Damaged Goods

Chapter Thirty-Four

I returned to my computer and scanned news headlines. Nothing in there about sniper shootings, including the one aimed at me. I pondered this. Why would someone take a shot at me? Who'd be threatened by me?

The case file sat on the coffee table. I grabbed it and moved into my small kitchen. Rocky waited outside on the windowsill. I set the file on my tiny kitchen table so I could retrieve the peanut jar from its shelf and fish out his breakfast.

"Hey, Rocky." I slid the window and screen open, then addressed him in my most squirrel-friendly tone. "Want a peanut?"

Rocky focused on the hand-delivered nut. My rodent friend grabbed it from my fingers and stuffed it in his mouth. A liberal sprinkling of nuts met the same fate, and Rocky's cheeks were soon bulging.

"Nice to know we can count on at least one thing, eh, kiddo?"

Rocky gave me a quizzical look, like "What?" Ah, to be non-sentient.

I fixed myself a quick breakfast of toasted English muffin with butter and Marmite. As I polished it off, I reviewed the chart I had made while working on Blaine's case. A vague suspicion arose in the back of my mind . . . something that might help me connect the dots on my diagram.

I reviewed the names and drew a few more lines. This showed what I knew, but something was missing. Things I couldn't know for sure. Speculating on possibilities based on my knowledge was the next step.

Kandinsky, connected with the Russian mob and terrorists, may or may not have embezzled money from Blaine. The money was still missing. And Kandinsky had a son who refused to take part in something his father proposed.

Kandinsky used art students to create forgeries and was ripping off the Mob or terrorists or both, skimming profits from the sale of the items to museums and auction houses.

A vague suspicion was beginning to take shape, but there was a missing link in the chain of events. Kandinsky's son. According to his letter, he wasn't involved in his father's business. This got me thinking.

Even if Kandinsky's son hadn't been involved in ripping off terrorists or mobsters, that didn't mean he was completely out of the picture. But where did he fit, if he fit anywhere in the scheme?