Federal Affair

Chapter 29

Nick shifted in his seat on the porch, setting his beer down. "I've been thinking about this for a few days and I wasn't really sure how to bring it up so I thought I'd just wing it."

"Okay." I hoped he didn't have anything bad to say. I'd had a really good day and I didn't want anything to dampen my good mood.

"How comfortable are you with testifying against Derek?" Nick asked with an unsure look, tapping his fingers on his thigh.

"Testifying against Derek?" I repeated, eyes widening.

Of all the things Nick could have to talk to me about, this one was at the bottom of my list as far as conversations I wanted to have went. Somewhere in the back of my mind I'd known it was going to come up sooner or later, but I'd been counting on the FBI having enough evidence that they wouldn't need any witnesses. The last thing I wanted to do was see Derek again, much less testify against him. 

"Yeah," he nodded hesitantly. He probably expected me to say no, which was what I was leaning towards.

I sighed, feeling overwhelmed. "Nick, I don't know..."

"If you consider it, I'll consider taking you to the beach house next month," he said.

He knew that would get my attention, even if he was bribing me. For the past two weeks we'd been talking a lot about his family, and part of the conversations had been about the Granger family vacation home in North Carolina. Nick had told me about the boats his family owned and the one he used to sail all the time when he was younger. He said it needed to be fixed up but he wanted to take it out on the ocean again at some point. I was deathly afraid of deep water because I've never been a good swimmer, but I was willing to ignore that pesky little issue when Nick suggested possibly going to Washington, D.C. to meet some of his family, and then taking a short summer vacation to North Carolina.

It had been ages since I'd had a vacation. The last time I'd gone out of town for something other than work was two years before when Monica and I had gone to Nashville, Tennessee on a road trip.

"Tempting," I said, sipping my drink. "I'll think about it. Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Actually," he began, slouching back and crossing his ankles. "After we left the courthouse, I went to the field office."

"And?" The suspense was killing me.

"And I trust you not to mention to anyone that a warrant is being issued tomorrow for Derek," he told me with a smirk.

I stared at Nick wide-eyed, blinking a few times to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Derek was finally going to be arrested? It felt like I'd been waiting forever to hear those words.

"Are you serious?"

"I am."

I felt like I could burst into excited laughter any second.

"Don't get too happy yet," he sighed. "It's going to be a long, frustrating road to indictment."

"But you have all the evidence right?" I asked.

I knew that an indictment would only establish whether or not there is enough evidence to charge Derek with the crime. Once it was determined that there was enough evidence, Derek would then be tried and hopefully convicted by a judge or jury in a criminal trial. That would be the part to take the longest, mostly due to the defense stalling.

"I have enough, I believe," Nick answered, taking a swig of his beer. "The problem is everyone's ready to proceed even though I think I made it clear that I don't have all the information I want to get before they pursue an indictment. I still haven't figured out who the hell is doctoring the books for Derek. There's someone else in on this and it's not Christine. Once that person hears about the proceedings, they're going to try to cover their tracks and I might not be able to catch the bastard. Or bitch. Whoever."