Not realizing he was becoming an instant caricature as Nick enticed him to do, Tony said, “I don’t like you, McCarty.”
“Perfect!” Nick applauded again as Floyd dragged on his partner’s arm while suppressing amusement.
Floyd had to bear hug Tony out of the room as the detective lost all sense of being goaded into making a fool out of himself. Nick waited another fifteen minutes, sending Jean selfies of himself in different places in the interrogation room. He wrote, ‘the coppers haven’t broken me yet’ on each one. Jean sent pictures back of Rachel tapping her foot while looking at her watch. Detective Samson came in a moment later alone.
“That wasn’t very smart baiting my partner, McCarty. You must think you’re some kind of big shot. We should have taken all your communication devices off you when we put you here in interrogation. We’ve been notified by none other than the Attorney General’s Office to let you leave with weapon. How does a ‘Penny Dreadful’ hack novelist have the pull to get the United States Attorney General’s office to intercede on a police matter?”
Intuition concerning this ‘smash and grab’ lot triggered a memory in Nick while he traded one liners with Floyd. “I’ve saved people, jobs, and exposed traitors, so they would have reason to think of me as a guy deserving of consideration. I’m sure you and Tony think hassling me over a clear case of self-defense by a federal officer somehow offended the local police department. If you have no other personal grudges to try and settle, may I leave now?”
Floyd handed Nick his Beretta. “We ran your Beretta through ballistics. It’s surprisingly clean of other self-defense acts. I imagine it must be your spare. What do you think of the woman getaway driver?”
“She’s a bubble-head that fell in love with one of the ‘smash and grab’ boys, agreed to do the driving on a romantic kinky lark. Offer her a deal to find out where the boys have the rest of their loot stashed. She’ll whine and cry otherwise until you want to throw her off the building. Make sure you type in a clause concerning her part in some other venture the boys have been part of, voiding her deal because she withheld information. I’ll write it for you if you’d like. She’s more than she seems. I am sure of that.”
“You really think they had something else in the works too?”
Nick shrugged. “It’s a hunch. There was something about her bearing after capture when Sergeant Boniface and I informed her of how many charges could be brought against her. Did you find out who she is? My hunch on that detail was some lawyer’s offspring, breaking away from mommy and daddy, but with diamonds sparkling in her brain. I’m thinking they did the ‘smash and grabs’ to get money for a buy-in on some other venture worth a lot of money. I know you may think this farfetched, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s the mastermind behind the crimes.”
Floyd stared at Nick with furrowed brow, frowning concentration. “She’s the daughter of two well connected defense attorneys. They specialize in defending high profile rich clients in serious jeopardy. They’re also very good at what they do. Her name is Lisa Monroe. Both parents, Liz and Allen Monroe, streaked down here to right this injustice brought upon the head of their innocent daughter. They want your head, our heads, and millions in monetary damage for wrongful incarceration and defamation of character. I like your take on her part in this. Any theory what the buy-in would be for?”
“It’s not black market art or political favor. I think you need to stick with simple: drugs. I’ve seen this before.”
Nick’s amused look upset Floyd. “What’s so funny, Marshal?”
Nick remembered taking a contract on four brutal killers in New York for mob boss Salvador Costiga. An enterprising employee of Costiga’s, Brenda Fayers, tipped the location of numerous shipments of goods handled by Costiga’s network to friends of hers – small time street hoods. Fayers acted as the brains of the crew, thinking no one would find out, especially Costiga, whom she was sleeping with. She also ordered her crew to leave no witnesses. Salvador wasn’t stupid. After three hits on his shipments, and the deaths of his men, He called in Nick for three times his going rate to find out who hijacked his rigs, and kill them.