He rinsed his come from Tobias’s skin, then turned the water off. “Come on. We’ve got a lot to do today.”
“Do we start with Spratt? Or your client?”
“Not sure yet.” Sullivan dried off with rough swipes of the towel, explaining what he’d put together the night before.
“So Tidwell and your redheaded client guy—”
“Yannick Holt.”
“—Holt, maybe worked for Spratt back then on the murders of Larry Howard and his bodyguards and his housekeeper.”
“Yep.”
Tobias bit his lip. “Heck of a coincidence.”
“Yup.” He hung his towel up and cocked a hip against the counter, watching Tobias dry off as he considered the options.
“What did you find on Spratt?”
“His rep is solid. He seems to genuinely like helping the innocent and fighting bad guys.”
“Bad guys like Mama.”
“Like Mama,” Sullivan agreed.
“But he was talking about Ghost—”
“He was maybe talking about Ghost.”
“—so he at least knows where Ghost is.”
“Maybe.”
“You think there’s any chance Tidwell picked up Ghost for legit purposes?” Tobias asked, sounding hopeful. “Ghost did go with him willingly. Maybe that’s the favor. Mama told Ghost to act like he’s going along with it, but he’s actually feeding them bad info.”
Sullivan cocked his head. “You know, that might not be far off the mark. If she’s worried about Spratt’s people closing in, an informant to lead the cops astray might seem like a good option to undermine the investigation.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Any chance Ghost double-crosses her and helps the cops legitimately?”
Tobias snorted. “Ghost wouldn’t ask a cop for help if he was bleeding to death, let alone trust one to watch his back.”
“Yeah, I figured. I like the idea of Ghost being a false informer, but if that’s the case, anybody could’ve done it. I mean, what’s the point of tracking down a reluctant hustler outside of your organization when you’ve got any number of folks who could wander in and start lying. Why Ghost?”
Tobias shook his head slowly. “I don’t know.”
“Ghost’s never mentioned Spratt? In any capacity? Did Spratt or one of his men ever arrest him? There has to be a reason Mama would think Ghost was the only guy who could get it done.”
“He’s never talked about specific cops or arrests or anything that I remember.” Tobias gnawed on a thumbnail. “Although...”
“What?”
“It’s sort of dumb.”
“I’m not grading you.”
Tobias took a deep breath. “You said Spratt likes helping the innocent. Ghost is really good at looking innocent. He’s good at being whatever someone wants him to be.”
“Yeah?”
“He’s super manipulative, actually.” Tobias winced. More of that patented Tobias Benton loyalty, Sullivan suspected. “He was in and out of Woodbury half a dozen times and he still had the staff convinced he was this abused, helpless sweet kid with tragically low self-esteem. If Spratt did pick him up for hustling at some point, he probably pulled the same act.”
“Spratt doesn’t strike me as a man stupid enough to fall for the hooker with a heart of gold shtick.”
“Maybe not, but I guarantee you that Ghost wouldn’t sign up for this favor if he didn’t believe he’d be successful. He must’ve had a reason to think it would work. He doesn’t put his head on the chopping block for anyone, not even Church.”
“Or you?”
“Or me.” Tobias looked away. “He told me once back in Woodbury that the key to winning was to let people underestimate you. It meant you always had the element of surprise. If you made the first strike a killing blow, you never lost.”
Sullivan headed for the bedroom, shaking his head. “No offense, Tobias, but I really don’t see the two of you as friends. What did you talk about back then?”
“Not much, at first. I mostly followed him around in the beginning. It got easier once Church showed up. He balances us out.”
“Huh.”
“The real question,” Tobias mused, “is what would Mama want Ghost to do to or for Spratt and his team?”
“Probably nothing good.”
Tobias hung his towel up, then froze, arms still extended. “Oh. Oh, jeez. That’s gotta be it.”
Sullivan lifted his eyebrows. “Well?”
Tobias spun around. “Blackmail.”
“You have a predilection you should look into,” Sullivan said, only half joking, but at the same time, Tobias’s answer struck him as sound. “Makes sense, though. Why else does someone involved in organized crime send a prostitute to the top cop in your city? To get him under your thumb. Even if he’s clean until that point, a few pictures of the guy with a hooker’s not going to look good. Mama would know that her kind of business can be investigated on the federal level, too, so it wouldn’t be enough that Spratt has guys in Internal Affairs. RICO statutes, you know? She’d be aware that Spratt would want to keep any connections to Ghost quiet, because the Feds wouldn’t hesitate to take a hard look at him if there was even a whiff of questionable activity. And if Mama had reason to believe that Spratt would fall for the noble, suffering hustler routine as long as Ghost was the hustler in question, it makes sense that he alone could get the job done. Damn, that’s playing the long game, though.”
“Ghost wouldn’t mind screwing over a cop that way.” Tobias’s mouth turned soft and worried. “But your fake client asked Spratt if they’d made progress with Ghost. If Ghost could trust someone who was doing whatever Spratt’s been doing to him. What if they figured out why he’s really there? God, what if they’ve hurt him?”
“Hey, now.” Sullivan kissed his temple. “He’s still alive, at least. They can’t be treating him too badly or he’d never trust them. And you said Spratt talked about him needing to feel safe, right? We’ve got a little time, at least. Yeah?”
Tobias nodded. His lips landed, sweet and warm, against Sullivan’s collarbone.
Sullivan rested his forehead against Tobias’s for a second before forcing himself to pull away. “Spratt’s the link to Mama, though.
