Going Under_ A Bill Roberts Thriller - Silas Payton Page 0,13

about it for a second, and said, "Actually, one of the women hasn't been around much lately. Natalia Grassi. I haven't seen her in a couple of weeks."

"What's the name of her other training partner?" Evans asked.

"Her name is Samantha Crawford. She's here right now if you want to speak with her," the manager said.

"I'd appreciate that. But first, can you tell me if there has been anything different about Mrs. Elliott lately? Anything in her behaviour, her workout routine, her schedule?"

"Nothing I'm aware of, but if there has been anything different, Sam would know. Her and Natalia are Sarah's closest friends from what I would guess."

"Could you see if she'd come talk to me please?" the detective asked.

Chapter 13

Bill Roberts

Bill Roberts at his desk, flipped through the file on Pierre Garneau, the dock worker killed a couple of months ago. The case was still open with no leads -- a newcomer to the city, with no known friends. Nobody at the docks knew or saw anything. His boss the port manager, now lying in the city morgue, didn't have anything to add. He said Garneau had only been working there about six months and wasn't well liked. Other sources said he was from Montreal and was thought to have connections with a motorcycle gang, but these were only rumours. No further leads at present.

He had taken some heat from the Chief on this one, but it seemed to have died down, likely because of his supposed ties with a bike gang. Every politician seemed to tread lightly around the ports and organized crime. They hadn't been able to prove any criminal involvement at the ports in many years, but everyone had their suspicions. Also, nobody wanted a war on the streets of Toronto because of some turf battle. Investigations didn't go too deep where a suspected biker turned up dead.

Of course, there were no witnesses and nobody speaking. But if he was part of a bike gang, why was there no retaliation? How could this be connected to the port manager? Maybe Mr. Elliott knew more about the death and someone didn't like it -- but it was his wife who killed him.

Being a detective was all about having questions without answers.

He kept pouring over the file, hoping he'd missed something, when he found a newspaper report linking Garneau to the Devil's Warriors, written by his brother-in-law, Jim. Dead Dock Worker Tied to Devil's Warriors.

He picked up the phone and called Jim.

"Jim here," he said.

"Hey, it's Bill. Wondering if I can pick your brain for a minute," Bill said, knowing this was going to cost him.

"What's up, Bill?"

"You wrote a story on the dead dock worker a couple of months ago, linking him to the Warriors. I know you can't reveal your source, but how solid was your info?" he asked.

"I have a source on the docks. He told me three French men started working there six months ago. They had been noticed sneaking around. They were spotted having private meetings with the boss, and rumours were, the boss was turning a blind eye on some shipments," Jim said. "My source also said there's a lot of turning a blind eye going on there, but it is usually for the Italians. I also found a guy who recognized Garneau as being a member of a Toronto bike gang called the Darksiders, believed to be a feeder gang to the Warriors, out of Montreal. I haven't been able to find anything on the other two French men -- I haven't been looking hard either."

"Why did you drop it?"

"I got my story. That was good enough. When it comes to biker gangs or the Mob, people have a tendency to end up dead if you ask too many questions."

The Toronto Police had been trying to break up the organized crime involvement in the city for a few years to no avail. It was a sore spot for Bill. Many years ago, he was able to create a big hole in Toronto organized crime when he took down a few major members of the Manchesi mafia family. He knew they had rebuilt and were strong as ever, but neither he nor anyone on the force were able to get close to them now.

Making matters worse, it drove him crazy that the media could often get closer than his people. Knowing he needed help on this one, he bit his tongue and asked, "Jim, how sure is your guy that Garneau was killed