The Merger – 43

 

Before they went down to the precinct, they stopped by the office. Mike gathered together everything he'd found out about Leades, printed it up then put the papers in a folder for Detective Irvine. After going over all the information, Irvine agreed there wasn't enough, as it stood, for him to have done more than open an investigation into Leades' Distributors. "Starting from scratch, based on what you have here."

"So we're out of the dog house?" Mike asked.

"Provisionally," Irvine replied. "I've applied for a search warrant for the warehouse and talked with the owners of both the trucking firm and the company the merchandise belongs to. The trucking company gave me permission the search the truck without a warrant. It's at the impound yard and I'll be going over there as soon as the company that was the victim of the robbery sends me a list of what the truck should contain. If the contents match the list, we're good, and the two men who were with the truck will face robbery charges."

"What about Leades and his man?" Josh asked. "Will the charge of receiving stolen goods stand up in court?"

"If we find some of the electronics from the truck inside the warehouse, which we will, and Leades can't prove—and I use the term loosely—that he bought them from a company he believed was going out of business, we'll have him."

Mike snorted. "I doubt he'll have invoices for the goods, since he wouldn't have known exactly what the truck contained until after he was able to go through everything."

"Yep," Irvine replied. "He might have some faked invoices for other items in the warehouse, but all we need is this shipment to put him behind bars. As for the warehouse man we arrested with Leades? He's claiming he wasn't aware the goods were stolen. Proving if he did or not might be difficult, but he's a small fry. If he walks, he walks." Irvine shrugged then got up, indicating the interview was over. "Thanks for alerting me," he said to Mike. "But next time…" He shot Mike a hard look.

"Bring you in from the get-go if we run into anything else like this. Got it."

After they left the precinct house, Josh said, "He didn't scalp us, which is good. It means we can get breakfast before we go running."

"You're serious about running? On less than six hours sleep?"

"Yes," Josh replied firmly as they arrived at the car.

With a sigh, Mike agreed. "But you get to carry me back to the car after I collapse."

"Which will not happen," Josh said. "Stay the pace, as they say, and there will be a reward tonight." Wrapping his arms around Mike, despite the fact they were standing on a public sidewalk, Josh kissed him then grinned. "A preview of what it will be."

Mike smacked Josh's ass. "I think I could have figured it out for myself."

"After all this time, I would sure as hell hope so."