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She eyed the dark circles under the detective’s brown eyes.
“I caught a few hours this morning, but yeah, not much,” he answered. “This Carson case blew up into something much bigger.” Patrick then made eye contact with Gene, Amanda, then Jo. “Nothing I tell you leaves this room until GBI makes an official statement, you understand?”
“GBI? The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is involved now?”
Gene straightened in surprise.
“Yes, we had to loop them in,” Patrick said. “I’m telling you what’s going on because we wouldn’t have stumbled on this if it weren’t for you and Amanda. But I need your discretion. I know the town is abuzz with speculation about the Carsons.”
“Yeah, people have been coming in almost non-stop trying to get something out of Amanda,” Jo said.
“I told them nothing. Just that we should respect the family’s privacy,” Amanda assured.
Patrick nodded. “As it turns out, the Carsons were being used. Well, not the Carsons themselves, but their business. Holly D’Beech, Pete Carson’s Chief Operating Officer, was deeply involved with a drug cartel which had been using the Carsons’ car transports to run their products all over the state. They came through the port in Savannah with their imported cars to their headquarters in Gainesville before being distributed to their other branches.”
“Holy shit,” Jo exclaimed, her eyes huge with shock.
“When he woke up from his surgery last night, Pete Carson gave us a detailed account of what happened,” Patrick continued. “He started getting suspicious about the timing of the transport arrivals. Miss D’Beech scheduled some of them at odd hours. He didn’t catch on until only a few weeks ago.”
“That’s crazy,” Gene said.
“Tell me about it,” Patrick agreed. “The guy we caught spilled about the incoming transport. We looped in GBI, and they intercepted it. It was one of the top ten biggest drug busts they had this year.”
Amanda couldn’t say anything. Her mouth just hung open in disbelief.
“Why did Holly D’Beech get involved with a drug operation?” Gene asked. “You’d think she made enough money being the COO of one of the biggest car dealers in the state.”
“This is yet to be proven, but based on the call logs and messages on the burner phone we found on her, she might be romantically involved with someone in the cartel. Either they manipulated her into helping them, or she could be the head of the operation. Who knows at this point? She can’t speak for herself, so now it’s all conjecture based on the other guy’s testimony and the evidence we have. Once GBI unravels this distribution ring, maybe we’ll learn more,” Patrick finished.
“Wow,” Amanda finally said. She sighed heavily. “I’m just glad the children didn’t get caught deeper in that craziness. And you stopped drugs from further infecting our state.”
“Thanks to you.” Patrick gave Amanda a nod of respect.
Gene held Patrick back as their group filed out of the kitchen and let the ladies go ahead of them.
“Hey, thanks for updating us,” he told his friend. “We know you didn’t have to.”
“I think you and Amanda deserve to know what your search unraveled,” Patrick said.
“Crazy, huh?” Gene said, but pivoted. “I was wondering about you. How are you doing?”
When Patrick only lifted an eyebrow in question, Gene added, “I put two and two together, and I know you had to take a life yesterday.”
Patrick inhaled deeply as he gave a slight nod.
“I’m handling it, Gene. Thanks for asking.”
“You know I’m here if you need to talk, right?” Gene offered.
Patrick gave him a solemn smile and reached out his hand for a shake. “Much appreciated, brother. I could use a beer tonight if you were free, but it looks you’re quite occupied these days.”
Patrick gestured with his head toward Amanda’s back and lifted his eyebrows twice to tease Gene.
Gene chuckled. “I can always make time for a beer with a friend.”
“Amanda,” someone called. “There you are. Thank god!”
Gene and Patrick turned their attention to the voice. A man with light brown hair, broad muscled shoulders, and a big smile on his face rushed to Amanda.
