Ch. 9: Walk like a Mann
A/N: Hopefully things are picking up and the ideas will continue to flow. Thank you so much for the reviews and encouragement.
***
Marshall's visit with his witness had thankfully been quick and uneventful. Dave had been convinced that one of the other employees at the Surplus Warehouse was spying on him. Marshall listened dutifully to his tale and then made some inquiries of his own. As it turned out, the woman was interested in Dave, but not because she wanted to kill him. Marshall couldn't figure out what the woman could possibly see in his witness, but to each his own. He told Dave not to worry and made a mental note to do a background check on her just to be safe.
Since he was able to wrap up the situation with Dave in less than an hour, he decided to stop home before going to the office. He grabbed the mail on his way in and starting sorting through it as he checked phone messages. As soon as he heard his mother's voice, he froze and listened.
"Hi sweetie. I hope you are well. I didn't call your cell because I'm not sure what your schedule is these days and I didn't want to bother you. It's just that something is going on with your father and I'm concerned. I know you two don't always seen eye to eye, but…just please call me when you can. I love you."
"Shit," he cursed under his breath realizing the time/date stamp for the message was 2 days ago. He picked up the phone and called his parents' house.
After a few rings, a gruff voice said, "Mann residence."
'Shit,' Marshall said again keeping the thought to himself this time. "Hey Dad, its Marshall."
"Course it is unless some stranger has started calling me dad."
'Ornery as usual, why couldn't Mom have answered the phone.' Then he said to his father, "So how are things up North? Are you keeping busy?"
"Fine, just fine. Plenty to do around here, otherwise I'm down by the river."
"You and Mr. Peters still competing for the title of king of fly fishing?"
"Peters! That old coot. I better not catch him anywhere near my spot on that river." The rivalry between Robert Mann and Howard Peters had become legendary in the small town in Colorado. The Mann's had retired there just over 12 years ago and it only took one fishing competition for the two men to stake their claims by the river dividing the locals into two camps. Marshall was glad his dad had a hobby, but really couldn't understand how two grown men could act so ridiculous over fishing.
"So, is Mom around? She left me a message the other day at home and I just got it now."
"No, your mother's not here. She had to run into town."
"Oh. Well can you tell her I called."
"Will do."
"And Dad, please tell her to call me on my cell number. I'm on assignment and I have no idea when I'll be home again."
"Well if you're working I'm sure whatever she wanted can wait. The job comes first son," his dad said in a tone that Marshall recognized all too well and he rolled his eyes in response as he took a seat on the couch. "Back when I started in the Service, it was a commitment that one did not take lightly. One my first assignment in the field…"
Marshall's eyes glazed over as his dad continued to speak on the other end of the line. He couldn't remember how many times he had listened to this same exact lecture. Closing his eyes, he lay his head back and tried to remember to say the occasional "yes, Sir". He let him go on like that for awhile, but finally he knew he had to put himself out of his misery.
"Excuse me, Dad. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm getting a call from work and you know it's important that I take it."
"Yes, son. Go right ahead."
"And Dad, don't forget to tell Mom that I called and to call me back. Okay?" he said making a mental note to try his mother again in the morning if he didn't hear from her.
"Sure. Take care of yourself."
"Thanks. You too." Marshall was not comfortable with the idea of lying to his dad, but sometimes it was just necessary. Besides, he was due in the office and really anxious to get everything taken care of so he could get back to Mary and Matty. He was unaware that at his last thought a smile replaced the uneasy expression he had worn while talking to his father.
***
"Damn!" Mary cursed as she hung up the phone with Dershowitz. "Damn, damn, damn." She realized she should have known better than to think things might actually go smoothly for a change. He had called to tell her about a body they just discovered across town. The guy was a local distributor, referred to on the street as "Snake". She had less than patiently waited for him to get to the part that concerned her and instantly regretted it the moment the words were out of his mouth. She thanked him for the heads up and hit 1 on speed dial for Marshall.
"C'mon, c'mon," she said after he didn't answer on the first couple of rings. He finally answered on the fourth ring.
"Don't tell me you need help already," Marshall said jokingly as he answered the phone.
"Where the hell are you? What took you so long to answer?" Mary snapped back, but he could hear the concern in her voice and knew something was up.
"I just stopped home for a minute. What happened?"
"I got a call from Dershowitz."
"That can't be good."
"Never is."
"Tell me."
"ABQPD just found the body of a local distributer called Snake. Turns out their boy has ties to the Harrison organization. According to Dershowitz, when they ran his name about a million red flags popped up. He's got guys contacting the DOJ, but thought that he'd give us a heads up just in case we were interested."
"What did you tell him?"
"Nothing. I just thanked him as usual. Marshall, you know how I feel about coincidences."
"Sit tight. I'm on my way."
"No. We're fine here. You need to go to the office and have Eleanor look into this Snake character while you do a threat assessment. Also, someone's got to talk to the DOJ."
"I know, but I don't like this," Marshall said tightening his grip on the steering wheel.
"I'm calling Stan now to fill him in and I'll double up on the security detail outside," she said trying to reassure herself as much as her partner. "Call me as soon as you know anything."
"Will do. And Mare…" There were always so many things he wanted to say in these situations and he hesitated knowing that most of them probably weren't appropriate.
"I know," she answered without him having to continue and then she disconnected.
She was grateful that Matthew was still sleeping and hoped he would continue to do so while she called Stan. After giving him the same recap she had given Marshall, she asked him to authorize the additional security and told him that Marshall was on his way up to the office. Stan assured her that they had it under control and would keep her in the loop, but she didn't like not being able to do something more to help.
"Well, it's not like you don't have your hands full Mary," she said as she made her way back to the nursery to check on the baby. He had been asleep just over an hour and Mary was silently hoping that he would stay that way for at least a little while longer as she went and grabbed the laptop from Marshall's room.
While she signed on to the laptop, she called Dershowitz back and asked him for a list of Snake's local dealers, "just out of curiosity" she told him. He knew better and so did she, but all knew that certain things could not be discussed and that's the way it was. If they were lucky, maybe one of them will have some information about who Snake reports to within the organization. She typed all the data into an email and called Eleanor.
"It's Mary," she said. "Is Marshall there yet?"
"Yes, he just arrived."
"Good. I just sent you email with some info from ABQPD. I need to find out everything about these individuals and their relationship with one Harry Burke a.k.a. Snake. Give anything you find to Marshall so he can work it into the threat assessment. And get Stan to get some agents out there to find these guys. If they so much as piss, I want to know about it."
"Right on it," Eleanor responded. Mary respected the fact that Eleanor could take her crap and dish it back, but what she respected the most was her ability to stay on task and get results when needed.
Mary hung up the phone and took a long sip from her water bottle. It was going to be a long day and, despite her catnap, she knew her lack of sleep was going to catch up with her later. Remembering that she hadn't slept caused her to think about the reason why for the first time all day. "Damn him," she said to herself thinking about Raph, but her thoughts were interrupted by crying from down the hall. "Thank God for small favors."
"Hey kid. What's all the fuss about? Shhh," she said picking him up out of the crib. "It's okay. It's all gonna be okay." And silently prayed that she wasn't lying as she hugged him a little tighter and headed back toward the kitchen. "You hungry big guy? What's your lunch preference today? Anything but the carrots, okay." And she couldn't help but give him a little peck on the cheek as she set him down in the high chair.
"Okay, the squash it is," she said opening the jar and grabbing a spoon. "And if you're lucky, I'll mash you a banana for dessert." Matthew made a silly face and giggled. Mary couldn't help but smile. "You know, I think I may be finally starting to get the whole baby thing. But seriously, what's with the baby talk? I mean it's cute on you, but for adults?" she said looking at him questioningly as he began to babble away. "Exactly my point, they look like idiots. I'm glad we agree on that."
After he finished eating, Mary cleaned up and took him into the den. She laid him down on his back on a blanket underneath some kind of arched toy with all kinds of baby friendly things hanging from it and went to retrieve the laptop from the kitchen. She came back into the room to see that he had flipped over onto his tummy and was trying to get himself up into crawling mode. "Whoa, big guy. Where do you think you're going? Trying to make a break for it already and I thought things were going so well." He hadn't really moved very far, but she turned him around so that he was facing the toy again.
"You really shouldn't be in such a rush. Believe me, enjoy your little life while you can because before you know it, well I guess that's a discussion that can wait awhile. But one day, you will be a man and unfortunately a lot can happen in the meantime. Just promise me one thing, you'll never break up with a girlfriend over the phone. Have the guts to at least face her. Okay? Now let's see if you can grab that rubber ring over there and I'm going to see if I can't figure out what Dershowitz's friend Snake has been up to the last couple of weeks."
***
Marshall was glad he was so close to the office when Mary called. While he would have preferred to go right back to the safe house, if he had to go the office first he wanted it to take as little time as possible. Something definitely didn't feel right to him about this whole situation. He nodded at Stan and walked over to Eleanor. "Hey, I need all the info you can find out from ABQPD about a body the found today. Drug dealer called Snake."
"Already on it. Chief's on the phone with the FBI in Seattle about Harrison," Eleanor said as she handed him a copy of the initial police report and picked up her ringing phone.
He was looking it over as he headed back to his desk when he heard Stan raise his voice.
"I don't care what you have to do or how many agents you have to bring in," Stan yelled at the person unfortunate enough to be on the other end of the phone. "You find him and you find him now! And I can guarantee you the next call you get is going to be the Attorney General." With that, he slammed the receiver down. "God damn it!"
"Stan?" Marshall questioned.
"Harrison's in the wind."
Before Stan could even get all the words out, Marshall was on the move. As he headed to the elevator he yelled back, "Make sure the extra security is on the way and call up to Santa Fe. Tell them we need to know every contact Harrison has in New Mexico and we needed 5 minutes ago."
"Go, just go. We got it covered," Stan said shouting after him as the elevator doors closed.
***
In the words of our favorite Marshal Marshall, "Dun dun dun…" Please R&R. Thanks!
