The Diary
Page 31
His eyes gleamed with confidence. Too much confidence. I was getting increasingly convinced something was seriously wrong with this guy, and that was the real reason he’d been fired from the FBI. As soon as I got back home, I’d research him online and ask George to help me if I couldn’t get to the bottom of it on my own.
“Okay,” I said. “But then they got what they wanted, right? They wanted everyone to think someone tied to Cardoza is behind Nick’s murder and that’s what we all believe. So why assault me now?”
“I didn’t say I know for sure this guy’s attached to The Adler Group. I only said I had my suspicions. The motive for the assault would be to get rid of you for the same reason they got rid of Nick—if you keep hanging around Nikkei long enough, you might learn things about The Adler Group they don’t want anyone to know. They probably didn’t realize who you really were when they first hired you, but somehow found out. If they now know who you are, they’re well aware that you’re bright and an extremely good investigator. In other words, it’s only a matter of time before you unravel the truth. But again, it’s of course possible Felix Bose has nothing at all to do with The Adler Group.”
I nodded like I was totally with him. “Interesting… Hey, I need to get going. I have to be back at the club at seven a.m. in the morning and it’s getting late.” I got to my feet. “Thanks again for saving me. How about we talk more about this when I train you?” I gave him a smile. “You’re still gonna use those twenty session you bought to train with me, right?”
He stood up as well. “Yes, absolutely. Could we train the day after tomorrow? Sometime in the middle of the day?”
“Sure. I called the number on the sheet my manager gave me and left a message.”
“Yeah, I heard. I’ll text you tomorrow morning with some times to train. Would that be okay?”
“That sounds perfect. Okay, well, I’ll talk to you tomorrow then.” I waved to him and left the bar.
I jogged back home as soon as I was out the door and on the street. Only when I was entering my apartment building did I realize I was still in possession of Ian’s gun. It was tucked into my waistband, safely hidden from the world because of my baggy sweater.
Well, I suppose I’ll give it back to him after our training session, I thought, chuckling a little as I took the elevator up to my apartment.
When I walked inside, I dashed over to my laptop and Googled “Ian Armory FBI agent.”
The screen was soon filled with several hits containing both subjects. I clicked on one of the first links, the one that said Ex-FBI Agent Busted, Claimed It Was Really an Undercover Operation.
According to the article, FBI Special Agent Ian Armory had been let go because of alcohol and drug abuse and was later involved in a small burglary. He was sentenced to ten months in prison and served five of them. He was released December 2014.
It was late March 2015 now.
There were a couple more articles, describing roughly the same events. One was from the Washington Post, so I had no reason to doubt their veracity.
I shut down my computer and went into the bathroom to take a shower.
As I let the warm water spray over my tired body, I thought about what I would say, how to act around Ian Armory when I saw him the next time. When we were training. This crazy drug addict obviously was determined to be part of my life, having bought that twenty-pack. Had I known what I knew now, I wouldn’t have sounded so eager to train him even if I could use more clients.
I sighed heavily as I shampooed my hair. Just what I needed, an ex-FBI agent/ex-con with serious conspiracy fantasies. As if my life wasn’t complicated enough already.
Well, I’d find a way to deal with it just as I had found a way to deal with Nick’s horrible death. Ian Armory was just a minor bump in the road that I would survive. It was really no big deal. As I considered the situation some more, I should really be happy. At least he would train with me. That was one less client to hustle for. I really did need every single client that came my way at the moment if I planned on staying at Nikkei what with all the competition.
Yes, it was all good, I told myself as I wrapped myself in one of my big, fluffy bath towels. All I needed to do was humor Ian and I was good to go. I walked over to my couch and plopped down, sprawling over it while closing my eyes.
But no matter how much I kept trying to convince myself how convenient it was that crazy ex-agent Ian had shown up in my life all of a sudden, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something didn’t compute—the fact that a man had assaulted me tonight with the intent to kill me. A man who most likely wasn’t Hispanic.
If Felix Bose wasn’t tied to the Cardoza cartel, why had he wanted to see me dead? This guy had been a professional, not a random thug. I had been in law enforcement long enough to be able to distinguish between amateurs and professional criminals and this one had known what he was doing.
Maybe Ian Armory wasn’t quite as crazy as I wanted him to be.
Maybe all that he had told me tonight was in fact the truth.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8