Under the Marshal's Protection. Kathleen Tailer

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СКАЧАТЬ right, Marshal. I’ll pack a bag.” She grimaced, the full impact of his words weighing heavy on her mind. “How long should I plan on being away from my house?”

      “Figure four or five days or so for now. If we need to, we’ll find a washing machine somewhere.” Dominic stepped back, looking relieved that she had agreed to work with him. He stood over her shoulder, watching her pack a duffle bag as if he expected her to change her mind at any moment and run. Well, if that was what he expected, he was in for a surprise. If the marshal was going to bring her brother in, then she wasn’t going to let anything stop her from being by his side when it happened. Michael was going to live through this. She’d make sure of it.

      And she’d work with whoever she had to in order to make it happen.

      THREE

      “So where is this safe house of yours?” Jessica asked quietly. Dominic was relieved to hear her speak. They had been driving for almost twenty minutes, but she hadn’t said a word since they left her house. Her hands had been constantly in motion, however, and he’d seen her move a small, silver ring from finger to finger at least a dozen times.

      “We’re almost there,” he assured her. “And in case you’re wondering, you’re doing the right thing.”

      She glanced out the window again, then turned and looked thoughtfully at the deputy. “I hope you’re right.” She bit her bottom lip. “What do you know about Michael? Tell me more about what he’s gotten himself into.”

      Dominic straightened. “The charges against him are interstate counterfeiting medicine and conspiracy.”

      Jessica sighed heavily. “And you said all this happened in Atlanta?”

      “That’s right.” Jessica winced and touched the sore on her head again. “But you said you were a U.S. Marshal. Why is a marshal interested in Michael? I thought you guys took care of the witness protection program and courthouse security, that kind of thing.”

      Dominic nodded. “We do those things, but we also collaborate with the FBI and other governmental agencies on certain cases and track down interstate fugitives. Michael was able to arrange a bond, but then he disappeared. We want him back.”

      “Well, what does counterfeiting medicine actually mean? I’ve never heard of that type of crime.”

      “It can mean a lot of different things. In this case, Michael has been working for a pharmaceutical company named Coastal Pharmaceuticals for about the last two years. Coastal owns several pharmacies in and around Atlanta, but they are also one of the major distributors in the business, and they supply medicines throughout the eastern seaboard. Apparently someone at Coastal has been diluting medicines, repackaging them and then selling the new bottles for profit.”

      “And the FBI thinks Michael is responsible?”

      “If he isn’t, then he knows who is,” Dominic answered, his tone matter-of-fact. The district attorney had indicted four men in the Coastal case. Their first arrest had been Don Levine, a former Coastal employee, and when squeezed, Levine had pointed to Michael, Ross Kelley, who was Coastal’s CEO, and Jeff Martin, Kelley’s right-hand man, as the three other conspirators. A few days after the indictments had been handed down, Levine had been viciously murdered. Although the marshals didn’t suspect Michael for the murder, they did believe that he had been a major player in the counterfeiting, just as Levine had suggested. The district attorney had leaned heavily on Levine’s testimony for the indictments, and without him, the AG wasn’t sure he could convict the other players. When Michael had been arrested, he had refused to talk to the feds, but when he had disappeared after he had bonded out of jail, rumor had it that he had disappeared with a computer disk filled with scans of paperwork that laid out the whole operation. That same disk and Michael’s testimony could very well be the proof the FBI needed to reestablish their case and break up the counterfeiting ring once and for all.

      Jessica shifted, frowning. “But Michael could be innocent, right?”

      Dominic gave her a small smile at her hopeful tone. He could well understand why Michael’s sister would want to defend him. She loved her brother. It was as simple as that. “We’ll know for sure once we talk to him, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.”

      Jessica took a deep breath and wrung her hands. “Did anybody get hurt because of the bad medicine?” She stilled, waiting for his answer, looking incredibly afraid of what she would hear next.

      “There was a boy who was hospitalized because of the switch, but so far, we’re not aware of any fatalities. We don’t know how much of the counterfeited medicine was distributed though, which is another reason why we need to talk to your brother. We need to find all of the diluted medicine that made it into the market before it does kill someone.”

      Jessica sighed with relief, but seemed to still be reeling from the magnitude of what Michael had gotten himself into. She pulled the silver ring off of her right hand and slipped it on to her left. “I doubt my brother could pull something like this off all by himself.”

      “I happen to agree with you, and so does the FBI, but like I said, we need to talk to Michael to discover the facts and find out the full extent of his involvement. We think Michael knows a lot of valuable information that could help us with our investigation of Coastal. He could very well end up being our key witness at trial if he cooperates.”

      “I can’t believe he would be involved in something like this,” Jessica said quietly, then slumped in her seat as the full implication of the deputy’s words hit her. She closed her eyes and sighed heavily, then her eyes popped back open as a new thought occurred to her. “So why are you looking for him instead of a bail bondsman?”

      Dominic shrugged. “The bondsman is probably looking for him too, but we do our own manhunts. Like I said, Michael could easily turn out to be the key witness in the investigation.”

      She raised her eyebrow, obviously churning all of this new information over and over in her mind. “Coastal is a legitimate company, right?”

      “It appears to be from the outside, but we need to talk to Michael to see just how far inside the conspiracy has spread. Right now, it seems like there are only a few major players that are actually involved with the counterfeiting and distribution.” He paused. “I know hearing all of this must be hard to swallow, but there is a lot more to it that I’m not at liberty to discuss.” Don Levine’s murder weighed heavily on Dominic’s mind. The marshals were convinced that Ross Kelley at Coastal was the mastermind behind the whole scheme, and that Kelley had ordered Levine’s death to protect himself once the counterfeited drugs had been discovered. If Kelley was silencing everyone who could testify against him, then Michael was definitely next on the list.

      Dominic was also concerned about the mystery surrounding Levine’s murder. Levine had been under police protection, yet he had still been viciously killed. How had the murderer gotten past the security detail? The case was still being investigated, but no matter what the result, the bottom line was that they needed to find Michael fast, for his sake, and to save their case against Coastal.

      Dominic let the silence ensue for a moment, then stopped at a red light and turned toward his passenger. “So when was the last time you saw Michael?”

      Jessica looked up and narrowed her eyes, apparently acutely aware that he had finished answering her questions and was now ready with some of his own. “It’s been about a year, I guess.”

      The light changed СКАЧАТЬ