Page 70 of Renegade

“Bishop’s,” he said. “They’ve been together a long time, but she screws anyone, and everyone he wants her to if it makes the cell more money.”

“Jesus Christ,” I swore, hating the bitch even more than I did before.

John smiled at me.

“What?”

“She was planning on seducing you too,” he said.

I gaped at him. “What?”

“Mendez showed her your picture before they went to the Getty that night. He needed her to know who she was supposed to approach.”

I was taken aback. “How did she figure out we were going to the Getty?”

“Benedict Flores was one of Rosina’s acquaintances, introduced to him by that attorney he keeps around...Gregory Aston. I’m pretty sure he gave her your pictures because I sure as hell didn’t. That’s why I ran out of the Sagebrush Cantina so fast. Mendez was waiting in the car parked down the street, but hedidn’t see you. If he thought I backed off on purpose, he would have killed both of us. I think that he wanted me to confirm it was you at the meeting. I told him I didn’t get a close enough look, but that’s why I said back at Vonne’s that things are in motion. When Mendez ordered me to take care of the problem once you and Mathis recovered the ruby, I think it was meant to be a test of my loyalty to them.”

I nodded. “That makes sense.”

“It makes sense that the attorney is involved with them somehow, right?” John asked.

“Yeah, she called me Trigg at the museum,” I said. “And they would have known me from Afghanistan even if I never interacted with any of them one on one. I bet they flipped out when they heard that I was trying to recover the ruby for Mrs. Flores.”

“Did I hear you talking about Gregory Aston?” I looked up as Raven spoke. He walked around and sat down beside me, and I pushed out my chair so that we could all see each other.

“Yeah. I was just telling Miguel who Rosina Cassanova was,” John replied.

“Wait. What?”

John explained as Raven looked on in shock.

“So, let me get this straight,” he said. “This Cassanova is a fence who takes the stuff you guys loot and—”

“She takes the stuff thecellloots, not me, Mathis.” John frowned. “I’ve never been anything other than a slave to them.”

“Okay, and somehow, Gregory Aston is involved in this?” When John nodded, he looked at me. “Maybe Aston knew Cassanova from one of Mrs. Flores’ parties or something. Maybe that’s how she found out who had the ruby.”

“Well, she was wearing it in the newspaper clipping Judy found,” Raven said, glancing over at me. “That means Benedict Flores must have lied to Mrs. Flores about the ruby. She told us that he said it had been in his family for generations. This whole thing is getting smellier and smellier. While I was at the office, I put in a call to Aston’s investigator. He never called me back. Judy ran a background check on Mancuso, Mrs. Flores’ bodyguard. He came up clean, but she found out he spent some time in the Army and was deployed to Afghanistan about the same time you were, Miguel. I bet he’s somehow up to his eyeballs in this crap. For all we know, Aston could have written those threatening letters sent to Mr. Flores himself.”

I nodded then asked John, “Was the ruby part of a stash Mendez and the others looted?”

John looked guilty. “Yeah. That and a diamond owned by some L.A. socialite.”

Raven’s eyes widened. “Mrs. Mulberry?”

“Yes, that’s it,” John confirmed. “The stash was stolen by a Pakistani broker Cassanova and Bishop used as an intermediary with a Belgian jeweler who recuts gems they steal to make them harder to identify at auction. When they found out about the Pakistani’s deceit, Mendez killed him and traced the stolen shipment to L.A. One of the gems had already been sold to the socialite, and Mr. Flores purchased another—the ruby—for his wife. They decided they wanted them all back, so Mendez had some homeless dude steal the diamond from the socialite and killed him before the police could recover it.”

“Lyle Trench,” I said. “The homeless dude. He overdosed.”

“Mendez had him killed in jail,” John said. “He was bragging about it.” He frowned at me. “Wait. You know—knew—him?”

“We’re recovery agents, John,” I said. “It was one of our cases. Maybe that’s why Aston brought us into this,” I said, looking over at Raven.

Raven nodded, frowning. “Things are starting to fall into place, especially if they’re trying to reclaim all the goods the Pakistani stole from them.” We all looked up as Thayne and Jarrett walked in carrying several bags of food from a Chinese restaurant, setting it down on the conference room table. Sarah, Mac, Damon, and Mark followed them in as we paused our conversation for the time being.

“We should let everyone hear this,” I said, reaching for a bag of delicious smelling food.

“There’s more?” SAC Connor asked.

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