Mitch

We settled into a rhythm over the next few days. Stella started going a little stir crazy but she saw reason. It wasn’t safe for her to leave my house until we could make some headway with her case. She hated it, but she relented. So I spent my days working with Caulkins and the task force combing through reams of data gleaned from the audit he’d done at the State Police records division. We hadn’t learned much, but since we’d started, there’d been no new issues with background clearances coming out of that office. I spent my nights going home to Stella. Knowing she’d be there, waiting for me, I’d never realized how much I needed her. Or how much I’d waited for her, it seemed like my whole life. She was beautiful, pensive. It killed me to keep her cooped up, but I’m not going to say I didn’t reap the benefits as soon as I walked through the door. I couldn’t keep my hands off her. It also meant I wasn’t getting very much sleep.

When she asked me how her case was progressing, I wished I could give her more news. But it would be a slow, painstaking process. We couldn’t bring anything to the higher ups in the State Police until we had a hell of a lot more to go on. When we did, this thing was liable to blow wide. The press would be all over it. When the time came, that would be to Stella’s advantage. I wanted her name and picture plastered over every news media outlet we could find. The sooner that happened, the more likely whoever had put a hit out on her would wise up and disappear.

Detective Edwards was lying low for now. I don’t know if he suspected anything, but the FBI presence had to have spooked him. It was frustrating. I needed a damn warrant to dump his phone at the very least. All I’d gotten were work-related emails on their government server. Nothing interesting came up.

Then finally, after a week of combing through mundane emails, we got a break. The female clerk who ratted on Edwards remembered something useful. Edwards had a cousin, Dale Lewis. The name seemed familiar but I couldn’t place it until I ran it through my computer. An old case file of mine popped up.

“Lewis,” I said, tapping the computer screen with a ballpoint pen. Caulkins had come down for the day and had camped out at one of the empty workstations across the room. “I’ll be damned.” Man, it happens like that sometimes. You can go weeks and weeks with nothing, then all of a sudden, things can just fall into place with one tip, one name. And there it was, staring back at me from my computer screen.

“You got something?”

“Maybe. We nailed this guy Lewis a few years back. He was running a credit card scam out of his basement. He’s a two-bit hacker, and he only drew two years at Milan after a plea deal I wasn’t happy about. Let me get his parole officer on the phone, see if he’s back in town.”

Caulkins nodded and went back to his laptop. A few minutes later, I hit the jackpot.

“Thanks, Neil,” I said, hanging up with Lewis’s parole officer.

“I like that expression on your face, Gates.”

“Bingo. Turns out Lewis got out of prison about a year ago. His big cousin Larry vouched for him with the parole board. Convinced them he’d seen the error of his ways. The douchebag is actually living in an apartment above Edwards’s garage.”

“How the fuck is that possible?” Caulkins said. “For shit’s sake. He’s a known felon. How the hell does a state trooper agree to house this guy and get away with it? Hell, if I did that, I’d lose my security clearance.”

I shrugged. “Who the hell knows. But it’s something. And more than that, never mind whether he’s involved. If he’s so much got a dial-up internet connection in that house, he’s in violation of his parole.”

“You think you can get a warrant off of it?”

“I think we have to try.”

I wrote the warrant based on the clerk’s statement, Dale Lewis’s history, and what we knew about Edwards. It was a risk. A big fat one. But if we were wrong, then I’d just be burning a few bridges with the State Police. If we were right, but didn’t find anything at the house, Edwards and Lewis would probably close up shop until they thought it was safe. But we probably wouldn’t get a better chance than this one so it was a risk we felt willing to take.

“Tell you what,” Stan said. He leaned back hard in his chair as Caulkins and I stood in his office and ran our plan by him. “Mitch, you write the warrant, but I want Caulkins and O’Banion to take it over to Judge Landry.”

I curled my fists and tried to remember to do the ten count Ken said would work wonders. At the moment, it was just pissing me off more.

“Don’t even start, Mitch. Landry’s a straight shooter, but our very own Judge Pierce still has a lot of friends in that courthouse. It’s a good ole boys’ network and you know it. This is your case. Nobody’s going to forget that. But let somebody else go do the sweet talking. It isn’t your strong suit lately. Landry sees you coming, it could fuck this up or make him think twice about granting it on short notice. We can’t afford that. Put your ego aside.”

Caulkins put a hand on my shoulder. “He’s got a point. And as soon as we get the go ahead, if we get the go ahead, you’re lead on this one. Straight up. There’s nobody else I’d rather have busting down that asshole’s door.”

“Thanks,” I said, only half meaning it. But I knew Stan had a point, even if I hated it.

Once I had the warrant request written, O’Banion and Caulkins went over to the courthouse to get it signed. The thing was tight, but anything could happen. My luck, the judge would either deny it or restrict it in such a way I couldn’t get what I wanted. I’d asked for a no-knock. I had no idea what to expect from Lewis. If we lost the element of surprise, he was sophisticated enough to set up a system he could wipe in the time it took me to cross the threshold if he knew we were coming.

I’d taken to pacing in front of my desk. I’d placed three calls to Caulkins. None of them returned. I fucking hated that they made me sit back here and cool my heels. When my phone finally did ring, I answered with a vengeance.

“Well?”

Soft laughter on the other side that sent heat rippling through me. Stella. “That kind of day, is it?”

“Sorry. Everything okay?” I knew she was about to ream me out for asking. I did that a lot, but I couldn’t help it. Where Stella was concerned, I felt equal parts tied up in knots and on top of the world. Things had grown easier between us since that night out by the river. We’d let go of a lot of the guilt and reservations we had for being with each other. I couldn’t bring myself to name what we were to each other yet and neither could she. But it felt right, even though I knew it would probably end in disaster. That’s just how things went with me. For now though, I didn’t have it in me to be the strong, reasonable one when it came to her. And I was lying to Ken Bardwell about it. I told him we’d decided to take things slow. Even though I knew that had train wreck written all over it, I couldn’t help myself. Stella just made me feel too damn good.

“It’s okay,” she said, sighing. Even miles away, I knew that line of worry crossed her brow. I wanted to kiss it away more than anything. “I talked to Phil today. No change with his father. He’s awake and trying to communicate, but he still can’t talk. The doctors are talking about releasing him to a nursing care facility in the next couple of days. It’s not the outcome we hoped for. Phil wants him home. So do I.”

“I know, baby. I know. Soon. And don’t forget he’s alive and out of immediate danger. He’s going to come back.” I looked out the window as I talked to her, hoping to see Caulkins’s car pull in. So far, nothing.

“Is something happening? I can hear it in your voice.”

I couldn’t help but smile. She was just as good at picking up on my moods just from my voice as I was with hers.

“Nothing I can share with you yet, but maybe. I hope to have some news by the time I get home tonight.”

The line went silent. Then I heard her unsteady exhale. “Mitch?”

“I’m still here.”

“I worry.”

“I know. But you don’t have to.”

“Don’t tell me that. For one thing, you know it’s not true. It’s just, I don’t know. With the memorial just a few days away and everything. I feel bad karma. And I can’t go through it again, you know? I just can’t.”

“Shh. Baby. Everything’s okay. I mean it though. Everything’s under control.”

She sighed. Again, I wanted to reach through the phone and kiss her doubts away. But Stella knew the drill. She more than anyone knew what this job was. It was just another reason for me to feel selfish for bringing her back into my life. In the end, it wasn’t fair. She’d be better off with an insurance salesman or a banker. Though even the fleeting thought of her with anyone else sent that flare of white rage through me. I tried to shake it off. I needed my head in the game today more than ever.

“Just be careful, okay? Promise me that. Don’t take any chances you wouldn’t normally because of me.”

“I won’t,” I lied. I’d turn the world upside down if I had to for her.

“I’ll see you when you get home, okay?”

“I’ll bring Chinese. We can eat out by the river again.”

Her sultry laugh made my balls tighten. Yeah. Definitely needed my head back in the game. As I clicked off, Caulkins came down the hallway at a near run. He had a big smile on his face that made me pump my fist in victory.

“We’re on!” he said, waving the freshly signed search warrant above his head. “Let’s get everything lined up for four o’clock. He wouldn’t give us the no-knock, but I’m guessing you can come up with a plan B.”

I nodded. “It’s not my first choice, but yeah. Let’s make it work and go get this asshole.”

I sent Stella a quick text that I’d be late, eat dinner without me, and stop worrying.