Chapter 28

Stretch could see the adults had a problem with his presence there. He couldn’t blame them because he was sure former FBI agent Grace Carter had filled them in on his past exploits. No sheriff or assistant district attorney would want him walking their streets, even though he hadn’t been arrested since becoming an adult.

That didn’t mean Stretch hadn’t done anything illegal; he had. It was the fact they could never prove anything they suspected him of that allowed him to walk the streets.

His ‘get out of jail free’ card was Alex. They all liked the boy too much not to invite his dad for dinner. Besides, Stretch was sure they wanted to ask him a bunch of questions to try to explain his son and his many ‘quirks,’ as they would call it. Stretch thought of them as more of a self-defense shield. Alex was, if nothing else, a sponge. Stretch had never seen anyone take to learning to be a planner like his boy.

With that being said, Alex had a blind spot, and it was Stretch. Alex would do anything to help his dad, even put himself in danger as he did that day, if what Stretch heard was true.

Alex was telling a story about staking out a job when Stretch interrupted him.

“When are we going to talk about today?”

Stretch saw the girls all look away, so they must have been in the truck. Sheriff Conly, Janice, and Grace suddenly became interested.

“Maybe we should talk about this later,” Alex said.

“If you plan to work with Grace, be in the good sheriff’s good book, and live under Janice’s roof, you need to be honest with them. And that includes telling them about making deals with the Russian Mafia to keep me safe,” Stretch replied.

“What did you do?” Sheriff Conly asked Alex.

Alex looked like he was about to shut down. Luckily for him, Dawn answered.

“He told them where the shipment of stolen medical marijuana was stored. They took it today.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Sheriff Conly asked.

“This should be good,” Janice whispered to Grace, who nodded.

Stretch guessed that Alex and the sheriff had butted heads in the past, and his son had come out on top.

“Because it was in Chester, you would have called their crooked police force to check it out. You know how that would’ve played out,” Alex said.

“I could have called the state police,” Sheriff Conly fired back.

“And you know they’re clean? Your former sheriff has more resources than you probably know. Is it such a leap to think that if you called in the location of a semi-load of pot, he wouldn’t know about it five minutes later?” Alex asked.

“You’re just making up arguments to cover your butt,” Sheriff Conly said, calling Alex on his BS. “When you found the fentanyl, that info found its way onto social media, and the media forced them to do the right thing. Tell me the real reason.”

Alex looked down at his half-eaten plate and pushed it back. If he was passing up finishing the delicious pork belly, he must be sick to his stomach.

Finally, Alex broke his silence and assumed his ‘planner’ persona, the one he used when explaining a heist to his old crew.

“I had two objectives above all else. First, I didn’t want the drugs near Conclave. The Russians will haul it to the east coast before they split it up and sell it.”

“But—” Janice began before Stretch interrupted her.

“It’s how we ran our business in Philly. Sort of the ‘not in my backyard’ mentality.”

“You said two,” Grace prompted.

“I asked the Russians to protect my dad from his old crew,” Alex said.

“The only problem with that is you let that deputy see you. He’s already told Steve Calhoun, who has reached out to me to figure out how to replace the income you lost him. He told me he wanted a quarter million by next week, or he’d come after you,” Stretch said.

“You always said I shouldn’t trust cops. Rusty is dead to me,” Alex said.

“Wait ... Rusty Scruggs?” Sheriff Conly asked, which caused Alex to cringe.

Stretch shook his head at his son’s blunder. He’d become too comfortable around these people—which, honestly, wasn’t a bad thing in his mind. It meant that he trusted them ... to a point.

“He was protecting the drugs,” Maddie said.

“I knew his story about why he was in Chester was suspect,” Sheriff Conly said.

“Sus,” Alex said.

“What?” Janice asked.

“I’m teaching your dad to be more current with the vernacular. The new lingo is ‘sus,’ not ‘suspect,’” Alex said.

“I got a call from Sheriff Townsend. Two of my deputies were at an auto repair shop when a gang robbed the place. The problem was, the owner didn’t want to report it,” Sheriff Conly said, then asked Alex, “Was that the Russians?”

Alex shrugged.

“I would take that as a ‘yes’ and move on,” Stretch said.

Sheriff Conly gave Stretch a grim nod, which made Stretch want to smile. Alex could be as stubborn as his mom. That girl ... well, woman now ... if she made up her mind, there was no changing it.

“Back to Steve and his threat about Alex. Do you plan to pay him?” Sheriff Conly asked.

“I don’t think you want me to,” Stretch said.

“Why not?” Janice asked.

“Bent cops never keep their word,” Alex grumped.

Stretch found this whole exchange amusing. His son was still butthurt because he’d saved this Rusty character, who’d turned around and ratted him out to his boss. But the truth was, Alex was right.

“Steve would force me to do other stuff once he knew I would do anything to protect my son. If put in that situation...” Stretch trailed off.

“We don’t want to know,” Sheriff Conly said. “Just so you know, if it were Janice, I would do something similar.”

’Good to know,’ Stretch thought.

Not that he would threaten Janice. After all, she’d opened her home to his son. But her dad had basically said Stretch should do what was needed if the former sheriff got out of line.

“You also want Steve and his crew hurting for money,” Stretch continued. “They’ll start to do stupid stuff, making it easier to catch them. If all else fails, I can set them up for that jewelry job.”

Grace gave Stretch a hard look because she hadn’t told anyone about the jewelry expo security job she’d just gotten from Saul Goodman. He was the jeweler for whom they were installing a state-of-the-art security system. Stretch knew she’d only made a note of it today. He’d looked up the expo; it would be a big deal, one that jewelers from all over the country attended.

In past years, it had been held in LA, Vegas, and New York. This was an important event for Tulsa’s Cox Business Convention Center.

The main topic of conversation was how synthetic diamonds would soon be almost worthless because production was outstripping demand. If jewelers wanted to keep their high margins, they had to band together and fight against man-made products.

From reading Grace’s notes, Steve knew Saul had ordered half a million dollars’ worth of musgravite. The gemstone was not the most attractive, but it was rare. On the open market, musgravite sold for a small fortune. Saul’s brother-in-law in Australia helped run a musgravite mine and had offered him a supply of gems at a rock-bottom price. He planned to sell the jewels at the expo for a healthy profit.

“Should I ask how you know that?” Grace asked.

Stretch shrugged, much as Alex had done earlier.

He then explained that shipments of stones and gems would be sent to the expo center, making them targets for a heist.

“For a heist that large, Steve will be there to oversee everything,” Stretch concluded.