“Did you think I would trust you to steal the real one? If you ever got your hands on it, you’d be on a one-way flight to God knows where — first class.”
“So you have the real necklace?”
“I never let it out of my sight. And as soon as the insurance company pays me for my loss, I will refashion it and make several wealthy women extremely happy. What I don’t have is the imitation. Are you beginning to understand why I need it, Jeremy?”
Jeremy nodded. “Yeah, I get it. You’re afraid the old lady will turn it in to the insurance company, and once they have it, they’ll figure out that the original was never stolen.”
“You really don’t have a head for this, do you, Jeremy? The old lady can’t turn it in to the insurance company. It would be like saying, ‘Here’s what my son stole.’ And she can’t find a buyer, because who would want to buy a fake piece of shit?”
“I can fix this,” Jeremy said. “I know where she lives. I’ll give her the hundred and seventy-five. She’ll be happy to make the deal.”
“Is that the money in the bag?” Max asked.
“Every penny.”
“Let me see.”
Jeremy slipped the bag from his shoulder and handed it to Max.
“You won’t be needing this anymore,” Max said. “I’ll take care of the old lady.”
“Don’t be crazy. Give me the money. I’ll be back with the necklace in two hours.”
Max laughed. “Even Leo is not dumb enough to believe that. Good-bye, Jeremy.”
“You want to get rid of me, fine. But you owe me. I put months into this job, and so far I haven’t been paid anything.”
“That’s because so far you haven’t earned anything,” Max said. “You bungled the job from the get-go.”
“Give me a break, Max. It’s not my fault Elena wound up dead.”
“Perhaps,” Max said. “But it’s definitely your fault that Leo is still alive.”
Chapter 49
“The only reason Leo is still alive is because he never made it to the limo,” Jeremy said, his voice an angry whisper. “How can you blame that on me?”
“I’m not blaming that on you,” Max said, resting a hand on his chin and gently stroking his beard. “But you’ve had plenty of other opportunities since then.”
“Opportunities? What the hell are you talking about?”
“You spent all of last night shacked up with him at a hotel.”
“And what was I supposed to do? Shoot him in bed and leave his body on the room-service cart?”
Max shrugged. “I’m not in charge of logistics, Jeremy. You are. All I know is that we had an agreement. I promised you a shitload of money — far more than you’re worth — and you would see to it that Leo was the unfortunate victim of a jewelry heist gone horribly wrong.”
“And that’s exactly what would have happened. Raymond Davis was a contemptible, cold-blooded scumbag. All it took to get him to agree to kill Leo was to promise him ten thousand more than I was giving Teddy. It was a solid plan.”
“And yet,” Max said, lifting his beer from the table and dabbing with a napkin at the wet ring it left behind, “Raymond not only failed to shoot Leo, he murdered Elena Travers and turned your solid plan into an international cause célèbre.”
“Shit happens, Max.”
“Apparently it happens to you more often than to most criminal masterminds. But I was willing to overlook it. Do you know why? Because I had faith that you could bounce back from your monumental blunder and get it right the second time around. I mean, after all, you still had Raymond Davis, and from what I understood, it wouldn’t take much for you to convince him to try his luck with Leo a second time. But did you do that? Did you seek out Raymond and try to motivate your handpicked employee to finish the job?”
He slammed the beer bottle back down on the table. “No! Instead, you went to Raymond’s apartment and you killed him. And now you want me to pay you for all your hard work?”
“Fine,” Jeremy said. “So I didn’t finish that part of the job. But I still want to be paid for stealing the necklace.”
“Stealing it and losing it,” Max said. “Twice. First you were outwitted by a half-wit, and then you had it in your hand, and you gave it back, leaving me in a position where I will have to negotiate with a woman who is as well versed in the art of the deal as a Wall Street banker. Bottom line: you failed at every turn, and Max Bassett doesn’t reward failure. At the risk of repeating myself, good-bye, Jeremy.”
Jeremy’s shoulder slumped. “No. Please, Max, I know I messed it up, but don’t dump me now. Give me one more chance to make it right.”
Max folded his arms across his chest and sat back in his chair. His body language said it all. I am impenetrable.
Jeremy countered with body language of his own. He spread his arms wide and placed his palms on the table. I am defenseless, vulnerable, and I trust you. “I know what you need,” he said in a near whisper. “Leo has been a thorn in your side your entire life. And now, with this Precio Mundo opportunity at your fingertips, the thorn has become a roadblock, a barricade.”
Max’s head moved. An involuntary nod. Jeremy had struck the right chord.
“I know him, Max,” Jeremy said, leaning in. “I know him intimately, and he has sworn to me that he will never give in. Your brother will stand in the way of your dreams until the day he dies. Give me one more chance to make that day come fast. Today, if you want.”
“How much do you want?” Max said.
“It’s a one-time-only payment. Once I have the money, you’ll never see or hear from me again.”
“How much do you want, Jeremy?”
“A million dollars.” Jeremy smiled. “I realize that you could shop around and get it done for less, but you’ve been grooming me for this job for months. Leo trusts me. Just say the word, and when you wake up tomorrow morning, the destiny of Bassett Brothers Jewelry will be in your hands, and yours alone.”
“Do it,” Max said. “I’ll go to my club for dinner and play poker till eleven p.m. Leo will be home alone. If he’s dead when I get there, I’ll wire you the million. Otherwise, you’re broke, unemployed, and wanted for murder.”
“Don’t worry,” Jeremy said. “I won’t let you down. Thank you.”
“Of course you won’t,” Max said, a self-satisfied smirk crossing his lips.
Jeremy took a long, slow deep breath. The oxygen filled his lungs, and he realized how effortless it had been. He exhaled slowly. Another breath. His chest pains were gone, his focus was back. Somewhere during Max’s harangue the anxiety and the fear had turned to resolve. Max was not Leo. Max was a formidable opponent, and Jeremy was determined to crush him.
No, he thought, staring at the sardonic smile that mocked him from across the table. More than crush him. Kill him.
Chapter 50
I underestimated Kylie. I figured she’d spend the entire day second-guessing her decision to put off rescuing Spence, but I was wrong. She was pleasant, productive, and we breezed through our shift.
First we met with Howard Sykes. “I had a long talk with Phil Landsberg, the CEO at Hudson,” he said. “Needless to say, he’s not jumping up and down at the thought of his hospital being the target of the next robbery, but he finally caved. I’d like to tell you that it was my four decades as an advertising genius that won him over, but it wasn’t.”
“So now you owe him,” I said.