“Hey, Aaron,” I said as I stepped inside, “I hate to interrupt, but I’ve got a few things I need to explain to you. You mind?”
“Hell, no, man. You’re the boss.” He followed me into one of the little bedrooms. When we were alone, his face opened in a wide smile and he slapped me on the shoulder.
“Good to see you again, Perry. Pritchard and I were a little concerned about you while you were down south.”
I smiled back at him and hit him once in the jaw with a stiff left jab. It backed him up and jarred him, but he got his hands up to protect his face. I kicked him in the groin, then caught him behind the ear with a hard right as he dropped. He landed on all fours, then went down on the floor and curled up, gasping for breath. I pulled Hartwick’s personnel file from my jacket and threw it on the floor beside his face.
“Chief of security for Richard Douglass and Associates, eh? That’s real nice, Kinkaid. You told us you never met Jeremiah Hubbard. I find that a little harder to believe now.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he wheezed. He was sliding his left hand under his shirt. I kicked him in the stomach, then reached inside his shirt and removed the snubnose.32 he had in a shoulder holster. Apparently he’d left the Colt Python home for something a little more discreet today. I threw the gun across the room, pulled him into a sitting position, and slapped him hard in the face. I didn’t want to make enough noise to alarm Julie and Betsy, but I was going to get some answers from Kinkaid.
“Tell me the truth, you son of a bitch,” I said, jamming my thumb into a pressure point near his collarbone and making him writhe in pain. “You told the Russians I was in South Carolina, didn’t you?”
“No,” he said, trying to shake his head while twisting out of my grasp.
“Aaron,” I said, “the game is over. Tell me the truth.”
“All right,” he said, sagging back against the wall. “All right.”
CHAPTER 25
WHEN WAYNE Weston and Aaron Kinkaid went into business together, Hubbard came to them through a referral from Richard Douglass. The job description was simple and open-ended-perform the most thorough background investigations possible, whenever and on whomever Hubbard requested. He offered big money, and they took it. There was never a case for the rich man’s wife, Kinkaid explained; that was just bullshit offered to Joe to establish an initial connection between Weston and Hubbard.
There had also never been a legitimate problem between the two partners over Julie Weston. “There was nothing between Julie and me,” Kinkaid said. “I got drunk and hit on her once, but we both laughed that off.”
So the pair had worked for Hubbard for a while, but it quickly became evident that Weston was better at the type of assignments Hubbard had to offer, and soon he was working almost exclusively for the multimillionaire. Kinkaid and Weston talked things over and decided a separation was the logical solution. Hubbard agreed to fund Kinkaid’s security company in Sandusky as a silent partner. He left the city, and Wayne Weston stuck around, doing some legitimate cases but basically working as a professional blackmailer. He was good at it, and Hubbard was making him rich.
Then came the past winter and Hubbard’s vision of a building project in the Flats. Weston went to work collecting background information on Beckley and the owner of The River Wild. It was then that he ran into the Russians.
“Wayne found out the owner was in bed with the mob, and he wanted to back off,” Kinkaid said. “But Hubbard thought it was a great opportunity, you know? He wanted to be able to threaten this guy with criminal charges if they could get any sort of real evidence. So Wayne broke into the bar and set up a wireless camera to get an idea of what was going on in the place.”
Most people wouldn’t be foolish enough to try to threaten men connected to Belov, but Hubbard had been so big for so long that he could no longer even comprehend the idea of being afraid of someone, even someone like Belov. So when Weston got the tape, his rich, arrogant boss decided to use it, Kinkaid said. He sent the tape to the strip club owner, but he didn’t tell Wayne Weston. The next day, Krashakov came looking for Hubbard. Apparently, he had intercepted the tape before Dainius Belov received it.
“He made them a deal-he’d keep his mouth shut if the Russians would sell the property to him,” Kinkaid said.
“And they took that?” When he nodded I was stunned. “The Russians made a deal with him? Why the hell didn’t they kill him?”
He shrugged. “I guess because they wanted to use him. They saw the potential there; I mean, Hubbard’s about the richest guy in town. Why would they want to kill him when they could use him in the future?”
Good point. “So where did you come in?”
“I called Hubbard to warn him about you guys when Pritchard came out to interview me. A day later, he calls me back and says you two showed up in his office asking questions. He explained everything that had gone down with Wayne and the Russians, and he offered me big money if I could get involved with you and keep him informed. I told him I wasn’t going anywhere near it unless I could talk to the Russians and be sure they weren’t going to consider me a threat. I met with Krashakov and explained how it would be beneficial for all of us if I hung around. He never liked having me involved, but he wanted to find Julie and that tape, so he went with it.” He looked at me as if he were about to let me in on a secret. “Krashakov’s one scary son ofa bitch.”
I wanted to hit him again, but I didn’t. “Who set up Belov’s son?”
“All I know is Krashakov wanted to make a power play, and Belov’s son was the first obstacle in his path. There’s been some tension between those two for a while, I think.” He wiped at the blood on his chin. “I’m in a bad spot, too, Perry. Wayne thought the Russians were going to kill him, and now I’m playing the same role. You think I want to be part of this? Shit, no.”
“So why are you part of it, Kinkaid?”
He snorted. “You think I got a choice? Hubbard owns my business. Hubbard owns me. You don’t just walk away from a guy like that.”
I moved away from him, pacing the little room. He watched me warily.
“Does Hubbard own Cody, too?” I asked.
He looked at the floor. “I don’t know.”
I reached down for him, and he threw an awkward punch that I avoided easily as I got my hands under his arms and lifted him. I slammed him back against the wall, twice, hard enough to make the door rattle in its frame. Julie and Betsy had to hear it, but I was too mad to care.
“Yes,” he said, “yes, dammit, he’s paying Cody. Now get the hell off me, Perry. I’m telling you the truth.”
I dropped him and stepped back. “So what’s Cody’s game, exactly?”
“He’s almost legitimate. He was working on the FBI task force that’s trying to take down Belov, and he knew Weston was involved with them from the wiretaps. Hubbard paid him to keep his name out of it. He wasn’t supposed to derail the investigation, he was just supposed to steer it away from Hubbard.”
“Which means he was derailing the investigation,” I said. “So let me get this straight-Krashakov was making a power play by eliminating Belov’s son. But who was selling Hubbard the club?”
“Krashakov. He was the muscle in charge of it, even if he wasn’t the owner on paper.”
“Dainius didn’t know about the River Wild deal?”
“No. That was Krashakov’s move. He had the authority to sell the club as long as Belov got a cut.”
“You sent the Russians down to South Carolina after me, didn’t you?” I said.