30. Chapter 30
Chapter thirty
“What? How?” Amber demanded, blindly reaching for his hand. Juan grabbed it, sliding his fingers between hers. Wrong place, wrong time, but he wouldn’t lie; having her reach for him when she needed support made him feel like a god.
“We figured out the algorithm today—well, most of it,” Callie said.
“What does that mean?” he asked.
“It means that we’ve traced the money from the buyers to the holding company to the consolidator, then to Anthony’s companies,” Callie said.
Juan frowned. “And that’s enough to get a warrant? And buyers of what? Well, we know who the ‘buyers’ are, but are they actually buying something? Something other than scopolamine?”
“We suspect yes, but haven’t found the answer to that specific question yet,” Callie said.
“But between the money trail and what the lab found, the judge agreed to discuss the possibility of issuing a warrant. Also, the FBI has agreed to open a case, and once the warrant is issued, the police departments involved in all eleven deaths will be asked or, depending on which jurisdiction they fall under, ordered to open, or reopen, investigations into those deaths.”
“Holy shitballs,” Clara said.
Philly grinned. “I told you, she’s a goddess,” he said, grinning and setting a hand on Callie’s shoulder.
“I didn’t do it on my own,” she said with a smile.
“The best of the best never do,” Philly added.
“Are you telling us it could all be over tomorrow?” Amber asked, cautious optimism threaded through her tone. Juan felt the same, but despite the leaps he’d taken in the past few days when it came to not waiting for the other shoe to drop, he wasn’t quite ready to give voice to that hope yet.
Callie pursed her lips. “I wish I could say yes, but unless they find a smoking gun, it will take a few days to cull through all his electronics and paperwork. And to Juan’s earlier question, it would be good to find out what the ‘buyers’ are buying from him to close the loop on the money fraud aspects of his operation. ”
“It would also be good to tie up how he gets the drug and how he delivers it to the buyers,” Leo added.
“We know he gets it from Johanna, though,” Juan said, hating how convoluted the justice system could be. He understood why, understood that guardrails and protections were put in place to protect the innocent. But damn it made it hard to go after the guilty. And Anthony Ely was guilty as fuck.
“Knowing and proving are two different things,” Leo pointed out.
“Absent seeing an actual handoff, how will we prove that Johanna is his supplier?” he pressed, visions of all their work leading to nothing if they couldn’t figure this one piece out.
He knew it didn’t really work that way, that this one piece of evidence, or lack thereof, wouldn’t sink the entire case.
But with so much at stake, he couldn’t help but be more than concerned.
Callie and Leo shared a gleeful look, and he had a fleeting thought that he wouldn’t want to be on either of their bad sides. Ever.
“They’re going to bring Johanna in for questioning, too,” Callie said.
Amber gasped. Juan frowned.
“Who’s they?” he asked. “HICC?”
Callie shook her head. “The FBI team opening the case is headed by one of Stella’s contacts.
She’s been talking to him, and they think they can get the CEO of Bios Therapeutics to cooperate.
She has a reputation for being a straight shooter.
When the company had a small corruption problem with one of their affiliates a couple of years ago, she ordered an internal investigation, then self-reported to the authorities.
We get the impression she values running a clean company. ”
“If that’s true, she’ll want to do everything in her power to cooperate,” he said.
Callie and Leo nodded. Some, but not all, of the tension in his chest eased.
Bios’s cooperation didn’t guarantee Johanna would talk, but if she felt her job was at stake, and that she might be implicated in eleven cases of murder-for-hire, it definitely upped the ante.
“They’ll question Johanna, hoping she’ll confess to giving the drugs to Anthony?” Amber asked.
Leo nodded. “Again, to Juan’s point, it’s unlikely we can get any proof of a handoff.” He paused, then added, “Any legally admissible proof, anyway.”
Despite his lingering anxiety, Juan grinned. Any evidence that Toni’s cameras picked up couldn’t be used, but it was still damn helpful.
“Johanna’s confession is the next best thing,” Callie finished.
“When will we know about the warrant?” Amber asked.
“Stella, her FBI contact, and the judge are meeting at ten tomorrow morning. It’s possible the meeting will go longer than an hour, but no more than two,” Leo said.
Amber looked up at him, a hesitant smile lighting her gorgeous face. “I know it’s not the end, but it’s the start of the end, and I’ll take it.”
He couldn’t help but smile back. “You and me both.” Then turning his attention back to Leo and Callie, he asked, “If the judge agrees, when will they execute the warrant?”
“It depends on the scope of the warrant,” Callie said. “They may want to coordinate with other agencies, like the DEA.”
“Will Grace be involved?” Amber asked. “Isn’t her team out of California?”
“It is, and they wouldn’t normally be involved, but Stella can be very persuasive. Besides, I heard a rumor that she’s requested a transfer to the DC area,” Callie said.
“She has?” Dulcie asked.
“Why?” Philly asked at the same time. “She works for Reaper. I wouldn’t ever want to work for the DEA, but if I did, I’d want Reaper as my boss.”
Callie lifted a shoulder. “Don’t know. And it’s only a rumor. I haven’t spoken to her since she headed out the other day.”
“She didn’t say anything while she was here,” Dulcie said.
“Does she have a reason to confide in you, big guy?” Philly asked, waggling his eyebrows. “Pillow talk, maybe. I always wondered what DEA agents talk about late at night.”
Callie whacked him on the thigh. “No, you don’t, and it’s none of your business—leave Dulcie alone.”
Philly’s gaze dropped to his wife, then narrowed. “Do you know something, woman?”
Callie rolled her eyes. “I know that you get great joy out of annoying your brothers.”
Philly stilled, then bobbed his head. “It’s true. I do. But I figure someone has to.”
“Why does someone have to?” Adrian asked, sounding genuinely curious.
“Because on the rare occasion one of us tries to keep a secret from the others, it’s up to me and my amazing powers of annoyance to ferret that secret out,” Philly said.
Adrian looked at Juan, then Dulcie, then back to him. Juan wagged his head from side to side. “It’s kind of true.” She looked to Dulcie, who gave a reluctant nod.
“A shrink would have a field day with you all,” Adrian muttered.
“Oh, Dr. Leventhal loves us,” Philly said. “We’re her star pupils.”
Juan shook his head. “We’re her clients, not her students. She’s not our Yoda to your Jedi.”
“Says you,” Philly shot back.
“Who’s Dr. Leventhal?” Amber asked.
For once, Philly looked as if he was considering regretting what he said, but Juan had no issues with it.
“She’s the psychologist we all worked with at one time or another while in the army,” he answered.
“We all served together, either on the same teams or specific ops, but as we each left, she’s the one who suggested we join forces and consider getting involved in the work we do. The non-business work we do.”
“She knows all our dirty laundry and sob stories and figured it might help each of us and the world if we turned our shitty experiences toward something with a purpose,” Philly said.
Juan glanced down at Amber. He’d mentioned going to therapy, but he hadn’t delved into the details.
Not because he didn’t want to. Well, that wasn’t entirely true.
The experience hadn’t been comfortable. Helpful, but not comfortable.
But the rewiring of his brain that he and Dr. Leventhal worked through together years ago took a back seat to their current situation.
Her deep brown eyes studied him. He held her gaze, silently telling her they’d talk more later.
For her, he’d go into the nitty-gritty details of his sessions, if she asked.
But at the heart of the matter, there wasn’t much more to their relationship than what Philly said.
Although Dr. Leventhal’s suggestion that the men who now made up the Falcons family work together had had a far more profound impact on each of them than Philly’s summary captured.
And that was a piece of him Amber deserved to know.
She deserved to know just how his found family had saved him. Slowly, she nodded.
“Seems like a woman I’d like to share a glass of whiskey with,” Clara said.
Pulling his attention from Amber, Juan chuckled. “You two would get along like a house on fire.”
“Might have the world’s problems solved by the time you reached the bottom of the bottle,” Dulcie added with a grin.
“Well, if she’s a whiskey drinker, then I might have to agree with that,” Clara replied, earning a chuckle from her daughter.
“Now, back to the most important question. Is there anything we can do to help Stella prepare for this meeting tomorrow so that the breathing turd that is Anthony Ely gets everything he deserves?”