Victor Drake parked his Jaguar in front of the seedy boxing gym where Suricata and Geoff normally worked out. It was time to dissolve the team, but first, he needed to make sure that all the jobs were satisfactorily completed.
This whole part of town disgusted him. It wasn’t for people like him, and he could hardly believe that he was even here. What if someone saw him?
But then again, since no one would expect a man of his stature to show up here, it was less likely anyone would recognize him.
He didn’t bring the money with him, of course. He wasn’t going to drive into the heart of Barrio Logan with two hundred and fifty thousand dollars cash in the trunk of his car.
Victor locked his car and then slipped inside the crusty building. The place was just like he expected it would be: dark, rank, and filled with the barbaric sounds of large men pummeling each other into unconsciousness. What a wonderful place to spend your free time.
Geoff and Dr. Kurvetek were already there, waiting for him beside a large punching bag. Suricata was finishing battering the face of a man fifty pounds heavier than him. Victor had always known Suricata was good with knives, but he’d never seen Suricata box before. It was disturbingly impressive.
“Do you have the money?” asked Geoff.
“Don’t be ridiculous. No. Not with me.”
An edge of anger. “I thought you were bringing it?” “I’ll get it to you, OK? But first I want to know if you can keep the cops off my back and tell me where the device is.”
“The cops won’t bother you. I took care of all that,” Geoff said.
“And Hunter didn’t have anything with him when he was killed.
I looked all over the area, the pier, everything. It wasn’t there. It’s gone. And I checked his body. There’s nothing to connect him to us.”
By then, Suricata had joined them. Victor allowed him a brief glance. The man was panting. Perspiring. And he smelled revolting.
What else was new.
Dr. Kurvetek peered at Victor through the sweat-soaked air. “It appears the device truly was destroyed in the fire. Hunter didn’t know anything about it. Why would he have removed it? Everything ended with his death.”
“Yeah,” snarled Suricata. “Now, what about our money?”
“Tonight,” Victor said. “I’ll have it at my house. All of it. Be there at 8:30. I’ll give it to you then. But for now, bury all the evidence, the reports, do what you need to do to pin everything on Hunter.
No slipups.” And then, before the three men Victor had grown to despise could respond or object, he strode past them and removed himself from that filthy place.
He would have the money for them tonight. Yes. After all, he was a man of his word. But then, as soon as this nightmare was wrapped up, he was going on a little vacation until the dust settled again.
He finished off his bottle of pills, pulled out his cell, and called his travel agent. Then he drove as quickly as he could away from the part of town he never should have ventured into in the first place.
I was standing in the hallway outside Tessa’s door waiting for her to get her suitcases packed when Ralph called. I answered, hoping maybe he could encourage me that I was doing the right thing by sending Tessa home, but before we could even get to that, he said, “Pat. Nothing more on Drake. He looks clean.” “What else?”
“Margaret’s taking over the case. Suddenly, she seems very interested in it. We have a briefing at police headquarters at two o’clock, and she’s insistent that you be there.”
Executive Assistant Director Margaret Wellington was the last person I wanted to see right now. She doesn’t believe in environmental criminology or geospatial investigation and tries to discredit me and cut funding for my work every chance she gets. Needless to say, we don’t get together to play Scrabble on the weekends. Having to deal with her would put me right over the edge. “Listen, Ralph.
You tell her I’ll be late, if I come at all. You tell her that,