back door.”
“Thank you, Lyle. I’ll explain everything, I promise.”
“Okay, now go.” Lyle shooed him away, but Larry handed him the duffel bags he had laid at his feet.
“You’re going to want this.” He turned on his heel and disappeared, driving the twenty-year-old car around the house. He parked, pocketed the keys, and met Lyle at the back door, which walked into a chef’s dream of a kitchen.
“Coffee?”
“Do you have to work tomorrow?”
“No, since it’s Saturday. I take it we might be up all night?”
“Yes, I didn’t know where else to turn.” He shook his head and took the seat at the kitchen table. As Lyle made the coffee, Larry started removing items from the bags he’d brought. Neither of them said a word until Lyle joined him at the table with two full cups of coffee.
“Cream or sugar?”
“No, thank you, black is fine.”
“Okay. Tell me what you have here?”
“So, you’ll help me?”
“Depends on what you have.”
“Information that could take down Director George Grayson from the FBI. I’m going to say right here, right now, I am not innocent. I’ve played my hand in some terrible things, but I need to come clean. I will cooperate any way I can to take that asshole down.”
Larry sat there and waited for Lyle to stop studying him before he said another word.
“Why now? What changed?”
“George is trying to go after Katherine.” He shook his head and held up his hand to stop Lyle from speaking. “I know I didn’t show a lot of affection for her, but he went too far when he was behind the BOLO on Katherine.”
“Why now? That announcement came out six weeks ago. Why are you coming forward now? What happened to make you come knocking at my personal home, and not coming into my office?”
“I have a feeling that my life might be in danger. I’m not sure if he has anyone looking for me yet. We had an argument earlier today and I basically called him a crybaby, and he revealed the real reason why he wanted Katherine and what he was going to do with her.”
“What’s that?”
“Dope her up with drugs, sell her to the man he has on the hook, and transport her out of the country. I know I’m shocking you with this information, but under George Babcock Grayson’s direction, I have overseen his crew, that’s right, these are his people, but I’ve overseen them pick up prostitutes, house them until they are clean of drugs, or if they aren’t on drugs, then we house them until they get a clean bill of health from the doctor he had on retainer for this.
Then he has a private auction on the deep, deep web.
He sells the women and once the money is in his private account, he gives the buyers the women. ”
“How?” Lyle demanded as he jumped to his feet and went over to the desk in the corner to grab a pad of paper and pen. As he walked back, he clarified. “How does he get the women to the buyer?”
“A few ways. The buyer comes here, and they leave together as a couple on a private jet or commercially. Every woman has a set of fake documents. Grayson’s directive.
There have been times where one of his goons travel with the woman to the buyer, again, commercially or privately.
” Larry shook his head and sighed heavily.
“None of the women have been kept in the states, all have been sold to overseas buyers.”
“Why prostitutes? Why not women from all walks of life?”
“Grayson thought if they were already on the streets, then they are used to doing all kinds of things with their johns. You know, different men, different kinks. Another reason is because as sad as it is, the police don’t really look into a prostitute’s disappearance like they would if it was Katherine or Ilsa. ”
“True, true, it’s a sad situation, but it’s all true.” Lyle sipped his coffee and then shook his head.
“Okay, you said you’re here now because you and Grayson had a fight earlier about Katherine, and I’m assuming you want to keep her safe?”
“I do. I don’t know where she is, and I’m not being mean, but I hope I never find her, this way, if Grayson finds me and has his goons beat the shit out of me, I won’t be able to tell him where she is.”
“That’s a good thing. I’ll tell you right now, I have no clue where she is. I do know where Ilsa is, though.”
“Don’t want to know. Again, I’m not being mean, but the less I know the better for all our sakes. Did you know she divorced me?”
“No, when did that happen?”
“Two weeks ago, there was a knock on the door. I thought it was my food order, it wasn’t.
I was served with divorce papers, not the intent to divorce, but judge-signed final divorce papers.
The only thing she asked of me was to get my things and move out of her house.
I did. However, I kept a key, and tonight, after the fight with Grayson, I returned and gathered some information I had hidden there.
When I left, I locked it up, and shoved the key back through the mail slot. ”
“Okay. Now, I’m going to quote you here, I’m not being mean, but what makes you think I would believe you have the goods on Grayson. What proof do you have that it’s not all you?”
Larry nodded as he placed his hands on the stack of files and pushed them forward.
“I never started recording Grayson until the night of Katherine’s accident.
Before that fateful night, and shortly after, I was his right-hand man in everything.
Once Katherine was exonerated, then Michael was taken to court, something broke in George. ”
“Broke how?”
“He became obsessed with blaming Katherine for everything.” He dug though the pile of files and withdrew a sealed envelope and slowly shoved it toward Lyle.
“What’s this?” He took the envelope, flipped it over and read what was on the front. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“No, that’s the evidence from Katherine’s case that conveniently came up missing when it came to Michael’s trial.
Someplace in all these files and flash drives is George on tape telling one of his goons to break in and steal it.
I don’t have the actual theft on video, but I did find this on the goon. ”
“Where’s this goon now? Will he be willing to testify against Grayson?”
“No, he’s dead. Once he stole this evidence, Grayson had another goon kill him. I have the order on video, but not the actual act.” He scrubbed his face, sighed heavily, and drained his coffee cup. “Do you mind if I get more?”
“Help yourself.”
When Larry returned to the table, he sighed heavily again. “I probably shouldn’t be calling these guys Grayson’s goons.”
“Okay, do you know who they are?”
Larry pointed to the stack of files. “I have dossiers on all of them. They are people working their way up through the drug organizations that Grayson is extorting.”
“Extorting how?”
“He takes some of their drugs for his own use, and these different organizations have to pay him fifteen percent of their cut to keep the cops off their backs, and get the heads up when there’s going to be a raid from the locals, FBI, DEA, or ATF.”
“Holy shit, this information is huge.”
“I know, however, I know my hands are almost as dirty as Grayson’s.
I was in charge of the prostitutes. Remember me telling you we housed them until they received a clean bill of health, well, the apartment we housed them in was in my name.
My real name which you know as Larry Mason.
Once they were deemed healthy, they were shipped to a warehouse where the drug goons guarded them. ”
“Damn.”
“Yeah, the reason why I’m here today is there was a situation earlier today.
There was something in the air, and today went to shit in a nano second.
I got a call to go to the warehouse, I went.
It turned out a goon, hired by Grayson, by the name of Mouse, tried to rape one of the women.
When she refused his advances, and actually fought him off, he beat her.
He broke her nose, and it’s not broken, but severely bruised her jaw.
While I was dealing with that, I kept getting text messages from Grayson demanding me to go to his office.
I didn’t answer. When I finally arrived, he jumped down my throat about why I didn’t know where Katherine was.
” He held up his hand, grabbed his laptop, and took the camera off his button.
He accessed the app, turned the computer, and showed Lyle the interaction from earlier.
“Holy shit, the way you said things, you basically got him to admit on tape that he’s leading the prostitution ring.”
“Yes, but did you notice why he wanted Katherine? He wants to sell her because he’s butt hurt that his precious baby boy is sitting in jail.
He, Michael Babcock, the fucking entitled son of a bitch is right where he fucking belongs.
I pointed that out. That’s when I knew there would be no talking to him, and I walked out.
That’s why I’m here. Like I said, my hands aren’t clean, but I’m willing to take my punishment, and I want you to have all this information.
I may be working for the FBI, but I didn’t know where to turn.
I have a feeling that once Grayson finds out I defected, so to speak, there will be a bounty on my head. ”
“I know how to protect you.” Lyle looked at him with a nod. “Trust me. If you agree, I’d like to do two things with this information.”
“What’s that?”
“One, make at least three copies of everything, paper files and video flash drives. That’s how we were able to produce the stolen evidence in Michael’s case. We had backups of our backups.”
“I’ll help you with that. What’s the second thing you want to do?”
“Read all this together this weekend, and come Monday morning, I can get you someplace safe, but it has to be no questions asked.”
“Will I have to leave the country?”
“No.”
“Okay, where do you want to start?”
“At the beginning.”