Jack shook his head.
“Is there any way to trace the number?”
“I’ll put Evelyn on it.”
“What? Jack being cheap? Can’t put you up in a motel for the night?” Evelyn said as she stepped back to let us in.
She had her hand on the collar of a muscular German shepherd. When I hesitated, she waved me in. “They’re trained. If I don’t give the signal, they won’t attack.”
I glanced over at the other one, an even bigger shepherd peering back at me from the other side of the hall. “Any chance I might ‘accidentally’ give the signal?”
“Get inside.” Once I was in, she released the first dog’s collar. “This is Ginger. That’s Scotch. Girls? Say hello.”
I stretched out my hand, fingers extended. They snuffled it.
“Now off to bed,” she said.
They turned and headed up the stairs, one behind the other.
I walked into the living room, then stumbled as a sudden cramp from the long drive took my calf muscles hostage. Jack caught my arm, but I waved him off, hopped over to the sofa and collapsed onto it.
“You want your coffee extra strong?” Evelyn asked. “Or through an intravenous?”
“I got it,” Jack said. “ Dee? You talk.”
“Ah, so you’ve finally realized the advantages of having a partner,” Evelyn said. “If nothing else, it saves you from the supreme effort of speech.”
Jack kept walking. I pulled my leg up and started massaging the muscle.
“If you want something for that, just ask. I’ve got a damned cupboard full of crap. The days when muscle rubs and ointments replace massage oil and lubricants…Never thought I’d see it.” She leaned back in her chair. “So, what happened with Baron?”
I glanced over at Jack, but he kept walking. So I told Evelyn.
“Well, that’s priority one, then. Finding him.” She seemed ready to go on, then glanced toward the kitchen. A pause, then she turned back to me. “I made some progress myself. Leon Kozlov, former associate of the Nikolaev family. A small family, but an old one. One of the first in America.”
“You know them?”
“I know folks associated with them, which is how we’re going to get the story on Mr. Kozlov.”
“He got insurance?” Jack called as he retreated into the kitchen.
I told Evelyn about our theory.
“Well, not really a
“A good one. People die, someone always benefits, and usually it’s money. Let me see what I can dig up. First, though, I’ll find Baron. Pathetic fuck.”
One could say those two words with sadness, even empathy. Evelyn did not. Jack’s shoulders tightened and he pushed to his feet as if to hide the reaction.
“I told you this would happen,” she said. “Didn’t I?”
“Yeah.” Jack headed for the computer and turned on the monitor. “Let’s get looking. Find him.”
Evelyn turned to me. “When Baron retired, I told Jack it wouldn’t work. It never does.”
“Didn’t argue,” Jack said.
“You gave Baron the benefit of the doubt.”
“Nothing wrong with that. Want me to log on?”
“You don’t know my password.”
“Yeah?”
They locked gazes, but Evelyn only shook her head, refusing to be distracted.
“You have a sentimental streak, Jack.”
“An optimistic streak. And it’s not fatal. Dee doesn’t need to hear this shit. You want me to say it? You were right. Now log on or-”
She stood. “Get away from my keyboard before you break something.”
Baron’s number didn’t lead anywhere. Not immediately at least. Evelyn put in a few cybercalls for more information, both to trace the phone number and to track Baron through the criminal network.
“But that won’t bear fruit today, so you can go and check that cartel lead while Dee and I check out Kozlov and research the insurance theory.”
“You don’t need her.”
“Neither do you. There’s no need to take her along, especially on something like that.”
“Evelyn’s right,” I said. “I can’t help you shake down a drug cartel source, and probably shouldn’t-especially after how Saul reacted. I’d rather stay, search for insurance links and help Evelyn with the Kozlov lead.”
His back to Evelyn, Jack looked at me and gave a small shake of his head. I knew what he meant. Evelyn didn’t need my help. It was only an excuse to get me alone, away from him.
Jack left before dawn. So I was alone with Evelyn, doing research. In school, I’d always been a struggling B student. As a cop, I’d never aspired to detective-hood, if only because of the sheer amount of desk work involved. Now, in my thirties, I had returned to academia, taking college courses, but only because my days were spent outdoors and active, and I could spare some time to develop my brain.
Yet when it came to solving this case, I had minimal interest in poring over Internet printouts and visiting a retired hitwoman’s old pals. Another victim’s life was expiring, and I wanted to be with Jack, interviewing-or interrogating-a source.
As for whether I trusted Evelyn enough to stay with her, the answer was no. I didn’t see Evelyn as a threat-not at her age-but neither did I know her. Still, I was okay with that. In my years as a cop, I’d had a couple of partners I hadn’t trusted even after that initial discomfort of working with someone new had passed. I’d spent almost a year partnered with a dirty cop-someone I suspected was more likely to shoot my back than protect it. I’d learned to deal with that, and never gave him any cause to think I didn’t trust him. More than once I’d heard him snicker with his buddies about how naive I was. But when he’d tried to pin something on me, I’d seen it coming and turned the tables so deftly he’d never figured out what had gone wrong. If I’d worked with him and emerged unscathed, I could do the same with Evelyn.
So, first, we researched the insurance claim theory. There were legitimate ways to get that information, but legitimate means slow, and always leaves a trail. Evelyn knew shortcuts through the dark alleys of the information highway.
By breakfast time we had our list of victims, insurance claims and beneficiaries. None screamed “murder for money.” Carson Morrow’s wife would collect his, but it was only fifty thousand, not nearly enough when you had two kids and he was the family breadwinner. Mary Lee’s family would collect a quarter of a million. A tidy sum…if it wasn’t to be divided among five children and eleven grandchildren. Leon Kozlov’s ten-thousand-dollar policy would cover burial costs, with little left over.
So far, the cases didn’t seem to support an insurance-based theory. Maybe Morrow’s wife had other reasons to kill him, and the insurance money would just be a bonus. Maybe multiple members of Lee’s family had conspired to have her murdered. Maybe Kozlov had a richer policy elsewhere.
Then there was Alicia Sanchez, whose coverage did raise red flags. I wasn’t certain, but I suspected that insurance on an unmarried college student was relatively rare. And a quarter of a million dollars went way beyond burial costs. I couldn’t imagine any parent killing his child for insurance money. But Sanchez did have two brothers, one with a criminal record. One way to get a “loan” from Mom and Dad would be to make sure they had the money to lend. And after grieving for one child, they’d be reluctant to refuse to help another. Not a perfect theory, but something worth further investigation.
