The Manifest

Chapter 11

     Tuck was in the office, working on the other cases they were investigating before Sir Norsberg had returned to their ledger. If they were to any one the impression that they were not working on this case and remain as undercover as possible, they had to make sure all the other work was being taken care of. That meant no slacking off and zero signs of anything less than business as usual or people watching would get suspicious too soon. Tuck had especially enjoyed watching Sir Norsberg's money transfer into the account that afternoon. It took only a little over an hour for the funds to electronically arrive in their account from the old man's usual channels. They had never really officially worked for him, always taking money from a shell company to give the old far the benefit of anonymity. The funds came through an overseas channel so it would take a lot of digging for Norsberg's name to ever come up. Tuck had never seen that kind of money in his life, and doubted he would ever see a receipt with that many zeroes on it ever again. The money was safely put into the other accounts and as Edgar has instructed and he took about twenty percent out of the account in cash/bonds and tossed in into their private box that isn't even listed under either of their names. It's a secret stash only he and Edgar knew about just in case their funds ever get frozen. It was Edgar's way of having a backup should someone attempt to cut off their cash flow halfway through the investigation.

    As Tuck was ruffling through some papers and receipts from other cases, someone came knocking on Tuck's door. It was Jonathan, his cousin and co-worker, "Tuck, we have someone here I think you need to deal with personally."

     "Oh?" Tuck said as he stood up. Through the glass that separated his office from the lobby, he could see why Jonathan wanted him to come out. A tall man looking less than formal had strolled into the lobby. He was dressed like a biker and had a scruffy beard and a long pony tail, and was pretty much intimidating the shit out of everyone.

     "Oh my." Tuck said as he took a deep breathe and then walked out to greet his guest. "Devon!"

     "Hey Tuck," Devon called back.

     "You're a few hours early." Tuck added, "Where's the rest of your team?"

     Devon didn't seem impressed or enthusiastic. "They're downstairs and not willing to come up yet. They don't believe Edgar and think he's pulling our leg. They're on a 'believe it when I see' it kind of position right now. They want to see the green, and then we can talk about the case."

     "Given what happened last time, I can't say I blame you." Tuck said with a slightly nervous tone, "That was an unfortunate accident, but we didn't do that on purpose and we did pay you eventually when our matter with the bank was settled. I apologize for being late, but we had every intention of paying you. We were more than impressed with your work and believe every penny was well earned. I'm in charge of the finances, so the minute you and Edgar see eye to eye on price I'll have the money wired immediately. You can even sit here and wait for it to be verified if you like."

     Upon hearing that, especially the part about being paid today, Devon's demeanor started to finally lighten up. "You know, it's easy to see that this place is run by people who used to be cops. Just take a look around, this place looks like the station downtown. I bet that office in the corner is yours, so you get to act like the chief." he gave a small snicker and then took a seat at one of the vacant desks. "You guys seem very serious about this job. Is it that important of a case?"

     "It is." Tuck confirmed.

     "It must me if you need my help," Devon added.

     "I'm not going to sugar coat it, this is going to be a dandy." Tuck continued, "This is why Edgar felt it was necessary to bring you back in. I'm not sure how much Edgar said over the phone, but there's no bond. We're looking for a person who has been missing for five years."