Page 53 of In the Line of Ire

"Are youtwo related?" asked the man sat in the chair.

What wasit with that question? Did no one have eyes? Beside me, Maddoxchoked down a laugh.

"Recently married," said Solomon.

"To eachother?" the man in the chair asked. Solomon looked at him. The manblinked. "Right," he said, "to each other."

"Lexi,this is my current partner, Special Agent Sadiq Farid," saidMaddox.

"Hi," Isaid.

SpecialAgent Farid leaned over and shook my hand with a warm grip. "Niceto meet you," he said. "Call me Sadiq."

"Weinvited MPD to this meeting but they declined," said Solomon. Ilooked around the back of the van and wondered why. It must havebeen due to the bleak absence of donuts. It couldn't have beenbecause the meeting was being held in the cramped back of asurveillance van in a mall parking lot. "Lexi, do you have anupdate for us on that?"

"I spokewith Lieutenant Graves this morning..."

"Graves?" interrupted Sadiq. "Were you married to himtoo?"

"He's mybrother," I replied.

"Huh,"he said, nodding. "I’ll call that a no."

"Lieutenant Graves released their suspect, Colin Strickland,because he had a rock solid alibi. They found witnesses andsecurity camera footage that proved he was in a bar at the time ofAlison Shore’s murder. They're currently leaning towards a mysteryman that entered her life rather than a direct connection to thecounterfeiting ring."

"Do youagree?" asked Maddox.

"Notsure. It's feasible, I guess, but I don't think we can rule outthat connection yet," I said. I mentioned what Colin told me abouther new friend who was flush with cash and fresh opportunities. "Ispoke to her sister before I came here who had a similar story. Newjob, not many hours of work, but plenty of money."

"Alisonwould be an attractive asset to the counterfeiters," said Solomon."She could allow them to widen their sales base without attractingunwanted attention and if they were caught or heard the authoritieswere onto them, they could dump her as the fall guy."

"Ormurder her," I said.

"She'spretty small fry for a fall guy," said Maddox.

"Right,"agreed Sadiq. "We're not interested in arresting a small-town chickwho was simply looking to make some extra cash. That's hardly acareer-building bust for us or the district attorneys when theystart the prosecution. We want to go right up the chain, all theway to the top."

"And wewant to stop the end of the chain here," said Solomon.

"Alisoncould have been the end of the chain. Assuming she was involved,she might have been able to identify the next player up," I pointedout.

"This isstill workable," said Maddox. "Selling the fake goods is the end ofthe chain, and Alison could have been involved with that, but weneed to be cautious. We don’t want to bust this end and wind upspooking the top end; that could blow our casealtogether.”

"Noted,"said Solomon. "What's your next move?"

Maddoxstroked his chin thoughtfully. "We need to identify the counterfeitstock and keep a set of eyes on who's moving it into the store. Sofar, I haven't managed to check out the store room but I don'tthink I'm in the best position for doing that.”

"Iagree," I said, "plus, Tansy, who runs the stock room gave me anopen invitation to hide in there since mostly everyone hatesMagda."

"Whydoes everyone hate Magda?" asked Maddox. That didn't surprise me.Of course, he wouldn't know why.

"She'sjust awful. She only likes you."

"Iwonder why," said Sadiq. I gave him a look and he shrugged,apparently unaware of why any single woman might appreciate ahandsome man.

"We needa distraction," I interceded before Sadiq persisted with hisinquiry. "I need some time to locate the counterfeit stock. Can youmake sure I'm totally on my own inside the stock room for at leastfifteen minutes?"

Maddoxnodded. "I'll figure something out," he said. "But locating thestock won't help us identify where it's coming from, only that it'sin there."

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