Page 59 of Callan

What happened was worse than that.

It hadn’t crossed my mind that someone would be so bold, so stupid to use a woman to get to me.

And I knew right from the get-go that the heist wasn’t about the money.

As expensive and beautiful as the necklace is, this is about questioning my authority and dominance, which is much worse than taking a financial hit.

So… Daniela got the message quickly and spilled out her handler’s name like it was a cherry pit.Thomas.

I was unaware of the man in question, and I couldn’t connect it to any of my enemies, so I didn’t approach him.

Besides, the necklace had exchanged hands.

Daniela handed it to her lover.Thomas, again.

The kicker was that Thomas had a wife. Carmen.

And Carmen, oh boy, has she been fun for a while?

No one suspected that the fuck boy playing with her is none other than the man her husband had stolen from through a proxy.

The thing is, none of these people seem to be the brains of the operation.

And the necklace is still missing.

The jury is still out on how much Carmen knows and whether she is involved in this or clueless like everybody else.

She might be more than some woman who likes dick.

All that traffic in her building and the shady characters visiting her suggest she might be the key to finding the person behind this.

Whoever that person is, they kept everybody in the dark.

Which is smart and stupid at the same time.

Smart, because these people are unreliable information sources, and stupid because they are vulnerable and easy to surveil.

And the question remains.

Where the fuck is the necklace?

Daniela is out of the picture. Sunbathing on a beach in Venezuela away from the snowy New York City.

Thomas is a small-time crook who might’ve handled the package but only for a short time before he handed it to his boss. Or someone. An intermediary. My suspicion is he had no idea how expensive the package was.

And here comes Carmen.

Something is off about this woman.

I know her in more ways than one, and while she only seems obsessed with her looks, it takes a conniving nature to mislead men like she does.

She likes dick, all right. And I’m not sure about her loyalty to her husband––I’m joking, of course. There is none.

But the men she entertains and invites into her life are more than potential sex partners.

Even Mackenzie noticed something was off about her.

I might not be able to rely on the girl’s observations but that doesn’t mean I can’t give them any consideration.