Chapter 27
“Red just called. He said two of the Bandits were just in the Rollaway and then went to the bathroom. Dee saw them walk out the back door,” Uncle Asher said from the doorway.
Dan was sitting at his desk, trying to focus on work and not Leah, so he was happy for the distraction. He got up off his chair, grabbed his hat, and followed his uncle out the door, along with another deputy, Kevin.
Uncle Asher drove them to the Rollaway and saw the two motorcycles.
“Would they be that stupid to do this in the daylight?” Dan asked his uncle.
“I spoke to Red, and he said they often come in and then out the back. He’d thought they were just heading out there to smoke now that he’s got a no-smoking policy in the bar.”
“Locals aren’t happy about that,” Kevin said.
“They’ll be happy when their lungs don’t give out on them from secondhand smoke,” Dan said. “If the Bandits have been selling cocaine in this town, which we now believe they have, we’re throwing everything at them.”
“We are,” Uncle Asher agreed. “And then working out how it was we didn’t notice.
We’ll head around the back of the Rollaway,” he added.
“I’ll go through the bar, Dan, you go left around the building, and, Kevin, you take the right.
Be ready if they run. Of course they could just be smoking, but something tells me they’re not. ”
They’d had instances lately of teenagers high on drugs and had been trying to work out where they’d got them. Dan now believed this was how. If the Bandits were involved in moving cocaine, they were no doubt involved in selling it.
He thought of Ally and how she was at the age of wanting to be cool. Would she take drugs if someone offered them? He’d like to think the answer was no but couldn’t be sure. Uncle Dan would have a talk with her soon.
They got out. Dan went left as his uncle headed into the Rollaway, and Kevin went right.
He didn’t encounter anyone as he reached the end of the building.
But as soon as he turned, Dan saw Sam Hackett and Blanchard Kit.
The kids were, from memory, eighteen years old. They were talking to two Bandits.
“No one move,” Dan said, pulling out his gun as Kevin arrived from the right.
There were two types of people. Those who panicked when you told them not to move, and those who became statues.
The boys were the latter, but the bikers the former.
They ran. One went straight ahead, which would take him to a fence, and beyond that, the more residential part of Lyntacky.
The other ran directly into Uncle Asher, who dropped him with one flip.
“Kev, watch those two!” Dan roared.
He ran, but the biker wasn’t slow and had a head start on him.
“Stop! We know who you are and have your friend!”
He didn’t stop. In full panic mode now, the man ran at the fence. He grabbed the top. Dan leapt too and got a handful of his jacket, then pulled him back down to the ground.
The biker swung a fist and caught Dan in the face, but it was the only one he got in. Dan grabbed his arm and forced him to the floor in a move he’d learned as a rookie. He had the man cuffed in seconds.
“Thank fuck!”
Dan looked up and saw JD and Sawyer.
“What the fuck are you two doing here?”
“He’s not even out of breath,” JD said, looking annoyed.
“I should hope not. He’s gotta keep us safe,” his brother said.
“Get up,” Dan said to the man moaning beneath him. “And you two can fuck off back inside. I don’t need your help. Like I’ve told you many times, I’m an adult and a good cop. I don’t need my family stepping in and getting shot!”
“He’s pissed. Let’s go, JD. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s better to run,” Sawyer said.
Dan growled and then marched his man back to the front of the Rollaway, where Uncle Asher and Kevin had their men.
“Walk those two back, Kev,” Uncle Asher said. “We’ll bring these two.”
“Need a hand, Deputy Dan?”
He couldn’t pinch his nose, but the urge was there. “We’ve got it, thanks, Larry.”
“Need to deputize me, Sheriff?”
“Got it, thanks, Bart,” Uncle Asher said.
They got the bikers into the back of the cruiser.
“Our bikes,” one of them said.
“They’ll be fine where they are,” Dan said. “You guys are the worst criminals around here.”
That shut them up. They drove back to the station. The bikers were hauled into a cell and the two boys brought into separate interrogation rooms and left to simmer while they discussed next steps.
“I found these on the boys,” Kevin said when he came into Uncle Asher’s office. The bags he placed on the desk contained white powder.
“We need to find out how long they’ve been buying from these guys,” Uncle Asher said. “We’ll interview Sam and Blanchard separately.”
Dan took Sam. He then sat with the boy and interrogated him about what he knew. Pale and shaking, Sam looked ready to puke.
“I need to know how long you’ve been buying off the Bandits, Leigh.”
He shrugged.
“You’re already in trouble for being in possession of cocaine. Things might go better for you if you come clean about the Bandits.”
He shrugged again. When the door opened, Dan saw his uncle’s head appear. Excusing himself, he went outside briefly, and when he returned, he retook his seat.
Sam was now sweating.
“So Blanchard is more than happy to tell us all the details and that you were the one who the biker first approached.”
And that was all it took for Sam to talk.
“They approached us a few years ago. Me and Blanchard. We were hanging out down at the creek. A Bandit gave us some bags.”
“Which Bandit? One of the two who were there today?” Dan asked.
“No. He was big. Don’t know his name,” Sam said.
He recorded everything the boy said, and then he and Blanchard were put into a cell, while their parents, who Dan knew well, were called.
Next, the bikers were separated, and both Dan and his uncle knew it wouldn’t be as easy to get information out of these two.
“Name?” Dan asked when he sat down across from one of them.
“Parrot,” the man said with a smirk.
“Because you eat seed or live in a cage?” Dan asked.
The man scowled.
“Christian and surname?”
“I want a lawyer.”
“Why?”
“I know my rights.”
Dan tapped the folder on the table between them. “Know what this is?”
He didn’t respond, so Dan opened the folder.
“These are documents found in two locations not far from here. Documents that incriminate the Bandits in the supply and distribution of cocaine. Not to mention the charges you are facing selling an illegal substance in my town.”
The biker looked a little nervous now.
“Name?” Dan asked again.
“Avery Thornton.”
Dan blinked at that. “I can see why Parrot works for you.”
It took him two hours, but he got what he needed out of Avery Thornton. His uncle got nothing out of his man, but that didn’t matter; they had Grill and the Bandits now. The evidence was irrefutable.
Because of the nature of the investigation, Dan and Kevin had spent the night at the station.
No way were they letting anyone slip in or out.
The federal boys arrived the next day, bringing with them a flood of new information.
They’d been building a case on a major cocaine smuggling ring spanning several states, and now, with what the Lyntacky sheriff’s department had uncovered, the puzzle pieces were locking into place.
Avery Thornton’s testimony would help put people away for a long time.
“We’re moving on the Bandits’ headquarters now,” Uncle Asher said early that afternoon. “Let’s go before they get wind we’re onto them.”
Dan pulled on his body armor, armed himself, and followed his uncle and two other deputies out to a cruiser. The feds climbed in their car.
Dan’s phone rang as his uncle drove out of Lyntacky. He pulled it out and checked the screen but didn’t answer.
“Your mom?”
“Zoe.”
“Good call not answering, then. She’ll know as soon as you open your mouth that something’s off,” Uncle Asher said.
“Exactly.”
They talked about what would happen when they arrived and that they were only there to back up the federal boys.
“Nothing dumb, boys,” Uncle Asher said as they made their way to the Bandits clubhouse.
Dan kept his eyes forward, the weight of his body armor heavy on his shoulders. The familiar smells from the leather seats, of dust and oil, and the hum of the cruiser, seemed heightened as the tension in the car climbed.
“This place is a fortress,” Asher Dans said. “They’ll have lookouts. Maybe cameras. Maybe dogs. Stay sharp.”
Dan flexed his fingers against his thighs. “We know the layout, so that’s in our favor.”
“Haven’t spent a lot of time there, but know it has two stories.
Bar and meeting room downstairs, rooms above where they crash.
The garage is at the back. That’s where I want eyes,” Uncle Asher said.
“The feds say Grill’s name comes up a lot, but all the members will be involved.
But he’s the major player, even if he’s not the Bandits president. ”
The name snapped Dan’s focus tighter. Grill wasn’t just some Bandit foot soldier—he was the one people whispered about in the Rollaway for being a badass with a temper that could flip like a switch.
But Dan had a personal interest in that asshole.
He’d come at his family multiple times, and he was looking forward to retribution.
Dan’s jaw clenched. “We're bringing him in today.”
“That’s the plan,” Asher said, voice grim.
“But we can’t discount someone might’ve tipped him off that we are onto him.
The Bandits’ influence has far-reaching tentacles.
If he runs, we’re on him. I want Grill and the others in cells tonight.
The feds will take them with them when they leave tomorrow. ”
“I can’t believe it’s all come together this fast and that the feds have been hunting them down for a while,” Kevin said from the back seat. “I say good riddance.”
“I want that fucker caught and drugs off our streets,” Uncle Asher snarled.