Paris in September, put them up in a five-star hotel for four days, paid for their food, their wine, their—”
“Shut up!” Leo screamed. “It was my sixtieth birthday, and yes, I spent a lot of money, and no, I have no regrets. Non, je ne regrette rien, mon frère. I’m spending my money now, while I’m alive, and if I don’t have enough, I will go out and get more.”
“You want more money, Leo? All you have to do is sign the goddamn contract with Precio Mundo, and you’ll have all the money you ever need to feed your face until the day you die.”
“Never! Leo Bassett is a jeweler to the stars, not a flunky for a bunch of cut-rate, low-rent, bargain-basement Mexican whores.”
“ Flunky? You’d be in a partnership with one of the wealthiest corporations in the world. And they’re not cut-rate. They’re mass-market. Which means half a million women could be wearing our jewelry instead of one dead actress.”
Leo took a step back. “What are you implying, Max?”
“I’m not implying anything. I am flat-out saying that it’s your fault she’s dead. You were supposed to be in the backseat with her. You were supposed to keep her calm and get her to hand over the necklace without an argument. It may have been the single most important thing you’ve ever had to do in your life, Leo, and you blew it off because you didn’t want to walk down the red carpet smelling like a fish stick.”
“I’m sorry about Elena, but stealing the necklace was the right call.”
“Why don’t you put that in a little handwritten note to Elena’s parents? ‘Dear Mom and Dad. Sorry about your daughter, but I needed the money. Signed, Leo Bassett, jeweler to the stars.’ ”
Maxwell Bassett knew where his brother’s buttons were, and he knew this was the last one he had to push.
Leo threw him the finger, turned, and stormed out of the room.
Poor Leo, Max thought. Did you really think I would let you and Jeremy be in charge of stealing an eight-million-dollar necklace?
He smiled. This was going better than he’d planned.
“The same goes for me, Leo,” he whispered softly. “Non, je ne regrette rien, mon frère.”
CHAPTER 31
“One dead perp is a good start,” Captain Cates said after we brought her up to speed on the Travers murder, “but it’s been almost forty-eight hours. Elena was an international star. Half the world is waiting for answers.”
“Then you might want to tell half the world that we’d have more answers if we didn’t get sidetracked every time another body-probe machine went missing.”
“I feel your pain, Jordan,” Cates said, “but this is NYPD Red, and nothing is redder than whatever is troubling Mayor Sykes and/or her husband. I gave you a backup team, but you two are still on the front line till these hospital robberies are solved.”
“Even if it takes time away from our primary case?” I said.
“You have two primary cases, Detective. What you don’t have is a personal life. Do I have to say ‘That’s an order’? Because if I do, consider it said. Now, is there anything else I need to know?”
“We did a quiet background check on the Bassett brothers,” Kylie said. “This is the fourth time they’ve been robbed in twenty-two years.”
“The bodega in my neighborhood has been robbed four times since July,” Cates said. “Give me a perspective.”
“The JSA stats say there were about fifteen hundred jewelry robberies last year—about four a day,” Kylie said. “So for the Bassetts to get hit four times in twenty-two years isn’t enough to put up a red flag. But this robbery smacks of being an inside job, and since Leo and Max are as inside as you can get, we wanted to know more about them.”
“I’ve met them,” Cates said. “Leo is a charming old queen. Dumb with a capital Duh. He was caught in a compromising position in a men’s room at a movie theater a few years ago, but that’s the extent of his criminal history. If you ask me, Max is the
“Shut up!” Leo screamed. “It was my sixtieth birthday, and yes, I spent a lot of money, and no, I have no regrets. Non, je ne regrette rien, mon frère. I’m spending my money now, while I’m alive, and if I don’t have enough, I will go out and get more.”
“You want more money, Leo? All you have to do is sign the goddamn contract with Precio Mundo, and you’ll have all the money you ever need to feed your face until the day you die.”
“Never! Leo Bassett is a jeweler to the stars, not a flunky for a bunch of cut-rate, low-rent, bargain-basement Mexican whores.”
“ Flunky? You’d be in a partnership with one of the wealthiest corporations in the world. And they’re not cut-rate. They’re mass-market. Which means half a million women could be wearing our jewelry instead of one dead actress.”
Leo took a step back. “What are you implying, Max?”
“I’m not implying anything. I am flat-out saying that it’s your fault she’s dead. You were supposed to be in the backseat with her. You were supposed to keep her calm and get her to hand over the necklace without an argument. It may have been the single most important thing you’ve ever had to do in your life, Leo, and you blew it off because you didn’t want to walk down the red carpet smelling like a fish stick.”
“I’m sorry about Elena, but stealing the necklace was the right call.”
“Why don’t you put that in a little handwritten note to Elena’s parents? ‘Dear Mom and Dad. Sorry about your daughter, but I needed the money. Signed, Leo Bassett, jeweler to the stars.’ ”
Maxwell Bassett knew where his brother’s buttons were, and he knew this was the last one he had to push.
Leo threw him the finger, turned, and stormed out of the room.
Poor Leo, Max thought. Did you really think I would let you and Jeremy be in charge of stealing an eight-million-dollar necklace?
He smiled. This was going better than he’d planned.
“The same goes for me, Leo,” he whispered softly. “Non, je ne regrette rien, mon frère.”
CHAPTER 31
“One dead perp is a good start,” Captain Cates said after we brought her up to speed on the Travers murder, “but it’s been almost forty-eight hours. Elena was an international star. Half the world is waiting for answers.”
“Then you might want to tell half the world that we’d have more answers if we didn’t get sidetracked every time another body-probe machine went missing.”
“I feel your pain, Jordan,” Cates said, “but this is NYPD Red, and nothing is redder than whatever is troubling Mayor Sykes and/or her husband. I gave you a backup team, but you two are still on the front line till these hospital robberies are solved.”
“Even if it takes time away from our primary case?” I said.
“You have two primary cases, Detective. What you don’t have is a personal life. Do I have to say ‘That’s an order’? Because if I do, consider it said. Now, is there anything else I need to know?”
“We did a quiet background check on the Bassett brothers,” Kylie said. “This is the fourth time they’ve been robbed in twenty-two years.”
“The bodega in my neighborhood has been robbed four times since July,” Cates said. “Give me a perspective.”
“The JSA stats say there were about fifteen hundred jewelry robberies last year—about four a day,” Kylie said. “So for the Bassetts to get hit four times in twenty-two years isn’t enough to put up a red flag. But this robbery smacks of being an inside job, and since Leo and Max are as inside as you can get, we wanted to know more about them.”
“I’ve met them,” Cates said. “Leo is a charming old queen. Dumb with a capital Duh. He was caught in a compromising position in a men’s room at a movie theater a few years ago, but that’s the extent of his criminal history. If you ask me, Max is the
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