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“No,” he said, “We are not. Let’s go rally the cavalry. It’s time we stopped this crap.”
CHAPTER 44
Imani drove us back to the Pink House, stopping on the way back to pick up the Gladiator, with Peri’s bear still in the back, from the side of the road. Liz and Anemone came with me as Imani had some work to do with Jason at the factory, so George was waiting at the Pink House when we got there.
He shook my hand, welcoming me back. “I talked to the sheriff. We don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things, but he’s a decent guy. The tip call was anonymous and there’s no way to trace it. He feels real bad about it.”
“It was Cash,” Liz said.
“No way to prove it,” I said.
“All right,” George said, as Anemone joined us. “Now what?”
“We need to stop Cash,” Liz said. “Permanently.”
George looked a little startled at the “permanently,” probably thinking that she meant to kill him.
Actually, I wasn’t sure she didn’t mean to kill him.
Anemone stepped up. “Let’s talk inside. The library.”
We settled in the much-too-comfortable chairs in the library surrounded by, I suppose, lots of knowledge in wall-to-wall books. Cleve had certainly had a thing for books. I wondered if he’d cracked a cover on a single one. I doubted Faye spent much time in here. The books had that books-by-the-yard look that said they were decoration, not actual reading material.
Marianne came in with a pot of coffee and a large tray of snacks, given Marianne’s definition of “snack.” This was a far cry from being hunched in a bunker at the headquarters getting a mission briefing before getting on the choppers that were inbound to take us into the mountains. But the mood was the same. Once Marianne closed the door behind her, Liz took over, fueled by rage, and nobody tried to take the floor from her.
“Cash is our problem,” she said. “The Wolves are laundering drug money, O’Toole is screwing with the police department, and the senator is playing politics with Burney, but the point person on all of that is Cash. And he just had Vince arrested. He’s going down.”
“Well, I think—” Anemone began, but Liz overrode her, which was impressive. Even more impressive, Anemone let her.
Liz went on “The only reason Cash has any power right now is because the Wolves and O’Toole and the senator are backing him. If they turn him loose, he’s done. No money, no power, no backup, nothing. His family isn’t even talking to him anymore. Vince and I have discussed this, and I think that has to be our plan: get rid of the Wolves, strip O’Toole of power, peel the senator off Burney, and leave Cash powerless. Four phases. I think Cash might leave and start over someplace else if we can do that. There’s nothing to keep him here.”
“You,” I said.
“That’s part of the fourth phase. Convince Cash that I hope he dies so I can come to his funeral in a red dress. That’s the plan.”
“We start with the Wolves,” I said. “They’re pumping money through him into River Vista. He was counting on money from the sale of the factory which isn’t going to happen now, so if we get rid of the Wolves, he’s out of funding. And Cash without money is really in trouble.”
Anemone tried again. “We need a plan.”
“We have a plan,” Liz said. “Divide and conquer. We pick off the Wolves, O’Toole, and the senator, in that order, isolating Cash. We leave him powerless, so he has to leave.” She looked murderous. “He’ll still have his teeth. He’ll be fine.”
“And more dangerous,” I said. “He’ll be desperate. And the person he’ll be most focused on will be you. You always saved him in the past, he thinks you’ll do it again.”
“I can take care of Cash,” Liz said. “How are you going to get rid of the Wolves?”
George spoke for the first time. “If the senator knows Cash is laundering money for the Wolves, she’ll drop him. She can’t afford to have that scandal come near her again.”
“I told Franco,” I said. “I’m sure he passed it on to her. Whether she believes it or not . . .” I shrugged.
“Let’s get rid of the Wolves and O’Toole first,” Liz said, looking grimmer than I’d ever seen her before. “Then let me handle the senator.”
I raised my eyebrows at that, but I wasn’t stupid enough to say anything because Liz was on a roll.
“What are you going to do?” Anemone said.
“I’m going tofixthis,” Liz said, and that alone should have struck fear into the hearts of the bad guys. It sure as hell struck fear into mine.
“O’Toole,” George said, suddenly. “We can’t wait for the election. If Liz can get the senator to pull her support from him, I think we’ve got him.”
