Starting Over Ch. 04

Ken accessed his bank accounts without any need to refer to anything. Obviously, he had memorized all his accounts and passwords. He moved half to some account in the Cayman Islands. We watched closely. Then Craig came back and handed him a slip of paper with an account number on it. "Put our 50% in here."

I raised my eyebrows, but Craig shook his head. Ken moved the money as Craig watched to make sure it was properly done.

When that was done Craig called Vernon over and looked at Ken. "Can you get out of town immediately?"

Ken nodded. "If you drop me at the airport, I'm gone. I was ready to be done with this anyway. You'll never hear from me again."

So that was it. He was almost ready to make the jump to rich citizen of some other country before we even came along.

Craig nodded to Vernon. "Okay, cut him loose from the chair, but don't release his hands until you drop him at the airport. Then he can go wherever it is he wants to go and we don't care." He turned to me. "My brother confirmed that this Jon Yong is a known and wanted major supplier, but they didn't know he was providing drugs up here. He's known more for southern California. The account number I provided is one that my brother has used before to transfer assets in and out of for drug related busts. He'll get with the Feds tomorrow and give them the money and anything else that the cops will get from here. I told him about the two dead guards and he told me to leave them in the corner and they'll take care of it."

Ken looked around. "Can you take me into the office so that I can get my passport and some cash?"

"You have money in there?"

Ken nodded.

"We didn't find anything else and we searched. Must be well hidden."

We followed Ken into the office and he indicated that there was a something under one of the tiles under the desk. The floor in the office was made up of the typical vinyl floor tiles and there didn't appear to be any breaks in any of them. Plus, in a warehouse like this the floor was usually one large concrete slab. We moved the desk out of the way, he pointed to the right one, and Vernon pried it up with his knife. There was a safe buried in the floor. Ken gave him the numbers and Vernon opened the safe. It was so stuffed with cash, I was surprised it closed. Vernon pulled out six bags of cash and in the middle of them all was a passport and a file.

"My passport and as much cash as I can carry will be all I can take. The rest is yours. The file contains everything I needed to protect myself against Jon Yong and you can give it to the Feds. I was ready to make this jump in a few months anyway." It was just as I thought. He was preparing to drop a dime on his supplier and get out of the country.

Vernon put Ken's passport in his windbreaker pocket and then put a bag of cash under his arm. "You can take this."

We all stared at the rest of the cash. There were five bags. Perfect. I picked them up one by one and handed them to each of the other people and one for me. "For services rendered." They all grinned. "Okay, get him out of here and we'll all head home."

We left. Vernon drove the vehicle that the Rangers brought over to the Seattle-Tacoma Airport with Ken and the rest of us piled into my car and went back to my apartment. Craig perused the file in the car and relayed to all of us that the Feds would love it.

Vernon called as soon as he had released Ken. He had watched him and followed him to a United Airlines terminal where he paid cash for a first class ticket to Miami. He had a connecting flight to somewhere, but Vernon didn't catch where that was. We all popped open a beer and Vernon called when he saw Ken board and the doors close. He then came back and had a beer with us. We all toasted our luck and then the Rangers left. Craig stayed for a few minutes.

"So, do you think she'll ever forgive you?" We all knew who 'she' was.

"I don't know. I hope so. I've become very attached to her daughter and I think I'm in love with her."

"Well, just give it a little time. Meanwhile, I have to get home to the wife." He hefted the bag of cash in his hand. "I'll use this slowly and not tell her about my sudden windfall. No need to have to explain this. If it comes in a little at a time, she'll just believe that work is going well."

"Good idea. Don't spend it all at once. You should remind your buddies, too."

"They know. They'll be good. I'll verify it, but I trust them completely."

"Good. Now, I think I need some sleep."

"Roger that. See you later." Craig left. I looked at the bag of money. I had a sudden charitable urge. I took out a stack of 100s, probably about $3000 and walked over to Sam's apartment. I knocked. She answered immediately. "Hello, Sam." Before she could say anything I handed her the stack of cash. "This is for the trouble I caused you. Don't say anything, just take it and enjoy. I don't want to ever hear about it again. Just use it to support your family." I turned and walked away. She was calling me, but I just walked into my apartment, turned and gave her a smile, and closed the door.

I fell into bed exhausted.

When I woke later that day, I pulled out the bag of cash and counted it. There was $200,000 in the bag minus the $3000 I gave to Sam. I hope everyone took care with the cash. It would be bad if it showed up suddenly. Too many people would question its source.

I tried to call Maggie, but she refused to pick up her cell. I called Mary and she answered and told me she was sorry, but Maggie had said she wanted nothing to do with me ever again. She felt I had lied to her and Mary thought that after her previous relationship problems, Maggie was gun shy. I told her not to give up on everything yet, but I got the feeling that even Mary was doubtful that we would ever get together again.

To be continued...