NYPD Red 4 (18 page)

Jeremy took a jeweler’s loupe out of his pocket. “I showed you mine. Your turn to show me yours.”

Annie removed a small black LeSportsac makeup bag from her purse and slid it across the table. Jeremy opened a menu, slipped the bag between the pages, removed the necklace, and studied it with the loupe.

Had anyone bothered to look, he was just another farsighted customer squinting at the menu, trying to decide.

Annie took a deep breath. For the first time since Teddy called her on Tuesday night, she felt a sense of relief. She still didn’t know what to do about Teddy, but the bag at her feet would buy her a lot of options. A hint of a satisfied smile crossed her face, and she took a sip of her soda to cover it up.

And then—
bang!

Annie jumped. Jeremy had slammed the table with the base of his fist.

Heads turned. Jeremy didn’t care. His teeth were gritted, his jaw was locked tight, and his eyes were aflame. “You conniving bitch,” he said, spitting out every word. He stuffed the necklace back in the makeup bag and shoved it at her.

Annie tried to process what was going on. “I don’t understand. What’s the prob—”

Jeremy didn’t stick around to explain. He scooped up the bag of hundred-dollar bills, pushed back his chair, and bolted for the door. Tow Truck Bob stood up and was about to go after him, but Annie held up her hand.

“Let’s get out of here,” she said, shoving the makeup bag into her purse.

Ten minutes later, they were crossing the Williamsburg Bridge.

“You okay?” Bob finally said.

Annie lowered her eyelids. It was the first question the strong, silent marine had asked since she’d recruited him, and based on what had just happened, it was a pretty stupid question at that. But Bob wasn’t stupid. He was a kindhearted man doing his best to tiptoe around her feelings, and the last thing he deserved was one of her trademark wiseass answers.

“No, I’m not okay,” she said, opening her eyes as the Jeep merged onto the ramp to the BQE. “Thanks for asking.”

“It’s none of my business,” Bob said, “but what the hell happened?”

“I don’t know. I’m still shell-shocked.”

“Sorry,” Bob said, “but that’s the thing with these business deals. Sometimes they can just go south.”

Con jobs could go south, Annie knew. Hell, if the mark caught on, a scam could explode in your face. It didn’t happen to her and Buddy often, but when it did, they didn’t ask why. They just packed up and ran like hell.

But this was a legitimate business deal. Okay, maybe not legitimate, but it was a straight-up agreement between her and Jeremy. It was about to go down when something spooked him. But what?

She clutched the Katz’s Deli takeout bag that was sitting on her lap and closed her eyes again. On top of everything, she’d have to explain to Teddy why all she’d come home with was a pastrami sandwich and a cream soda. He’d ask why she didn’t bring back the money.

She didn’t have an answer. Maybe Buddy would know.

JEREMY COULD BARELY
swallow. His breathing was labored, and he hugged his chest, trying to ease the rib-crushing pain. He’d had anxiety attacks before, but this one was the mother of them all.

He sat up straight in the back of the cab, rested his palms on his knees, and took long, slow, deep breaths. Five minutes into the ride, the wave of panic passed.

You’re okay
, he told himself.
It’s only a temporary setback. Relax and think about what to do next.

The first option that popped into his head was to do exactly what he had told Leo he wouldn’t do: take the hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars and run away with it.

He shook off the thought. After all he’d been through, he wasn’t going to settle for chump change. He’d have to come up with a new plan, but he couldn’t do it alone. “Shit,” he said out loud. “I guess the relationship isn’t quite over.”

The taxi dropped him in front of the Flatiron Building, on Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street. It was a short walk to the Bassett brothers’ minimansion on 21st, but he knew better than to show up unannounced.

There was a pocket seating area on the wide traffic island that separated Fifth from Broadway. Jeremy bought a bottle of water from a pushcart vendor, found an empty table, and sipped slowly. The water went down easy. He could swallow. He could breathe.
He could do this.

He took out his cell and sent a text.

It did not go well. Can I come over?

The response came back immediately.

No!!! Brother here. talk later.

Jeremy fumed.
Later?
He drank the rest of the water and texted back.

Pick a place NOW or I’m banging on your front door.

It took two minutes for the answer to come back.

Trailer Park Lounge 271 West 23. Five minutes.

“Stupid rich asshole,” Jeremy said to the text.

It took ten minutes to walk west to the Trailer Park Lounge. He’d never heard of it, but as soon as he walked through the door, he knew why it was the perfect spot to meet. It was the kind of intentionally tacky dive that Leo Bassett wouldn’t be caught dead in.

Max Bassett, on the other hand, looked right at home. He was at a table in the rear, wearing jeans, a faded plaid shirt, and a ratty old baseball cap with a logo that simply said HAT. There were two bottles of beer in front of him.

“What do you mean
‘It did not go well’
?” Max said, picking up one beer and pushing the other in Jeremy’s direction. “I thought Leo gave you the cash. What did the old lady do? Hold you up for more?”

“No,” Jeremy said. “She was drooling over the money. But the necklace she was peddling was a fake. So I pulled the plug and walked out on her.”

Max’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You … you had the necklace in your hand, and you gave it back?”

“You’re damn right I did. Max, it wasn’t worth a hundred and seventy-five grand, let alone eight million. I thought—”

“Since when do I pay you to think? You were given specific instructions:
‘Buy the necklace from the old lady.’
”

“Max, I know enough about gems to be able to tell what real emeralds and diamonds look like. I took a good look at the necklace with a loupe. Annie Ryder was trying to sell me a fake—a total piece of shit.”

“You know
nothing
about gems. What you were looking at was a perfectly crafted replica using cultured crystals instead of real stones. And it’s far from a piece of shit. It may not be expensive, but it’s still an original Max Bassett.”

Jeremy tried to make sense of what Max had said, but the vise was starting to tighten around his chest again, and most of his brain was preoccupied with warding off the pain.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “Why would you dress Elena Travers up in a fake necklace?”

“Did you think I would trust you to steal the real one? If you ever got your hands on it, you’d be on a one-way flight to God knows where—first class.”

“So
you
have the real necklace?”

“I never let it out of my sight. And as soon as the insurance company pays me for my loss, I will refashion it and make several wealthy women extremely happy. What I don’t have is the imitation. Are you beginning to understand why I need it, Jeremy?”

Jeremy nodded. “Yeah, I get it. You’re afraid the old lady will turn it in to the insurance company, and once they have it, they’ll figure out that the original was never stolen.”

“You really don’t have a head for this, do you, Jeremy? The old lady
can’t
turn it in to the insurance company. It would be like saying, ‘Here’s what my son stole.’ And she can’t find a buyer, because who would want to buy a
fake piece of shit?
”

“I can fix this,” Jeremy said. “I know where she lives. I’ll give her the hundred and seventy-five. She’ll be happy to make the deal.”

“Is that the money in the bag?” Max asked.

“Every penny.”

“Let me see.”

Jeremy slipped the bag from his shoulder and handed it to Max.

“You won’t be needing this anymore,” Max said. “I’ll take care of the old lady.”

“Don’t be crazy. Give me the money. I’ll be back with the necklace in two hours.”

Max laughed. “Even Leo is not dumb enough to believe that. Good-bye, Jeremy.”

“You want to get rid of me, fine. But you owe me. I put months into this job, and so far I haven’t been paid anything.”

“That’s because so far you haven’t earned anything,” Max said. “You bungled the job from the get-go.”

“Give me a break, Max. It’s not my fault Elena wound up dead.”

“Perhaps,” Max said. “But it’s definitely your fault that Leo is still alive.”

“THE ONLY REASON
Leo is still alive is because he never made it to the limo,” Jeremy said, his voice an angry whisper. “How can you blame that on me?”

“I’m not blaming that on you,” Max said, resting a hand on his chin and gently stroking his beard. “But you’ve had plenty of other opportunities since then.”

“Opportunities? What the hell are you talking about?”

“You spent all of last night shacked up with him at a hotel.”

“And what was I supposed to do? Shoot him in bed and leave his body on the room-service cart?”

Max shrugged. “I’m not in charge of logistics, Jeremy. You are. All I know is that we had an agreement. I promised you a shitload of money—far more than you’re worth—and you would see to it that Leo was the unfortunate victim of a jewelry heist gone horribly wrong.”

“And that’s exactly what would have happened. Raymond Davis was a contemptible, cold-blooded scumbag. All it took to get him to agree to kill Leo was to promise him ten thousand more than I was giving Teddy. It was a solid plan.”

“And yet,” Max said, lifting his beer from the table and dabbing with a napkin at the wet ring it left behind, “Raymond not only failed to shoot Leo, he murdered Elena Travers and turned your
solid plan
into an international cause célèbre.”

“Shit happens, Max.”

“Apparently it happens to you more often than to most criminal masterminds. But I was willing to overlook it. Do you know why? Because I had faith that you could bounce back from your monumental blunder and get it right the second time around. I mean, after all, you still had Raymond Davis, and from what I understood, it wouldn’t take much for you to convince him to try his luck with Leo a second time. But did you do that? Did you seek out Raymond and try to motivate your handpicked employee to finish the job?”

He slammed the beer bottle back down on the table. “No! Instead, you went to Raymond’s apartment and you killed him. And now you want me to pay you for all your hard work?”

“Fine,” Jeremy said. “So I didn’t finish that part of the job. But I still want to be paid for stealing the necklace.”

“Stealing it and losing it,” Max said. “Twice. First you were outwitted by a half-wit, and then you had it in your hand, and you gave it back, leaving me in a position where I will have to negotiate with a woman who is as well versed in the art of the deal as a Wall Street banker. Bottom line: you failed at every turn, and Max Bassett doesn’t reward failure. At the risk of repeating myself, good-bye, Jeremy.”

Jeremy’s shoulder slumped. “No. Please, Max, I know I messed it up, but don’t dump me now. Give me one more chance to make it right.”

Max folded his arms across his chest and sat back in his chair. His body language said it all.
I am impenetrable.

Jeremy countered with body language of his own. He spread his arms wide and placed his palms on the table.
I am defenseless, vulnerable, and I trust you.
“I know what you need,” he said in a near whisper. “Leo has been a thorn in your side your entire life. And now, with this Precio Mundo opportunity at your fingertips, the thorn has become a roadblock, a barricade.”

Max’s head moved. An involuntary nod. Jeremy had struck the right chord.

“I know him, Max,” Jeremy said, leaning in. “I know him intimately, and he has sworn to me that he will never give in. Your brother will stand in the way of your dreams until the day he dies. Give me one more chance to make that day come fast. Today, if you want.”

“How much do you want?” Max said.

“It’s a one-time-only payment. Once I have the money, you’ll never see or hear from me again.”

“How much do you want, Jeremy?”

“A million dollars.” Jeremy smiled. “I realize that you could shop around and get it done for less, but you’ve been grooming me for this job for months. Leo trusts me. Just say the word, and when you wake up tomorrow morning, the destiny of Bassett Brothers Jewelry will be in your hands, and yours alone.”

“Do it,” Max said. “I’ll go to my club for dinner and play poker till eleven p.m. Leo will be home alone. If he’s dead when I get there, I’ll wire you the million. Otherwise, you’re broke, unemployed, and wanted for murder.”

“Don’t worry,” Jeremy said. “I won’t let you down. Thank you.”

“Of course you won’t,” Max said, a self-satisfied smirk crossing his lips.

Jeremy took a long, slow deep breath. The oxygen filled his lungs, and he realized how effortless it had been. He exhaled slowly. Another breath. His chest pains were gone, his focus was back. Somewhere during Max’s harangue the anxiety and the fear had turned to resolve. Max was not Leo. Max was a formidable opponent, and Jeremy was determined to crush him.

No
, he thought, staring at the sardonic smile that mocked him from across the table.
More than crush him. Kill him.

I UNDERESTIMATED KYLIE.
I figured she’d spend the entire day second-guessing her decision to put off rescuing Spence, but I was wrong. She was pleasant, productive, and we breezed through our shift.