32. Ledger #2
“Ledger, you uh, you have a visitor,” Daisy says with Dozer under her arm.
A man, average height, fit, with dark hair closely cropped to his head steps into my office. The way he carries himself looks like he used to be a military man.
“Daisy can you get our guest a cup of coffee please?”
She nods and sets Dozer on the floor before closing the door.
“Sheriff. I’m Supervisory Special Agent Lawrence Beckett. The SAC sent me to run this op. Victor told me you have been in contact.” I shake his hand and gesture to Luke. “This is Lieutenant Luke Garrison. He and his partner Will are heading up this investigation.”
He nods and shakes Luke’s hand, and I offer Lawrence a seat.
“I’m aware of the sensitive nature of this so we’re all coming in plain clothes, and unmarked various vehicles. Hell, I drove a mini van in today.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that. This town has eyes, and normally that’s a good thing, but for our purposes, I can promise you it would backfire spectacularly.”
“Got it. And if anyone asks, the county sent me in to check up on the department,” Lawrence says.
“No problem, my people won’t talk.”
He nods but I can tell he doesn’t believe me.
Daisy knocks and hands Beckett his cup of coffee.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
She blushes and scurries out the door.
“Is your team ready to back us up?” I watch him closely.
This isn’t some kind of cockfight. I have no interest in trying to assert my dominance.
I’m the sheriff. I protect this town, and I invited them in.
But I know how the feds can operate too.
It’s simple: I invited them here, I can ask them to leave.
Though I have no interest in doing that.
We need them, hence the reason I called them.
“We are but we figured a face to face would be more effective to make sure everything is ready to go, and expect full retaliation. It will also give me a chance to communicate to headquarters instead of being vague for security reasons.”
“Fair enough, what do you want to know that you don’t already?” I ask him.
Supervisory Special Agent Beckett starts rattling off questions, making suggestions, and simply nodding his head to my responses.
“After we get Kensington’s lieutenants, he’s going to tighten up big time. It will either stop the shipment to Chicago, or it will speed up the timeline. We have to be prepared for both,” I tell him.
“Last I heard, you weren’t able to figure out when they were shipping this Chicago order. Do you think it’s wise to move now?” Lawrence asks.
I hum and take a sip of lukewarm coffee.
“On top of material witnesses. I told your boss that we’re waiting for confirmation from our source.
The problem is my DA won’t agree to move on it unless we have the opportunity for a full seizure.
If we can do a coordinated response, it will be the last piece of the RICO indictment. ”
“I’m surprised the AG for Wyoming doesn’t want in on this,” Beckett says.
I shrug. “That’s not my department. I’ve been in contact with our DA, she told me what we needed so I’m going to get it for her.”
“Fair enough.”
I nod and hand him a file. “I’d like for us to pick up these three today. I don’t want to give them time to run. The son Grey Kensington is in the wind.”
Lawrence flips through the photos. “Connor, John, and Elise. Interesting group.”
“We may be small town folks out here, Special Agent, but women can sell illegal drugs just like men can.”
Lawrence shrugs and snaps the folder closed.
“Luke and I will take John. We ask that you pick up Connor and Elsie. We expect Connor to be at Perry’s later this afternoon, and Elsie is a waitress there so we’re hoping you could grab them at the same time.”
He nods. “Not a problem.”
“Will you be able to transport them out of Paxton County, tonight?”
“Consider it done. We’ll meet you behind the station,” Lawrence says.
I stand and offer my hand. “Thank you. Y’all can hang out here. I can send Daisy out to get whatever you need.”
Lawrence nods and leaves my office.
“John should be headed to Bobby’s in a couple of hours.”
“I’ll be back. I need to get Shiloh home.”
Luke nods, and his phone dings with a text. He reads it and sighs. “Looks like we’ll be ahead of the Kensingtons. Will said they’re going to move next week. They have five vehicles to move the product.”
“Wonderful, if all goes as planned, we can get them before they leave the property.”
“Do you want to put more surveillance on them?” Luke asks.
“Let’s stick to the plan.”
He swipes a hand through his hair. “Will is doing fine.”
I rub my chin. “Still no word about Grey? No sightings?” I ask him.
Luke shakes his head. “I think he got the hell out of dodge. I don’t think we’re going to see him.”
My gut twists, and I grimace. “No, I think something else is going on. We don’t have the full picture.”
Luke frowns. “How do you figure that? If he was hiding on Kensington property, Will would have told us by now.”
My mind goes to what Shiloh told me earlier. “No I think he’s scared about something else. But I don’t know what.”
“What does he have to be scared of other than being arrested and his father?” Luke asks.
I shake my head. “I don’t know, maybe he made a mistake, and he’s trying to fix it.”