Irrevocable (Evan Arden 5)

“Remind me never to forget your birthday, boss.” Jonathan laughs. He turns to Eddie-boy. “I caught Cody fucking around with the server for the security system. He said he was just doing some maintenance, but when I checked it, it was clear he was trying to reactivate some of the shit I’d shut down.”

“The stuff Beni was using to divert your movements?” Eddie-boy asks.

“Yeah—that shit.”

“Cody has a second apartment,” Eddie-boy says as he looks up from his phone. “Not in his name, but the deposit came from a cashier’s check out of his bank account. Did you know that?”

“No,” I say. “Where?”

“South Forty-third Street. I’m not all that familiar with Chicago though.”

“Junko’s and Omarie’s territory.” Jonathan looks at me, and I nod.

“We need to check it out.”

“Who are they?” Eddie-boy asks.

“South Side gangs,” I tell him. “Junko took over after his cousin had a little mishap.”

Jonathan snickers.

“He’s supposed to be playing nice, but they took part of one of our gun shipments. Some of them were never recovered.”

“They killed one of our people, too,” Jonathan says. “A woman. Trying to piss off Rinaldo.”

“Sounds like he’s not playing so nice after all.”

“Jonathan—check out that apartment,” I tell him. “Have one of the new security guys stake it out and watch for anyone associated with Junko and Omarie.”

“On it, boss.”

“Watch for any additional hacks into your security app,” Eddie-boy says. “If we can catch it live, I can trace the signal.”

“Good idea.” Jonathan nods, looking impressed. “I’ll set up a monitor.”

“I have some equipment I need to get set up,” Eddie-boy says.

“Is that the shit you shipped to me?” I ask. “It’s already in your apartment.”

“Perfect. Thanks, LT!”

“LT?” Jonathan looks between us.

“Lieutenant,” I say as I roll my eyes. “He won’t stop.”

“I think I like him, boss.”

“I’m starting to doubt my decision to bring him here.” I glance back and forth from one man to the other. “It’s like having twins.”

“We’re custom.” Jonathan nods seriously but can’t keep a straight face.

I roll my eyes again, and they both laugh, and we all go our separate ways.

*****

Three days of staking out the apartment in Cody’s name becomes three days of nothing. It’s beyond frustrating. Everything is on hold until I can get things in place with the new security guys, hire an additional bookkeeper to help Becca, and find Joshua Taylor.

Becca doesn’t approve of anyone we’ve checked out to help her. She had dismissed each and every applicant with one excuse or another. Some of them were good, too. They checked out but not enough for her tastes.