Chapter 185: Que and the Men in Black

Jen and I waited about ten minutes before her patience ran out. "Come on Max we are going to shake things up a bit." With that she stood. I followed as she walked calmly out of the door of the interrogation room.

"Where the hell do you think you are going?" a patrol officer asked.

"Sonny, if you want to keep that shiny new badge, you will shut up and listen. My client is not under arrest and obviously the detective is through questioning her, so we are going to dinner. Now get the fuck out of my way," Jennifer snarled at him.

Once we were out side I said, "Shit Jen, I always wanted to do that. Just get up and walk out of an interrogation. I am gonna have to remember that." I laughed so hard I almost peed.

Of course, Dawson came running from the bulding before we reached Jen's car. "Hold on we aren't finished," he said.

"Sure we are, if you really had something important to ask, you wouldn't have left us to stew. Now get out of my way," Jennifer said reaching for the handle of her car door.

"The FBI wants to talk to you," Dawson said to me.

"Well, I'm going to walk over to the bank parking lot. Then I am going to get into the van, which is parked there. Then my friends and I are going to the Barbecue pit," I said.

"Where is that?" he asked.

"It's Max's name for Kaplan's," Jen informed him as I walked away. "Damn Dawson, get up to speed, if you want to run with the big dogs." I heard her laugh and it was not at all ladylike.

"Did you get it," I asked Earl when I was inside Lucas's van.

"Oh yeah, so Short Eyes Smiley is dead?" he asked with a strange pleasure in his voice.

"Killed with is pants down, how appropriate is that?" I asked but nobody answered.

"So Lucas drive to the Pit and I'll buy dinner for everyone," I suggested.

"Who is everyone?" he asked.

"I'm not sure just yet, but they should start rolling in soon." I smiled at the the thought. Life was good when then adrenalin pumped.

I had the double barbecue plate, with the iced tea that was so sweet it hurt my teeth. "Damn this is good stuff," Earl said as he crammed a hush puppy into his mouth.

"Food always tastes better after something big happens," I suggested.

"So who wants to talk to you now," Lucas asked.

"Some people to help us stay alive I hope. Lucas how do you feel about your boring life now that you have made it onto an international gang's hit list?" I asked with a laugh.

"The old life doesn't look so bad from here," he said almost seriously.

"How about you Earl, they might not know about you yet, but they will soon enough I imagine. So do you want to leave before you make it onto their dead pool list?"

"Do I look like Willy to you?" he asked with a grin.

"No you look like the guy I had to pull our of a bar fight," I said.

"Damn right, we make a good team," he said.

"So, me saving your ass makes us a team," I said with a laugh.

"Hey, what are friends for?" he asked.

"Hello guys," the slightly more than a teenage girl said.

"Hello, and yes I would like some more tea," I said handing her my glass.

"Very funny Ms Stone, I am special agent Morris with the FBI," she said.

"I have two questions for you Ms. Morris. First of all; if all the FBI people are called Special Agent, can any of them them be really special. Two; Since Special Agents never go anywhere alone, not even to the bathroom, where is the rest of your pack?" I asked.

"Come on in guys, we have been busted," she said into her sleeve.

"You might as well drag up a booth and have dinner," I said.

"Sure, why not but we do need to talk." She said.

"Not without my lawyer, we don't." I smiled pretty.

"You seem to know a lot about the legal system, so you should know that once you invoke your right to counsel, nothing you say to me without her present is admissible in court. We just want to know who, where, and what to look at." she said.

"And I want another glass of iced tea. So either go get me one, or sit down and have dinner with us. The waitress will not come back, until you do." I was still forcing the smile. I was pretty sure that the best thing to do with the FBI was to ignore them, if possible, and stall them if not.

There were six dinners on my bill and it still was under fifty dollars. I had to admit that it was a good deal. I paid the bill, then walked into the parking lot, where I was ambushed in a non lethal way.

"Okay we need to talk," Special agent Morris said. Her two partners were men and older, so I was a little surprised to see her doing the talking.

"Do we really, why is that?" I asked.

"You called the office in DC and gave one of our agents a tip. That tip seems to have been a good one. Now we want to follow up on it."

"Well, I'm not sure what you can do. Riverview Development Company is in the wind, and Smiley is in the morgue. Seems that whatever info I had is useless now." I said it continuing to smile.

"That may be true, but these were Tong and they are targeting you for death. That puts you in great danger," she said.

"Not to mention a great piece of meat for the trap. If I'm going to be bait Morris, I am going to build the trap. You probably need to take your pack here and go on back to the office. I take people who try to kill me personal. I also figure stopping them is my responsibility." I said.

"Even if we can do it better. Cooperate and we will put you into witness protection." she suggested.

"I'll take my chances in a war with the tong. If everyone I can testify about is neutralized, then they have no more business with me." I felt like that made for perfect logic.