“I said I was an investigator.”
“What the hell are you investigating if it ain’t where that deadbeat, brain-dead moron went?”
“I work for an insurance agency,” I explained.
“You trying to sell me some bullshit car warranty? I’m behind bars, bitch. You see me driving?”
It was clear who’d gotten all the brains in the womb. “I don’t sell insurance, Tina. I find insured things when they go missing.”
“Huh?”
“I’m like a bounty hunter, only instead of finding people, I find the things they stole. I think Duncan stole something that’s valuable to my client, and I think he stole it while he was plotting criminal world domination with you.”
“How valuable?”
It was on-brand for Tina not to care about the details, just the bottom line.
“To my client? Priceless. Market value? Half a million.”
Tina snorted. “Priceless as in a sentimental bullshit baggie of baby teeth? Never did understand that shit. The tooth fairy. Elf on the stool.”
I felt a twinge of sadness for Waylay and the way she’d been brought up. At least my parents had smothered me with love. An active disinterest would have done much more damage. Thank God for Naomi and Knox and their extended families. Waylay now had an army of loved ones at her back.
“Priceless as in a 1948 Porsche 356 convertible that’s been in the family three generations.”
“So you’re saying not only did this dickweasel leave me high and dry to get blamed for the whole damn thing, he also cut me out of some windfall?”
“Pretty much.”
“That son of a bitch!”
“No yelling, Tina,” the guard outside the door called.
“I’ll yell if I wanna fucking yell, Irving!”
“Did you remember if Duncan was with you on this weekend in August?” I asked, showing her the calendar on my phone.
Last time I was here and asked, she’d suggested I ask her “social secretary,” then told me to fuck off.
“That when your expensive-ass car got stolen?”
I nodded.
“I did some remembering since last time. Dunc and his buddies went on a spree that weekend. Came back with six cars. No old-ass Porsche though. But Dunc came back later than everyone else did. I remember ’cause I laid into him because his douchebags showed up without him and drank all my goddamn beer. Then here comes Dunc, struttin’ like one of those birds with the big, fancy tail.”
“A turkey?”
Tina rolled her eyes. “Jesus. No. With the blue feathers and the screaming.” She tilted her head back and let out a warbly scream.
Irving the guard opened the door. “One more warning and you’re going back to your cell, Tina.”
“A peacock!” I cut in.
Tina pointed at me. “Yeah! That one. What were we talking about again?”
Irving closed the door on a long-suffering sigh.
“Duncan coming home late after stealing six cars,” I prompted. “How late was he?”
She shrugged. “Long enough for those dickheads to drink a whole case of Natty Light. ’Bout an hour or two?”
I clamped down on my rising sense of triumph. I knew it. I was right. He’d stashed the Porsche somewhere within an hour of that original shop location. It might not still be there, but if I could find that first bread crumb, I could find the second.
“And you never saw a vintage Porsche at the shop?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Nah. He stuck with new Fast and Furious shit.”
“Did Duncan ever take you to meet his father?” I asked.
“Anthony?” She screwed her face up in derision. “Me ’n Dunc were more at the fuck-in-an-alley than meet-the-parents stage before he screwed me over.”
“But he talked about him,” I prodded.
“Shit yeah, he talked about him. The guy was obsessed with gettin’ Daddy’s approval. At least, up until Dunc fucked up that hit.”
My body tensed at the way she so casually mentioned Nash’s shooting. I did my best to keep my expression blank, but on the inside, my heart was thundering against my sternum.
Some people didn’t understand that their actions had consequences. Others simply didn’t care.
“You know, I didn’t even know he was gonna try to take out that Morgan guy. I woulda talked him out of it,” Tina said, lighting a cigarette.
“Why?”
“Well, for one thing, them cop pants looked mighty fine on that man’s ass.”
Tina Witt might have been a horrible human being, but she was not wrong on that particular point.
“For another, he was a decent guy. And not just to look at. He never once treated me like his piece-of-shit brother and everyone else did. Even when he arrested me that one time, he put my head in the car real gentle like.” Her hard-lined face had gone dreamy.
“He’s a good guy. Good-looking too,” I prompted.
“You ain’t wrong there. Given how much I avoid cops in general, you know the guy’s gotta be hot if I don’t run in the opposite direction at the grocery store even with chipped turkey I ain’t paid for stuffed in my bra. Bet he’s got a huge dick too,” she said wistfully.
Great. Now I was thinking about Nash and his incredible morning erections and how I might never get to experience one again. “Back to Duncan,” I said desperately.
Tina waved a dismissive hand. “Oh, he just had a medium-sized one. Didn’t really know how to use it. He was kind of a poker instead of a thruster, if you know what I mean.”
I did not. My face must have said as much because Tina stood and began a lewd thrusting demonstration with the cigarette dangling from her mouth.
“Do you think Anthony Hugo would help hide his son?” I asked, interrupting the show.
Tina snorted and sat back down. “Are you shittin’ me? After as bad as Dunc fucked up?”
“Parents forgive all kinds of mistakes,” I pointed out. Case in point, Tina’s own parents.
Tina shook her head. “Not Anthony Hugo. Dunc came home all pissed off and freaked out. Told me he tried to take out a cop and it didn’t go as planned. I was layin’ into him good when two of Anthony’s goons showed up to bring Dunc in for a ‘chat.’ And I was there when he dragged his ass home beat to hell and bloody.”
“What happened during that chat?”
“Oh, you know. Screaming. Humiliation. Threats. Anthony was pissed off that Dunc had brought ‘unwanted attention’ to their business. Dunc said his dad called him names, roughed him up. Which was a real slap in the face, pun intended. Word is Anthony hasn’t gotten his hands dirty roughing up anybody in a long time. He’s got guys for that. But he made an exception for Dunc.”
“How did Duncan feel about that?”
She looked at me like I was stupid. “He felt it moved their relationship into a healthier place. How the hell do you think he felt about it?”
“So you don’t think there’s any way that Duncan’s dad would have helped him go to ground?” I pressed.
“I’d be surprised if the old man isn’t hunting for him to take him out before the cops find him,” she said.