Chapter 24
Ensconced in the caffeinated bustle of a coffee shop for the second time that day, the boys huddled around a table and waited for Detective Deffenbaugh to finished putting sugar in his drink and join then.
“Let me be honest with you,” said the detective as he sat down. “My job is easy. I’m not trying to hide anything and I’m not trying to keep some story straight. If you are, I’ll know. If you’re not, it’s a cake walk from here to the end.”
“We’ve got nothing to hide,” said Jack.
“Ask us anything,” said Quinn.
“You had a lawyer before. What happened to him?” asked the detective.
“He’s still up in D.C., I think,” said Jack.
“Do you want him here? I can wait.”
The boys conferred silently.
“Let’s just talk,” said Cable, “that should be fine.”
“Alright,” said the detective. “Let me tell you where I’m coming from. I’ve been working this case unofficially for a couple months now. Smithsonian hasn’t reported anything because they don’t want the media involved or insurance companies etcetera. I’ve got a list of missing gems. I’ve got a missing taxidermist. And I’ve got a contractor that’s slimy as a used kleenex but I’ve got nothing on him. He’s got no past and apart from being over-budget and past his deadline, he’s clean. Next thing I know, you guys are all over the video monitors. You’re in this thing deeper in 24 hours than I’ve been able to get since July. Not that that’s necessarily a good thing, am I right? But it shakes things up enough that Newman feels he has to do something. Then, out of the blue, you call him, and set up that meeting. And none of this computes, right? But here we are.”
“Was that a question?” asked Cable.
The detective smiled. He took a long swallow of his drink. Then he looked around the coffee shop. He tipped his chair backwards and reached over to the nearest table, where he grabbed three sugar packets. He tore the tops off all three of them at the same time and poured them into his drink. Then he put the lid back on it and swirled it around, to mix in the sugar. Then he looked directly at Cable and asked, “can you get me the dirt on Franklin?”
Cable didn’t know what to say.
“That one was a question,” said the detective.
“We have computer files,” offered Jack, “e-mails between Franklin and Souvlakis.”
The detective nodded, “warm.”
“We’ve got two notes from Souvlakis,” continued Cable “but they’re in code. Riddles.”
The detective nodded again. He leaned back and cradled his cup with both hands. “warmer. Anything without Souvlakis fingerprints on it?”
“Franklin asked us to join his Team this afternoon,” said Quinn.
The detective sat forward and set his cup on the table, “Hot!” he said, “Now you’re burning up.”
“That’s good?” asked Quinn.
“What did you tell him?” asked the detective.
“Nothing,” we jumped in the car and left,” said Jack.
“But you know how to get in touch with him?”
“Sure I guess,” said Jack.
“Here’s what we’ll do, then,” said the detective. “Get in touch with Franklin. Tell him you want in. Arrange to meet him somewhere to work out the details. Ideally, we can get something in writing. You said there were communications between Franklin and Souvlakis, right? So it’s not like he doesn’t put anything in writing.”
“It’s nothing like a confession, if that’s what you mean,” said Cable. “It’s more like professional emails, unless you know the subtext.”
“Context,” corrected Cable.
“Push for something more explicit,” said the detective. “Get him to be specific about what’s in it for you.”
“Is this the sort of thing where we’re wearing wires?” asked Quinn.
The detective shook his head, “Nah. We can hear ice melting from GPS audio now. As long as we know where you are, we’ll hear it. Once I’ve got something on Franklin, I can take him.”
“Take him?” asked Cable.
“Arrest him,” said the detective.
Cable nodded.
“How does that sound?” asked the detective.
“We’d have to check with our lawyer,” said Jack.
“Do it then.”
“Right now?”
“I’ll step outside,” he offered.
Jack called Mr. Glover and navigated through surprise and annoyance and advice before getting his professional recommendation to cooperate. When he got off the phone, he gave a thumbs-up to Detective Deffenbaugh, who returned to the table.
“Here’s Franklin’s cell number,” said the detective. “You feel up to calling him right now?”
Jack looked at the number. “Why’s it so long?” he asked.
“I’ve routed the call through a locator and recorder back at the station,” said the detective. “It scrambles where you are and drops a GPS pin on him.”
Jack punched the numbers into his phone. He hit the Send button and waited. Franklin picked up quickly.
“Hello?”
“Franklin. It’s Jack Bonney.”
“How did you get this number?”
“Um,” said Jack, “I got it… from some of Souvlakis papers that we’ve got.”
“This is a private line,” said Franklin.
“Fine with me,” said Jack, “this is private business.”
“What do you want?”
“We didn’t get to finish our conversation this afternoon.”
“Excuse me?” said Franklin, “Oh, Jack Bonney! Of course. I’m Sorry. It was out of context on this line. Hey, you made it back to Fredericksburg safe, buddy? No hassles?“
“Yeah, we got here. We were talking about your offer.”
“And?”
“Your offer to join your team?”
“My crew? There’s always a place for a couple more smart kids on my crew.”
“Um… no, you’d mentioned something about your Team, I think.”
“Had I? Well there is one guy I can think of who I was thinking of replacing.”
“For your Team?”
“We should get together.”
“Maybe you could just tell me what you’ve got in mind,” said Jack.
“I never make personnel decisions on the phone.”
“Fine,” said Jack, “but I’m tired of driving back and forth to D.C. every day.”
“No problem,” said Franklin. “I was going to be down in your neck of the woods anyway. Besides, the work I need is more subcontractor work. You wouldn’t need to be up here on site, if you know what I mean. Not if you have the special skill set that I need. What are you doing later tonight?
“Tonight!” said Jack.
The detective gave Jack a nod.
“Sure. Tonight’s fine,” said Jack.
“At the bookstore,” said Franklin. “I heard you had a break-in there yesterday.”
“You heard?”
“Yeah, it was on the police scanner,” said Franklin, “look, I might have some plate glass lying around that would fit what got broken. You mind if I bring some guys with me? Maybe they can knock out a repair while we’re talking.”
“OK, sure,” said Jack.
“Let me get down to the warehouse and see what I can scare up. Eleven o’clock?”
Jack looked at the detective, who nodded again.
“That’ll work,” said Jack.
“Good. Get your stuff together. I’m glad to have you on board,” said Franklin.
“Wait, I wouldn’t say that we’re on board yet,” said Jack. Then, “Hello? Anyone there.”
Jack looked at the display on his phone. “He hung up,” he said.
“Don’t worry about it. You did good,” said the detective. “Eleven o’clock tonight. That gives us just over five hours.”
“For what?” asked Cable.
“You should talk to your lawyer and I need to get some papers started if I’m going to be using the GPS recorder tonight. I want to get my partner down here, too, in case we can make an arrest tonight.”
“Is your partner bigger than that guy who Franklin always keeps around him?” asked Cable.
“Nah,” said the detective, grinning, “she wouldn’t stand a chance against him.”
“What do you for backup, then?” asked Cable. “They’re not going to just give up and go down to the station with you.”
The detective continued to grin. “’Go down to the station with me?’ You must watch a lot of cop shows on TV. No, these guys are white collar all the way. Don’t let the New York accents fool you. Like I said, it’s a cake walk from here on out.”
Detective Deffenbaugh looked at his watch. “Alright, go talk to your lawyer. If Cat can get down here by eight that will still give us time.”
“Time to bug the store? Or get surveillance in place, you mean?” asked Cable.
“No,” said the detective, grinning and shaking his head again, “get a load of this guy, would you? No, time for you to take us out for dinner. And isn’t there supposed to be some famous ice cream place here in Fredericksburg?”
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