“Honestly, no. She’s got her ambitions though. She might be using Beni to get herself ahead. I can’t trust her not to say something to him about our investigation, so I can’t risk telling her.”
“Makes sense. Paulie then?”
“No. I want him staying close to Rinaldo at all times.”
“Who’s left?”
“Of people I trust?” I shake my head. “No one. I’ll do it myself so you can keep digging. You’re better at that shit than I am anyway.”
“Anything else about Felisa?”
I debate telling him what Rinaldo revealed to me, but I don’t. If Rinaldo wanted Jonathan to know, he would tell him personally. If Jonathan went digging, he’d probably figure it out on his own, assuming he hasn’t already.
“Only what we already know. I’ll focus on that and Beni. You see if you can locate Joshua Taylor. He may very well lead us to Stark.”
“Got it.”
I tap my fingers against my leg for a minute, considering.
“Can you check out one more person for me?” I ask.
“Sure. Who is it?”
“Her name’s Alina. She’s a hooker.”
“This the whore of the week for you?”
“Something like that.” I take a deep breath. “I really want you to find her father. I’m pretty sure he’s in the city somewhere. I want to know where I can find him.”
Jonathan eyes me.
“Don’t ask.”
“Right.” He taps on the laptop keyboard for a few seconds. “You got a last name?”
“Nope.”
“Lotsa help you are.”
“Good thing you are so good at what you do.”
“Who’s her pimp?” he asks as he continues to type away.
“Don’t know.”
“Well, what do you know that might actually help me out here?”
I point out where I pick her up and give him Loretta’s name as her roommate. I really don’t know much of anything else about her, but he seems to think it’s enough to go on.
Nick returns with a pizza, smelling of weed.
“You better not have smoked that shit in my car,” I tell him, “or I’ll kill you right where you stand.”
“Nah, just outside the door.” He refuses to make eye contact, and I wonder if he’s lying to me. “What did you guys figure out?”
“A couple of leads but nothing concrete. Jonathan and I can take it from here.”
I expect him to be disappointed that I don’t actually have anything for him to do or research, but he seems relieved instead. I find it odd because he was so gung-ho to join me earlier, but now he’s dancing back and forth like he does when he’s nervous. I’m not sure why. I wonder if he thinks we suspect him, but he really isn’t in my list of top candidates. He seeks his father’s approval far too much to do anything outright against the family. It would go against his character, and that’s a very rare thing indeed.