The Girl Beneath the Sea (Underwater Investigation Unit #1)(57)

I shake hands with both and sit in a chair pulled out for me by the governor. George takes the seat to my right. I try not to look confused and remember his warning about keeping my mouth shut.

“George told us a bit about you. I think I met your father. You have an interesting family,” says the governor.

George is on a first-name basis with the governor? Still heeding his advice, I don’t say anything.

“Does she talk?” asks Isaacs.

“She understands discretion.”

The governor nods. “That’s a good quality. All right, George. You have ten minutes. Make your case.”

“Do I have your permission to talk about Operation Marlin?”

“If you trust her.”

“Uh . . . I think she’s worthy of trust. If that helps?”

“Remember who you’re talking to,” says Irene.

“Right. Sure. Go ahead,” the governor tells him.

“It’s about the Bonaventure situation. This connects to Operation Marlin.”

“How is that?” asks Irene.

“Operation Marlin was our attempt to shut down corruption within drug enforcement and the judiciary. We had a problem with cops, attorneys, and judges taking bribes. We only got a few indictments before more senior judges and officials put pressure on us to stop.”

“I think the term they used was overreach,” says the governor.

“I think the term is covering their asses. We had judges getting sweetheart loans from bankers connected to drug money and some of the worst cops I know put in charge of investigations that went nowhere. Hell, we had Florida senators on tape accepting bribes. We should have pushed this further.”

“We did what we could,” replies the governor.

George sighs, like he’s holding something in. “You had a reelection coming up and knew it would fuck things up, not to mention most of these judges were in communities that didn’t support you.”

“Easy there, George,” says Irene.

“No. He’s right,” says the governor. “I’m not going to deny that politics is constant triage. Every day, you decide what can be saved and what can’t.” He shrugs. “All right, George. I chose winning an election over the risk of letting it go further. But to be fair, I was getting all kinds of heat and even thinly veiled threats from intelligence agencies.”

“Which is all the more reason to take those assholes down,” says George.

“Unfortunately, not all of us have your courage.”

George points to me. “She does. They tried to kill her. They threatened her family. They even took her badge away. But that hasn’t stopped her. Earlier today, that DIA offshoot I told you about illegally detained her in a black site in West Palm Beach. Yet she’s still here.”

The governor stares at me for a moment, then asks, “What do you want out of all this?”

“I want my daughter to be safe. I want these people to go to jail for the lives they’ve ruined.”

“And how do you plan to go about this, George?”

George turns to Irene. “Do you have it?”

“Right here.” She slides a sheet of paper over to the governor, who reads it over.

“Why do I feel like I’m being railroaded?”

“There’s nothing wrong with being railroaded if it’s going the way you want,” replies George.

“Okay. What about funding? I’ve got enough problems already.”

“It’ll be self-funding.”

“Through seizure?” asks the governor.

“Yes.”

“Legally tricky.”

“Then try this on for size,” says George. “Right now, there’s as much as a half a billion dollars sitting on the bottom of a canal somewhere in Florida.”

“That would have to go through the Federal Asset Forfeiture Program,” replies the governor. “Lately, they’ve been playing tricks with those funds.”

“True. But if DEA or the FBI get it without formal assistance from the state, then you’ll get nothing. If the bad guys get it, we’ll get less than nothing. But if we find it, you get it all.”

“How is that possible?” asks the governor.

“Because if there are no narcotics present, we can claim it as salvage. That would be one hell of a budget surplus.”

“Tricky, George. Tricky. The feds will still take us to court.”

“If we settle on the right percentage for them, they’ll drop it,” says Irene.

“Especially if the trial is going to involve a lot of depositions from federal agencies that may not want to reveal the extent of their involvement,” I blurt out.

“Fair point,” Irene replies. “She’s too smart to be hanging around you, George.”

The governor scans the document again. “I can tell you two were planning this. What’s this about rewards?”

“Because we’re using maritime salvage law, we need a reward structure based on the percentage of the value. The percentage we’re using is minuscule,” says George. “Enough for a small budget for the task force and compensation for salvage contractors.”

“Small? It’s millions of dollars,” says the governor, then sighs. “Fine. The courts may say something else. But how do I get this past the Florida Department of Law Enforcement? I’m going to have every law enforcement agency in Florida screaming jurisdictional encroachment.”