Leverage in Death (In Death 47)

“Worked, didn’t it?” He lifted his hands, spread them, made a boom sound. “The rest, collateral damage. You think I give a shit about any of those rich bastards in their big houses? They’re no better than me.”

A vein beat at his temple—snaking, pulsing toward his shaved skull.

“I put my life on the line for them, and it got me squat. So I took what I was owed.”

“You built the bombs, the vests that you forced Rogan and Denby to wear.”

“Nobody held a bang stick to their heads.”

“You just beat their wives, threatened to kill their children. You built the bombs, the vests,” Eve repeated.

“I got the training. Didn’t make the cut, and that was a pisser. I knew what I was doing. I trained myself more after they booted me back to the world. I could’ve taken out more than I did, but Lucius wanted to keep the casualties down. He’s got soft spots.”

“How’d you pick the targets?”

“What do you care?” He smirked. “Got blowed up, didn’t they?”

“It took some doing, some work, some smarts. Why don’t you tell us how smart you are, Sergeant?”

“Shit. Rogan was easy. That asswipe Banks fed Lucius some intel on the merger—rich bastards getting richer. We’re just sitting around one night, me and Lucius, drinking and bullshitting, and he says how we could make a windfall buying up some of the stocks. We started playing with it, then we could see how it could work.”

“And how was that. Why Paul Rogan?”

“Lucius wanted to pick a father. He’s got a hard-on for his own, right? He wanted to see, like an experiment, if a father would give his life for his kid. His brother gave his life for his men. It’s like the same, so we started working on it. Rogan fit the bill.”

“I’m going to say Lucius worked up the jammers, the way through security.”

Silverman jerked a shoulder. “He’s got a knack. Took him weeks, but he figured it out.”

“You handled the parents, he handled the kids.”

“No hurting the kids, that was his line.”

“But the women were fair game.”

“You gotta incentivize people. They don’t believe you’ll follow through, they don’t follow through.”

“Lucius set up the fake accounts, buried them, bought up stocks,” Eve prodded.

“He’s got good brains for that shit. He’s an asshole on tactics, but he knows his money shit.”

“How much did you make?”

“One-point-three.” When he grinned a little blood dribbled down his chin. He swiped it away. “More money than I’ve seen in my life, all at once.”

“And still not enough. Did you always plan to steal the Richie from Banks?”

“That jerk-off? Lucius said we’d consider that the jerk-off’s fee. We had some already, and we’d have more after we got the art guy to blow up the artist and a bunch of his faggy art shit.”

“But Banks pushed his way into it. You had to kill him.”

Silverman eased toward Eve. “If I could’ve gotten my hands on you just right?” He bared his teeth as he twisted his hands, made a crunching sound. “Stupid fuck walked right into it. Lucius was a little shaky after I did it, but he held up.”

“The two of you dumped Banks’s body in the reservoir.”

“It’s called teamwork.”

“Lucius had already broken into Banks’s apartment for the Richie artwork.”