Page 93 of Rules of Engagement

"Why wouldn't he talk if only to save himself?" I asked.

Garrett shrugged. "My guess is he's scared of whomever is above him on the ladder."

"We might never catch this guy," said Damien.

"Or we could wait for another attempt. Lay a trap?" suggested Garrett.

"I don't want to use Solomon as bait," I said as Garrett's phone rang. He answered it, then passed it to me.

"I have some information on Mooch," said Lucas. "He gets a lot of phone calls from a burner phone in Bedford Hills. I triangulated the location and compared it to the registered owners in the area and came up with one guy who has a connection to the Niners."

"That sounds like the boss! He lives in that area." I put Lucas on speaker so I wouldn't have to repeat the conversation play-by-play.

"Yeah? Okay, well Grant Copley called Mooch three times two days before Solomon was shot. They spoke for ten minutes, five minutes, then fifteen minutes. I also did a search on Mooch's vehicle. He bought an expensive motorcycle a year ago and he's been paying it off every month. At the same time he was getting those calls from the boss, his motorcycle loan was coincidentally paid off by a corporation, which I traced back to Copley Imports."

"That sounds like a payoff."

"That's what I thought too. There's more," said Lucas, excitement edging into his voice. "I looked for cameras in the area and all the times the calls were made. There's camera footage of Mooch giving a package to Mikey the day before the shooting. It's small and square."

"A gun?"

"That's my guess. I dug around a little bit into Mooch's background and he's not exactly a spontaneous creature. Mostly, he's at the bar or the auto bodyshop down the street, or he’s at home. He doesn't socialize very often but he definitely speaks to Grant Copley every few days, or to a Gerard Copley. I looked into Grant Copley and it turns out he owns the bar and the bodyshop as well as a bunch of other places around town. Officially, he's the landlord and all of his taxes look legit, but I noticed an anomaly on the financials regarding one building. It looks like it's fully leased, but I know the building has been empty for years. There're a ton of payments being put through every month, like rents and maintenance costs. I dug deeper. There's another building in Boston that has the same basic scenario."

"That could be how they’re laundering the drug money," I said, sitting up straighter. "That’s great work, Lucas."

"I have more on the buildings and the taxes, but I'm not the finance man. There're some photos too. Maybe you'll recognize one of them as the guy who shot at you. I think Special Agent Maddox should take a look at their financial papers. It's part of his his expertise."

"I'll get him to pick it up —" I paused as Garrett shook his head. "What's up?" I asked him.

"Maddox is in just as much danger now as you, since he's a witness too," said Garrett.

"I'll go," said Damien. "No one knows who I am."

"Damien Solomon is coming over to pick up the file," I said.

"Okay."

Garrett motioned with his head for Damien to go and he did, promising to return quickly.

"He's on his way." I looked up from the phone at the sound of a loud commotion before the same officer from earlier ducked his head into the office. "There's a delivery," he said, looking like he didn't know whether to laugh or apologize.

"Do I need to sign for it or something?" asked Garrett.

"Or something. It's in front of the building. You need to come and see it!"

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