Page 86 of Stolen Kisses
“Maybe it is,” Claudius said. “I don’t think so though. Doesn’t fit with what Gibbs said. You never said this guy was anybody important. Remember the person we’re looking for is exactly that. Anyone could be helping them. Maybe he helped.”
I sighed. “Yeah. It just feels like we’re going around in circles.”
“Nah, man. This wasn’t a damn circle. Not at all. You may not have found any records we could use, but it’s what wasn’t there that tells us what we need to know. 2004- 2008, those were significant years for obvious reasons. We know that the person who either took the records or was given orders to take them thought so too. They knew we were coming. That is no circle Dante. It means we’re getting close.”
My gaze snapped up to meet his.
Really close. Until now I’d been so far away from finding answers that I couldn’t see it from that angle.
“Close.” I nodded.
“I’ll get the secret squad on to that guy.” Gio nodded. “ He’s definitely a link. I feel it in my gut.”
Claudius nodded. “Me too, and remember we could be looking for two people. Dante, I suggest you get on to matching up the names with what you found yesterday. It could help narrow down something.”
“On it.” I felt bad, because I should have done that last night. I was with Maria instead.
“From here on, we leave no stone unturned. Anything you find, even if it doesn’t seem important check it out.”
I looked at him and was reminded of years ago when I’d last gone to Christina’s office before she died. Claudius had offered to come with me back then and here he was now helping in the biggest way possible.
“Thank you, Claudius and all of you.”
“Stop saying thanks man.” Gio smirked. “It’s what we do, it’s what any of us would do. You would do it too if it was for any of us.”
Claudius smiled wider. “Guess I’m not that much of an L.A. punk after all right?”
I chuckled. He remembered what I’d said all those years ago. Sometimes I still couldn’t believe I spoke to him the way I did and lived.
“Get on it boys,” Marcus ordered. “We don’t know what other factors we may have to take into consideration with today’s visit.”
He was definitely right about that, and I was sure as shit that the manager would have called Barabbas and told him the Morientz’s were drinking tea at the Crowthorne.
He definitely wouldn’t like that.
Chapter 24
Dante
* * *
Ispent the rest of the day with Alex and Gio going through the names. I would give them a name and they would try matching it against the list of initials Vinny had sent.
All day, all damn day and nothing. Not even one match to the list of names on my fundraiser list.
No matches led me to believe one of two things.
The first was that the people on the fundraiser list didn’t have anything to do with the people on the list Vinny sent. The second was that maybe there was some involvement, but it was through someone else. There were possible surname matches, but I didn’t want to get ahead of myself and start guessing.
It did however seem that we might have to at some point. Like making an educated guess and inferring what was missing.
That was me taking into account what I felt could have happened.
I went to the bar later. The guys came along and helped out downstairs while I stayed in my office.
It was one of my normal nights to work, I just didn’t feel like it. I wasn’t in the mood to go down and mingle with the people. Honestly I just wanted to get shit done, like signing off everyone’s timesheets so they could get paid, and doing balance sheets from the last few nights. I wanted to get all that done and fast so I could get home to Maria.
Home to Maria. It had such a good ring to it. Home to Maria and Flynn. I’d promised him I would watch Pokémon with him. Apparently, it was his second favorite now and I hadn’t really lived until I saw Pikachu jump out of his Pokeball.
