Page 30 of Caleb’s Cause (Broken Wheel Ranch #12)

“When I was undercover for the narcotics division, I lived as a homeless person and was able to document drug sales. Sometimes, hell, it was most times, that once I gained information as a homeless person, I was able to change my appearance and become a buyer. I wore many, many hats while in the FBI. Now that you know this, let me tell you about why I left. Legally, the FBI won’t hire anyone until they are twenty- three, and they retire you at fifty-seven.

I knew my director was reaching the retirement age, I felt for him, but knew I still had ten more years on me before I could retire.

However, the guy that was coming in to take my director’s position started sending me e-mails that strongly suggested that I stop doing undercover work and ride a desk.

That’s not me. Anyway, the only time I met the new director was at my old director’s retirement party. ”

Duane shook his head and took a sip from his bottle of water.

“I had one more assignment to do before he left the FBI, and because of all the harassing e-mails I received from the new director, I decided to turn in my badge after the last assignment. The new director wasn’t in the office when I retired.

Other than that one time at my former director’s retirement party, I never saw him again.

” He looked around and his eyes landed on Katherine.

“The next time I saw him was when I was supposed to take Katherine to meet my director and she freaked out, asking if I was bat shit crazy.”

“Why?” Several people whipped around to look at Katherine, then back to Duane.

Katherine stood, and drew in a deep breath. “How many know my story?” Several did, but several didn’t, and she told the men from Brotherhood Protectors, and the more she talked the more anger she saw on their faces. She only hoped it wasn’t directed at her.

“Wait,” Pru said. “You’re saying the asshat that cheated on you, caused you to wreck, who was fucking that woman while you were driving, who was sent to prison for life, his father is the new director of Duane’s old unit in the FBI?”

“Yes,” Hank and Duane said at the same time, and Hank joined Duane at the front again.

“After you guys returned from the meeting, Duane reached out to Jake to explain the situation.” He pointed and Jake Cogburn stepped forward.

“If you guys don’t know him, this is Jake Cogburn, he’s the director of the Fool’s Gold office.

” He saw everyone nod that they all knew him.

“Anyway, Jake did some digging, and he called me. I let my people do what they can, but sometimes certain cases need to be looked into further. That’s where I come in.

I have my fingers in several pies, and I can get information that others can’t. ”

“What information did you uncover?” Erin asked.

“The person Duane knows is Director George Grayson. The person that Ms. Miller recognized was George Babcock. I have people in Los Angeles, they were able to get me some DNA samples from Babcock, and I was able to run it against something someone gave me. I can’t and won’t disclose that information.

All you need to know is that it’s legitimate and it will stand up in a court of law. ”

“What was the findings?” Katherine asked.

“George Babcock and Director Grayson are the same person. With some more digging, it turns out that ‘Grayson’ was his grandmother’s maiden name, while ‘Babcock’ is his birth name.”

“Wait,” Katherine cried out in shock. “Are you saying that he’s posing as an FBI agent?”

“That’s what we think.”

“Remember when I said I was undercover for narcotics?” Duane asked then.

He didn’t wait for a response. “Since this happened, I reached out to others that had been pushed out, and it turns out that George Babcock and Larry Mason, both work for the FBI, but instead of arresting the drug dealers, they cut them a deal and are able to get drugs and money for themselves.” He shook his head and sighed heavily.

“I won’t get into the details, but I have feelers out for a certain lawyer that I think can take this on.

As far as I know, no one knows the correlation between Babcock and Grayson. ”

“Holy shit,” Adele said. “You’re saying that he’s using his connections as a director of the FBI to line his own pockets with cash, and get drugs to sell or use on his own, without paying the dealers?”

“That’s what we’re thinking. However, we don’t have all the information. It’s being gathered as we speak, and I have a feeling this will be a long time before it gets solved. In the meantime, we have a bigger problem.”

“What’s that?” everyone asked.

One of the men who stood from the side walked forward and set a laptop on the table.

Hank looked around, and then pointed to a wall.

“It’s distorted because of the background, but I think you can get the gist of this.

” He looked directly at Katherine. “I’m sorry.

” Then he pressed play. Three rotations of the film later, Katherine jumped to her feet.

“That’s a fucking lie!” Katherine screamed.

She shrugged off Caleb’s hand and planted her fisted hands on her hips.

“ I was found innocent in a court of law. It’s that scumbag’s son that was found guilty and is sitting in prison right now because of his crimes.

How can he announce on the national news that I’m a wanted fugitive for that accident? ”

Hank held up his hand and nodded. “I understand, we all do. That’s why we’re here, and why your mother is being protected up in Seattle.”

“What do you mean, why you’re here?” Caleb asked.

“I want to talk to the guys and gals who are former military and work out a strategy to keep Ms. Miller safe.”

“Katherine, my name is Katherine.”

“Okay, thank you for that, but I feel that if we work with the former military here, then we will be keeping you safe.”

“From my point of view,” Erin said as she rose and stood beside Katherine.

“Katherine is safe here. I know we’ll have to beef up security, and I’m not saying anything bad about it, but would you guys be willing to stay for Ryan and Pru’s wedding next weekend?

I have some bunktels you can stay in.” She turned to her brother with a raised brow. “They’re done, right?”

“Yes. The only thing I need to complete is grading the area, and bringing in the grass seed where it needs to be. I should be done by Thursday next week. On Friday, we’re moving the equipment over to the new ranch.”

Erin nodded and turned back to Hank. “You’re welcome to stay. We can give you all a tour so you can see how safe Broken is.”

“What’s broken?”

“A ranch within a ranch. Before we show you the area, you’ll have to come in to my office so I can give you a visual.”

“How much space are we talking about?”

Erin grinned and everyone saw Hank shudder. “Erin’s Way is three thousand acres, New Double is thirteen hundred, and the new ranch is five thousand.”

“Acres?”

“Yes, but you might want to know this.”

“What’s that?”

“There is no way to get to Broken from the outside. You have to go past here, Erin’s Way, or in from Broken Two.

If you’re not familiar with the area, there is no way for anyone to get to Broken.

Because of the wedding, I didn’t want any clients here, so we don’t have any extra people wandering around.

I can hold off getting them in here until Katherine is safe, and the only way that will be is when Grayson, Babcock, whatever his name is, is behind bars. ”

“Are you saying you’re landlocked here?”

“I am.”

“What lawyer are you looking into?” Katherine asked. “Not that I know of any, for my case, I used my mother’s boss.”

“Yes, and we’ll be working with him. I’m talking with someone that is high up on the food chain.”

“What’s that mean?” Caleb asked.

Duane stepped forward and looked directly at Clark. “Delta team, what do you remember of Jason Black?” At their scowls, confused looks, and shakes of their heads, he looked at Hank with a grin.

“Lawyer, DOD.” They still looked confused and he nodded. “Operation Gold Rush.” That got a response from them, and they jumped to their feet.

“Are you shitting me?” Ryan demanded. “You got Black to help with this?”

“Yes, through my connections with the FBI, I went out of the state of California. Both Hank and I have high ranking friends in DC. Our connections put us in Black’s sights.

He reached out to us. He’s in the process of retiring from the DOD.

He knows what we do, and while still in DC, he’s going to be doing some research.

I’m not saying this is going to be completed overnight, or next week. It’s going to take time.”

“Get all our ducks in a row, then slowly pick them off one by one?” Katherine asked, and shrugged when the others turned to look at her.

“What? We get our ducks in a row, and then we can go after that asshole and lay our cards on the table, one-by-one we pick off his lies with our documented proof.” She looked at Duane with a scowl. “Do you have copies of my court case?”

“Yes,” Hank answered. “We’re finding that some documents aren’t adding up, there are things changed and thankfully, when your lawyer did your case he made three copies of everything.

He stored them around the city, and I have a copy of everything at my office in Montana.

When Black can get free, he’ll go over everything. ”

“Are you saying the asshole fudged official documents?”

“Yes.”

“Wait, what’s DOD?” Caleb asked.

“Department of Defense,” Ryan answered. “It means that he works for the military. He’s one of the highest-ranking lawyers in the country.”

“Ah, so he can oversee the FBI?”

“Correct.” They all nodded, and with nothing more to say at the time, they broke to grab some lunch, and it was Erin that took Hank to her office and showed him the map on the wall where everything was divided.

“You’re okay to have Katherine stay here?” he asked at one point.

“Yes, you’ll understand when you tour, but if need be, we can even go get a camper and put her across the road at the other ranch.”

It was hours later, when Hank and the men returned to Erin’s Way that he was satisfied that Katherine would be safe right where she was, and he even took Erin up on the offer to stay in the bunktels.

However, they opted to go home, get their partners, and any children to come back to be there for the wedding the following weekend.