‘Secondhand smoke’s bad for you,’ he said. His voice was quiet but not warm.
She said, ‘What are you going to do with me?’ Her voice didn’t sound like her own anymore.
Feed you. Eggs. Toast. Sound okay? Mouth up to eating, or you want another shake?’
‘Depends. Is it my last meal?’
‘I told you that you were valuable to me.’ Now he smiled, a bully’s knowing, taunting grin.
‘I don’t understand.’
‘You’re Open Sesame,’ he said. ‘You’re gonna tell us how they do it. How they hide and move the money.’
‘They.’
He smiled. ‘We’ll start with Kiko Grace’s organization and his rivals back in south Florida.’
A cold nausea prickled her guts.
‘Then the Dominicans in Dallas and New Orleans. The cartels in New York and Los Angeles. You’re gonna help us break their backs.’ Jose’s voice went low. ‘We call ourselves Public Service. We do what the cops can’t. Take the war on drugs to the streets. We get in with the dealers. Learn their setup. Then we kill the leaders, gut the organization, take their money and go after the next group.’ He leveled a hard look at her. ‘Dealers killed my mom.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘No you’re not. You’re not one bit sorry, bitch. What was my mother to you or your kind?’
The door opened. Tasha Strong stepped inside. Beautiful face stern. A gun in her hand, barrel lowered.
‘Tasha?’ Eve blinked. ‘Tasha?’
‘ “O tiger’s heart wrapp’d in a woman’s hide!” ’ Jose quoted, making guns with his fingers, grinning at Tasha.
‘Don’t give her more of a headache with that crap,’ Tasha said. ‘Mouth better, Eve?’
Eve managed to nod.
‘She’s been tending to you. She worked Paul’s side, I worked Kiko’s.’ Jose smiled. ‘Tasha lost her brother to a drug gang. It tends to gnaw at you, knowing that the police alone can never beat these people. So we work together. Dozens of us.’
Eve glanced over at the spill of her purse. The CD Whit took from Tasha. It was gone. ‘The cooked books…’ she said.
‘Those files that listed other revenue sources for Paul on the CD? Faked. By Tasha and me. Paul gave her access to your house so she could check your finances, see if Frank had been doing any more stealing. But that was a chance to copy those fake files to your hard drive after she copied your real financial files without anyone knowing. False trail for the authorities to follow if you got caught or killed right away. She already planted those files on the computers at the Topaz after you vanished. We didn’t want the Feds grabbing the Bellini money before we could. But that’s not a worry. Now that we have you. See? We plan as thoroughly as you do.’
She closed her eyes. ‘You want me to help you, but I can’t. I don’t know how other rings clean their money.’
‘You know the tricks. The processes. Like, I’m intrigued, the exchange place for Kiko’s money being done at what appears to be a simple insurance company. You cleaning money through insurance policies?’
‘Yeah.’ Suddenly there was no point in not telling him. ‘You buy a life insurance policy, overseas, then cash it out a few months later and transfer the money back into the country. You don’t get watched as closely. It’s a loophole I found. You can move millions in short order and there’s no question of legitimacy.’
Jose patted her cheek. ‘Sweet lady, you’re exactly what we need to destroy the worst people in this country.’
‘I said, I can’t.’
‘You got a choice,’ he said. ‘Help us, give us what we want, crack open the vaults for the major dealers in this country, or watch Whit Mosley die. Slowly. Painfully.’
Tears of anger, frustration, welled up in her eyes. ‘But Whit’s not a drug dealer, he’s not Kiko or Paul.’
‘Definitely. He’s a judge, a justice of the peace down on the coast,’ Tasha said.
Eve gave a sharp little laugh. ‘A judge.’
‘I had a chance to kill him when I killed Paul, and I didn’t,’ Tasha said. ‘You owe me one. Don’t forget it.’
‘I don’t consider your partner a good guy,’ Jose said. ‘He’s a guy who could cause us a lot of trouble. And if you want him to keep breathing, you do what you’re told.’
‘Eve,’ Tasha said. ‘I kissed Paul, slept with him, listened to him cry about his dad. Then I killed him. We won’t show Whit one moment of mercy if you don’t help us.’
‘Don’t hurt him,’ Eve pleaded. ‘I’ll do whatever you want.’
They left her alone in the room, an old office at one end of the warehouse, walked to the other end of the warehouse.
‘You think she’ll cooperate?’ Jose said. ‘With what she knows, she could accelerate our schedules.’
‘No,’ Tasha said. ‘We need her son. Whit.’
‘Son?’
‘Look at him, look at her, Jose. It’s obvious. If he was just her business partner she wouldn’t plead for him like that.’ Tasha shook her head. ‘She’s been in the business for thirty years and was never caught. She’s forgotten more than most people know. She could lead us down blind alley after blind alley, slow us down without us even knowing. We need Whit where she can see him hurt. Hear him scream.’ Tasha touched Jose’s shoulder. ‘Weigh his life against all the lives we save doing this. The innocents. The kids. He’s nothing compared to them. He’s the guarantee she’ll work her best.’
‘But the police are looking for me. I don’t know if I can hunt him around Houston. We don’t even know if he’s in town.’ Frustration in his voice.
‘You want him as bait to get her to deliver what we need,’ Tasha said. God, men could be dense at times. She already had a plan. ‘It works both ways. Use her as bait to get him.’
‘Only works if we can find him to have a conversation,’ Jose said. ‘Eve won’t want to get him anywhere close to us. She won’t talk.’
Tasha frowned at this hard, unappealing truth. ‘Try Frank Polo,’ she said. ‘He’s dumb as a stump but maybe he knows how to find Eve’s son. His number’s on my cell phone.’
‘Just call him up and ask him where Whit is?’
‘Make it worth his while. He’s gonna be signing autographs on the unemployment line with Paul dead. Or maybe tell him he gets Eve back if he helps us.’ Tasha went back in to feed Eve, make sure she ate. When she came out of the office, Jose was clicking off her cell phone and smiling as though he’d won the lottery.
‘I just had me,’ Jose said, ‘one brilliant idea to kill two birds with one stone.’
Monday afternoon thin rain fell from the sky, clouds wandering in from the Gulf, and the wet lot of Club Topaz, closed, was empty. But it was where Robin agreed to meet Claudia. Robin sat in Claudia’s passenger seat. Claudia handed her a coffee, one of those cinnamontoffee-mocha latte creations that was sweeter than a box of candy.
‘Her name is Tasha Strong,’ Robin Melvin said. ‘Tasha dances here. Nice girl but a little uppity. Paul was all crazy about her.’
‘Have you seen her since Paul died?’ Claudia asked.
‘No. She’s probably scared to death. I sure am,’ Robin said.
‘These aren’t good people, Robin. I know you have feelings for Greg Buckman-’
‘No. I had hopes.’ She said the word like it left a bitter taste in her mouth. ‘I knew he wasn’t the nicest guy on the planet but I thought, if he and I could get away from these people, he would be better. All that goal stuff he says. He wants to be better. But I’m not sticking around for the home improvement anymore.’
‘Can’t change ’em, Robin,’ Claudia said. Tried not to think of Whit.
‘Clearly not.’ Robin poked at her puffy lip. ‘I never, ever, had a guy hit me. Not once. I swore I would never put up with that Lifetime-movie shit. And he did it, and I was so surprised I acted a fool. I’m sorry.’
‘It’s okay, don’t apologize.’
‘But I want to help. I don’t know anything about any illegal stuff, okay? I told the police that about a dozen times. They don’t believe me, they think Bucks must have talked plenty on the pillow.’ She lowered her voice. ‘He never did. But Bucks wanted me to watch Tasha. So I’m guessing she knew bad shit about him and Paul. I searched
