Page 30 of Protected By Him

I returned his stare, scanning his face. Trying to find anything that made me feel like I could trust him. Although he had this tough guy persona on the outside, his eyes were gentle. I decided to go with my instincts.

"Well," I hesitantly began, "it all started with a conversation I overhead between someone and Harvey. They were talking about Harvey owing someone money." I stopped for a moment to see if I could read what he was thinking.

His face was a blank mask, but he was listening intently, so I continued, "Then, I found fudged expense reports, and I thought maybe Mr. Harvey was embezzling from Prime Media. Maybe even to pay back whoever he owes money to. But I have a gut feeling this runs deeper than embezzling money through bogus credit card charges." At the last moment, I decided not to mention that’d I spoken to the FBI or given them the expense reports.

He was quiet. I watched several emotions flicker across his face before he finally spoke.

"I am going to tell you all you need to know," Holston said, face hardening like stone. "But promise me that you're going to nail those bastards. I don’t trust anyone in law enforcement to do the job. Wilkins’ reach is too far. Promise me you’ll go public with what I tell you, so they’ll have no choice but to arrest them." He looked at me as if I was his only hope.

My head started spinning. I hadn't expected him to be so forth coming. I knew Wilkins was powerful in Boston, but Holston didn’t think he could trust the FBI either?

He leaned back again and continued, "He has my hands tied. I don’t have any proof of what he’s done, just what I saw with my own eyes. When I confronted him with what I knew, he threatened my career and my family. That is a gamble I am not willing to take." He looked defeated, like he had been battling good and evil for longer than he could stand.

"In my line of work, if something happened to my family, Wilkins could make it look like it was someone I was investigating. He can’t do that with you." His tone was intense, almost desperate. "I can make sure you have what you need to put these bastards behind bars, but you have to tell the story."

"But what about my family?" I knew the fear was written all over my face.

He softened his ridged look and touched my hand, as if he was reassuring me. "He won't touch you. It would be too obvious. However, if he has caught wind of you poking around, he may already have a hit on you to eliminate the problem before he can be exposed."

I thought again about the night I had been followed. "I think he has already. Someone followed me home the other night." I could hear the tremble in my voice. "I was able to escape, but they wrecked my apartment."

"You need to lay low, make sure you are paying attention to all of your surroundings," he said.

"I understand," I said softly. “So, what do I need to know?"

Holston took a deep breath and let it out. "About eight months ago, we seized a lot of cash and cocaine in a drug bust. We normally have certain procedures we have to go through when things like that happen." I noticed he wasn’t looking at me but flicking his pen against the table, like he was lost in his memories of that day.

"Well," he continued, "we did a rough count of the money and estimated the weight of the drugs as we gathered it for evidence. Normally, hauls that big would be taken to a secure location, separate from the normal evidence lockers we use for smaller busts. When I went to look over the evidence a couple days later, I noticed some pretty big discrepancies between what we’d collected on site and what had made it to the evidence lockdown. So, I looked at the collection reports and saw that they’d been altered. The final count was several kilograms of cocaine and nearly fifteen thousand dollars less than what we’d originally collected. So, I went to the chief to tell him about the discrepancies." He stopped flicking his pen and looked up at me.

"As I approached the chief’s office, I overheard him talking to Prime Media’s CEO, James Harvey. I heard Harvey ask the chief about the raid, something he should never have even known about. The chief said he’d thought they’d gotten what they needed from the raid, but there was an issue with the drugs."

I interrupted, "They’re stealing drugs from evidence and selling them?" I felt like the breath had been knocked out of me. I’d never expected it to be this big.

"Yes," he continued. "But according to the chief, the cocaine they’d stolen wasn’t clean. The gang we’d seized it from had a reputation for lacing their product with some nasty fillers. Harvey freaked out and started yelling at Chief Wilkins. I couldn’t really make out what he was saying, but it sounded like he was afraid of how their buyer was going to react. He stormed out of the office a minute later."

My eyes were wide in disbelief. I wished Leo was here with me, so I could see his reaction. I knew he could hear everything though, and I was certain he’d have plenty to say when I got back to the car.

"Okay," I said, "go on."

"After Harvey stormed out, the chief saw me in the hallway," Holston said, a dark look crossing his face.

I slowly took a deep breath and exhaled. "Did you confront him?” I asked.

"He called me into his office. Before I could say a word, he made it very clear that it would be best if I minded my own business. Long story short, I found myself resigning within a couple of days, and my family's life threatened if I didn’t keep my mouth shut. Wilkins has so many connections high up in law enforcement, I figured there was no one I could trust anyway.”

I leaned forward in my chair. "I promise to tell this story, Sergeant. But once I’ve exposed their scheme, the FBI will need to talk to you. Are you willing to help them?”

Holston thought carefully for a moment. “I was happy to keep quiet when I thought I was the only one onto them. I can’t risk my family. But now that they’re threatening others and the FBI is paying attention, I’ll agree to testify, but only if the feds are certain they can get a conviction.” He sighed then stood and walked to his desk. “I managed to make copies of the altered evidence logs before I left the department. You can have them.” He pulled a file from a desk drawer and brought it to me.

This was so much more than I had hoped for when I’d come here. I was breathless as I stood and offered him my hand. “Thank you for this, Sergeant Holston. I think I have what I need. Mr. Harvey and the chief are two men who have been getting away with far too much for far too long. I’ll tell this story, then pass along what you’ve told me and these logs to the FBI. I won’t stop until it’s over."

Sergeant Holston shook my hand and extended his arm toward the door, as if he would see me out. "Once this hits the media, it will ruin them both." He trailed me to the office door. "Just be careful. Stick close to those you trust but stay alert."

"Yes sir, I understand."

Chapter Fifteen

Leo

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