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Noah handed me a parabolic mic that I aimed in Lee’s direction while he set up the recording equipment. Her voice filled the van. She was scratching Onyx’s ears and talking baby talk to him every time he returned the ball. She didn’t sound right. Her pitch was too high and brittle. She kept glancing back at the parking area. John had been right. This was a meeting.
We didn’t have long to wait. A red Camaro with the radio cranked up parked next to Lee’s Bentley a few minutes later. A man in his forties got out. He was tall and lean, but a slight paunch overhung the waist of his expensive designer jeans. He sported slicked-back dark hair and a sparse mustache. An ostentatious pinky ring winked in the sunlight when he rattled the ice in a convenience store soda fountain cup he held.
“Hello, wife,” he said to Lee when he arrived at her side.
The sound quality of the parabolic mic was more than good enough to hear every word the asshole said.
“Ex-wife,” Lee reminded him.
The condescending tone was so Lee. I loved hearing her cut Tony Delgatto down. Next to me, Noah shot me a thumbs-up. The recording was live.
Chapter 36
Lee
“You look good for someone who spent the night as a guest of Miami’s finest. Well, except for your hair. That bun is pure librarian.” Tony sucked a gulp of soda from his cup and looked around the dog park.
“Franklin made sure my stay wasn’t any longer than necessary.” I ignored Tony’s comment about my hair. When we were married, he loved to do that—give me a compliment then rip me down in the next sentence. Back then, his favorite complaint was that my tits were too small. Thank God I never got the implants he’d pushed for.
“And how is my favorite shrimpy shark of a lawyer?”
“Brilliant as always. But that’s not why we’re meeting, is it? You already know I made it through the night just fine.”
“Touché. I need to know where you put the merchandise.”
I shrugged. “I don’t have it.”
“Don’t tell me that, Lee. The cops don’t have it. FBI doesn’t have it. I assume the dead guy doesn’t have it. You were the last to see him alive. Therefore, you have it.” He smiled like his logic was infallible.
I was fucked.
“Is it a fact that De Wispelaere doesn’t have it? I never spoke to him.” Blaming the dead guy was my first line of defense.
“It is a fact.” Tony glared at me for having the audacity to question what he said.
“Tony, the man was dead when I got there. How would I know anything?”
“Amber Lee.” It was a warning not to push.
“You didn’t see it. There was blood everywhere. It looked personal.”
“Every business can get messy, even antiques.” He reached down to pet Onyx.
Onyx braced against my legs and gave a low growl.
“You know he doesn’t like you.” I jerked Tony’s hand away from my dog. There would be too many headaches if Onyx bit him. “Someone cut De Wispelaere’s throat.”
Tony didn’t understand the level of violence at play. It wasn’t simply a bullet-to-the-head execution and robbery.
Tony shrugged. De Wispelaere’s was unimportant. All he cared about was the watches. Tony had always been lacking in compassion, and years of working for Uncle Jimmy had made him downright vicious.
I turned away from my ex-husband, totally disgusted with my younger self for having gotten involved with him.
A small, angry, lonely part that hid in the deepest, darkest part of my broken heart wept. If Derek had really wanted to save me, he should have shown up in New Jersey. Dragged me home before the Delgatto family had sunk their claws in so deep that I could never get away. But I knew my teenage self would have fought Derek every step of the way. And if it hadn’t been Tony, it would have been some other lowlife I ended up with.
It was up to me and me alone to dig my way out of a lifetime of bad choices.
“The cops are all over this murder and me. I know Uncle Jimmy doesn’t like it messy. I’m trying to help.”
