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“Do you really see me that way?”
“How can you doubt it?”
I rested my head against the seat. “I’ve spent my entire life doubting myself.”
He shook his head. “I don’t believe that’s true. What I think is you’ve spent your entire life overcoming everyone else doubting you. Look at where you are. Do you think someone like Nemesis would agree to putting you on a task force if she didn’t see in you what I see? What you see in yourself? You’ve held your head high in the face of what some would find defeating. Instead of crumbling, you persevered.”
Again, I was stunned. Magnet would not say any of the things he had if he didn’t believe them to be true. He had no reason to placate me. “Thank you,” I said, feeling sorry that it had taken me so long to do so.
When Angel asked us to prepare for takeoff, he sat back in his seat and fastened his seat belt. “Shall we get to work?”
“Yes, but shouldn’t I wait to get my laptop out?”
“You should, but in the meantime, I’ll tell you some of the things Zeppelin and I discussed earlier.”
I nodded. “Ready.”
“First, Verity and Magnolia will be reconciling everything we learned from Xavier Vella when he was first interrogated versus what we now know the facts to be. For example, that Marco Vella Jr. was his father. Or rather that he wasn’t.”
“Good.” I’d had the same idea when I reviewed the briefs.
“Next up is Manual Varilla.”
Magnet ran down the man’s history, which I had also familiarized myself with. The big question was who he’d worked for and who’d killed him.
“I have a theory.”
“Go on,” Mag said.
“I believe he works for the Calabrian Syndicate but AMPS arranged for his murder.”
“What brought you to that conclusion?” he asked.
“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, as they say.”
“Varilla knew enough to cast suspicion on AMPS while not implicating the Calabrians.”
“Precisely,” I responded. “If the syndicate was worried about Varilla talking, they would’ve killed him a year ago.”
“Which means AMPS knew we were on our way to interrogate him again. What’s your theory there?”
“They have people on the inside of the prison. One in administration who knew Oleander and Poseidon were on their way, and another in a position to kill Varilla. It could be one and the same, but I doubt it. Most likely, more than one guard was involved in his murder.”
“Any other thoughts on him?” he asked.
“Not at this time.”
“Shall we move on to our objectives for St. Moritz?”
“Mainly, I’d say it’s to learn the identity of the woman dining with Godwin who Zeppelin, Verity, Macht, and I all saw.”
“Agreed. I’d also like to scan the CCTV footage to see if any members of the Vella family visited St. Moritz. We can utilize facial recognition.”
I thought it over for a minute. “What about Godwin? Anything more we can find on him will help with AMPS, of course, but also with the Calabrian Syndicate and, potentially, other criminal organizations he had ties to.”
Magnet smiled. “I told you we’d make a good team.”
I smiled too. “I like working with you.”
