“So, you were willing to overlook a few indiscretions in order to get to bigger fish?” I asked.
“Exactly.”
“Go on.” Jim encouraged.
I knew Jim understood Russo’s reasoning; it wasn’t an uncommon practice in law enforcement anywhere to offer some leniency to a small fish if it helped you take a bigger one off the streets.
“I fear I may have underestimated Branigan. He is full on pyscho. Whether that is by circumstance or if he has always been that way and no one bothered to make note of it, I’m not sure. And it doesn’t matter at this point.” Russo waived his hand dismissively.
“So, you think that Branigan has contacts still inside your organization willing to help him?” I asked.
“It’s the only explanation I can come up with. The problem is, I don’t know what they might have bugged or might be tracking so I haven’t been able to get very far with an internal investigation. I didn’t have enough to take to the police until now.”
“I see.” Jim leaned back in his chair and tented his fingers. A clear sign he was thinking deeply about something.
“Are you sure you have been bugged?” I asked thinking that his taking a meeting with the FBI and the GPPD he might be a target, if he wasn’t already. “Your phone, laptop? Maybe a button on your clothing?”
Russo looked down at his shirt.
“Do you have your clothes dry cleaned?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“You might want to buy some new clothes while you’re here and maybe a burner phone for the time being.” I advised.
“You may have a point.” Russo seemed to understand that he may have been compromised.
“If you like I can have our tech guys look at your laptop and phone to see if they have been tampered with in anyway.” I offered.
“Yes, thank you.”
He handed me his laptop and phone. I would drop them off with our Greg on my way out. “Do you have a place to stay yet?” I asked Russo.
“No, I came straight here.”
“Okay that’s good if they were tracking you, they wouldn’t have tracked you to a hotel yet. I would suggest leaving here, buying some new clothes and checking into a hotel, preferably one with security cameras.”
“I can put some plain clothes officers in place to help keep an eye on you Mr. Russo.” Jim offered.
“Thank you.” Russo nodded to Jim,” I have to admit I’m a little out of my element. I’m used to having my own team around me if needed. I don’t know who I can trust anymore.”
“It’s best in these situations to let someone from the outside handle things.” I reassured him.
Jim called for two plain clothes officers to shadow Russo as soon as he left his office and to stick with him, discreetly. I headed back to my office with a promise from Greg to let me know the minute he found anything on either the phone or the laptop.
“How’d the meeting go?” Jared asked as soon as I walked back into the office.
“Promising. This may be bigger than we thought. IT is going over Russo’s phone and laptop for anything that we can trace back to Branigan. And he gave me a list of employees known to be close to Branigan when he worked for Russo Security so that might give us a few more leads.” I split the list between Stephanie, Jared and Logan.
◆◆◆
It had been a long day. My head was pounding as I walked to my car music drifting on the night air caught my attention. It sounded like Charlie Pickens and reminded me of Kay. I wandered down the street in the direction of the music. I hoped I would find her sitting at a table alone listening to the music and waiting for me. I stepped inside a small night club, but it wasn’t Charlie playing. I looked around and didn’t see any signs of Kay. I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me I shook my head stepped back out onto the sidewalk.
An old blind woman sitting on a bench just outside the door reached out and grabbed my hand. “The one you seek is not here; she looks for you as well.” She released my hand went back to swaying to the music. I stared down at my hand and walked back out into the street. The words haunted me all the way home. It had been a long time since I had encountered a seer. I remembered my grandmother talking about and old woman that lived back in the woods, that would see the future and tell fortunes.
Images of Kay filled my thoughts as I laid in bed. What it would be like to be with her again? Now that I was divorced, we could have a real relationship. I imagined her in various stages of undress. At some point I drifted off to sleep, I woke with a start and sweating. I sat up and listened. Had there been a noise? I thought about the Branigan case and wondered if what had woken me was related? Not hearing anything I laid back down panting. I had been dreaming of Kay but instead of her beautiful smile and the way I imagined she would look with her hair down I dreamt she was hurt and alone somewhere dark. She needed help and was calling my name; I had no idea where she was or how to get to her.
The clock read three in the morning. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. The old woman’s words came back to my mind. Had they been prophetic? Had they incited the dream? There wasn’t much point in staring at the ceiling. I dressed, went downstairs, made coffee and went to the office.
I picked up the list of associates and suspects off Jared’s desk and started working them. I typed the name Joey Price, into
