what you find for me to narrow down the ocean I’m swimming in right now.” Hex instructed.
“Roger.” I replied.
I stopped to pick up some food and by the time we arrived at my place, she’d calmed down somewhat but Tianna was still trembling a little. I sat her down, poured her a shot of whiskey and handed it to her.
Tianna sniffed and tried giving it back. “Too strong.”
“Trust me, you need this.” I pushed the crystal glass back to her. “Drink.”
The hesitation was ripe in her troubled eyes, but she used her free hand to hold her nose then tossed back the drink. I wasn’t sure why she held her nose, but whatever worked for her. She winced, set the glass on the island then released her nose.
“Do you want to talk about what happened back there?” I asked her.
“Could I take a shower first?” Tianna asked. “The water should help with the shaking.”
I wasn’t sure her surrounding herself with water in this state would be healthy. But I wasn’t leaving, so if anything, I’d be around. I nodded and brought her up the stairs.
It took some time to show her around then to the room she’d be using until we figured out what the next step was. Leaving her in the bathroom, I hurried to my room and dug through my closet and came up with a t-shirt. It should be big enough on her that she could use it as a nightgown until I could get her somewhere to pick up some clothes.
I brought it back to her then went into my office. I worked until she was calling my name. Closing my laptop, I joined her to eat something.
“How do you know Montana?” She asked. “I mean, you’re Canadian, right?”
“Right.” I replied simply.
“Okay…did you work together?”
“Something like that.”
She sighed loudly. “Fine, I get it. I can take a hint.”
“Tell me about your brother—what was he into? What were his favorite scams?”
“I don’t know why you’d think I know much about him.” She mumbled. “He only came by when he wanted something.”
“Okay, what did he usually want?”
“Money.”
“Maybe that’s how he bought the condo.” I speculated.
“It wasn’t never a lot of money.” She shrugged. “Not luxury condo money.”
“Yes, but a little adds up to a lot.” I finished my food and set the plate down. “Think about it. You take a dollar here, a dollar there. No one misses that amount, usually.”
She sighed.
I stopped speaking. She stopped eating.
Eventually, I talked her into getting some sleep and called Juju “Hex” Takimura.
Her face popped up on the screen while she scooped rice into her mouth with a pair of chopsticks. She chewed, swallowed then smiled at me.
“Hermes.” Juju leaned forward. “You’re up late. Super freaky fun times?”
“I wouldn’t be calling you during that, Hex, trust me.”
She giggled. “I take it you want to know what I’ve found out?”
I nodded and picked up my plate.
“Well.” Hex sipped from a drink, set it down and began typing. “Her brother has no real money, property, nothing. He has a small bank account—”
“When you say small…”
“There’s fourteen dollars and twenty-seven scents in it.” She replied. “His cell phone has been disconnected due to nonpayment. All the legal money he’s ever had was transferred from his sister. Sometimes there’s a swell in his account that didn’t come from her. But random grand Cayman island transfers.”
“Who owns those accounts?”
“Numbered companies.” She replied. “And those don’t really need a person’s name so—”
“Dead end.”
“Precisely.” She told me.
“How about a vehicle.”
“It was totalled a week before he died.”
I sighed. “Okay. Any luck tracking his movements the weeks before his death?”
“He has no credit cards in his name.” Hex replied. “But the week before he died, he spent a lot of time at a hotel on Gerard Street called the Hideaway.”
I grunted. Typical man—I knew the place well. After returning from the military, on my off time from the company, I would help a friend of mine out. He was a cop, needed undercover eyes—it was off the books. I wasn’t a cop, and I didn’t want to be labeled as an informant. The truth was, I had a particular set of skills that came in handy for him.
“What was he doing there?” I asked.
“What do people do at a place called the Hideaway?”
“I’m surprise that place has a computer system.” I left the screen to get a drink. “Everything about the Hideaway seems above board. I mean, if the freaky shit they did there was out in the open it