Page 98 of Diamonds in the Mud

Then, to my shock, my stomach growled loudly, and we laughed together.

Chapter Twenty-Three

“The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished,

or the luster of it will never appear.”

–Daniel Defoe

Jameson

While we sat in Rayne’s bed, eating cold grilled chicken and Tater Tots, I filled Rayne in on everything that had transpired since I’d seen her the morning before.

I’d been going nonstop since then. Seeing Quincy standing behind Wyatt in his police officer’s uniform had set the last wheels in motion.

Suddenly, everything made sense. The reason the Reapers had become so powerful, so untouchable, was that they’d had inside help.

They had known exactly where not to be and when and where they were safe to make drops. Quincy, along with a few others in the station, had paved the way for them to successfully run their operations in and around town without fear of being caught.

When Ben dropped me off back at my place after the massive drug pickup from the Taylor home, I called Jasmine and filled her in.

After the short call, we decided to make our move. Then we got word about the Dupont brothers having been found floating in the river, cut up in a very similar way to Mayor Taylor. Since Ben had been with me during those hours, we looked into Felix’s whereabouts. He’d been at the Bayou Bar, surrounded by most of the other Reapers. All except one.

Declan.

Jasmine took a team out to the Nest, where Declan was taken into custody, and after checking the footage of all those cameras we’d hidden around the building after my first visit to the spot, we confirmed that Declan had left for four hours during the time the brothers had been killed. Declan had had just enough time to make it to Madison County, commit the murders, and get back.

Some of the footage had gone black for some reason during the night, but it was enough evidence to make our next move against the Reapers. All of them. I knew that Declan didn’t do anything without Felix saying so and my guess was that Quincy was the head honcho behind the scenes. The man pulling all the strings.

I wondered if he’d gotten close to Rayne for the same reason Felix wanted me to get close to her. To keep her off their scent. It made me sick to know she’d been used so much.

By early afternoon, more than four dozen agents had descended on the town. After getting Declan into custody, we’d gathered Wyatt Taylor before heading out to grab every last Reaper. We’d gotten most of them while they were tucked safely in their beds.

I even found my bike in Felix’s garage and guessed he was going to return it to me later that night like he’d promised. Had Declan delivered it to him after disposing of the brothers?

In order to arrest so many at once, we needed to keep the element of surprise. Thankfully, we ran into problems only two times. One of the Reapers tried to outgun us and ended up with a bullet in his leg, thanks to Jasmine. The other tried to take off on foot and was caught easily by the dogs.

The rest, to my surprise, had gone in peacefully. At Jasmine’s orders, I had remained in the background until every single Reaper was in custody.

Shortly after one in the morning, Jasmine had me take a team to the station. After calling Randy and clueing him in on the move, he cleared the building out under the guise of some sort of emergency with the sprinkler system. We started searching Quincy’s desk, locker, and device first, which led us to all the others under his control.

By four o’clock in the morning, we had what we needed. To be honest, the handful of people involved in the scheme hadn’t even tried to hide their involvement. No doubt they believed no one would suspect them or search their offices.

Clara Mangrum had been the biggest surprise. She hadn’t been involved in the Reapers’ drug ring but instead had embezzled almost fifty thousand dollars in funds from the department itself. I’d wager it was a little more since some of the bail money she stole was probably in cash, which couldn’t be tracked the way the pile of checks she’d taken could be.

Some of the checks tied her to the mayor’s office, evidence that we were handing over to the State Attorney General’s Office to further their investigation.

We had boxes and boxes of evidence that would be used to charge everyone arrested.

By the time I walked into Rayne’s house, I was beyond tired and starving. I knew that it would be days, maybe weeks, before we closed out everything on the case. Still, at least for now, we had everyone in custody, and I was looking forward to spending my free time with Rayne.

I’d already put in a request for an extended amount of time off and was seriously questioning whether I ever wanted to go undercover again. I was over it. I knew what I did was important. Getting to the heart of evil saved lives. I had no doubt about that.

Still, for the first time in my life, I wanted a life of my own. Being able to see Rayne in my future was the driving force. Especially after that morning.

What she did was just as important. Still, part of me wanted to ask her to quit. To do something, anything, less dangerous.

Then, logic hit me over the head.