“Why did they have to wreck the place as well?” she asked, her voice cracking a little.
“Fuck . . .” I swore, “because they’re assholes.”
“Yeah, they are.” She let me go and walked to the sink. “I need a coffee. You want one?”
“No, I’m gonna take a look around.” At her nod, I headed into the lounge room and surveyed the damage. It didn’t look like anything of real value had been taken. The television and stereo were still here. I walked around the entire house and then back into the kitchen. “Babe, what’s actually missing?” I asked, because I couldn’t work out what had been taken. All big ticket items seemed to be in place.
She was on the phone, on hold, and she answered, “That’s the weird thing. I can’t work out what’s been stolen.”
“Who are you on the phone to?”
“The cops.”
I reached for the phone and she let me take it. Ending the call, I said, “I don’t think anything’s missing, unless they took jewellery or something smaller like that?”
“No, I checked that, and nothing is missing.”
“Do you want to claim this on insurance?”
She frowned. “I don’t know. Why?”
“If you want to claim it you’ll have to involve the cops. If not, you can forget them and just let me and the boys find out who did it, and deal with them for you. Either way I’ll be finding out who did it, but I’d prefer not to have the cops inv
olved.”
She thought about it for a moment and then said, “I’ll just let you handle it.”
I gave her a quick kiss and said, “Okay, I’m gonna get started on it now. Will you be alright on your own?”
She gave me a smile and nodded. “Yeah, Maree said she’d come over if I need her, so I’ll give her a call. She’ll help me clean up, too.”
Thank fuck for her friend. I didn’t really want to leave her on her own.
As I headed out, I mulled it over. My natural instinct would be to suspect Gambarro because I was a paranoid bastard, but this didn’t seem like a job he would pull.
It seemed to me that if he were involved, Evie wouldn’t be breathing anymore.
But it wouldn’t hurt to check in on him.
***
“Mr Gambarro is out of the country.” His security guy glared down at me, challenging me to argue with him. He was refusing me entry to Gambarro’s building and feeding me stories about Gambarro not being here.
“You expect me to buy that?”
“I don’t give a fuck if you do or don’t; it’s the truth. Now fuck off and leave me alone.”
I assessed the situation and decided to confirm that information with my other contacts before pursuing this any further, but I did ask, “When will he be back?”
The guy glared at me harder, in a ‘you’re-fucking-kidding-me’ look. “I said, fuck off.”
I pulled out my phone and began dialling as I walked away.
Bones answered on almost the first ring. “Kick. What’s up, my man?”
I liked Bones, simply because he usually had solid information, and he was always willing to share it with me. He ran strip clubs and girls, and, in general, had his finger in a lot of pies. “Do you know if Gambarro is out of the country?”
“Yeah, he left last week. Pretty sure he’ll be back this week, maybe in a couple of days.”