Sleight of Hand

CHAPTER Forty-Five

Charles Benedict tried to get in touch with Gregor Karpinski all day. He called Gregor twice and got voice mail. He left a message telling the Russian to call him about his legal bill. When he still had not heard by eight in the evening, Benedict called The Scene and asked for Kenny Ito, one of the bartenders.

“Kenny, Charlie Benedict here. I need to talk to Gregor Karpinski. Something’s come up in one of his legal matters but he’s not answering his phone.”

“You haven’t heard?”

“Heard what?”

“Gregor got f*cked up last night.”

“F*cked up how?”

“I don’t know how it happened. I just heard some of the guys talking. All I know is that he’s in the hospital, and it’s bad.”

“Do you know what hospital he’s in?”

Ito told him. Benedict thanked him and hung up. He leaned back and thought. All Gregor was supposed to do was threaten some girl. How could a girl “f*ck up” Gregor? The guy was a monster.

Benedict fished out the business card Tiffany Starr had showed him shortly before he gutted her. He went on his computer and Googled Exposed. Loren Parkhurst was not listed as an employee. Benedict thought about that. Just because she wasn’t listed didn’t mean she didn’t work for the paper. She could freelance.

Benedict typed Parkhurst’s name into the search engine. Nothing. Now, that was strange. If Parkhurst were a journalist, she should have published something somewhere. He didn’t like this. A woman journalist who didn’t show up on the Internet and who was capable of “f*cking up” a beast like Gregor Karpinski.

Benedict thought some more, and the more he thought, the more concerned he became. Gregor could tell the cops that Charlie had asked him to threaten Parkhurst. Worse still, if Gregor talked, Nikolai could learn that Charlie used Gregor without his permission. He and Nikolai got along pretty well, but Nikolai was unpredictable.

What to do? What to do? After giving that question some serious thought, only one viable solution presented itself.