East End (Hear No Evil Trilogy #1) - Nana Malone Page 0,29
and cross my Ts. There would be no avoiding Denning. As my direct superior, he needed to know about what I’d found. I walked down the hall and around the corner, past the cubicles, and to the office in the center of the hallway. I knocked gently, and his assistant, Lisa, let me in. Denning was on the phone, but I marched in anyway, with Lisa chasing after me. I turned to her with a tight smile. "Lisa, it's fine. I'm not here about relationship things. It's actually about work."
Lisa's face flushed. "Jesus Christ, Nyla, I'm so sorry. But you know how he is."
"Oh, I do. And I guarantee you, I want nothing to do with him unless I have to. This is an I-have-to moment."
She gave me a sad smile and backed off. When Denning hung up the phone, he scowled at me. "Is there a reason you're in my office?"
"Actually, yes. You think I'd volunteer to be in here otherwise?"
He rolled his eyes. "What do you want?"
"Well, I wish I could say I came in here to tell you what a wanker you are, but that will have to wait for another day."
His gaze narrowed at me, and I could tell that he was on the verge of reading me the riot act. But then I smiled beatifically at him. "I’ve had a break in the case, and I need to speak with the Royal Museum of Monaco’s London agent, East Hale." I quickly relayed the information I had. “Dad already approved it.”
He scowled then. "Jesus Christ, Nyla, what the fuck? You went over my bloody head?"
“Is that what this is really about?” No amount of shaking my head was going to shake my irritation. “No, I merely informed my father of something. That’s all. Then he gave me the go ahead. If you don't like it, take it up with him.” I left out the part about me keeping the information about Theroux from both of them.
I wasn’t going to keep the text a secret for long. I just wanted to look into it first.
Sure you do. So what happens if you get another mysterious text?
Wasn’t that the question of the hour.
6
East
This was going nowhere. After nearly a week, Nyla was still clouding my brain and I couldn’t bloody well think.
The four of us had been arguing about the Tottenham and Man United game for well over an hour. Drew and Ben were barely talking because things had gotten a little heated over the new top player that had originally been on the Man United youth leagues. Then Bridge had said something sassy about Ben's choice of player, and it had become a powder keg. But the tension we were feeling had nothing to do with the game. The muttered curses were the result of us walking the tightrope of hero vs. antihero for the last week.
And then we made the mistake of attempting to work.
Ben was testy when he asked Drew. “Any news from the Five?”
Drew shook his head. “They know nothing about Theroux. They wanted to know if we have exposure. I deflected. I’m sure they were unconvinced.”
Deep inside, the shadows inside my mind suggested that if the Five didn’t know Theroux, then we were truly flying blind.
Ben cursed before turning attention to Bridge. “Did you fare better?”
Bridge shook his head. “No. None of the fences I know, even those with high end clientele have a line on him. Everyone agrees. He is not your average thief. He’s likely using a broker. Or he looks the part and can get away with private sales. I’ll also note that despite the company he keeps, there hasn’t been a single kill.”
Ben expelled a long breath of air. “East, tell me something good.”
All I had for him was disappointment. “Sorry mate. Chaka Khan I’m not. Telly and I could find nothing. The closest he came to leaving a trail was early in his career thirty years ago when Roger Kincade almost had him. Kincade winged him with a bullet, but he still vanished into the ether. His DNA is on file though.”
Ben crossed his arms and started to pace. “So what, he has us by the bollocks and now he runs us? Controls us?”
Bridge coughed. “The fuck he does.”
“I’m working on tracking him. It’ll take time. We might have to take it a step further and see what he asks for.”