Page 445 of Sticks and Stones
They could hear the emotion.
“I was burned by someone who worked with law enforcement?”
Gene answered.
“Yes, Corby.”
They could hear Will comforting him.
“Every step of the way, he saw what you were doing, and he was able to make sure you were off the mark. He was playing you the whole time, Corbin. Before you went intoBull’s, he called Renegade, and he told him you’d be there. He called right before you showed up.”
Will was pissed.
“That mother fucker,” he said. “I’ll grab him by his scrawny ass neck and choke his ass out!”
Well, they had to catch him first, and he had an hour head start.
Ethan kept talking.
“I’m willing to bet that Landry had Professor Dunne in college. He went to Villanova, and I’m also willing to bet he had a scholarship. His family wasn’t wealthy.”
Corbin was horrified.
“His diploma is over his desk. He was a political science major,” he said. “I’ve stared at it a million times, and never thought I’d be burned by someone who is supposed to be on our side.”
They understood his rage.
Ethan kept going.
“How much do you want to bet that he had scholarships through Julian Mercer, and he pointed us in his direction knowing that the man was a sleaze ball?”
Corbin just listened as he tried to hold it together. It was difficult.
“On top of that, Corbin, he likely has a connection to Julian Mercer still. Before we arrived at his place, he was given a heads-up. He knew we were coming. Landry was playing us all, Corbin. He was pulling the strings.”
Corbin was sick.
“Why?” he asked.
Ethan knew why.
“He grew up poor, and he wanted to make money. He wanted to be rich so he could fit in, and not be someone’s lackey. He was likely shoving this money away for a rainy day as he played chauffer for the commissioner, and office bitch to him.”
Will was curious.
“But how did he get access to drugs?” Will asked. “He works for the city.”
That was a good question. Ethan was searching as they spoke, and he was looking deeper into his past.
That’s when he found it.
All of his childhood schools listed in his college yearbook weren’t in the US.
His birth certificate gave them another clue, as did the obituary that had been posted twenty years ago for his father.
Ethan shared.
“His mother is Colombian, and his father was American. He was born here, but when his father died when he was five, he was sent back to Colombia when her visa was revoked. These drugs are coming out of Colombia—or they were. That’s as close as I can get to how he got them. I’d need that CIA laptop and some time to keep digging.”
