The Trees Beyond the Grass (A Cole Mouzon Thriller) by Robert Reeves Page B

Mexico. Damn those people are detailed . It had been one of the most difficult and prolonged admissions he had gone through, and he had been through ample, with four states already under his belt. His clients were all over and they didn’t want to use anyone but him. It was flattering and good for the wallet, but getting admitted to any state was a pain, with background checks, credit checks, and all sorts of checks. New Mexico had all but asked for a cavity search.
    “Awh, Jackie, that’s just in relation to me getting licensed in New Mexico. They’ve been calling every place I’ve lived, worked, and obviously now been born, in the past few weeks as part of my application.”
    “No Cole. This was an FBI investigator, not some bar association. He was looking for you. Detective Phil Betrous over in Charleston put him in contact with me. Agent Leas?” She paused on the line as if to see if Cole would respond. Hearing no response, she continued. “I told him you didn’t live here anymore, that you lived out in Denver. He said he knew that but he also knew you were in town. He refused to tell me why he needed to talk to you, just saying I needed to get you in touch with him, pronto.”
    “You think one of my old criminal clients has gone crazy?”
    “Cole, don’t joke about such things. Georgia is just a hundred miles away to Savannah and if one of your crazies comes here looking for you, the only person he is going to meet is my friend Mr. Glock 21.”
    Cole regretted the guy that pissed off his sister now. She had always been tough, and if she hadn’t been in love, she would have introduced her ex-husband to Mr. Glock. But she was, and she didn’t. After, she was stronger than ever, with a splash of attitude in there that made her dangerous.
    Cole chuckled. “Okay there Dirty Harry, I’m sure whatever it is it isn’t serious. How did he know I was here? I’ll call this when I hang up. I bet he called my office this morning. They wouldn’t have seen it as serious. The FBI calls me frequently on my cases and I use ex-FBI agents on occasions as investigators. But this is clearly different. Those guys don’t fly cross-country to give me a surveillance report.” The puzzled look returned to his face.
    “Give me his information and I’ll call him tonight or in the morning.” Cole was concerned but didn’t want his sister to worry. He assured himself that whatever the FBI wanted it was nothing big and didn’t directly involve him. It likely was one of his crazy criminal clients back in Douglas County, or so he chose to believe until he heard otherwise.
    Moments after getting off the phone with his sister, he called the number she had given him. Damn voicemail . He left a message and tried to forget it. He was on vacation and didn’t want to deal with whatever the FBI wanted.
     

CHAPTER 22
    Day six-ninety.
    AS WITH THE LAST thirty days or so, the dream had come, waking Cole in the middle of the night. The morning routine that followed was the same. Slowly he forced the wall to go up while staring at himself in the hotel bathroom’s black-framed mirror to create the facade of having it together.
    Seated in the passenger side of Cole’s rental Ann waved her hand across her bare legs. “Can I just tell you, I am so in need of this beach day. I mean, look at me…ghost!” They had taken it easy their first morning in Charleston, having a quick breakfast at a dinner in Mount Pleasant to meet his sister and grab Billy for a beach day. To Cole, Billy was pure entertainment; almost always happy and very inquisitive, things Cole loved to be around… needed to be around. His ability to swing from tantrum to crying to bliss and come out completely unscathed instilled hope in Cole.
    Jackie had pressed about the FBI call during their brief exchange at brunch, but Cole brushed it off. He had no desire to mess up his Saturday at the beginning of the day. Things that could potentially go bad were always best left to