AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This is Grover Anderson.” Grover’s familiar foghorn voice boomed.
“Grover, it’s Ryan Hayes.” He hurriedly pulled the phone away from his ear before Grover could respond.
“Hayes, how’ve you been?”
“Pretty good, Grover. Did you hear about Nat?”
Grover’s upbeat tone shifted to a mournful one. “It’s a hell of a thing.”
“I just found out. I guess word travels slowly to the private sector.”
“I only know because I was a fixture at that bar back in the day. The owner called me after it happened. Who’d have thought that Nat, of all people, would drink so much he couldn’t walk.”
Ryan drew his eyebrows together. “Wait, the bar owner told you Nat was hammered?”
“Yep, blotto. I never knew him to be a big drinker.” Grover sighed. “I guess people change.”
“I guess so,” Ryan said in a dubious voice. “Anyway, I’m on the Eastern Shore with a … friend. Could we stop by for a visit?”
“A friend, eh?”
“You remember Omar? It’s his sister.”
“Ah, the lovely Leilah. Of course, of course, you’re both welcome. I’ll open a bottle of brandy. It’s funny. I was just thinking of you.”
“Why’s that?”
“Got a visit from some suits.”
“DEA?”
“How’d you guess? Did they come to see you, too?”
“Uh, I heard they were at my office, but I was out of town on another matter. What did they want?”
“To ask me about the Cortez case.”
“Cortez?”
“You remember, it’s the last case you, Natsuo, and I all worked on together.”
“Yeah, I remember. What about it?”
Grover hesitated. “I’m not sure. I got a vibe, as the kids say, so I shut the conversation down. On their way out, they asked if I had any copies of the case files in the house.”
Ryan grimaced. Grover was old-school. He kept physical copies of everything—just in case the entire interconnected Web up and failed someday. And if anyone was going to waltz out of the Justice Department with confidential files, it would be Grover Anderson.
“I told them I did not have any files in my house.” Grover enunciated each word as if Ryan were supposed to divine a secret message.
“Uh, okay,” Ryan said, having divined no messages.
“We can talk more about Cortez in person. Not on the phone.”
“Understood. We’ll see you in about an hour.”
“Wonderful. And Ryan?”
“Yeah?”
