Page 56 of Gem Warfare

“Small change. Apparently, this woman had money to burnbut it was the principle of the thing.”

“Wait… you said one of. How many women did he rip off?”

“Hard to say because none of the others came forward, but we think there were several targets. Whether he was successful with them all, I don’t know. But I can say he didn’t go for any personal, irreplaceable possessions, just generic stuff or cash.”

“Are you trying to say he has a heart?”

“Maybe. Maybe not.” Maddox shrugged as he took a sip. “Anyway, there was no direct evidence to connect him to the crime in Phoenix, no prints, and no photos where we could definitively identify him as the same guy. Even the plaintiff couldn’t be sure from our mug shot. This guy had longer hair, a beard, and a tan. He said he was from Connecticut but his target didn’t see any proof of that.”

“What about a sister?”

“From what I remember, their perp claimed to be an only child.”

“Any female friend or colleagues that could have been an accomplice?”

“Nothing that stood out to the complainant.”

“So what happened next?”

“Phoenix PD didn’t have any solid leads and without an identification, we couldn’t confirm it was our guy so they shelved the case.” Maddox paused as the server placed our plates in front of us. “The only thing that stood out to me was the guy was calling himself Tom Benedict.”

“Benedict,” I repeated, considering the odds. “Ben. It could be a coincidence.”

“It could. There was one more hit, right before I left the force, but this was overseas and a different MO.” Maddox forked egg and toast into his mouth, chewing. “This time, it was a heist from an old, aristocratic family in Europe. They were throwing a party and someone used all the commotion as a distraction,then got into their safe, making off with two gold ingots and a bunch of paperwork. They clammed up pretty quickly about the paperwork, claiming that was an error and nothing was missing but they were steamed about the gold.”

“Where’s the connection to Ben Rafferty or Tom Benedict?”

“One of the catering staff was found tied up in an outbuilding, minus his uniform. After reviewing the footage of the event, all the catering staff could be accounted for except one man. He was caught on camera once and it’s only a partial facial, but he looked a lot like our man. Again, nothing definitive to tie the two men together, and, before you ask, no sign of a female accomplice, so I made a note in our file and left it. I was leaving anyway and there was nothing more I could do. We hit a dead end.”

“Safe cracking doesn’t sound beyond him, although he obviously prefers people just handing him the money.”

“My thoughts exactly. How’s your breakfast?”

A waft of sugary heat rose from my pancakes. “Perfect.”

“That’s as much as I can tell you from my detective days. It would be great if you could fill in a few blanks, like his connection to your dead guy. You must have come across something that directly pointed to Ben Rafferty, otherwise we wouldn’t be talking and you’d just be staring at me dreamily.”

I couldn’t see any harm in telling Maddox after he had so openly explained the aftermath of his case. “The dead guy was carrying a photo in his wallet. The ID was fake but the photo showed an older man and a very young Ben Rafferty. That’s why I think the older man might be his father, but we’re not sure yet if the man in the photo and the dead guy are the same person. I didn’t even recognize Ben at first.”

“I don’t suppose there was an inscription? ‘To my son, Ben, love, Dad’ or anything like that?”

“No. And his name, unsurprisingly, isn’t Ben either. I trackeddown his real name,” I said, enjoying my moment of smugness as I forked a piece of pancake into my mouth.

“Don’t leave me in suspense!”

“Gideon Black.”

For a moment, Maddox was very still, his eyes calculating, but then he shrugged. “Can’t say I’ve heard that name before.”

“Do you think you could try running it? Maybe through one of your super-duper databases? Lucas is working on it now, but the more eyes the better.”

“Sure. I’ll let you know if anything comes up although I can’t imagine we’ll find anything Lucas can’t and I still don’t want to know exactly how he conducts research. Do you have any more information on this Gideon Black?”

“Just his school. An expensive boarding school in Boston. Interests were cricket, karate and languages. Garrett’s looking into him too. The more the better, I think, given how slippery he is.”

“I seem to remember you had a good rapport with him.”

“When he was masquerading as Ben Rafferty? Sure. I thought he was charming and he was, but then he thought I was loaded and he was looking to lighten that load.”

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