Chapter 24
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A sense of urgency had overcome Anderson as soon as he had seen the email and had spoken to Levi, realizing just who was at the root of this and how dangerous these people, with whom Tim had gotten involved, really were.
Anderson couldn’t stop himself from racing to his sister’s side to confirm she was okay.
Burton met him at the entrance to her hospital room, a frown on his face. “Nobody’s been here, but, dude, I get it. We need to solve this fast. Why the hell would Tim get involved with that group? I mean, they’re very well known for being dangerous as hell.”
“I know, and that’s what I don’t get. Why would he risk everything?”
“Unless it was literally just about the money.”
“Or it’s literally because he couldn’t handle being a father?” Anderson glared at his buddy and shook his head. “I don’t know, but, either way, it’s a shit reason.”
“Oh, I hear you, and I’m not arguing that one bit. We’ve got to get to the bottom of it, and we need to do it fast. That group isn’t known for letting anybody live if they didn’t want them to.”
“I understand that,” he muttered, “which brings me back to Talia.”
“So far, nobody’s been here, and we haven’t had anybody—outside of her shitty husband—trying to see her. It still doesn’t make sense that he was reaching out to her, except that he was looking for that USB key. You said it fell out of one of her office drawers?”
“Yeah, it was half-wedged in the drawer, as if the top drawer were too full, and it had fallen to the drawer below. If Tim was looking for it, he was crap at it.”
“That’s a good thing because now we have it, and that means whoever is looking for it won’t get it.”
“I hear you, but I also need to stop them from coming after her.”
“I’m here. Go do whatever you have to do.”
With that, Anderson took a step into the large room where his sister’s bed was, along with several others.
According to the doctors, she was coming along nicely, and they would slowly bring her out of this coma by reducing the sedation.
They didn’t have a release date for her yet, not until she was conscious and the docs checked her over again.
He hoped she was awake and talking soon because he needed to know if she could tell him anything else about this nightmare.
For starters, who put her in here in the first place? He walked closer, leaned over, and kissed her on the cheek. “Hey, Sis. I could really use you coming back to the land of the living.”
Of course she couldn’t do that right now, but it didn’t stop him from hoping and wishing that she would just snap out of it on her own.
He stayed here, visiting with her for a few minutes.
Then, knowing that time was of the essence, he headed back out, said goodbye to Burton, and went straight to the police station.
There, he asked for Detective Colt, and he was directed to his workstation. The detective wasn’t very friendly.
“We haven’t got any more information out of him.”
Anderson nodded. “Any way I can talk to him? I don’t know if you got the information that came in this morning, but it’s bad news.”
The detective nodded. “It is bad news,” he agreed. “I would be more inclined to give you a chance to talk to him if you had brought the information directly to me.”
Anderson had gone over Colt’s head and had involved Levi, who had pulled some strings, involving tiers above Colt.
The detective ended up with the information but was now limited to some degree.
“I did what I felt I had to, to protect my sister. After all, Tim said you have dirty cops here, working with Dingo.”
The detective stared at him for a long moment, then shrugged. “Why would Tim risk everything like that?”
“All I can think of,” Anderson offered, “is that he was trying to escape and wanted to start fresh somewhere.”
Colt thought about it and nodded. “I guess if you’re that kind of an asshole, maybe.”
“Not everybody’s cut out for fatherhood,” Anderson pointed out.
“I get that this is your sister, and, as far as you’re concerned, that makes him a capital asshole. Plus, you said he had another partner.” Detective Colt pulled up his notes.
“Yes, a mistress.”
“Which just adds credence to what you were saying about escaping his life here.”
“Unfortunately, yes,” he agreed. “Let me talk to Tim myself.”
“He didn’t tell you everything when you nabbed him in the hospital, so why would he tell you now?”
“Because now I have that extra information he probably thinks we don’t know about.”
“Fine, let’s go talk to him, but I want it recorded. Plus, you can’t hit him.” Anderson raised one eyebrow at the detective. Colt shook his head. “I won’t even take you in there otherwise.”
“I promise I won’t hit him,” Anderson said, “and, if you know the whole story of how he was apprehended in the first place, I have been nothing but civil with him—which is a lot more than what he deserves. But, if he jumps me, I have the right to defend myself.”
“Fine, but don’t go setting him off.”
“Just seeing me could set him off,” he pointed out.
At that comment, Detective Colt paused and then shrugged. “Yeah, that’s true.” He called to have the prisoner brought to the interrogation room for questioning. As they waited, Colt asked, watching Anderson closely, “How well do you know Levi?”
“Well enough that, if I wasn’t working for the government, I would be working for Levi,” Anderson shared. “The man is very good at what he does.”
“So, my boss has said,” Colt noted. “I was pretty surprised when he told me that Levi was pulling information for us.”
“Yeah, that’s the thing. We are a family. We help each other, and, in a case like this, everybody is pulling together because my sister is still in danger. Until we resolve this, she’ll stay that way.”
“How is she doing?” Colt asked, eyeing him curiously. “I haven’t heard from the doctor at all.”
“No, they’re being pretty cagey, but they did tell me that she was improving and that they are reducing her sedation over the next couple days.”
“That’s good news,” he noted. “I didn’t get that much out of them.”
“No, they don’t want to say too much, just in case.”
“Just in case what? Either they’re right or they’re wrong,” he stated, with a headshake. “Doctors can be so frustrating.”
“Yeah, well, once they start getting sued, you know what happens. Nobody wants to say anything just in case it turns out differently. It’s hard for us to keep doing our job when we can’t get the information we need either,” he pointed out.
“That’s why somebody like Levi is worth everything to us. He has connections.”
“Yeah, but this is about drugs. What connection would he have to that?”
“I would imagine from any one of the many special ops missions he has been involved in all over the world. Believe me that I won’t even bother asking because, if he’s getting us the information we need, that’s all we care about.”
Just then Colt’s phone buzzed. He looked down at the incoming text. “Okay, he’s in the interrogation room. Let’s go.”
As they walked in, Anderson was surprised to see the look on his brother-in-law’s face. It was half relief, half resentment, overshadowed by a whole lot of fear. Anderson noted, “You really are scared, aren’t you?”
Tim shrugged. “Of course not.”
The bravado was there, but it was obvious to Anderson that Tim wasn’t sure what was going on.
Then he asked, “How is she?”
“She’s doing a little bit better, no thanks to you.”
He didn’t say anything to that, just shrugged. “I wasn’t trying to get her killed.”
“You sure weren’t trying to save her either.”
“Self-preservation is a natural response, and everyone does it. They just don’t admit it,” Tim explained, followed by a bitter laugh. “You guys are so big on all that hero stuff and being the good guy and all the rest of that crap. It’s just that. It’s crap.”
“You sure about that?” Anderson asked, without any emotion.
“Yeah, it’s all a facade. When push comes to shove, you’ll bail just as fast as anybody.”
He stared at him and shook his head. “You really are an asshole, aren’t you?”
Tim snorted. “Whatever. We can sit here and argue it, but that won’t do any of us any good. What do you want now?”
“I came here to talk to you about Dingo.”
At that, Tim bolted backward, hitting the wall behind him. “Why would you say that? Why would you use that name?” he asked, looking around in fear.
“I had my suspicions, but at least now I know that you really are involved with him. That’s majorly shitty, Tim. How could you be so stupid?”
“You don’t know shit,” he muttered. “Is he here?”
“No, not yet.”
“What do you mean, not yet?” He glared at Anderson, then looked at Detective Colt. “You have to protect me.”
“Yeah? Why do I have to do that?” he asked in a bored tone. “According to you, you haven’t done anything. So, why has this got anything to do with me? My desk is piled high with cases of people who really need my help. You just don’t quite make the grade.”
“I should,” he snapped. “I’m a law-abiding citizen, and I’m in trouble.”
At that, the detective stared at him. “You want to explain that to me?”
“No, I can’t. They’ll kill me if I do.”
“They’ll kill you anyway,” Anderson pointed out. “You already know that.”
“Not if the cops protect me.”
“And then what? They can’t keep you in jail forever.
At some point, they’ve got to release you.
You’re a taxpayer burden if you didn’t do anything to deserve to be in jail.
You are not talking, not giving them any information.
If we are to believe what you’ve been saying, you haven’t done a damn thing wrong. ”
“Maybe I did,” he muttered, his gaze narrowing, as if thinking about his odds. “I can’t go to prison.”
Anderson added, “Of course the drug cartels have long arms in there too.”
Tim frowned at him, and his shoulders slumped. “That’s the problem. I won’t be safe anywhere.”
“The trouble is, I’m not sure your wife will be either.”