Page 164 of Maddy's Justice

“What’s new here?” Marc asked from the back seat of Carvelli’s rental; Marc and Maddy were sitting so close together they were almost one person. Carvelli was chauffeuring.

“Not much,” Carvelli said. “No one’s talking, yet. They’re all lawyered up…”

“So are the ones in Minneapolis,” Marc interjected.

“…and looking to make deals.”

“What happened to Melanie?” Maddy asked.

“She’s fine. She’ll make out just fine. Connie and I saw her when we went downtown. We were thoroughly questioned by the Feds.”

“You said,” Maddy replied.

“Yeah. Anyway, we convinced them we only handled the civil case and hid behind privilege to avoid giving up anything so we could stay out of trouble.”

“What’s gonna happen with the civil case?” Carvelli asked.

“Probably nothing. If Quinn wants to pursue it, she can, but get in line. There will be a long line of creditors ahead of them. We had an agreement to settle it, but it was never formalized. They’re probably not going to get a dime,” Marc said. “Connie and I are still owed about thirty-five grand between us. We’ll file a claim but by the time this mess gets straightened out, how much of it we get, well, not much, I’m sure.”

“What’s happening with the firm?”

“It’s in receivership or something. I don’t know. Everything’s frozen until they can figure out how much of the assets are legitimate legal fees and how much are the ill-gotten gains of the criminal enterprise.”

“Are you going to represent someone in it?” Maddy asked.

“No and I don’t want to, and I probably can’t. Likely some kind of conflict of interest. I’m not interested anyway. I hope they all die in prison. Unless Melanie gets charged with something. I don’t think so, though. She gave them the counting room on the thirty-eighth floor. I think the Feds know she wasn’t involved.

“This is going to be a big RICO case. It’ll take years to sort all of this out. No thanks.”

“We have to take you downtown. The Feds want a word,” Carvelli said.

“I know, Maddy told me. What do they want?”

“Don’t know,” Carvelli said.

“Where’s Labelle?” Marc asked.

“Up to his ass in alligators,” Carvelli said. “Tell him about the driver.”

“What driver?” Marc asked.

“Do you remember a guy by the name of Alan Dale?” Maddy asked.

“No, who is he?”

“Labelle’s driver and bodyguard. After Roger was murdered, they came after James. Alan Dale saved his life,” Maddy answered.

“Okay, that’s his job.”

“Right, he’s also an undercover FBI agent.”

The conference room door opened, and Paxton came in with a man. The man greeted Maddy and Carvelli while Paxton hugged Marc.

“Marc, this is Special Agent Patrick Boies of the FBI.

They shook hands as Paxton continued. “Agent Boies is also known as Alan Dale, a very reputable driver and fearless bodyguard.”

Seated, Boies said, “Your friends here convinced me to tell you a bit about what happened. We’ve been running a task force with the DEA and a few locals here and a couple other cities on a drug smuggling and money-laundering operation.

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