Marty nodded vigorously. “Good idea. And on that note, why don’t we break for lunch? Alice should be back any second with mine.”
“I suppose you didn’t have her get anything for us,” Tony said with a grimace.
Wilbur stood and headed for his desk. “That’s all right with me. Wanted to get out for awhile, anyway.”
I gathered up all the papers we’d been scrawling on. “Hey, Wilbur. Want some company? I could do with some lunch myself.”
“Sure, long’s you don’t mind getting it to go. I gotta be back here by one.”
I hurried to catch up. “Man, you have to relax sometime. All this work is going to stunt your growth.”
He gave me a guilty look. “Well, actually, I wanted to be back in time to watch ‘Days of Our Lives.’ Afraid I’ve gotten hooked on it.”
By the time we returned, Alice was back at her desk. “You got a visitor. Al’s waiting in your cubicle.”
Huh. A visit from Al usually meant something-interesting. He stood when I entered my cubicle, offering his hand. Wow. Must need a favor to act so nice. “How’ve you been doing?”
He smiled and sat down. “Just fine, Francis. I’ve got to admit, your team never ceases to amaze me. How’d you get word about the Branson gang?”
I stiffened. “How—Man, we were just—er, we’d recently heard they had dealings with Franks in past years. Thought we’d keep an eye on them, in case he showed again.”
He nodded. “You don’t need to worry about them. The Secret Service is keeping a very close eye on them. They’ve been suspected of dealing with overseas criminals concerning smuggling counterfeit bills into the U.S.”
I leaned both elbows on my desk. “Any hint of action between them and the North Koreans?”
“No, that’s usually done by an east coast group, the ones who probably managed to get the large shipment into the States for Franks recently. But the Secret Service thinks the Branson’s are about to get some brand new counterfeit twenties in this month from Brazil.” He scooted around in his chair, glancing out of my cubicle. “They’d appreciate it if you didn’t drive by and get the agents watching the place so excited anymore.”
My eyebrows crept up. “They must be pretty good. We didn’t even get a glimmer the place was under surveillance.”
He stood, straightening his jacket. “I’ll pass on the compliment. By the way, how many other places you interested in?”
I gave him a piercing stare. “I’ll tell you if you promise not to let anyone else know.” I shrugged. “Plus might be a good idea to have someone from the law enforcement community informed, just in case something goes wrong. C’mon, let’s go bother Alice. She can get you a copy of what we’re doing.”
After he’d made his goodbyes to everyone, I strolled back to Alice’s desk and sat on the edge of it. “You notice that our pet FBI agent wasn’t dressed to kill today?”
“Yeah. I asked him about that. Said he didn’t have a circus to go to. Says he only breaks out the glad rags when it’s politically necessary.”
I chuckled, and headed for my desk. “Yeah, sounds like him.” I swung back. “Almost forgot. Let everyone know we’re not interested in the Branson place anymore. Too many feds crawling around it.”
“You got it,” Alice said. “By the way, any luck finding where the third place we’re interested in does its business? You said you’d dig up that information by today.”
I paused. “Oh, right. How about seeing if everyone can get together after lunch to talk about it?”
She shook her head. “You’re getting old, Francis. That’s the second time this week I’ve had to remind you of something.”
I gave a theatrical groan. “Dang. Good thing you’re not around for the other dozen times I’ve let something slip my mind. I’d never hear the end of it.”
The afternoon meeting was a full house for once, since Nate had finished his repo job earlier than anticipated. We’d gathered around the main conference table, and Tony had just brought all of us coffee. “Still think it was Nate’s turn to get coffee,” he grumped.
Nate shrugged, a smile on his face. “It was, but you were already getting it, so why interfere?”
“Thanks for reminding me,” Alice said. “I need to change the coffee roster around now that we’re moved in.”
Wilbur strode over from the copy machine. “Here’s a copy of what Alice gave me. Did I make enough for everyone?”
After we were all seated and had at least one drink of coffee in us, I began. “This is probably the last place we need to put ears in. The others are either under observation by the feds, or been arrested for something they’ve recently done. Take a minute to look over the information I’ve gathered so far.”
Tony was the first to look up. “A furniture store in a strip mall? Operating an art theft ring and who knows what else out in plain sight. That’s a first for me. Damn, security must be a headache.”
“I gave the place a look yesterday afternoon,” I said. “Not as easy as you might think. There’re always a couple sales people in the showroom and one or two clerks in the office area. Who knows how many in the back. Selling furniture is a pretty good cover, if you want to move things in and out without notice. They do fairly well, since they seem to always have a sale of some kind going on.” I paused and took a drink of coffee. “I dressed up like an old man and wandered around the outside for awhile. External cameras cover all sides. Also, the mall security put a top-of-the-line security system inside it a couple years ago, according to their records.”
Marty raised an eyebrow at me. “So what’s the answer to this place? Sounds like it’d be pretty hard to set up a job in the time we have. Mebbe in a couple weeks of observation and planning…”
“Nope,” I interrupted. “We’ll
