Page 47 of Astrid
“Their speech, Paul kept saying ‘eh’, all the time. I know that’s not much to go on, but we say yeah, not eh.”
Tom and Morgan nodded, then Tom looked at his watch before he climbed into the driver’s seat looking back at Morgan. “Twenty minutes.”
“Got it,” Morgan waved and stood back as Tom left with the women. She walked over to the truck, unlocked it, and climbed inside. She sat there impatiently for her twenty minutes then started the truck and headed to town, directly to the police station.
CHAPTER21
When Tom escortedAstrid and the others into the police station, due to its small size, the men were sitting on a bench, and as soon as the women entered, Griff jumped to his feet and tried to rush toward her, but one of the other police officers held up his hand to stop him.
“She has nothing to do with this,” Griff stressed. “Please, don’t punish them.”
“I’m not,” Tom said as he began unlocking the handcuffs around the wrists of the women. Once he did all three of them, he turned to the other police officers and nodded. “I’ll take it from here.” The other officers quickly left, and Tom removed the cuffs from the three men.
“I trust you not to do anything stupid,” he said as he removed them. They all looked up when the door opened, and Astrid recognized Carl Miller as he strolled into the station with a briefcase, whistling.
“Ladies,” he said to the three women, and made his way over to the coffee maker, after starting a fresh pot, he looked around and frowned. “No Morgan?”
“On her way,” Tom said, and began bringing chairs over, so everyone would have a seat. As he did, he began to talk to the men. “We’re going to be doing something a little different here. We’re waiting for one more person to arrive, then we can get started.”
“Are we under arrest?” Paul asked with a frown on his face.
“Nope,” both Tom and Carl said. They looked up when the door opened, and Morgan walked in. “Lock the door,” Tom called out to her, and by the time she did that the coffee was done, and Carl began gathering cups, as he filled them, Joyce and Ava began passing them out, while Astrid gathered up the creamer and sugar, spoons, and napkins, and set them up on the table. The men were asked to sit there, and as soon as everyone was situation, Tom looked at Astrid.
“I’ll let you start.”
Astrid drew in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “My name is Astrid Montoya, and I’m an agent,” she paused and looked at Morgan. “We are agents, right?”
Morgan grinned, and shrugged. “Agent, operative, employee, whatever you prefer.”
Astrid looked at Joyce and Ava, and they grinned as they admitted they liked the label of agent. “Okay then,” Astrid continued. “I’m Astrid, and these are my co-workers, Joyce Rizzo, and Ava Hanson. We work for Boswell Group, and our boss is Morgan.” Astrid pointed to her and then turned to Carl, who leaned up on his hip and withdrew his badge.
“We need those,” the women told Morgan with a grin.
“I’m Carl Miller and I’m an agent with BCI here in North Dakota. In case you don’t know, that stands for the Bureau of Criminal Investigations. We do everything we can at the state level, unless we need federal help. Only then will we bring in the FBI, otherwise we are the highest state level of law enforcement.”
“I’m Tom Erwin, the local county sheriff.” He looked around the table, then leaned forward on his forearms and looked at everyone, then directly at the men. “We won’t beat around the bush here, we know you’re cops, what we don’t know is if you’re good, bad, undercover, on the take, or what. We brought you in on the open warrants associated to your names, but I have a gut feeling they are bogus charges. That’s why you’re here.”
Astrid had been studying them, and as she and the others talked, she saw nothing but relief come across their faces. She leaned forward, and after cradling her coffee mug in her hands, she asked, “What agency are you guys with?” As she studied them, she shook her head. “Don’t bother lying to us, Tom ran your prints. I got them off the paper you gave me your phone number on. He was also able to get your DNA from the napkins from the restaurant we saw each other in.”
“Damn, just who are you people?” Griff asked. “We’ve been here for six months, and haven’t been able to get jack shit on anyone. Pardon my language, but I understand Mr. Erwin’s job, as well as Mr. Miller’s but who are you women? I’ve never heard of Boswell Group, and I researched this area for a year before our superiors allowed us to come down and investigate.”
“Come down?” Astrid asked, ignoring the rest of the questions.
“My name is Griffin Lee, just like Sheriff Erwin said when he arrested me. I have dual citizenship from here in America and Canada.”
“How’s that possible?” Ava asked as she opened the cola Tom had provided for her.
Griff grinned, then settled back in his chair, like he was about to tell them a story. “My mother was born and raised in Canada. One summer while on holiday here in America, she met my father. To cut to the chase, they fell in love, and traveled back and forth for two years while they dated. After they married they lived here in the States, and they were headed to Canada to live there permanently when I was born literally at the border. Because of the unusual circumstances of my birth, I was granted dual citizenship. Since the age of five to fifteen, I came back to the States to visit with Dad’s parents for the summer.”
“Why did you stop coming at age fifteen?” Astrid asked as she settled back to listen.
“They passed, and I didn’t have any more family here, so I never came back. Stayed up in Alberta and lived my life. To answer your question, yes, I am a cop. I work out of Alberta, and my boss sent me here along with Paul and Harry to investigate a rash of unusual events.”
“How unusual?” Morgan asked, then shook her head. “Sorry, what about you two?”
“I’m Paul Girard, and I too am a cop. However, I’m one hundred precent Canadian. In my regular job, I am an undercover narcotics cop.”
“I’m Harry Walsh,” Harry began. “And that’s my real name, Harry is not short for Harold. I too am Canadian. I’m a supervisor in the vice department with the RMCP, also from Alberta.”
