“We have several charges that we can stick on him and a few of them are even felonies. But, the more serious charges remain unverified. Agent Long was debriefed and can testify that money was exchanged between Granger and Watkins when Granger was under the impression that he was getting a partner instead of being the target of a hostile takeover, but that information might not convince a prosecutor to pursue those charges. The brothel could have been the felony that would have given weight to the other investigations and brought this problem to a close. Without it, we’re going to have to go back through the files and determine whether we can turn a minor charge into a major felony. My instinct tells me that something important is being overlooked.”
“Are we still tracking him in Cincy? Have we tied him to any local activities?” Chaz asked.
“Not yet. There are rumors that we’re trying to get Pleasant to corroborate.” He shrugged. “It seems that his cousin is a captain in Watkins’ organization; that’s how Brian was recruited to help the crime boss. The forensics department has allocated a technician to retrace the activity on his official and personal computers to see whether we can find out what internal FBI data he accessed. If successful, that might give us an idea of where to start.”
“This could turn into a huge problem.” When Steve nodded, Chaz continued with, “My priorities don’t change. I’m not interested in Brian Pleasant’s activities. Forensics can only implicate him in criminal activity, not Watkins. I’m only concerned with staying in the background and figuring out what I can add to our investigation.”
“We’ve been authorized unlimited overtime. As a member of the task force, you now have access to all of the reports that have been submitted on this project. I’ll get the notes I’ve been making.”
“Paper notes?”
Steve smiled and said, “They can’t be hacked.”
Not even a full minute had passed between Steve walking out of the room and Stephanie sending Chaz a text message.
Stephanie: Vision. Can’t talk now. You won’t leave work until after 9. I will deliver dinner for 3 at 6:30.
Chaz: Thanks
As he put his phone away, the thought crossed his mind that Stephanie might get pulled into this case. That would be fine, especially if she could help them find the needle in a haystack that could pull these investigations together.
Steve returned with copies of handwritten pages and memos that had been sent to members of the multi-regional task force assigned to track Paul Watkins and other criminals whose activities were crossing the boundaries of FBI territories.
“This will probably work best if we take different cases. You can have Ohio, Northern Pennsylvania, and Western New York. I’ll take Illinois and Northern Michigan. If you see indications that a scenario involves one of my cities, let me know and I’ll do the same. If the information indicates we need to broaden our search to cities that haven’t already been addressed, we’ll split those as we find them. Let’s compare summaries at the end of each day.” He dropped into a chair next to Chaz and leaned forward as if he wanted make sure the rest of their conversation couldn’t be overheard.
“Roy didn’t say it, but obviously you’re in a much more precarious situation than I’m comfortable with. We don’t know which of Watkins’ men—if any—saw you in Erie. We do know that he didn’t appreciate Chaz Winters taking $250,000 of his money without him getting anything in return. So, tell me what you want to do in order to stay safe.”
Chaz only needed a moment to address the issue of his safety.
“If we can confirm that Brian Pleasant didn’t access any information about me that would blow my cover identities, I’m not worried about Watkins’ men tracking me between my home and FBI headquarters. I will, however, curtail social plans that require me to be in public places for any more than a few minutes until Watkins is arrested. I’d appreciate getting photos of all of the known players.” He took a deep breath. “Stephanie knew our plans and says she’s bringing dinner since we’ll be working late.”
Steve’s knowing smile matched Chaz’s.
“The interesting thing,” Chaz continued softly enough that Steve was reminded that they shouldn’t be overheard, “is that she didn’t wait until nighttime to tell me this.” He watched his team leader’s brows wrinkle as he considered that piece of information before his eyes opened wide in a questioning stare. “Things have evolved.” Chaz confirmed with a shrug and turned his attention to the papers the other man had given him.
Steve made sure that Chaz didn’t have any questions about the handwritten notes before the men separated and returned to their individual cubicles. Reviewing the material was going to be a long, tedious process.
When the men took a break for lunch, they met at Steve’s vehicle so they could discuss Stephanie.
“So, tell me what has evolved.”
“She’s having daytime visions now, and I also think she might be willing to play a role in our investigation—but I need to ask her again. My wife is a lot tougher than she was last year. I don’t think she’ll scare easily.”
“Good.” Steve studied Chaz’s face for a while. “Are you okay with her helping us?”
“Since I was told that she has to do her part to protect this family, I guess I’ll have to be. She’s going to make her decision independent of my preferences.”
“Okay. We’ll figure out what you can tell her and wait for her to have a dream about it. Of course, I’m still not going to put her involvement in any of our reports.” Steve laughed. “Roy isn’t going to look at me like I’m crazy. I just got this job and would like to keep it for a while.”
They discussed a few details that it might be okay to divulge to Stephanie before driving to a nearby pizza place and ordering lunch. Each man was deep in thought as they ate their meal in relative silence. Each man was trying to anticipate how Stephanie might choose to participate so that they would be ready for whatever role she would suggest.
As Chaz had said earlier, he wasn’t totally comfortable with what was coming, but his wife had made it clear that this would be her choice to make.
CHAPTER 14
When Stephanie brought dinner, she and Chaz sat alone in a conference room while he explained fully the situation that he and Steve were facing. Stephanie listened carefully before agreeing, without hesitation, to help in any way possible. Chaz showed her pictures of all of the suspects so that she would be able to quickly identify in her visions who was significant and who was an unknown entity.
“Obviously, until this problem is proven to not exist or Watkins is arrested, we need to be as careful as possible about where we go and who I’m seen with,” Chaz explained. With it being so late in the day, very few agents were around. Still, they were in the conference room, behind a closed door, and speaking quietly.
“Okay. Right now, we don’t have a lot of outings scheduled except for a couple of dinners with friends. There are a few things I was planning, but we can have them at home or at another friend’s house.” Stephanie reached across the table and held his hand. “Whether it means anything or not, I’m not getting any vibes from looking at these photos that indicate any of these people are immediate threats.”
Chaz nodded.
Stephanie sent him a small smile. “We’re going to need to make sure that my helping doesn’t consume all of our time together. When you get home each day, you’ll have half an hour to bring me up to speed on what happened that day, if it involves me. Other than that, we need to be the same hot-for-each-other couple as always. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Stephanie ate dinner with her husband before heading back home. It was nearly 10:00 before Chaz joined her.
“Let’s go to bed, sweetheart,” he said after taking off his suit and tossing his shirt into the hamper in their walk-in closet. “It’s late and there is nothing I’d like more than holding you while we fall asleep.”
Like Stephanie, Chaz knew that every night washed away the distance of any da
y. Their relationship was always refreshed in the morning as if being in each other’s arms rejuvenated the connection they always felt. He climbed into bed, joined their hands together, and pulled his wife against him.
His free hand moved beneath the t-shirt she’d worn to bed and stroked the slight swell of her belly. Warmth flowed through him. The woman he loved more than his own life was carrying his child. Their baby. In less than a year, his life had changed dramatically, but nothing felt more right.
As Stephanie always said, this was the way their life was supposed to be.
She was his destiny.
That sentiment followed him through the night and into the next morning while they got dressed and set off to their respective routines. She loved her job at the investments company and he loved his job as an FBI agent. Their separate lives during the daytime only brought them closer when they were together during the nighttime. He sincerely hoped that her becoming involved in his cases wouldn’t negatively impact that.
This is what was on his mind as he sat at his desk looking over document after document in one of the folders that had been sent to his email account. These reports were from the Cleveland field office and outlined many of the charges they wanted to eventually bring against Paul Watkins. Chaz made notes about what pieces of information were missing that might strengthen those pending cases. After about three hours, he clicked out of the file of notes that he had protected with a password, closed the file of reports, and went to the gym.
While running laps around the indoor track, he processed the information he’d read and tried to determine how much of it was relevant. He turned his notes over and over in his mind, searching for commonalities, patterns, and admissions that might identify what he was overlooking that was niggling in the back of his mind. Unable to figure it out, he ate a quick lunch in the cafeteria before heading back to his desk to pick up where he’d left off.
Once again, he didn’t leave the office until after 9:00. Stephanie was spending a few hours with one of the women she’d met last fall at one of the football parties thrown by his friends. They had formed a book club with other friends of the hostess, Donita.
Chaz heated the baked chicken and brown rice casserole and settled at the kitchen table with a note pad and a cold beer. Half an hour later, he was still there—doodling absentmindedly while his brain continued to churn over the details of several investigations he’d read about during the day. Paul Watkins was a clever criminal. Bringing him to justice wouldn’t be easy.
At 10:00, he took a shower and climbed into bed. He’d intended to watch the evening news while waiting for Stephanie to come home. Sleep claimed him first. When he awoke, it was the middle of the night and his arm was loosely wrapped around the warm body wrapped around him. He kissed Stephanie’s forehead and went back to sleep.
Ten minutes later, her eyes popped open and she snuggled closer against her husband. She’d had a dream.
Chaz and Steve were in a small room with another man who sat opposite them at a metal table. They were interrogating him. She heard little of the conversation as he answered questions about Paul Watkins and carefully observed the expressions of the two FBI agents interrogating him. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Chaz look so intense. After a few minutes, Chaz nodded and relief poured from him. Without another word, he rose and left the room. Steve joined him in the hallway a few minutes later. Stephanie felt a very strong sense of smugness that wasn’t coming from either of them. Immediately, she knew that whatever they’d been told, the other man was holding out on them. He was sure that he had a final bargaining chip.
As she and Chaz drank coffee a few hours later, Chaz listened closely to what Stephanie said. She opened the file of photographs they had discussed previously and pulled out the one of the man in the interview room. Chaz and Steve weren’t scheduled to interview Brian Pleasant, but anything was possible. Perhaps Steve had discovered something that he thought Pleasant could clarify.
One thing he was certain of was that the dream would happen either that day or the next. Stephanie had described it in too much detail for it to not happen soon. He sent a text message to Steve asking whether he had any plans for such an interview, but he didn’t need a reply to tell him that Stephanie was on the right track. When she set her coffee cup on the counter and said, “Déjà vu, Chaz,” that was all the confirmation he needed.
With renewed determination, he took a brief look over the notes he’d made the previous night while eating dinner. There was something he was missing that should have been obvious.
Interestingly enough, Steve had written down some of the same questions as Chaz, even though they were looking at cases in different states. Did Paul Watkins have a pattern for how he operated? At the very least, there must be some commonality. The two men compared notes and decided that it was time to speak with the traitorous technician, Brian Pleasant. Maybe he would say something to indicate in what direction the FBI should be looking.
“What do you think?” Steve was smiling as he stepped out of the interrogation room and closed the door. He and Chaz headed down the hall toward the elevators.
“He just gave us the money man and doesn’t even realize it.”
“That’s right,” Steve agreed with a nod. “Robert has to be Robert Noble.” They said his name at the same time.
“We don’t have plans to file charges against him, and most of what we come up with will probably be dismissed. Of course, he won’t know that, so we can use it to our advantage.” Chaz stepped onto the elevator. “When he sees how many cases he’s implicated in, it might not be hard to get him to talk.”
“Especially when he knows that his boss is going to jail anyway.” Steve let out a short chuckle. “Pleasant still thinks he has something to negotiate with, which means that Stephanie is probably right about him feeling smug, Chaz. He could corroborate the charges on the prostitution case, but already gave us the key to proving Watkins’ connection to several cases. Let’s go back through the reports and see where Noble was mentioned. If I’m not mistaken, we have enough information to locate him.”
Chaz agreed.
That afternoon, he worked late again, but now he knew what he was looking for and was sure he’d seen the name on numerous occasions. That fact must be what had subconsciously been bothering him since Granger’s arrest. By 7:00, Chaz had documented four cases where Robert Noble’s name was mentioned several times. Now, all he needed to do was go through surveillance tapes to see whether they captured an image of him during any of the investigations—he’d request those in the morning. Steve had checked several databases and had an address for Noble’s home and office, along with some of his relatives in Chicago. Steve had requested all of the information other field offices had on this person. Other members of the task force assigned to bring in Paul Watkins were more than happy to cooperate.
“Your lady came through for us, again,” Steve admitted as he and Chaz walked to their cars that evening. “I hadn’t planned on interviewing Pleasant.”
“So, what’s our next step?”
“After we conclusively document Noble’s relationship with Watkins, we’ll set up surveillance for a couple of weeks to see whether we can catch them together. From there, we should be able to keep up with both men until we’re ready to file charges. I’m pretty sure that Watkins will show up soon because most bosses don’t like to stay away from their money for very long. Once we find him, I’ll fly to Chicago to oversee the surveillance, arrest, and interrogation.” Already anticipating what the answer would be, he asked, “Do you want to come along.”
“Not if I have a choice. After having been infiltrated by Brian Pleasant, I’m a little skittish right now about showing myself to agents outside of our office where it comes to Watkins. The fewer people that know me, the safer I am until he’s convicted.”
“Good idea.” Steve opened his car door, said a quick goodbye, and left Chaz to head home to his very talented wife.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Hey, baby.” Chaz walked into the family room and plopped onto the sofa. A second later, he lifted Stephanie to pull her onto his lap. She giggled as he smoothed her hair aside so that he could nibble her neck.
“You’re home earlier than you have been.” Her hands rubbed up and down the front of his shirt.
“Thanks to you.”
“Me?”
“Yep. Steve hadn’t considered interviewing Brian Pleasant until I mentioned your dream. That interview gave us the information we needed. Pleasant might be holding on to a wild card in order to save himself, but he unknowingly gave us what we need to catch his boss.”
“Paul Watkins?”
“Uhm hmm.”
“Good! So that means you’re safe?”
“Almost. That’s going to take a little more time, but we know how to find him now. Once we do, charges against him should be filed fairly quickly.” He rested his forehead on hers. “I love that we were a team in this. And Steve is grateful, too.” His arms tightened around her. “Of course, he can’t show his appreciation in the same way that I can, but he’s happy.”
“He can show his gratitude by not taking you away from me again,” she softly said.
“He already knows that. In fact, he didn’t even balk when I asked not to be included in the final phases of this investigation that will probably happen in Chicago.”
“Good.” She sighed and kissed her husband. “Are you hungry? I cooked pecan-encrusted salmon, sautéed spinach, and corn.”
Loving Night: Dream Catcher Series ~ Book 2 Page 14
