Page 16 of Resolution

“Yes, sir,” Miguel said, patiently. “So, what else was taken?”

“Oh, I have a collection of rare books, and they took a couple of those, including one I bought the same night as the pin…oh, maybe you can find that too!”

“Of course,” I said. “Where did you buy the pin, Mr. Leopard?”

He bounced and pointed to the notepad I’d been writing on. “At a private auction. The book was a first edition Herman Melville’sMoby Dick.”

Trevor snickered. He was smiling at Leopard and shrugged. “Moby Dick. It’s funny, that’s all.”

Leopard smiled back, patting his knee indulgently. He turned back to me. “Youth is wasted on the young, don’t you agree?”

I opened my mouth and then closed it, giving up and simply smiling. I was pretty sure good old Trevor had never read a book in his life. I finally went with, “You were saying that you also lost the Melville in the burglary?”

“Yes, that and a first editionGrapes of Wrath, the one by John Steinbeck.” He nodded furiously.

I blinked, wondering if there was a differentGrapes of Wrath, but I let it go, smiling as I remembered the Grapes of Wraith by Miles Stanford, the horror of literary fiction I’d reviewed as Nightcrawler. “Okay.” I went back to scribbling. “Did you keep the books in your bedroom also?”

“Yes!” He sat forward. “Is that significant?”

“Perhaps,” Miguel said. “Was anything else in the house touched?”

Leopard said, “No, and the LAPD looked all over. They searched every room.”

“So, it looks like the thieves went directly to the bedroom?”

“Well, yes. At least, that’s what the police told us.”

“We’d like to get a copy of that police report, Mr. Leopard,” I said. “Do you have a copy?”

“No, but two patrolmen came out to take the police report. I’m sure that awful Mr. Tomlinson has a copy, but I certainly don’t have one.”

“Do you have the officers’ names?” Miguel asked.

“Yes!” Leopard stood again, taking out his wallet and pulling out a card. He handed it to me, and I read the names before passing the card to Miguel. He passed it back and I wrote down the two officers’ names to give to Cassidy and Mike. They’d no doubt get us a copy of the police report. “May I make a copy of the card and the picture for our file?”

“Yes, of course.”

Miguel stood and I held them out to him. “I’ll be right back. I want to have Judy amend the contract to mention the books and just make a quick copy.”

“Of course. Of course,” Leopard said. Both men swiveled to stare at his ass as he left the room. They both turned back to me with starry eyes again. I was going to kill my boyfriend for leaving me alone with these two. “Is there anything else?”

“One last thing. You said you got our names from Tawny Flores. You knew her husband, Benedict.”

Leopard’s eyes got sad. “Yes, Benedict and I were business partners.”

Miguel walked back into the room and returned the card and picture to Mr. Leopard as Trevor looked up from his phone and leered at my lover’s groin.

I was getting annoyed at all the ogling, so I cleared my throat. “You were telling me how you knew Tawny.”

“Yes, poor, dear sweet Tawny.”

Miguel sat back down and glanced at the couple. “How did you meet?”

“I was telling your gracious partner that I knew Tawny through her husband, my dear friend, Benedict. He and I were business partners.”

“In the casino business?”

“Yes, that’s right. I’m Native American. Benedict and I have…wehadthat in common. When he told me he was going to open a casino and some card rooms, he came to me because he knew I had capital of my own and the connections to help him gather other investors to finance the business. It takes a lot of money to do that, you know.”

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