Chapter 10

There was a huge meeting scheduled in the large conference room at the federal building and Ed was one of the featured speakers. It was two days after the big raid based on the detailed plans that Ed and John had created to take down the criminal organizations in twenty cities. It was time for them to debrief everyone on the actions of the previous day. The crowd would include FBI, IRS, and ATF.

Ed woke up dreading the day as he knew that he would be in a spotlight for a good percentage of the meeting. It was his role to explain how they had used tax laws to arrest most of the members of the criminal organizations. Rolling out of bed, he dressed and headed out of the room in his normal morning fog. He followed the smell of coffee to the dining room, where Marguerite had set up a coffee urn.

After drinking a cup, the fog started to evaporate and he became aware that John was seated at the table watching him with amusement. After refilling his cup, he looked at John and asked, “What?”

Smiling, John replied, “You are just such a wreck in the morning.”

As he worked on his second cup, Ed asked, “Any chance of getting out of this thing today?”

“None,” replied John knowing exactly what Ed was talking about. He wasn’t looking forward to the briefing. After seeing the grimace on Ed’s face, John added, “If we are to teach them how to do these kinds of operations, then we have to talk to them.”

Groaning at the implications, Ed finished his cup of coffee. He could feel the caffeine coursing through his system waking him with its usual effectiveness. At least he had set it up so that someone else would explain the tax laws under which the raids were authorized.

Marguerite showed up with a plate of French Toast and slid it in front of Ed. Confused, he looked up and asked, “How come I’m the only one you cook breakfast for every morning?”

Marguerite was no longer wearing the chain mail bra and no panties, although she still tended to dress with shorter skirts that normal. Spreading her legs and putting a hand on her hips, she said, “Because the others are awake enough in the morning that they come in and make their crappy breakfast before I have a chance to chase them out of the kitchen.”

Ed glanced over at John and noticed the bowl of cereal in front of him. Looking up at Marguerite, he said, “Sometimes I like cereal, too.”

Shaking her head, she stomped off to the kitchen swearing, “These people are barbarians. You just can’t teach them anything.”

After taking a bite of the French Toast, Ed said, “She does make a good French Toast.”

Winking at Ed, John said, “One of these days I’ll have to try out her breakfast foods.”

Marguerite called out, “I heard that. Tomorrow morning, you eat the food I cook!”

Slowly eating his breakfast, Ed thought about how complicated life had been ever since the Medieval Dinner that they had thrown. The staff had made a demand that they be allowed to have sex with members of his family. That had really surprised him, but explained a number of recent events including Ling’s nude swim a couple of weeks ago. The raids had been successful, but they hadn’t seen or heard from Ann since that day. He wondered if they had insulted her somehow. Today he had the meeting, and just about everyone who was anyone would be there. Most likely that included the press.

Interrupting his thoughts, John said, “We had better hurry. It would be horrible to be late to this meeting.”

Bluntly, Ed said, “After this is over, I’m going to find someone that likes to ride and go out for a week of hunting rocks.”

Nodding thoughtfully, John said, “What about, oh what’s her name from the rock store?”

Looking up from the last bit of French Toast, Ed said, “Who? Kim?”

“Yes, Kim.”

“She’s a woman. I don’t know how I would handle being out with a woman alone for a week.”

Shrugging, John replied, “It’s okay with me if things develop, just so long as you are honest about it. I’m sure the wives feel the same way.”

Entering the room, Beth asked, “About what?”

John replied, “Ed said that he wanted to find a fellow horse lover and go hunting rocks for a week. I suggested that he take Kim, but he’s afraid that it will be uncomfortable spending a week alone with a woman outdoors.”

As Beth poured herself a cup of coffee, she tried to remember who Kim was. It took her a bit of effort to recall the cheerful young lady that ran the rock store. Turning to face them, she said, “Oh, she’s cute. I don’t see any problem with that. I doubt that Kelly would have a problem with you going out on the range with her.”

Shaking his head, Ed finished his breakfast. He sat back and said, “I don’t feel comfortable with it. I’ll find someone else.”

Beth said, “Don’t be silly.”

The discussion was interrupted when John said, “We had better head out. The meeting starts early.”

As Ed followed John out of the house, they ran into Kelly entering the dining room. With quick kisses, they left followed by Rover. It was a rare day lately when only one cat went with them. Not trusting Ed to drive first thing in the morning, John drove them to the Federal Building. Ed stared out at the landscape as it slowly changed from wild desert to suburban setting.

Ed remarked, “It seems that the city is getting closer to us every year.”

Laughing, John replied, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we aren’t living in downtown in a decade.”

“I definitely need to get out of town. I’ve been spending too much time in the city. The city really depresses me,” said Ed. He looked at a suburban house with the green lawn with disgust. He asked, “What kind of idiot would buy a house in a desert area, and plant grass?”

Glancing over at Ed, John said, “Some people think that a lawn is an important statement about them.”

Grunting, Ed said, “Right. You grow grass in a desert so that you have to water it all of the time. Then it grows so you have to cut it every week. What a stupid way to spend half a day.”

Recognizing that Ed was just feeling a little more grumpy than usual, John decided to put a good spin on it. He said, “Just think about Carlos. If it wasn’t for these guys, he wouldn’t have a business.”

“I guess you’re right,” replied Ed. Still thinking about it, they finally reached the Federal Building. Pulling into the parking lot, they sat in the Jeep for a minute. Neither man was in a hurry to get out, but the clock was ticking. Horrified by the implications, Ed stared at the news trucks parked in front of the building. Turning to John, he asked, “Is there a back door to this place that we can use?”

Laughing, John replied, “No. We have to face them some time or another. Might as well be today.”

“Let’s get through this and get home.” Ed had only been awake for two hours, but he was already feeling exhausted.

The two men, followed by Rover, headed to the entrance. The crowd of reporters was so large that neither one of them was able to get to the building. Finally, John said, “I heard a bunch of them were thinking about going in the back way.”

About half of the reporters within earshot looked around quickly and then headed to the back of the building. They went into the building amidst the confusion. Ed looked over at John and said, “Thanks, I would never have been able to say that.”

They were met by Gary Smales and a very large woman. She was both tall and broad, but not fat. He introduced the woman, “Ed, this is your boss, Deana Ahlberg.”

She extended a hand as she said, “Thank you for avenging Sean’s death.”

Taking her hand, Ed replied, “I was more than happy to do it.”

Mike Holden came over and shook John’s hand. With a very large grin, he said, “Great job, John. When I finally saw the packet that you put together, I have to tell you that I was really impressed.”

Deana turned to Mike and said, “Hello, Mike. Our two special birds really stirred things up.”

Mike laughed and said, “A pleasure to see you again, Deana. Yes, they did create a little bit of news. I spent most of that day briefing the president. Most of it was spent wondering why you weren’t there, too.”

Laughing, Deana said, “I called in sick. I wanted to watch it all by myself.”

“Well, your boss was more than happy to take credit for what was going on even though he had no idea what was happening,” replied Mike. Turning to John and Ed, he asked, “Are we invited out to your place for dinner?”

Smiling, John said, “Of course you are, you both are. In fact, we were expecting you to stay at the house last night, but Bill said you turned down our invitation.”

“I figured you guys needed a day off and didn’t want to burden you with entertaining us.”

Suppressing a groan, Ed realized that tonight was going to be spent entertaining. He looked out the window of the building hoping to see the desert, but all that he was able to see was a mass of news reporters. He needed to get out into the desert and soon.

Gary said, “We had better go inside.”

Ed followed everyone into the conference room. Rover walked beside Ed, almost as if he shared Ed’s desire to be anywhere except for there. The room was filled with row after row of seats like in a theatre. Almost every seat had someone in it. Looking around, Ed didn’t think he had ever seen so many suits and ties in one place.

He looked for a seat in the back, but John waved him to the front. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he realized they were going to be sitting on the stage. On the way there, he stopped to talk to Frankie Paulovich to make sure that he was ready to talk about the tax laws that were the basis for the arrests.

Everyone was waiting for him to get to the stage and to his chair. Sitting next to John, he leaned over and whispered, “Is this really necessary?”

Chuckling, John replied, “The sooner we get started, the sooner we can get done.”

Snorting in derision, Ed said, “They are going to keep us here all day. It doesn’t matter when we get started. The earlier we start the longer people will talk.”

Mike went to the podium and turned on the projector. Immediately, the agenda came up on the screen. Groaning, Ed saw that it was going to last at least three hours. Mike opened the proceedings when he said, “Today, we are here to learn about the greatest law enforcement victory in history. Never before were so many criminals that were associated with so many crimes arrested in a single day. The raids two days ago were masterminded by John Carter of the FBI and Ed Biggers of the IRS. Let’s give them a big hand.”

There was a very loud round of applause from the people in the audience. Ed looked around, embarrassed by the attention, and noticed that Ann was not present. He didn’t listen as Mike continued talking about the number of arrests made, the amount of money confiscated, and the quantity of drugs taken off the streets. He was surprised to find that arrests were still taking place as evidence identified the involvement of other individuals.

Mike spoke for almost thirty minutes identifying the various individuals that had performed above and beyond the call of duty. In the feedback that they had received while tracking the raid, no one had mentioned any gunfire. Apparently, the last few raids encountered serious resistance.

After Mike, Deana took the podium where she outlined the number of tax fraud cases that had been developed. The amount of money that would be collected was phenomenal. It was well known that the underground economy was the same size as the legitimate economy. With the ability of criminals to hold small businesses at their mercy, it was expected that many of those companies would be able to report as much as ten thousand a year more income.

Eyes glazing over, Ed looked at his watch. Almost an hour had passed, but it had felt like an eternity. It was hard to believe that he would have to be here for two more hours. He fidgeted in his chair as it felt like his legs were about to fall asleep. Looking across the audience, he could see that most of them were enthralled with what she was saying.

Finally, John was asked to take the podium. There was a huge applause that lasted at least five minutes. John said, “I’m pleased to be here. I guess there are some questions to be resolved, about how we put together the operation.”

Without waiting for any feedback, John started outlining how they had taken known information about the individuals and correlated that with types of criminal activities. This allowed them to time the raids with the times when the criminals were performing acts such as counting undeclared money.

Since he knew exactly how they had constructed the plan, Ed didn’t pay attention. John was scheduled to talk for an hour. There was an exit near his seat and sitting there, he decided that this would be a good time to slip out of the room. Making as little noise as possible, he slipped to the door and went out. Leaning against the wall, he closed his eyes and thought about getting in front of all of those people. John made it look so easy, but he was terrified of standing up in front of large audiences like this.

He went into the men’s restroom and washed his face at the sink. It was his hope that he could calm down sufficiently to get through the speech. His stomach churned and his palms were cold and clammy. It only got worse when he thought about getting up there at the podium.

The door of the restroom opened and he turned to see who had come in. To his surprise, it was Gary Smales, the head of the Phoenix office. Gary took one look at Ed and shook his head. He said, “You look like shit.”