Chapter 3
"You know you can work your asses off, but sometimes police work just comes down to pure dumb luck," Josiah stated shaking his head.
"Or the stupidity of criminals," Buck added. "Norton could have been anywhere in the world right now, but he let his anger and sense of revenge stand in the way of common sense."
Josiah and Buck had joined Vin and Ezra down at the booking station and were now on their way back to the office. Ezra shared in the jovial mood as they walked into the bullpen.
JD and Nathan both started clapping when the team walked on. Even Chris, who was sitting on the edge on JD's desk had a big old grin on his face. The smile didn't last long.
"Ezra, there's somebody here to see you," Chris stated. Ezra suddenly remembered what Vin had told him at the gym. The excitement of the last few hours had suddenly disappeared. He felt his stomach instantly grow sick.
"The FBI?" Ezra asked.
Chris nodded his head.
"Did he say what he wanted?" Ezra asked.
"Only that he needed to talk to you. He's waiting in the conference room."
Ezra took a deep breath trying to calm his nerves.
"Do you want me to go in with you?" Chris asked. Ezra looked up and met the gaze of his boss. Ezra instantly sensed the concern and sincerity in Chris's eyes. He looked around and saw similar looks on the faces of his teammates.
"I think I can handle it," he stated, feeling his nerves settle somewhat.
"You holler if you need help, ya hear?" Buck stated.
"Of course," Ezra answered as he walked for the closed conference door. The others didn't say anything, but Ezra knew what they were thinking. They had his back. Ezra realized how much he appreciated the fact. He took one last deep breath before he opened the door.
A tall, lean man with trimmed blonde hair was sitting in the chair with a mug of coffee. He looked up when Ezra walked into the room and a huge genuine smile lit up his tanned face.
"Well Ezra Standish, you sure are a sight for sore eyes," he drawled with his heavy Louisianan accent. Ezra couldn't believe his eyes.
"Paul? Paul Debouix?" He shook the man's hand only when he got up and offered it. Memories came rushing back that Ezra had forgotten long ago and was not too keen to remember.
"What on earth are you doing here?"
"Well, that's kind of a long story," The FBI agent stated. "Why don't he have a seat. "There's coffee in the pot if you would like some." Ezra crinkled up his nose.
"I believe Mr. Tanner was in charge of making it this morning. I prefer to keep my stomach ulcer free, thank you."
"I heard what happened with Norton," the man laughed. "You have my congratulations."
Ezra didn't say anything. He sat down in the chair closest to the door.
"You always had an unconventional way of catching criminals," Paul stated. "Something the FBI never fully appreciated I'm afraid." Ezra's face fell slightly and he looked down at the table. "Before we go any farther Ezra," the man stated. "I owe you an apology."
Ezra looked up at the man in surprise.
"Pray tell, what for?"
"What for? Come on Ezra, because I was a bastard and abandoned you when you needed me the most. I was your partner yet I walked away. You can't tell me you've forgotten about all that.
Ezra's stomach lurched. This was part of his past and something he did not want brought up in this office, in fact he thought he had buried that part of life back in Atlanta.
"I never blamed you for that. It's wasn't your fault they reassigned you out of the Atlanta office and to New York," Ezra stated, trying to sound sincere and knowing that he had failed miserably
"Ezra, I….
"Everything alright in here?" The voice startled Ezra. He looked up to see Josiah standing in the doorway.
"Yes, everything is fine." Ezra stated.
Buck looked at him skeptically.
"You're as white as a ghost Ez."
Josiah immediately glared at the agent. Ezra cursed silently at himself. Had he really given that much away?
"
I assure you we are just fine," Ezra repeated, this time more forcefully while trying to regain his composure.
"Just checking," Josiah stated before disappearing down the hallway.
.
"They always that overprotective?" The other man asked chuckling.
.
"I'm sure that won't be the last time you see Mr. Sanchez's face. In fact, I'm sure all of them will make their way into this room at some point or another."
"It's good to have friends like that." He paused. "Well, if that's the case, they might as well all come in here." Ezra jumped when he raised his voice.
Before he had a chance to protest, his team was filing into the office. He watched the Cajun meet Chris's eyes and then go to the coffee pot.
"You knew?" Chris asked.
"I figured it out after a while," Debouix stated. Both men's eyes stayed to the coffee pot.
Ezra put it all together. He wasn't sure to be appreciative or angry that his boss had planted a listening chip in the break room. The team quickly filed into the room, taking their usual seats. Vin had to grab an extra chair since Debouix was sitting in his. Ezra had to give Debouix credit. He knew much stronger men who had flinched under the gaze of his team. The Cajun was obviously able to hold his own.
"I suppose none of you know the story about why Ezra got sacked in Atlanta." A ringing noise started to echo through Ezra's ears. All the men looked at Chris. The answer was obvious. Chris knew the most out of any of them, and even that was limited.
"Well I suppose its best to start at the beginning then," Debouix stated with a sigh.
"Ezra and I both met when we were freshmen at Southern Miss. We hit it off right away when we realized that we shared similar unstable backgrounds. I came from a long line of corrupt southern democrats. My dad was attempting to groom me to follow in the family business. Ezra's mom, well, she…" he struggled with the right words.
"They already know plenty about my mother," Ezra interrupted.
"When we got through college," Debouix continued, clearly glad not to have bring Ezra's mom into the discussion. "My dad wanted me to go into politics right away. I had no desire what so ever.,,,"
"I shared a similar desire to stay away from the family business," Ezra filled in with a smile, despite the small trickles of sweat he felt begin dripping down his neck.
"When we met an FBI recruiter out at a bar one night, we found a perfect option and were soon on our way to Atlanta."
"We were anything but welcome our first few weeks at the office," Debouix continued on with the story. "In fact, it was easy to see that our boss didn't want us there. He thought that we were nothing but a couple of rich hot shot kids with nothing but career advancement on our minds. I would even go so far as to say that Michaels despised us."
"He may have despised you, but he absolutely loathed me with every ounce of his being," Ezra stated.
"Well you definitely didn't do anything to improve your image," Debouix laughed. "The pictures that circulated through the department of him with that prostitute sure didn't help your relationship."
"He was a detestable man and no business having the position he did," Ezra stated. "I was simply trying to help others realize that." He could see the others smiling at each other and could imagine what was going through their heads. "I wasn't a whole lot different than I am now.
"It turned out that Ezra and I were damn good at our jobs. I think we even surprised ourselves. Our successes made the Atlanta office look good. Michaels had to shut his mouth even though he wanted to kill Ezra."
"Hmm, sound familiar?" Vin whispered, looking at Chris.
"Never wanted to kill him," Chris stated. Then he looked at the skeptical look on the faces of his team. "Okay, maybe a few times, well maybe a little bit more than that….if he would shut his damn mouth!" This statement brought a laugh from everyone including Debouix. Everyone, but Ezra.
"Do tell about the activities we partook in when we were the paramount representatives of our illustrious firm," Ezra stated, quietly, refusing to meet the eyes of his teammates.
Most of the members of the team shifted nervously in their chairs. Josiah sighed, not liking what he had heard come out of his friend's mouth. The sudden shift to the five dollar words scared him. When he had first met Ezra, the man had been hard to like for many reasons. One of the many was his insistence of using words were rarely heard outside of a national spelling bee. It hadn't taken him long to realize that it had all been a well orchestrated ploy, a ploy that prevented him from getting close to anyone. Some of the language is what made Ezra, well Ezra, but the slow disappearance of the more extravagant words had been welcome by all. The sudden appearance of the old Ezra brought an uncomfortable ease into the room.
"Ezra, I don't think it's really necessary for…" Debouix protested.
"Quite the contrary my friend, it is essential information for the rest of this illuminating story,"
"Ezra, please don't…"
"Well if you have no intention of telling the real story then I will," Ezra answered scornfully, He didn't wait for more protesting.
"While I was pretending to be nobly serving my country, I had discovered a convenient way to transfer much needed funds from the FBI office into my own account. I was investing money that should have been helping keep the streets of Atlanta safe. While good agents with families took pay cuts, I was building my 401K." Ezra finished his rant and the room grew deathly silent. Debouix was the first to break the silence.
"Ezra, it wasn't as bad as you make it out to be," he stated quietly.
"Then why did you feed me to the wolves?" Ezra stated. His voice shook."If you'll excuse me..." Before anyone could do anything he had shot out of the room.
Debouix rose to his feet, but a simple command from Chris stopped him.
"No, I need you to tell us what happened after that."
Debouix knew that Larabee had no control over him, and if he wanted to follow Ezra. He had every right to, but something in the ATF leader's voice made him stop.
"Vin," Chris stated with taking his eyes off the FBI agent.
"On it Boss, I'll keep him from doing anything stupid." Vin got out of his seat and raced out the door.
"What did Ezra mean you turned him over to the wolves?" JD asked, his eyes narrowing menacingly towards the FBI agent.
JD knew that what Ezra had done was wrong. In fact, Ezra had done many things of questionable nature since he had known him, but he didn't care about that right now. All he knew was that this man had hurt Ezra somehow. Whatever he did was bad enough that his friend had displayed emotions JD had never seen before, First, they had to take care of Ezra, then they would worry about the problem.
"I'll get there in just a second Agent Dunne," Debouix answered, visibly shaken by his friend's outburst. 'Before I continue with the story, I want to make something clear. Ezra did not take as much money as he would have you believe. He made some good deals in the stock market and that's where his small fortune comes from. He's paid what he took back plus a hundred times more."
"He still stole the money," Nathan stated to himself than anyone else, trying to convince himself that this was a reason why he hadn't liked the southern man from the beginning.
The medic would be the first to admit that he had been Ezra's harshest critic from the very beginning. He hadn't trusted the man. Instead of giving him reasons to despise him, Ezra had proved time and time again he could and deserved to be trusted. A few years ago, this statement would have severed any bond he thought he had with Ezra. The statement now only dented it a little. Like JD, Nathan knew what his friend had done was wrong, but he prayed there had to more to the story. There was always an ulterior motive to Ezra's doings.
"He's his mother's boy," Debouix shot back.
Buck nodded his head in understanding. He knew, probably more than anyone what Debouix was implying. When a son has only his mom to depend on, she becomes his whole world. Buck had been lucky. Despite growing up poor and in some pretty sketchy conditions, Buck's ma had taught him compassion and love. Ezra was now learning many of the things that Buck had learned as a child. Until Ezra really understood them, there was bound to be a few bumps along the way.
"About a year after Ezra took the money, he came to me and told me what he did. He stated that his guilty conscious was starting to get to him and he was going to turn himself in. I of course was flabbergasted by what he said at first and didn't speak to him for about a week. After I came to my senses, I realized my mistake and told him that he needed to keep his mouth shut. I told him that he had paid the community back for his mistakes. Ezra wasn't happy, but he agreed that he wouldn't tell anyone about what happened." Debouix looked down at the table before he continued talking.
"But I didn't keep my end of the deal," he added in a much more quiet voice. "A promotion for a New York office popped up. The brass was eyeing Ezra and I for the position, but they would only take one of us. I was under a lot of pressure from my father. He said that I needed to start making more of myself or I would become a disgrace to the family name. There was also a girl in the picture….
Josiah sighed, knowing where this story was going. Debouix ended up telling Ezra's secret. He realized what that must have done to Ezra. No wonder why he was so unwilling to trust everyone. He doubted that he would be so willing to trust, especially if it was close friend who had turned him in. He could understand Debouix's position. He remembered what it was like to live under an overbearing father and how hard it was to live up to his expectations.
"And you told the whole story to your boss," Chris finished, not bothering to hide the fury in his voice. Debouix met Chris's gaze for a slight moment before lowering it.
"I'm not proud of it," the younger man answered. "It's something I've lived with the last few years in New York. Hell, the job wasn't even worth it. I hate it. Not a day goes by that I don't regret what I've done."
Chris paused before asking what was next.
"When I went to Atlanta to interview him, I heard rumors from other office workers about a possible murder cover-up. I never put any stock in them, but…"
Debouix slammed his fist down the table angrily.
"Ezra may have his issues with money, but he's not a dirty cop. When somebody is danger, I can't think of anyone else I would rather have by my side."
"Neither can I," Nathan said under his breath.
"When word got around about Ezra and the money," Debouix explained, "He started getting blamed for everything that went wrong at the office. The murder cover-up story was an attempt by Michaels to get rid of Ezra. He didn't have many friends to defend him before hand, and he sure didn't have any afterwards."
"That was your job," Buck said under his breath. The comment wasn't meant to be heard, because Debouix appeared shaken.
"Ezra became an easy scapegoat for everything that went wrong at the office. He was probably just being blamed for some botched case."
Chris sighed, letting his fists unclench. He had never put much stock in the rumors, but he had to do some investigating when he first hired the undercover agent. His investigations had turned up nothing. Still, he regretted that the nagging feeling was always there. It felt good to finally put everything to rest. He knew about Ezra and his money problems. Hell, he could deal with that. He looked at Debouix straight in the eye.
"Something tells me that you aren't here just to apologize."
.
"Well you know how I told you, I wasn't very happy in New York?"
