Page 57 of Gem Warfare

“He probably enjoyed taking on the challenge of seducing a young, attractive woman. A nice change of pace for him.”

“I’ll take the compliment. Is that what he does? Seduces these women?” Privately, I wondered if that was a worse betrayal for the women he stole from. Taking their things and their money was one thing, but their bodies? That was personal.

“More courting than seducing. Claims he’s an old-fashioned man who wants to wait and not rush the romance. I think they fall for it hard.”

“So… not a total cad,” I decided.

“I’m not saying he doesn’t, just that no one hassaidhe’d gotten them into bed. There could be a reason.”

“Such as? Oh! You think he’s gay.”

“Maybe that, but maybe he’s got a woman of his own and some morals.”

“He didn’t come off as gay to me. I don’t know that I can equate someone who steals with someone with fidelity values.”

“Could his female accomplice be a wife, not a sister? She was a similar age to him from what I recall.”

“Could be, but I didn’t get the impression he was harboring any longing for anyone. Although, he would hardly make that obvious since he was trying to be my perfect man while calculating my net worth.” I paused to eat, reflecting on what I did know. “I wish there was more I could tell you but I have a feeling I’m not going to come up with much. Gideon Black appears and disappears and he’s careful. He must have a regular home, or people somewhere, but he definitely isn’t advertising it. He’s got access to identity documents, travel… he invests in his business such as it is and he knows how to charm his way into people’s inner circles. He knows the right people. Or the wrong ones. Plus, he has no problem moving in elite circles.”

“So what if he is the kid of this dead guy in the shallow grave? What are you going to do about that?”

“I guess Ben/Gideon needs to be informed but I don’t know how we’ll go about doing that. Garrett isn’t entirely convinced he isn’t involved in the death.”

“And you?”

“It seems a stretch to start a life of crime with murder and work your way down from there.”

“There are easy ways to draw him out. Publicize the discovery and he might come out of the woodwork,” said Maddox.

“Assuming he wants to. I don’t know if the relationship between him and this guy was good. No one remembers Joe Smithson having a kid around but that doesn’t mean they didn’t keep in touch.” I thought about the jewels but didn’t mentionthem. They could attract all kinds of people.

“Do you mind if I liaise with Garrett?”

“Go ahead. Maybe check in this afternoon? We’re due at the autopsy suite at ten.”

“You’re going there after eating that?” Maddox pointed at my plate and I nodded. “Amateur,” he snorted.

“I don’t think Garrett intends for me to beinthe room!”

“Just take a hair tie.”

I frowned, then I caught his drift. “He’s been in the ground for a long time. It can’t be so bad. They’ll just poke around his bones and tell us the cause of death.”

“I’d love to fill you in on procedure but I’m eating too and I don’t want to. Good luck. Remember, it happens to all of us.”

“What does?”

“You’ll see.” Maddox grinned.

Chapter Thirteen

After breakfast, I went directly to the morgue, arriving early enough that I could sit outside under the cloudless blue sky and pass the time plugging Gideon Black, Ben Rafferty and Tom Benedict into my phone’s browser. I’d known the search would be largely fruitless but I did find a couple of team sports photos from Gideon’s teenage years. As I zoomed in on his proud, smiling face, I was more certain than ever that I’d found my charming thief.

Some more searching and I found mention of Gideon at a small, private university where he’d majored in art history with a minor in finance. He’d gone onto a master’s degree and then seemingly dropped off the face of the earth.

No work history, no social media, no LinkedIn profile.

Nothing to suggest that Gideon had done anything with his life since the age of twenty-two. It was like he graduated and vanished into thin air.

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