Page 38 of Jason's Justice
“Yes, as best we can tell. I’m waiting to see if Hank can get a court order to look into Larry Mason’s financials, along with Grayson’s.”
“Let me work on that,” Jason spoke for the first time and began taking notes. He looked up with a nod. “I’ll let you know in a few days. With Christmas next week, I don’t know if we can get one before then.”
“No problem. I feel as long as Grayson doesn’t know we’re looking into him, it’s not hurting anyone.”
“That still doesn’t answer why Royal went after Erin,” Pru said in frustration. “Why move to Fool’s Gold to begin with?”
“Ego.”
“Excuse me?”
“I went to visit Royal in jail. I asked him directly why he targeted Erin.”
“What was his answer?” Erin asked coldly.
“At first, he wasn’t after you personally. He had been passing through the area, stopped down to Mattie’s diner, and overheard several people talking about Erin’s Way. He looked you up online. I don’t know if you know this, but Royal had an entitledattitude. He felt that if he wanted something, then all he had to do was throw money around and he could have it. That everyone would give in to him if the price was right. One, you were a woman and didn’t cower in front of him. Two, you didn’t do what he wanted. Three, you knew more about horses than he did. That was the ego thing. When you told him that he couldn’t breed his horse again after giving birth only three months prior, he became obsessed with proving you wrong. He went to Grayson for more money. This next part is where it gets fuzzy.”
“How?” Clark demanded, then shook his head. “Sorry.”
“No, don’t be. But we believe, but can’t confirm until we get the court order to go through their financials, but it’s believed that the gang bangers Grayson shook down for money, and drugs, or had them sell them for him and not themselves, that money was given to Royal. His past work history was spotty at best. We also believe that Grayson somehow was able to fudge his past so that whenever anyone did a background check on him, he came up smelling like roses.”
“I can look into that,” Duane spoke. “I have a computer with special hardware that no one will know I’m looking.”
“Good, then you’re going to want to do a deep dive into these four people then. Royal did admit to me that he figured with his wealth, and attitude, then he could take Erin’s Way from Erin because she was only a mindless female that needed to be told what to do because she couldn’t think for herself. I’ll admit I burst out laughing and asked him how that worked out for him, since he sat there before me in drab, dark green prison garb.”
“What did he say?” Erin asked with a smirk of her own.
“That it was just a setback of him being in jail. He had friends in high places that would get him out, and when he was exonerated from all charges, and the felony charges wiped off his record, he would be the owner of Erin’s Way and Erin would be licking his boots every day, grateful to him just to be alive.”
“Overmydead body!” Reid called out as he glared at Jake.
“Yeah, I figured you’d say something like that. I didn’t say anything to Royal, but I did chuckle. When I left the visitation room, we were seated across from each other with glass between us, and we talked via phone. I told the guard that I wanted a copy of that conversation. He nodded, made a note of it, but I would feel better if we had a warrant to cover our own asses.”
“I’ll work on it,” Jason said as he wrote again.
“That guy sounds like Michael,” Katherine said into the silence, and shrugged when everyone turned to look at her. “He had the same entitled attitude.”
“Like Mom did,” Caleb said, and both Ryan and Kevin snorted a laugh. That broke the mounting tension in the room, until Denver spoke,
“Will all of this in information be able to be used against PITA when he goes to court?”
“Yes,” Jason answered. He looked up at everyone, then settled his eyes on Erin. “Ilsa, Kevin, and myself will be leaving here on January tenth to go to California. We will be staying in Ilsa’s home. Within two weeks of arriving, we will have the arrests against Grayson and his goons made.” He looked around and nodded when he saw the look of concern on Katherine’s face. “Larry Mason will be arrested where he is, but he will remain off the grid until it gets closer to the trial. We don’t need him to come up missing.”
“I agree with that,” she said. “What about Michael?”
“What about him?”
“Do you think you should take Pru’s advice and send someone there to talk with him once the arrests are made? I know he worked for Babcock, I didn’t know him as Grayson. He said he was working his way up the chain of command and he was adamant that within two years, he would be in charge of something big. I’m sorry to say that now I didn’t really payattention to him when he boasted about his side job, because that’s what it was, a side job, he had a regular nine to five, and did this after hours.”
“If you remember anything else, could you write it down?” Jason asked. Then nodded. “Yes, I am going to go see Michael myself once the arrests are made and I’m hoping they won’t get bail. If they don’t, then I’ll go tell him to be ready for a roommate, you know, twist the knife, hoping he might spill something.”
“I understand.”
“Oh, and in case you didn’t catch that,Iwill be the one there telling the judge they don’t deserve bail, and I will also be arresting the gang members at the same time.”
“Christ,” Ryan said with a shake of his head. “Who will be making the arrests? If you’re taking out local gang bangers, and the FBI, who is going to be slapping the cuffs on those agents?”
“Since I have the President’s ear, I’m going to ask that all of you get sworn in. If Erin can spare you, I’d like for the former Delta team, and Duane to accompany us to California to be sworn in by ATF and DEA. I’m not saying you’ll actually handle the cuffing, but I would feel better if you guys were in the background waiting with a sniper rifle.”
