“Lescheva’s got the kids,” Mitch growled in Winchell’s face and watched it pale. “He went after Mara. Pure luck he doesn’t have her too.”
He felt Winchell force a swallow under his hand.
“You talk to me now. No DA. No deal. You get nothin’ except the hope what you give us keeps those kids alive. What were you into with him and what was Pierson’s part of the play?” Mitch demanded to know.
“Mitch, man, stand down,” Hank kept at it.
Mitch pressed Winchell deeper into the wall using his hand and body to do it.
“Talk to me now,” Mitch clipped.
“He’s…” Winchell forced another swallow, “he’s…Lescheva’s got my little girl?”
“And Bud,” Mitch confirmed. “Now f**kin’ talk!” he barked.
“My boy,” Winchell whispered.
He didn’t have time for this.
His kids were…
They were…
Fuck, he didn’t have any f**king time.
Mitch got nose-to-nose with him and roared, “Talk!”
“I’ll talk, dude, I’ll talk,” Winchell forced out.
Mitch released his throat and stepped back. Eddie and Hank relaxed at his sides and Winchell put a hand to his throat and began to move forward.
Mitch put a hand to his chest and pushed him against the wall. “We’re not gettin’ comfortable, havin’ a beer and chattin’ about football. When I say talk now, I mean talk…now.”
Winchell’s eyes came to his.
Then he said, “The mattresses.”
“Got that,” Mitch clipped. “What about them?”
“They don’t sell,” Winchell explained.
“Got that too,” Mitch bit out. “Tell me somethin’ I don’t got.”
Winchell nodded.
“Mara, she told me about them. She said they don’t sell. Said they always have a supply but they sit in the warehouse for a while. When she talked about it, I thought it was the perfect place to hide stash. Pierson is a good guy, family man, family business, single store, not a chain. Gives to charity. Looks out for his employees. No one would ever think he had a boatload of illegal shit stashed in his warehouse. I owed Lescheva, he was gettin’ impatient, I knew he had problems with storage so I told him my idea. He liked it, did the recon, found Otis was a weak link. He recruited him, stayed distant, left the operation to Otis and me.”
“And what’s the stash?” Mitch asked and Winchell shook his head but answered.
“Anything he needed. H. Blow. Stolen passports. Jewels. Whatever.”
“And the over-order?” Mitch pushed.
“Lescheva got greedy,” Winchell told him. “It was working. They move a load of product in that store but not that brand of mattress. Lescheva wanted to store more stuff there, Otis ordered a shitload of mattresses to hold it. He knows his cousin thinks he’s a f**k up so he’d never cotton on. And he didn’t.”
“You remember they tossed Mara’s place?” Mitch asked and Winchell nodded. “Was it because of the mattresses?” Mitch pressed.
Winchell nodded again. “Pierson thinks Otis is a f**k up because he is. Heard word in lockdown, he lost track of some shit he was holdin’ for Lescheva, mattresses went out, so did some shit. He had to find it,” Winchell answered.