“Shit, you’re just not listening, are you? Okay, then, this is how it’s going to go now. You talking to me, telling me what I need to know; that results in the precinct giving you breakfast and letting you go. No charges, and our thanks for assisting us in a multiple homicide.”
“Multip—
“Shut the fuck up!” Salovitz’s fist slammed down on the table. “I’m talking. Now if you don’t cooperate, I will tie you in to this, and you’ll be facing an accomplice charge—and probably conspiracy, too. For this crime—seven bodies that we’ve found so far—you’ll be straight to Zagreus, and not the good end of the canyon.”
“No fucking way, man! I didn’t kill anybody.”
“In law, complicity is the same as participating.”
“I didn’t do anything!”
“Good. So now I have a question for you, and you’re gonna think hard about this, because I’m laying it out real simple. If I run a search through your accounts, which I haven’t done yet because you’re being a concerned, helpful citizen at this point, but
Renzi seemed to have gotten over his wintery cold. Sweat was breaking out across his forehead, and his skin was turning pale so fast Alik considered he could have had chameleon genes. “Yeah,” Renzi said, not making eye contact with Salovitz. “Friend of a friend, he helped me out. These are bad times, you know. The economy.”
Salovitz put his card down on the table like he was a Vegas pro about to scoop the cash. “Look at the faces, Ali. Are any of them the friend of a friend?”
Renzi glanced down. “Jesus!” He slapped a hand over his mouth as his cheeks bulged.
“Keep looking,” Salovitz ordered.
The card was showing him all the bodies in situ. In the cases of Perigine Lexi and Koushick Flaviu, a mug shot from records was shown, to clarify their identity.
“That one,” Renzi said, and turned away.
“Koushick Flaviu?”
“He said his name was Dylan.”
“And what did you do for him?”
“Rigged the diagnostic. He wanted to be sure nobody was going anywhere on the
“When did you meet him?”
“He turned up at my condo that morning. He knew who I was, what I did, everything. Man, you don’t say no to people like that! And it didn’t hurt nobody.”
Salovitz’s finger casually circled the card. “Nobody hurt, huh?”
“You know what I mean, man! I didn’t do anything. This isn’t down to me.”
“Maybe. Now, what else did this guy who called himself Dylan say?”
“He didn’t say anything, just to disable the yacht. I swear, man! I swear it; on my mother’s grave.”
“Did he say why he wanted it out of the water?”
“No. Nothing.”
“So have you ever done favors like this for people before?”
“No, man, no way.”
“You want to ask him anything?” Salovitz asked Alik through the precinct link.
“No. I’ll have the Bureau run a full background review on him. If he’s clean, you can bounce him out of here after breakfast.”
—
While Salovitz was tidying up in the interview room, Alik put a call in to Tansan, his Capitol Hill contact. They’d met two decades ago and formed a mutually beneficial relationship. There were small discreet favors asked for, and since then Alik had enjoyed a smooth ride inside the Bureau, with clearance almost level with the director. And some of the things he knew, the director wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with.
“It was a well-organized operation,” Alik told Tansan. “To start with, at least. But I’m puzzled why a low-level New York gang is trying to bust its way into Pentagon ultra files.”
“You may have to go and ask them.”
“That could get difficult. I suspect they’ll be nervous right about now, what with their brothers in arms being butchered, and all.”
“Do you need backup? I have some dark funds available if you need to hire the appropriate experts.”
“I’m going to see where this investigation leads for a while. It’s a very odd coincidence, both crews turning up at the same time. And if you do want to bust Pentagon ultra files, you don’t hire a a bunch of New York punks because that’s who these assholes were. I have to find out who escaped through Antarctica. They might have some answers.”
“Very well. Keep me informed. I need to know who wanted those files, and why.”
—
Alik ran through all the dead gang members again and decided the weakest link was likely to be Adrea Halfon, Perigine Lexi’s squeeze. Some of the girls who attached themselves with connected guys could be tougher than their men. This one? Alik had a hunch she was one of the other kind: brittle and dependent. Perigine had lifted her out of the gutter. He was her world; without him she was nothing. If he and Salovitz could just get to her before Javid-Lee sent anyone around…