Page 40 of Bishop's Flight
“Are you familiar with the Ankers?”
“The Dutch Ankers?”
“Yes.”
Rose frowned. “They died. The brothers died years ago.”
“They died, but their children lived.”
“What does that have to do with Lucas?”
“Maybe nothing, but I believe that Zasha targeted you in cooperation with Otto Anker. The power and influence…” She grimaced. “That’s not really the kind of motivation that Zasha craves. They prefer being feared but remaining in the shadows. Have any of the Ankers visited Las Vegas recently?”
“Not that I know of, but you’ll have to ask Bernard. Look into aliases, look at face recognition, that sort of thing. If you have pictures, I’ll set our team on it.”
“I’ll get pictures. And speaking of pictures…?”
Agnes handed over another envelope. Brigid opened it to find a single picture of Lucas looking much the same. Again, he was staring right at the camera, holding a newspaper from that day.
Brigid looked for any clues in the picture, but she was still disappointed. The walls were stark white. The floor was black. Lucas was sitting in a chair with no unique features.
They had to lead tosomething. “How are these being delivered?”
Agnes said, “They’re dropped off in different places; then we get a call to go and fetch them. Parks. A bus station. None of the places have video surveillance. Bernard already checked.”
“Give me the locations anyway. Lee might be able to find doorbell cameras or traffic cameras or some kind of surveillance that give us a face. It’s a long shot, but we can try.”
Agnes nodded.
“Carwyn got another name tonight. Gary Preston. Does that sound familiar? He was a man that Alina—the girl Lucas knew as Angel—was cozying up to at the car conference weekend before last.”
Agnes shook her head. “Not familiar to me, but I’ll have Bernard search the casino records.”
“How about Summit Mountain Development? That was Preston’s company.”
Agnes frowned. “That does sound familiar.”
She touched the intercom and a voice came back. “Yes, Miss Wong?”
“Call Bernard to my office.”
“Yes, Miss Wong.”
A few minutes later, Bernard entered the room. “Agnes, has there been—?”
“Gary Preston was a man connected to the girl who tricked Lucas into leaving his guards to meet her. He was the owner of Summit Mountain Development.”
“They put a bid in for the planned community,” Bernard said immediately. “They didn’t place the winning bid, but it was in the top four.”
“That’s right.” Agnes looked at Brigid. “Rose and I are building a planned community via a private LLC. It will be tightly controlled and cater to vampires and their people. Elemental considerations taken into account, of course. Summit put in a bid for the project. They had experience with the Lake Las Vegas development.”
The lake where Oleg had his house. “Does Preston have property in Lake Las Vegas?”
“I have no idea, but I’m sure we can find an address.”
“Our man is already working on it,” Brigid said. “I imagine we’ll have an address soon. Carwyn and Miguel are waiting for it.”
“Good.” Agnes rose and started to pace. “Bernard, leave.”
