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“I’d miss me too. Speaking of the cartel, what did you do with Mal?”
“I should have arrested him, but other than kicking the shit out of Stone and tasing me, he didn’t really break any laws. Stone wasn’t going to press charges and I guess I’d rather keep that whole orange grove adventure off the official record. I guess three hours in his trunk was punishment enough. I let him go. That was a week ago…you haven’t heard from him?”
“No, he was already mad at me for seeing you. This might have pushed him over the edge.”
“He didn’t seem happy about the whole thing.”
“No one was.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much. He’ll probably come around and forgive you. It’s not like he has a lot of other friends.”
Margot wasn’t sure what to say to that so she asked, “Lori?”
“I’d say the theory you and Gale cooked up over drinks at Layla’s was more or less spot on. Some combination of Lori, Chuck, and Dan Jensen decided to get Dave Jensen to sell his dad’s beloved coin collection. Dan, it seems, borrowed a lot of money from people he shouldn’t have borrowed money from, so he really needed the cash. Chuck wasn’t in particular financial trouble, but he wasn’t getting rich either and he was screwing Lori, who, for good reason, was not much of a fan of her husband.”
“He beat her.”
“Yeah, he was more of a work the body guy than the face. She has the scars to prove it, so Chuck probably gave her the beating in the picture.”
“Is she going to press charges on Dave?”
“Surprisingly no, but she did move out. I don’t think she’s very welcome after tricking her husband into selling his dad’s coins and then helping Chuck murder his brother.”
“So, she was in on it.”
“Yes, but no. Anyone with half a brain thinks she was part of it and while Dave is certainly a wife-beating control freak, he does have half a brain. Since Chuck decided ten grand was not enough to split three ways and the best way to go was to murder anyone who knew anything about the plot, and since even you and Gale didn’t know that you knew anything, plus she put two in the back of Chuck’s head—well, there really isn’t anyone around to dispute her story.”
“So, she walks?”
“Yeah, seems to be a common theme lately. I liked it better when I just arrested people. If it makes you feel any better, she never got Dave’s coin money.”
“She’ll get half of it in the divorce.”
“Well, thanks for ruining that for me. That was the only thing about this mess I was happy about.”
“Sorry. I wish I could have done this without getting you into it.”
“You know, the thing is, when someone like Mal calls me a choirboy, he’s not wrong. I don’t break the rules; I don’t even bend them. Except for you. For you, I’m transporting fugitives instead of hauling them to jail and overlooking assault and attempted murder.”
Margot didn’t like the look on his face.
“Are you breaking up with me?”
“No, I’m asking you to stay out of trouble because I want to stay out of trouble. I’m fine being a choirboy, but I don’t want to give up on you yet.”
“You want the best of both worlds.”
“Why the hell not?”
“You just said ‘hell.’ That’s a stepping stone to f—”
“—Don’t say it. Just because I’ll overlook a few felonies for you doesn’t mean I’m going to start dropping F-bombs.”
“Fair enough. If Stone did what he said he was going to do, I’m back to normal old boring P.I. work and I plan to keep it that way.”
“Good,” Radcliff said as he raised his glass, “Here’s to nice normal boring work.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Margot replied, though she had a nagging feeling things weren’t ready to get boring quite yet.
