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“What?” He steps under an awning, out of the rain and I join him.
“Your coworker, Justin Newbold, was found dead two days ago.”
His jaw hardens as he shakes the water out of his mullet. “How?”
“He was stabbed in the heart.”
Matthias clears his throat and straightens his shoulders, wiping whatever concern existed off his face. “What does this have to do with me?”
“We can’t find any relatives or friends. You worked with him three years ago, right?”
Cruz enters the alley and slows down when she sees us talking.
“Yeah.”
“The company you two were working for went belly up. Six months later you were arrested on drug charges. You mentioned Justin was in on it, but the police could never prove his involvement.”
Matthias steps back, hands in the air. “I already served my time.”
“I know. I just want to know about Justin’s involvement.”
He studies me for several long seconds. “When we lost work, we both started looking into other…forms of employment. We both sold. About two months after we started, Justin mentioned this buyer he had, and how he had a better job offer for him. I told him that was a lie, what pays more than running drugs?”
I fight the itch to arrest him right now for fun.
“Justin turned him down, but a couple of months later I was arrested. They knew Justin was in on it too, but the guy he was working for offered to steer the charges away from Justin if he’d do what he asked. Justin did. He disappeared. Charges fell through.”
“What did the guy want him to do?”
“All he had to do was date some girl.”
The blood in my veins turns to ice. Not some girl. Amelia. She’s been a part of this all along. For two years? I think back over what Amelia has told me about Justin. She said they dated for a year and were engaged for a year. But she didn’t know anything about his family, rarely visited his apartment, and he lied and cheated the whole time.
“Why?”
Lightning lights up the alleyway, adding to my apprehension.
“He didn’t say.”
I clench my jaw. I need real answers. Now. “Who was the man who hired him?”
“I never saw him. But I heard him on the phone with Justin once. He had an accent.”
An accent.
The second I find Liam, I’m going to kill him. He used Justin to keep tabs on Amelia, but why?
And why would Justin propose to Amelia if it was all a con? That’s terrible covert work. But he wasn’t an operative, he was a civilian, known to make mistakes. He lost control. So Liam killed him. Is that the reason he was in town? Justin was sent to find the painting, but he failed, so Liam took matters into his own hands.
“Would you mind coming with me to answer a few more questions?” I ask.
“Sure. I’m a nice guy.” Matthias's eyes drag down Cruz's body.
She glares in response. “Really? So if I search every DVD case in that crappy store back there I won’t find anything?”
He holds up his hands. “I’m clean now.”
“Care to prove it?”