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“Promise.”
* * *
The following morning,Damian is waiting at the door for me. I don’t make it into the precinct because Damian tells me we’re on the way to the gallery. The search warrant was denied twice based on lack of evidence.
Caleb, on the other hand, knows that’s utter bullshit and that the judge who was approached had a personal relationship with Andre Petrov. Once Zeke made the connection, we were able to approach another judge and get it pushed through. Caleb will be meeting us at the gallery. Caleb was smart and didn’t detail who it is that we suspect. He also showed up personally, early in the morning, got the warrant signed, and called Damian to pick me up and head over there. Our backup is on its way, but we have a head start.
As soon as we walk in, we’re greeted by a security guard.
“The exhibits don’t open for an hour,” says the big burly man in a posh black suit. Caleb ignores his words and shows him the warrant.
“What? Why? What are you looking for?” the man asks, but he’s stalling for time as he signals his flunky and sends him off to alert their boss.
“We’ll let you know when we find it,” Caleb tells him and continues walking up the steps to the second floor, where Zeke told us the statue was located. Damian and I are right behind him.
“There it is.” I point to the other end of the room. I move quickly to inspect the statue.
“You can’t touch that. It’s a piece of art,” the security guy says. He’s not happy, and he keeps looking around like he’s waiting for the cavalry to arrive.
“That warrant in your hand says we can,” Damian replies. He then turns to me and in a hushed tone says, “That’s been here for a while. There has to be a compartment in that thing.”
I run my hands over the statue, starting at the top and working my way down.
“Nothing,” I mutter in frustration.
“There has to be something.” Caleb comes over and begins to scan the item. He sweeps his hand over the plaque. “It’s loose.” He smiles up at us, then drops to his knees and carefully jostles it. It gives immediately, popping off. Caleb puts his hand inside the gap and pulls out a notebook. He goes back in and extracts a mini recording device. The last thing in there is a DVD. Each item goes into an evidence bag, and by this time, backup has arrived and so has Ivan Mallovich. He’s not looking so happy.
“What is this?” Ivan asks angrily.
Caleb confronts Ivan. “We had an anonymous tip that illegal activity was being conducted from this location. I’m afraid we’re going to have to ask you to come down to the station with us to answer some questions.” Caleb stays cool while Ivan does his half-sneer expression, looking down his nose at us.
Ivan glances at his security guy and says, “Call my lawyer.” Then he turns back to us and holds out his wrists. “Will I need cuffs?”
I want to punch the pompous ass in the face, but decide that walking away and letting Caleb deal with him is a better choice. Damian stays back while I get some air and wait outside.
Hours later, after having had a chance to pore over the notebook, we’ve discovered entries of dates and dollar values. The amounts are in the hundreds of thousands. We’re thinking the item numbers are the art pieces that were “stolen” and the amounts next to them are their insured value. The recording was a conversation between Ivan and Dustin. Dustin got him on tape talking about the next heist they were planning, and when we cross-reference the list of stolen art, we find the piece they’re talking about. It was reported stolen a week after Dustin was killed. The DVD holds the names of art galleries and museums that have been hit.
We’ve got this guy. Now if we can only get him to turn on the big boss.
* * *
It’s beenhours and hours, and we haven’t been able to turn Ivan. Ivan lawyered up pretty fast, and his lawyer took his sweet-ass time getting here. He then ordered his client to stay silent. We’ve got nothing that ties the murder to Andre. The robberies have no direct connection to Andre, and even though many of his places were hit, he was brilliant enough to have other galleries hit as well, making it difficult to single him out.
“He’s willing to go down alone,” I huff. “Andre’s going to get off scot-free.” I slam my hand down on the desk.
“We got Ivan. He’s going down for a long time,” Zeke offers as consolation. He sits back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.
“How can I be okay with that, knowing what they put Sabrina through? How do I know she’ll be safe?” I ask, looking around the room, searching the faces of my brothers for answers.
“Andre is going to be too busy covering his ass. There’s been no indication that he’s given a second thought to Sabrina. In the meantime, we’re going to have him tailed. If he makes a move, we’ll be on him. Andre’s many things, but he’s not stupid, You know this is moving up to the FBI. We got our murderer, and he’s writing out his confession now. Ivan’s taking the fall. Willingly,” Caleb says.
“He’s doing what he’s told, and he gets to live,” Damian says, shrugging in acceptance that this is the best we’re going to get.
“I fucking hate this,” I say.
“We all do. This isn’t what we want. But let’s look at the positive. We’ve put a stop to a lucrative business for the Russian mob. Ivan’s going to be out of commission for a long, long time, and this means that Andre has lost one of his main players.” Caleb’s correct in all he says, but it still irks me that we’re so close but can’t get to the boss.
“Can’t win ’em all, buddy. This time, we’ll settle for second place,” Damian says. “I vote to go home and celebrate what we’ve accomplished today, because despite the fact that we didn’t get Andre, we caught a murderer and Tursk’s death was not in vain.”
