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“Okay.”
“Just like that? No rehashing of what went down before?”
“Do either of us have time to play it that way?” asked Gibson.
Okay, unload H-bomb and see what happens.“Nathan Trask knows you visited his father.”
She thought she could hear Gibson’s breathing accelerate, but only slightly. The woman really did have stainless steel balls, Clarisse had to give her that.
“How do you know that?”
“He told me personally.”
“You mean you got in to see him? How?” asked Gibson.
“The only way I could. I had information that was relevant to him.”
“Relevant information such as?”
“Treasure,” replied Clarisse.
“You’ll need to flesh that out.”
“Harry Langhorne left a lot of mob money behind. We’ve gone over this.”
“So why does Trask care about that?Washe involved with Langhorne in that laundry list of crimes you told me about before?”
“Maybe not all of them, but enough. He also told me he built his fortress in Virginia Beach because Langhorne—or Pottinger, to him—was nearby.”
“And you believed that?” said Gibson.
“Doesn’t matter. His father is nearby, too. That could be the real reason, or it could be both. The point is, he was connected to Pottinger at some point and in some way.”
“So he doesn’t know who Pottinger really was?”
“I didn’t tell him, but I did reveal that he had taken a great deal of mob money from decades ago. Some of it he used to buy Stormfield. But the rest? It has to be somewhere. And I think that Pottinger ripped off Trask as well, at least he strongly intimated that was the case. So the treasure might even be larger than we think.”
Gibson said, “If Pottinger had ripped off Trask, how come Trask didn’t take care of him? He was right next door and had been for years. The man should have been dead a long time ago.”
“I asked him that.”
“And his response?”
“Something to the tune of just because he owned the place didn’t mean he actually lived there.”
“Well, he waskilledthere. Did Trask do that?” asked Gibson.
“We covered this before, too. The poison, the strange message left. Not his MO. And do you think he’d confess the deed to me?”
“Did Trask have any idea how much money he got ripped off for? Or how?”
“I’m sure he does, to the penny. And again, he didn’t exactly admit to being ripped off at all. But it was meaningful enough for him to agree to see me. And it’s not just money with those guys. It’s reputation. If they can get taken, it’s a sign of weakness. In that business, you don’t want the other sharks to see your blood in the water.”
“Trust me, I know that,” said Gibson.
“Did you find any clues to a treasure at Stormfield?” she asked.
“I found a note, in the man’s boat. It basically acknowledged that he was aware people would be looking for something, and suggested they try harder.”
