Bryan held out his hand. “Nice to meet you. Wish it were under better circumstances.”
Krystal shook her head. “Luke, what’s going on? Joker said something about a murder charge, and I’ve just spent the last hour with the FBI and DEA.”
Bryan gestured at the table. “Let’s sit down, and I’ll try to explain my understanding of what’s going on here.”
I sat down and pulled a chair close for Krystal. I put my hand on her thigh, and she leaned in toward me as we looked at Bryan.
“It appears to me that there’s more than just a simple investigation into Bug’s death going on here. Based on what Luke has told me, if that’s all this were, he’d be home right now. Now, I don’t know if the prosecutor has evidence that points to some other version of what happened that completely contradicts Luke’s story, but the fact that the feds are involved means that this isn’t necessarily going to be an open and shut case.”
“But how can that be?” Krystal asked. “The agents I just talked to asked more questions about the Sons than they did about Luke.”
“Yeah.” Bryan ran his hands through his curly brown hair. “I don’t know for sure, but I’m afraid that Luke’s being held — that the police are holding murder charges over his head — because they think he has, or they think he can get, information about a different investigation.”
“What the fuck, Bryan. How can they do that?” Before Krystal had come in, Bryan had been trying to explain to me that the police could hold me for a few days without actually having to charge me, and I was just furious. I’d never been arrested, never been charged with a crime, and I’d always had positive associations with the legal system. My father was an attorney, for Christ’s sake.
Bryan leaned forward and looked me in the eyes. “Luke, I’m gonna be frank with you. You’re a smart guy, and you’ve obviously kept your nose clean until now, but you’ve created some new associations for yourself who are less than pristine.”
“Yeah, but I’m working on a legit business deal with …”
He cut me off. “I don’t think you understand the way that your new brothers appear to law enforcement officers. Are you aware, Luke, that every single member of the Denver chapter of the Savage Sons has a criminal history, a couple of them for federal crimes?”
“Well, no.” I thought about that for a few seconds. “I know that they were involved with some shady stuff before Moses died, but they’ve cleaned up, as far as I know.”
“So this Moses, he’s the one that was shot in his home by a DEA agent, right? And then his girlfriend shot and killed that agent?”
“That’s what I understand,” I answered. “But Krystal may be able to answer more questions about that than I can. I never actually met the guy, even though he was my cousin.”
Before Krystal could say a word, Bryan directed her attention to the wall opposite the door, which had a one-way mirror. “Krystal, you need to know that it’s possible that we have an audience. Even though it’s not legal for cops to record conversations between attorneys and their clients, I wouldn’t necessarily trust that. Do you understand?”
She nodded.
“Krystal, without getting into … incriminating details, do you know why there was a DEA agent in Moses’ house that night?”
“No,” she answered. “That’s the crazy thing. No one knows. Now, I’m not privy to the business dealings of the MC, but I worked with Moses at his tattoo shop, and I knew him pretty well. Nobody has any explanation for why he’d be meeting a DEA agent, especially at his house.”
“And that DEA agent’s death has caused the club to … reevaluate its business dealings, right?”
She considered her answer. “I believe so.”
Bryan sat for a moment, looking from my face to Krystal’s, to the mirror set into the wall. He finally put his hands flat on the table. “I’m going to level with you, Luke. We’ve seen the summary of Krystal’s statement, and it corroborates yours to the last detail. It’s my opinion that there’s no evidence to prosecute you — not for manslaughter, and certainly not for murder. I’m going to do everything I can do to get them to charge you or release you as soon as possible.” He sighed. “The fact is, though, that if the feds think that you have information they want — or if they think you can get information they want — they may hold you for a few days, and there’s nothing I can do about that. If that’s the case, then we’re going to have to let this unfold and see what exactly the FBI and the DEA are after.”