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“I hope I can handle all that as well as you can when my time comes.”
“I hope you can, too. You remember how you were, and it’s…not easy.”
“I’m sure.”
“You’re not police or you would have flashed your badge. What’s your interest?”
She took out her ProEye credentials.
He inspected them and nodded. “Good firm. You were a worthy competitor to my old shop, Kroll.”
“Thanks. It was rumored that Langhorne got away with a great deal of the mob’s money. He paid cash for the estate to the tune of five million. But word is there was more, a lot more. And if he invested it over the last thirty years or so, the sums would be far larger.”
“And you’re trying to claw these assets back for clients of ProEye? Who exactly would that be?”
“Confidentiality bars me from telling you. I’m sure you can understand.”
There was a twinkle in his eye now that she didn’t particularly get.
“Oh, I know confidentiality rules better than most. You can’t be working on behalf of the descendants of mobsters. ProEye is a legit outfit, so they wouldn’t have accepted a client seeking to get back ill-gotten gains. So I wonder who the client is?”
“Without giving away too much, perhaps those from whom the mob money was originally taken?”
“That would be a lot of people and entities.”
“Yes it would.”
“And what do you want with me?”
She began the spiel she had practiced on the drive over. “We found out about some of Daniel Pottinger’s business associates. They would be prime suspects in his murder. The fact is Harry Langhorne kept right on being a criminal in the persona of Daniel Pottinger. He was operating on a large scale; his list of known criminal endeavors stretches the globe and goes deep into some of the vilest stuff on earth. And he partnered with some people who had the wherewithal to play in that sandbox.”
Gibson stopped talking and just looked at him. Her heart went out to the man when his broad shoulders slumped and his handsome face collapsed and his breathing accelerated slightly.
“I guess that explains why you’re here, then,” he said without much behind it.
“And please believe me that I would not bother you with this if I had any other viable leads.”
He looked her over once more. “Not to sound sexist or misogynistic, though my generation is guilty of that generally, you don’t strike me as the type to be hunting down the likes of myson.”
Gibson thought of her mommy van outside with the two kiddy car seats inside. “Maybe that’s my superpower,” she said. “Everyone underestimates me to the point that I’m ignored when I shouldn’t be.”
He now looked at her with fresh respect. “I can see that. We had some female agents during my tenure that fit that description precisely. Other agents would tell them to get coffee. The next week they’d trump the same guys on a big bust. They just worked harder.”
“There you go.”
“But even so, you never said what you want from me.”
“Whatever you have on your son and his possible dealings with Harry Langhorne aka Daniel Pottinger.”
“I’ve been out of the game a long time.”
She glanced at his computer screen. “When I came in you were on a site that I use to track stolen assets. On the dark web.”
She eyed the open journal next to the computer. “And it doesn’t look to be just for fun.”
He glanced down at his journal. “It keeps my mind active.”
“Other people do Sudoku and Wordle to keep their brains sharp. You hunt criminals.”
