Page 50 of 3rd Tango
We walk into a coffee shop two blocks from the Hoover building and join Taylor who is sitting toward the back. Given the late afternoon hour, the place is quiet with only one other table occupied.
Taylor stands as we approach. As usual, she’s dressed in a classy black suit, the pants fitted enough to be sexy but professional. Taylor has that ability about her. All business, yet feminine in a truly powerful way.
We exchange the requisite hellos and she inquires about Mom and Charlie. After giving her a ten-second report, she indicates the chairs, then reclaims her seat. “I can’t give you anything,” she says.
Dammit.
My energy plummets. Between my mother and sister involved in a shooting and Taylor’s inability to help, this has been a fucker of a day. Still, she wouldn’t have dragged us down here if she couldn’t help so I hang on to a bit of hope.
“As in physical documents,” she clarifies. “Off the record, I can tell you what I know.”
Hope. Always a good thing.
I nod. “That works.”
“I’ll say this,” she continues, “it’s a good thing Chris Svenson is dead because he was a bad dude.”
“Seriously?” Matt says. “All we found was the bank robbing charge.”
“That was the least of it. He was also violent. Not during the robberies, but based on what I saw in his file, I’m sure eventually it would’ve gotten to that.”
Fascinated, I lean in. “What kind?”
“He had fetishes. Liked his sex rough. Got turned on by a woman choking him during it and assumed it worked for everyone.”
Holy cow. I’m not sure what I expected her to say, but that wasn’t it. “He was kinky. What does that have to do with Evelyn Jacoby? Maybe she was into it, too.”
Taylor shrugs. “Maybe. I didn’t see anything on that. He was arrested once. Assault charge. A woman he’d picked up accused him of choking her out during sex.”
“Did he rape her?”
“No. The sex was consensual, the choking not so much.”
In my research of him, I only went as far as the most wanted poster so this is new.
“Was he convicted?”
“No.”
“Charges were dropped, I bet.” This from Matt who shakes his head.
Taylor nods. “And the woman fell off the radar. The D.A. at the time decided not to pursue it. He had bigger fish to fry.”
“Was this before Svenson dated Evelyn?”
I’m not sure why it matters, but something—no idea what— is niggling at me.
“I believe so. We don’t have a lot on her. According to the file, the money from the previous bank robberies was never recovered. Svenson and the other members of the London Fog Gang died during a takedown.”
All of this is good information, but Evelyn and her connection to Gayle and Marie is why we’re here. “What about Evelyn? Did she have a criminal record? Was she part of the gang?”
“Not that I could see. She had to have known he was a criminal, though. They were living together at the time. When agents searched the apartment her stuff was gone.”
“She ran?”
“It appears so. And the money from the previous robberies was never found. The Bureau believes she took the money.”
Matt meets my eye. “She could be living under a new identity somewhere.”
