Chapter 21
Paul lifted the beer bottle to his mouth to take a healthy sip, and left it there as he looked over at Warren, who had his back to the crowd Paul faced, but Warren looked at the crowd that Paul had his back to.
“What do you think?” Warren asked as he covered his mouth with his own beer bottle.
“Nice turnout.”
Warren chuckled. “Yeah, it is, but what about the guys here in the beer tent?”
“If I could fly my badge, and had enough sets of handcuffs, there would be about one hundred people being cuffed and stuffed right now.”
“Only a hundred?”
Paul gave Warren the side eye, then smirked. “For now.”
“I agree,” Warren said after several moments of silence. “Where are the women?”
“Outside, Petra opted to stay out there to observe the women. Don’t worry, she and Sally both have water with them. Day started out cool, but warmed up nicely.”
“Yeah,” Paul said as he continued to watch the men roughly ten feet away cutting up white powder with a credit card, roll a dollar bill, and snort it.
With the amount of powder on the mirrors in several different places around the tent, it was definitely more than a misdemeanor charge. “Who’s the guy snorting now?”
Warren turned to look, and shuddered. “A real asshole. I can’t tell you how many times he’s been arrested for drug possession, but gets a slap on the wrist, every fucking time.
That man is Clint Bowman, President of Road Rash.
” Warren grinned when Paul whipped his head around to give him the stink eye.
“Road Rash?”
Warren smirked and chuckled as he drank his beer.
“Don’t ask. Rumor has it that he laid his bike down and his entire ass was nothing but road rash.
They had to load him in the ambulance face down, it was that bad.
” He smirked harder. “Also, he had to lay face down in the hospital bed for the entire week he was in the hospital. Ask me how I know.”
“How do you know?”
“I was the investigating officer.”
“Let me guess, he was under the influence of coke?”
“Yep, but because nothing was found on him, only in his blood, there was nothing we could do.”
“I’d bet he snorted it all before the ambulance arrived.”
“Probably, because the EMTs all stated he was laughing when they arrived, and was talkative. All about stupid things, no confessions or anything helpful.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, he went on the list of people to watch.”
“Does the task force know about him?”
“Yeah, Dawson was the one to add him.”
“Dawson?” Paul played dumb. He wanted to know how forth coming Warran would be about his boss.
“My pain in the ass boss. He puts all these names on the list for us to check out, but when it comes down to issuing warrants, or go in for an arrest, somehow it always backfires.” Warren leaned in to whisper.
“Personally, I believe Dawson is on the take with these bikers. There’s nothing I can prove, but it’s my gut screaming that he’s involved somehow. ”
Paul looked at him, and made a quick decision. “When’s your next day off?”
“Tomorrow? I had the entire weekend off, why?”
“My place at ten?”
“With or without Sally?”
“I prefer without.”
Warren studied him for several minutes, and only nodded. “Ten.”
“Ten.” They went back to watching the crowd, and then changed positions. Thankfully, Paul wore his button camera, and he had all this heavy drug activity on video. He’d download it when he got home to have it on file.
“Find the girls?” Paul asked after he finished his beer, and they were almost out of the tent when someone called out to them.
“Psycho!” Someone called, and Paul turned to see Ted, the president of Iron Men approach. He had been one of the ones that produced a bag or two of white powder and had snorted a few lines.
“What’s up, Ted?” Paul said.
“Did you hear about Eddie?”
Paul played dumb. “Eddie?”
“The wannabe that you took out with your chain at the Vultures event a few months back. You left here with his old lady.”
“Ah, that guy, no, what happened to him.”
“After he woke in the field, he was fit to be tied. Heard he went after his old lady, still can’t remember her name, then he came back to me, Scott, and others to question us.
We told him nothing, just that we saw her leave the field.
That was it, not that she rode out of here on the back of a bike.
” He sipped his beer, and shrugged. “I owed that wannabe nothing, so I didn’t give him anything.
It was great when we didn’t hear from him for weeks. ”
“Okay, but what does that mean if I heard about him.”
“Oh, sorry,” he laughed as he weaved, and Paul noticed the size of his pupils, a sure indication that he was higher than a kite. “He disappeared, and I don’t know, and didn’t care where he went. As long as he wasn’t bugging the piss out of me, I didn’t care.”
“Okay,” Paul said to encourage him to continue. “What happened?”
“It was all over the news this morning. He moved up north of here, up in Minnesota. Saw it on the news that both ATF and DEA raided his place. They brought him out in cuffs.” He grinned, and shrugged, not apologetic at all.
“I started celebrating with a few lines before I came here. Best thing I’ve ever seen on TV to have that asshole arrested by the Feds. ”
“I know I probably shouldn’t ask this, but do you have anything to fear?”
“About?”
“Eddie saying anything to the Feds about you?”
“Nope, because no matter what I did in the past, or do in the future, I’ve never, not once talked to him about it.
Whenever he got out of hand, my strikers removed him from my sight.
I know you said you’re going to start your own club, so you know that wannabe’s aren’t allowed in the patch room.
That’s what the strikers are for. Security. ”
“I do know that. Let me ask you something. Are you an LLC?”
“What’s that?”
“Just a way to protect your ass.” Paul shrugged.
When Ted looked like he didn’t have anything else to say, Paul reached out and slapped him on the upper arm.
“You take care of yourself, and thank you for telling me about Eddie. I’ve been so busy trying to get my shop set up that I haven’t had time to turn around. ”
“You got guys coming to help? I’ll have to come out and see it when you’re set up.”
“I look forward to that. Yes, I have a guy coming within the next two weeks.”
“Good, looking forward to meeting him.” They shook hands, and Paul turned on his heel to join Warren a few feet away. He had stepped away, but stayed close enough to overhear their conversation.
“You good?” Warren asked.
“Yeah, he told me about Eddie being arrested this morning.”
“Did you have anything to do with that?”
Paull looked at him and grinned. “My place at ten tomorrow.”
Warren laughed. “Your place at ten.” They walked around until they met up with the women. Instead of sticking around for the rest of the afternoon, they opted to leave and they stopped halfway home at a restaurant for a meal, enjoying each other’s company.
*****
At nine thirty the next morning, Paul went out to his shop, and made a fresh pot of coffee. He had made extra cinnamon rolls, and brought them out with him, not knowing if Warren would want them or not. He didn’t know why he was so nervous to be talking to Warren about his boss.
He walked around his secure room and made sure everything was in order.
At ten minutes to ten, he went to the shop, and nodded when he saw some dust coming down the road.
Since Petra was still in the house, he could only assume it was Warren.
He poured himself a cup of coffee, then walked to the side door to watch a red truck pull in and park beside his green one near the shop.
He watched as Warren exited, and called out when he looked around.
“In the shop,” Paul called out. He lifted his coffee cup in greeting, and turned to walk into the shop when Warren started forward.
“Coffee?” Paul asked when Warren entered.
“Sure,” he said and filled a mug. “These for me too?” He pointed to the cinnamon rolls.
“If you want one.”
“Yeah, for some reason, I was too nervous to have breakfast.” He took one and ate it as he looked around. “Is this going to be the bike shop?”
“Yeah, it’s empty now except for my tools, I’m planning on the others to bring their own, if not, we can go get more. This is where the other agents will be working.”
“Is that so you can discuss cases without anyone questioning why everyone’s always here?”
“Correct.” Paul waved him to follow and he walked to the back of the room.
“This is the room where the action will be.” He opened it using his fingerprint and eye scan.
Once inside, he closed the door behind them, and pointed things out.
“The drugs from Eddie’s pack that Paula gave me were over there.
” He walked over to a bulletin board and pointed to some print outs.
“How much do you want to know about my operation, and what Tainted Shield is going to be doing?”
“Why?”
“Because there’s some information that you’ll learn today that will fucking piss you off.
However, you need to keep an open mind. You’re going to learn some mind-blowing shit today, and I need you to promise me you won’t storm out of here with guns blazing.
Just remember, I have more federal agents coming and we’ll figure this out.
What you’ve been doing to help me so far, I would like you to continue doing it.
I feel if you know what I’ve learned so far, and that you’re in on the bottom line with us, we can do this properly. ”
“Okay.”
“Promise me you won’t go off half-cocked. Remember, this is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. You heard me yesterday when I said I knew nothing about Eddie. I saw the arrest on the laptop before you and Sally arrived yesterday.” He looked at Warren intently. “Promise me.”
Warren studied Paul, and released a sigh. “Fine, I promise.”
“Okay, then I can tell you this. My handlers in Washington, DC are Paul Flynn, yes we have the same first name, but we call him Flynn. He’s a director in the DEA.
Duane Kessler is a director in the ATF. When I unloaded the things from Eddie’s there were bags and bags of white powder.
I had no way of testing it to see what it was. ”
“Fuck, and you couldn’t reach out to me to run them through the State Police lab. It would be questioned. That would have opened several cans of worms that doesn’t need to be opened at this time. Not without playing your hand, or revealing my somewhat limited involvement.”
“Correct. I reached out to Flynn and Kessler. I don’t know if you know this but there’s an ATF office down in Des Moines. The DEA office closed a couple of years ago, so it’s only the ATF.”
“I did not know that. I had heard both agencies shut down.”
“No, only the DEA.”
“Okay. What else?”
“Kessler and Flynn went to that office, and discussed what I’m doing with Tainted Shield. It turns out there’s an agent that was undercover in the biker world out in LA and was compromised. They pulled him and put him behind a desk in Des Moines.”
“He’s one of you?”
“Yes, he arrived with this equipment.” Paul walked over to the bench where he had Cass set up the machines. “This is what Jerry Cassidy, the biker agent, brought.” He watched as Warren checked it out, and looked at him.
“I’ve seen things like this at the state lab.”
“Yeah, Cass showed me how to test drugs, and the information will go directly to his computer in his office. Due to what was found in those individual bags in Eddie’s bag, I had no say with anything. It was out of my hands. Cass issued warrants and the arrest was made.”
“Yesterday morning?”
“Yes.” Paul walked over to the bulletin board and pointed to the print outs. Warren walked over and read them, and immediately turned back to Paul with wide eyes.
“Heroine laced with fentanyl?”
“Yes, then there was pure cocaine, powdered Oxy, and crystal meth. As I said, due to the quantity of the product, and how it was packaged, it was all in resale packages.”
“Fuck me, this was bigger than what I could have ever done.”
“Correct, and again, due to the quantity of the drugs, there was nothing I could do without revealing my intent here.”
“I totally understand,” he said as he continued to read the reports, when he was done, he turned back to Paul. “What else?”
Paul walked over to another bench and picked up Eddie’s notebook that was in a clear evidence bag. “This notebook was in Eddie’s bag. I read it, and did some research. The only question right now is if you want to read my report, or do you want the cliff version of my notes?”
Warren looked at him and sighed. “How about the cliff version, and then if I need more context, I’ll read the report.”
“Okay, but you have to promise me that you won’t go off all half-cocked. I think once you read what I’ve discovered, a lot of your questions will be answered.”
“What type of questions?”
“About your task force, and why things are being shoved under the rug. Why your arrests and raids are producing no results, and why the people you are after are suddenly disappearing.”