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“I need to talk to you,” I told him when I was close enough.
The rat fink didn’t even look at me, too busy trying to get the server’s attention, a little too zozzled to realize that the fella was ignoring him on purpose. “I doubt that.”
“Listen, fella, I know you took the idol. Just hand it over, and all this stops here.”
That got the dope looking at me. He was pale under his tan, but he rolled his eyes at me. “I didn’t take the idol,” he answered with a little laugh, like just the idea was silly.
“Of course, you did,” I insisted.
“Who put you up to this?” he laughed. “Because it’s not funny.”
“No one put me up to it.”
Then he looked at me with a frown. “And who the hell are you, anyway?”
“I’m the person your mother hired to find the idol and now that I’ve found you, I want to know where it is.”
He shook his head. “Look, I don’t know who you are or what my mother was thinking in hiring you, but I don’t know where the thing is because I didn’t take it.” Then he chuckled once more, rolling his eyes like this was one big misunderstanding. “What would I even do with the thing? It’s not like I’m in line for clan head.”
He tried to turn his back to me, the fine hairs at his temples suddenly damp with sweat. The kid was no actor. I’d seen toddlers that could sell a lie better than that.
“Baloney,” I hissed at him. “Cut the horse feathers. I got an eye witness. I know you took it.”
“What’s your name again?” he demanded.
“That don’t matter. All that does are two things; why you pinched it in the first place, and where it is now.”
Dimitri tried to laugh me off, but the sound was a little brittle around the edges. “You’re crazy.” Then he shook his head before looking at me once more. “Now get lost. I don’t have it and I don’t know who does.”
I’d done bad cop. It was time for worse cop.
“Okay.” I smiled at him, big enough to flash the dimples that were my secret weapon. “I guess I’ll just have to take this to Sophia then. Maybe your mother can help us get this ‘misunderstanding’ sorted.”
If the kid had been pale before, he was downright pasty after that. He breathed in real deep like then gave me another look. “It would just be your word against mine and you really think she’s going to believe some woman over her own son?”
“It wouldn’t be your word against mine when I have a witness who watched you take it.”
“That’s impossible. Who’s your witness?”
“I’m tired of playing games with you,” I answered as I whipped out my cell phone and looked for Taliyah’s number.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling the Chief of Police in Haven Hollow who happens to be... my sister-in-law,” I lied.
Your sister-in-law?Cain guffawed.
Hey, I want it to look like Taliyah and I are close.
“And why are you doing that?” Dimitri asked, eyes suddenly white. My finger hovered over the call button.
“Because if you aren’t going to admit the truth to me, she has ways to ensure you do.” I hit dial.
“Okay. Okay, yes, I took it.” He looked at the phone and then at me. “Will you just hang up and... we can talk about it?”
I ended the call and watched as Dimitri mopped at his face with the little square of cloth tucked into the breast pocket of his suit.
Step one down. “Why’d you take it? You can’t even use it to take over the family, you said so yourself.”
