Chapter 17
brOOKE
“Hey. Mark Ruhl.” The stranger stuck his hand out, and I shook it. He was in his forties. Fit. Attractive but not as much as Roy.
“Hi,” I replied, offering him a small smile.
“I’m with the DEA.” He showed me a badge.
I frowned, not sure what this had to do with me. I glanced up at Roy, and he gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.
“What does the DEA want with me?” I wondered.
“Can we sit?” Mark asked, glancing around the big room.
Roy led me to the couch and settled me right beside him, so our sides touched. His arm went around my shoulder.
Mark settled across from us in a club chair. He was propped forward with his elbows on his splayed knees.
“We’ve been investigating Sam Lazano for over two years.”
I sucked in a breath, recognizing the name. Tom Burke had said it when he apologized to Mr. Expensive Suit the day before.
“You recognize the name,” Mark said, but it wasn’t a question.
I nodded. “Yes. I think he was the man at a meeting I attended yesterday in the suite down the hall. The name was mentioned.”
Mark’s face lit up like a kid given a toy. “Can you describe him?”
I thought about the face I’d never forget. “Maybe six feet, heavy set but not from exercise. Dark hair, receding hairline. Jowly neck.” I raised my hand and touched my own. “His eyes were dark, and I had the impression that he was a mobster or something.”
Mark nodded. “Your impression was right. Sam Lazano is the head of a drug ring. How often did you meet with him?”
“Drug ring?” I whispered.
“Watch it,” Roy snapped at Mark, pulling me onto his lap.
Mark held up a placating hand. “It’s all right. We don’t think you’re involved.”
Roy growled–literally growled –at the guy.
“Roy!” I gasped, trying to wiggle out of his hold, but it wasn’t working.
Why he wanted me on his lap now was confusing. And embarrassing.
Mark’s nostrils flared like he was sniffing the air, and he studied us, eyes narrowed.
“Hey, I get it,” he said, lifting one of his hands. “I understand and appreciate a protective mate–er, partner. We know Brooke’s not involved. We’d just like to find out what happened at yesterday’s meeting.”
I relaxed and gave up the fight of sitting on my own.
Roy’s hold was possessive, like a lock around me.
He was solid, sturdy, and warm. He was also fiercely protective of me, which I liked.
I shouldn’t like it too much though because I didn’t want to rely on him.
Except for the situation I was in, with a DEA guy interrogating me, I really liked that he was here with me.
“How long have you known Sam Lazano?” he asked.
“I met him for the first time yesterday,” I replied, clenching my hands together in my lap.
“Why?”
“Because my boss, Eugene, was injured and in the hospital. He called and asked me to fill in. Said it was an important client, and the meeting couldn’t be cancelled.”
Mark leaned forward and rested his elbows on his thighs. “Okay. Go over the whole meeting with me.”
I nibbled my lower lip and took a breath.
“I normally handle bookkeeping and during tax season simple filings that Eugene approves. When he called, I freaked because I knew nothing about the client and was supposed to fill in on something I knew nothing about. I don’t like not being prepared,” I admitted.
“Eugene told me where to grab the papers I’d need on his desk, and I took his laptop then came here.
He shared the location and room number. Someone was waiting for me downstairs because you can’t get up to the penthouse level in the elevator without a keycard. ”
“How’d you get up here?’’ Roy asked Mark.
The man grinned. “Flashed my badge. Go on,” he prompted me.
“I’d never seen the man before. My company’s client, Mr. Burke, was across from him, Sam Lazano. I didn’t know his name then. He didn’t introduce himself or the men with him. I only got his name because Mr. Burke mentioned it.”
“Was he the man who chased after you when you ran into me?” Roy asked then added for Mark’s benefit. “She left the meeting when she got scared and ran down the hall and bumped into me. I pulled her into my suite before they saw.”
Mark nodded. “You were lucky.”
I shrugged and continued. “I never saw who was coming after me. I just heard him, and I was too afraid to look back. I doubt it was this Lazano guy though. I got the feeling he didn’t run after anyone.”
I shrugged.
Roy grunted, as if angry.
“Who’s Mr. Burke?” Mark asked.
“Tom Burke of Burke’s Bowling. He owns three bowling alleys in town.”
“Did this client usually meet in hotel suites?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I doubt it. Burke’s Bowling doesn’t seem like the kind of place that does business at the Four Seasons. I think… I mean, I assume the location was set by Lazano. It seems like someplace he’d stay.”
Mark was calm and easy to talk to. While he was technically interrogating me, I didn’t feel pressured. “Okay. Then what happened?”
“Mr. Burke, Tom, was sweating. Nervous. That’s what tipped me off that the meeting wasn’t normal. He wanted me to wire money for him.”
“Is that something you do?” Mark interlaced his fingers, listening intently.
I set my hand on my chest, right over the orange Broncos logo.
“Not me, personally, but I knew how to do the wire. The money was being sent to an account in the Cayman Islands, and it wasn’t in Burke’s name or his company’s.
It was for five million dollars. Which the deposit accounts on the laptop showed he’d received in the last month. ”
“That’s a lot of shoe rentals,” Mark commented dryly. He pulled a small notepad from his jacket and a pen and started taking notes.
“Burke’s Bowling brought in just under a million in all of last year.
I worked on the bookkeeping and tax prep for them, and that made sense.
But five million?” I shrugged. “That’s a big jump.
The whole thing was shady, and I freaked.
I asked for the IDs and signatures, thinking that following procedure and documenting would cover my ass, and then I realized it meant I had evidence against them, which put a target on my back.
So while the transfer was going through, I said I had to go to the bathroom and just fled the hotel room.
I left the laptop, paperwork, everything. ”
Roy squeezed my hand. “You have good instincts, sugar.”
I laughed. “Do I?” No one had ever said that before. I thought the opposite was true. “I think someone with good instincts never would’ve walked into that hotel room.”
“No, you did the right thing,” Roy said. To Mark, “I’m really fucking glad I had just come up the stairwell and bumped into you.”
Mark looked between us, then jotted something down. “Yeah, me too.”
Roy squeezed my hand again. “I, uh, I knew right away that she was… someone I had to protect at all costs.” Roy met Mark’s eye, and Mark simply nodded, as if the bizarre statement were normal. “I walked her down to her car in the garage, but they were waiting for her there.”
Mark flicked a glance at me then back to Roy. “You…fought them?” He seemed like he was choosing his words carefully.
Roy nodded. “Yeah. I’m sure you have the police report.”
“They shot Roy,” I said quickly. I don’t know when I went from worrying about Roy’s capacity to kill to protecting him from the law, but I guess I was there. I didn’t know why Mark was here specifically, but if it was to arrest Roy for protecting me, I had to speak up.
For some reason, Mark had stopped taking notes. “Then what?”
“Then we came back up here,” Roy said, answering for me. “The next morning, she headed home while I was sleeping off the bullet wound. I looked up her address and headed straight over. Found two more guys holding her at gunpoint.”
He slept off the bullet wound?
Mark’s eyes widened and continued. “And you dispatched them.”
“Yes, sir.”
Dispatched them?
Why was this guy unfazed that Roy had killed four men with his bare hands?
What if he wasn’t even actually DEA? Now I was like Casey and being overly skeptical.
No wait. He showed me his badge.
“Eugene was working for us,” Mark said finally.
What? My boss was working for the DEA?
“He’d come to us with his concerns about his client’s money laundering a couple of months ago,” he continued. “We knew it had to be related to Lazano. Eugene was supposed to wear a wire to the meeting last night, so we could get evidence to tie Lazano to the money from his drug dealing operation.”
I gasped and sat up straight, almost headbutting Roy in the chin. I pushed off his lap and began to pace. “Do you think Eugene’s injuries were intentional? That Lazano found out and was trying to kill him?”
Mark shook his head. “No. I think it really was an accident. An unfortunate one, obviously, for Eugene, but also for our investigation. We’d seen the dealers making what looked like cash drops at Burke’s Bowling alleys around the city, we just needed to tie the money to Lazano.”
“Then Eugene got hurt, and you lost your chance,” Roy filled in.
Mark looked at me and nodded. “Yes. We’ve been playing the long game with Lazano trying to get evidence to stick. When you ran out of the meeting yesterday, you compromised the bowling alley as the pass-through.”
My brain tried to wrap itself around what he was saying. “Meaning he probably won’t use them any longer.”
Mark sighed. “Correct and our whole investigation is compromised. We need that evidence to arrest him and bring him down for good. Is there any way you can get me copies of the paperwork you had them sign and the details of that wire transfer?”
I shook my head. “No. What they signed were paper copies not digitized. I would’ve digitized them Monday at the office, but I left everything. The bank record of the wire transfer would be online, but I don’t have access.”
“Brooke,” Mark said, “we’re going to need your help.”