Naughty Neighbor - By Janet Evanovich Page 0,38
needed money. Suppose he had Bucky steal the stuff and Bucky was supposed to feed it to Petunia. Petunia was being shipped to Amsterdam. Maybe there was a contact in Amsterdam, waiting to fence the jewelry and stamps.”
“The pig wouldn’t have any problem with customs.”
“Exactly.”
“Sounds pretty farfetched. How were they supposed to get the jewelry and stamps out of the pig.”
“That’s the beauty of the plan,” Pete said. “The jewelry and stamps would come out all by themselves. In one end, out the other.”
“Ugh.”
“It would have been brilliant if the pig hadn’t wandered off.”
“So now they’re going to try it again,” Louisa said.
“Precisely, Watson.”
“I don’t want to be Watson. Watson was fat and dopey. I want to be Holmes. You can be Watson.”
“You’re never satisfied.”
“This is my new assertive personality,” she said.
“Maybe we could take turns being assertive. You can be assertive on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and alternate Saturdays. I can be assertive on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday.”
“It’s worth considering. I suppose I need to get back to work and keep my ear to the ground. We don’t want to miss any of this swiney intrigue.”
Pete watched her return to Maislin’s office. Now that the mystery might be solved, he wasn’t sure he wanted to continue. There were worse things in the world than insurance fraud. It was white-collar crime, and no one would be surprised to find Maislin guilty of such a thing. In fact, people sort of expected it of him. It was almost his most outstanding job skill.
Rationalization, Pete admitted. It all came back to Louisa. He didn’t want her involved in a sting operation. Was he willing to let Maislin off the hook to keep Louisa safe? Yes. He was a rotten patriot, but there it was. Louisa was his first priority. Not that it mattered. She’d sunk her teeth into this, and he didn’t think she was going to let go.
They stopped by Kurt’s apartment on the way home from work. They brought a pizza—double cheese with the works—and a six-pack of beer. They filled Kurt in on the insurance claim.
“Hard to believe Maislin needs money,” Louisa said. “He has a big house, expensive cars and clothes, an extensive portfolio. He’s a millionaire several times over.”
“On paper,” Pete said. “I checked him out. He has serious cash-flow problems.”
Kurt chugged a beer. “And an even more serious drug problem. I’ve been picking it up on the tap. He doesn’t get all that aggressive energy from eating a balanced diet. The man runs on speed.” He looked over at Louisa.
“I know what it is. Are you sure?”
Kurt nodded. “He’s made two buys this week alone.”
Louisa felt sick. She might be a little jaded when it came to glorifying a senator or a congressman, but she believed in the American political system. She’d been on the Hill long enough to know the vast majority of the elected officials took their responsibility seriously and worked long and hard. Sometimes a man got carried away with his own importance or succumbed to the pressure of the job, and a scandal ensued. She was always sad to see that happen.
In this case, there was little sadness for Maislin. She’d had a chance to observe him firsthand and had come to thoroughly dislike him and distrust him.
Pete saw the color leave her face. He covered her hand with his. “You okay?”
“No, I’m not okay. I’m furious. How could he betray the voters like this? How could he be so stupid? So arrogantly corrupt as to put himself above the law?”
Pete grinned. “She’s going to be a lawyer someday,” he said to Kurt. “She’s going to be dynamite.”
“A lawyer?” Kurt said. “No kidding? Hey, that’s terrific.”
Louisa blushed. “It’s actually only in the planning stage. I haven’t even taken my LSATs.”
“Don’t worry about the LSATs. Pete and me’ll help you study. And if that doesn’t work, I can get into their computer. I can give you any grade you want.”
She was touched. She was also horrified, but she told herself Kurt’s intentions were good. Maybe Kurt wasn’t such a bad guy. Just a tad misdirected. She took another look at him. Who was she kidding? He might have a good heart, but his brain had mental deviant engraved on the frontal lobes. Kurt was frighteningly weird.
Pete watched the play of emotions on Louisa’s face and could hardly keep from laughing out loud. He knew exactly what she was thinking. He’d gone through the same thought process many times himself and had always reached the