Fire and Obsidian

by Andrew Grey

  “Do you have any idea how long they’ll be?”

  “A couple hours at least. These things take time and never go as quickly as you see on television. I made sure they knew their rights last night, and they’ve had a chance to stew over what happened.” He lifted his gaze. “The jail was particularly noisy last night because of some suspects that were brought in at about two, so it’s likely our pair didn’t get much sleep.”

  “I see.”

  “Not that we had anything to do with it, and it wasn’t planned, but James and Pierre thought it best to see if they would talk this morning.”

  Mattias nodded as Clay went back to his reports. He knew James was anxious to get any information he could out of the thieves, and he wasn’t really surprised that he and Pierre had already gotten to work. “I have a meeting downtown in a little while. So would you please tell James that I’ll be back in a couple of hours?” Mattias was damned nervous about this meeting and wanted to get there early so he could scope out the coffee shop before James’s father arrived.

  “I’ll tell him,” Clay said.

  Mattias left the station, hurried out to his car, and headed downtown. The drive was a matter of a few minutes, though finding parking took longer, and Mattias fed the meter with all the quarters he had before going inside and stepping up to the counter. He ordered a regular cup of coffee, sat down at a table, and pulled out his laptop for something to do while he waited.

  It wasn’t as long as he expected before a man who had to be James’s father walked through the door. The brightness in the eyes and the chiseled jaw were too distinctive for him to be anyone else. Mattias caught his eye, and he came over. “Elias Levinson,” he said.

  “Mattias Dumont.” They didn’t shake hands, and Elias sat down across from him.

  “I’m only here because I’m curious why you’d want to talk to me. I did some checking on you, and I know what you do and your past. I also know that you’re working with my son.” His gaze was hard as flint, and Mattias was well aware he was in the presence of a man who had been hardened by life and would do what he had to in order to get what he wanted.

  “I’ll come to the point. I want to know why you’re here.” Mattias met that hard gaze with steel of his own.

  Elias’s eyes narrowed, and he inhaled, then released his breath but remained silent.

  “James has to suspect that you’re here,” Mattias said. Though they’d never spoken about it, James had to have seen the text messages from his mother.

  “And what business of yours is my relationship with my son?” Elias asked. “You work with him as some sort of consultant….” He sneered at the end of the sentence as though Mattias had turned his back on some sort of brotherhood of thieves. Which couldn’t have been further from the truth. There was no honor among thieves—Mattias was well aware of that, and so was Elias, he was sure. If he was here in town and he was planning something…. Mattias swallowed with the realization that Elias could very well be here because he was behind the rash of burglaries, and that this was his retirement plan.

  “And you’re in town because you’re hoping for one last big score.” Mattias pushed his cup forward and leaned over the table. “I have sources too, and if you did any checking, then you know I have a reputation.” He leveled his gaze at Elias. Hell, he should probably have told James he was coming here and blow the whistle on his father. The last thing he wanted was for James to get hurt, and with Elias in town, there were so many scenarios that could cause just that.

  “Yes, you do,” Elias said tersely. “Which was why I agreed to talk with you. I was curious about what you wanted with me. Now I have a pretty good idea.” The way he tilted his head sent a chill up Mattias’s back.

  “You don’t give a crap what your presence here will do to James, do you?” Mattias challenged. It was time Elias knew that James had someone to watch his back.

  Elias met his gaze. “I have one last score, and then I’m done. James will understand that I can set him and his mother up for the rest of our lives. I can quit, and she and I can live quietly in retirement. But I can’t do that otherwise. They don’t have Social Security for guys like us.” Elias looked at him as though he was supposed to understand, but Mattias simply shook his head.

  “Go get your score someplace else. I’m going to give you until tonight to clear out,” Mattias told him flatly. “You better be gone and on your damned way back to Florida, or I’ll be on the phone to a contact at the FBI, letting him know where you are and just how easy it would be to find you.” Mattias wasn’t playing around. “And so help me, if I find out you’re at all involved in the case he and I have been working on, I’ll turn you over to the police so fast that it will make your head spin.”

  Elias smiled. “Oh yeah? And what about James? Will you put him through that? Having to publicly deal with his father, the thief? Is that going to help him?” The man was devious and fucking selfish as hell.

  “It’s sure as hell better than you not getting caught.” Mattias slipped off the chair. “You seem to forget. The son isn’t responsible for the sins of his father, and if I had to bet, I’d say that James would handcuff you and take you in himself if he had to.” He’d heard enough. He got his bag and turned toward the door, but Elias grabbed his arm.

  “You may just get to test that.” Elias tilted his head toward the door as James pulled it open and came inside.

  Mattias felt the floor threaten to open up and swallow him the instant he saw the stormy look on James’s face leveled his way.

  “What are you doing here?” James turned to his father. “With him?”

  Mattias opened his mouth to answer, but James cut him off.

  “Just go back to the station.”

  “James, I….” He tried to explain, but it wasn’t going to do any good. Mattias closed the lid on his laptop and slid it into his bag, then turned and left the coffee shop, heading back to his car. He got about halfway there before he was grabbed and whipped around.

  “Whatever you were cooking up with my father, just forget it.” James growled softly, but with plenty of menace. “I trusted you, and then I find you here with him!” He shook. “Just get the hell out of my sight.” He turned and strode back into the coffee shop.

  Mattias trudged back to his car and started driving toward the station. He thought of going back to James’s, getting his things, and leaving. The case was essentially over. They had caught the thieves, and the issue for the sheriff was past. He could call a news conference and crow that the department had helped make the county safer and that his opponent had rushed to judge while he spent the time to catch the real thieves… or whatever people said in order to get elected. Mattias nearly made the turn to head to James’s, but he didn’t have a key to the house. And while he was up to the challenge of those special locks of his, he wasn’t going to break into his house. James could think whatever he wanted of him, but Mattias wasn’t going to prove those thoughts true.

  At the station, he went into the room they had been using. Pierre and Clay sat in their usual places, talking quietly. “How did the questioning go?”

  Pierre nodded and smiled. “They were ready to tell us anything to try to save their own skin. Apparently they’re working with someone else, and they only confessed to some of the robberies. They told us about the woman and her partner who were selling the goods, and they even gave us an address. The sheriff has two deputies heading to Mechanicsburg to pick them up. Clay and I are trying to work out who the mastermind behind this whole thing is.”

  “Mastermind…,” Mattias said, but kept his mouth shut about James’s father. He wasn’t going to raise more questions until he could get James to talk to him. This whole thing was a pain-in-the-butt mess, but he was going to bring it to an end, and then he might as well go home. He sat down and got to work himself.

  “What did that keyboard do to you?” Pierre asked after a few seconds. “You’re pounding it like it committed a crime.”

  “
It didn’t, but someone sure did.” Mattias wished he’d said nothing and went back to work, hiding behind the screen. He typed more softly and then gave up. It was stupid, but the thought that James hadn’t given him a chance to explain and hadn’t trusted him or cared enough to ask why he’d been talking with Elias really tore at him, especially after last night.

  He closed the lid on his laptop and turned to the wall to check the time. It wasn’t even noon, but it felt as though he’d been up all day. Maybe having your heart broken did that to you. As Mattias thought, he was being stupid. Things with James had been moving quickly. Mattias had forgotten to keep his guard up, and this was what happened. He should have kept his distance and just done his job. But no, he had to get involved with the one man he’d let get under his skin, only to have the trust he’d started to build destroyed. Mattias should have known. This was how things worked for him. His parents, his grandparents, all ripped away when he needed them most. Mattias had just begun to think he could get past all that. Hell, he’d been trying to keep James from getting hurt. Well, no good deed went unpunished. He had never truly understood that saying until now.

  “It looks like you all have things pretty well in hand,” Mattias said, then swallowed. “I’ll talk to the sheriff and probably be heading home tomorrow or so.” There was no need for him to stay any longer. He had done what he’d been hired to do, and going home was for the best. Still, running away wasn’t in his nature, and he was determined to have this out with James. Good, bad, or indifferent, he was going to have his say, and then he’d go home.

  “We’ve still got plenty to do. Someone devised this whole robbery scheme and then got these people to work for him.” Pierre handed him a printed report. “I’m just finishing up their statement, but they were brought here from Alabama some time ago and promised jobs and a better life. What they got was a job stealing.”

  “We’re working to try to corroborate their story. It seems designed to tug at the heart, but I’m not buying it without some sort of proof,” Clay said skeptically. “Still—”

  “They used their niece and nephew to help them steal,” Mattias interjected, and they both nodded. “I bet they claimed they were desperate and had no other choice.” His anger grew. “They also said that they were afraid to tell anyone because their handlers would turn them in.” He shook his head. “I could have written that script with my eyes closed.” Mattias drew closer to the table. “Check them out carefully. You have every reason to be skeptical.” He certainly was.

  “You don’t believe it either?” Clay asked.

  “Nope. Sounds way too rehearsed, and I’ve heard it before. Make sure the kids are really their niece and nephew, and then pressure them about who is behind this. They know more than they’re saying, and I’ll bet they are hiding behind this sob story.” Mattias was pretty sure of that.

  He wasn’t able to do anything more to help at this point. He couldn’t go back and talk to them, even though he was pretty sure he could see through their story in a few seconds. All he ended up doing was checking the clock every few minutes, which was completely stupid. He’d already done what he could do, and the rest was basic law enforcement. The more he thought about it, the more he realized there was nothing to keep him here. Mattias stifled a sigh, packed up his things, told the guys that he was going, and left the building. His small apartment in Philadelphia was sounding better and better.

  Chapter 12

  JAMES YANKED open the door to the coffee shop after watching Mattias get into his car, and strode up to his father under a full head of steam. He calmed himself when he got halfway to the table, then plopped down in the chair that Mattias had occupied. “What are you doing here?” he asked more calmly than he’d expected to be capable of at the moment.

  “How did you know where I was?” his father deflected. He always tried to take control of every situation.

  “Mom messaged me because she wondered if you and I were together. It seems you called her from this area code.” James leveled his gaze. “Then when I asked Mom where I could find you, she said you had told her you were here.” His father was clearly learning that his mother was an easier source of information than he realized. “Don’t be mad at her—I wormed it out of her. I am your son, after all.” He couldn’t help taking a dig at him. James loved his dad, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t angry with him as well. “So….”

  “You aren’t going to worm things out of me as easily as your mother,” his father said flatly.

  “Maybe. But I’m sure I have other ways of getting you to tell me what I want to know.” James pulled out his phone and set it facedown on the table, near his hand. He was sending a message. “So… why are you here in town, and what were you and Mattias planning? Don’t you dare tell me this is a trip to visit your son, because I know you better than that.” His anger built at a steady pace.

  “I wasn’t planning to come here, but the trail I was on led to this area.” His father leaned forward and lowered his voice. “I won’t tell you about it other than I’m leaving town in a few hours. I haven’t done anything, and you won’t have to deal with me on your turf. And you can tell your gum-flapping mother that I’m on my way home.” He sighed. “Things didn’t work out.”

  James narrowed his gaze. “So… then, what were you and Mattias planning?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing. He asked for this meeting and basically told me to get the hell out of town or he was going to make sure I paid for it.” His father’s gaze grew softer. “He threatened to let you know that I was here, and even pressured me with the FBI. I haven’t seen anyone that worked up over something in a long time. He was even snippier than you get.” His dad smiled broadly.

  James felt the air whoosh from his lungs, and damn it all if it wouldn’t go back. He forced air in and then coughed, wondering what the hell he’d just done with Mattias. “You mean you weren’t planning anything?”

  “Nope. The conversation centered on how he was going to run me out of town on a rail.” He checked his watch. “Speaking of leaving, I need to go if I’m going to make my plane.” He stood and was about to leave. “You know, but the next time our paths cross….”

  “It’s not going to happen, Dad.” He motioned to the table, and his father sat down. “Don’t come back here. The next time you do, I’ll use everything I know against you, and don’t think for a minute that I won’t.” He could finally breathe again. “My entire life I’ve had to deal with what you do for a living, and what I do and how I feel. I’m not going to do that any longer. So consider this a forced retirement.”

  “Jim, your mother deserves….”

  James had heard this justification plenty of times, and he was no longer buying it. The last week had shown him just how much his father and his choice of profession had influenced his life, and he wasn’t having any more of it. Hell, he’d jumped to conclusions about Mattias, and now… God knows what he’d done and what he was going to have to do in order to make up for his anger and the fact that he hadn’t given him a chance to explain.

  “No, Dad. Mom deserves to have you around and not in prison for the last years of her life. You’ve put her through a lot, and it’s over. Whatever this score is that you’re chasing… it ends now.” He wasn’t going to let his father walk out of there without saying what he needed to.

  “I’m your father. You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

  James blinked and took a calming breath, then picked up the phone. “I don’t make idle threats, Dad. If you can’t give it up for Mom, then she might as well learn to do without you now as opposed to later.” He began dialing the station. “Let me talk to Ravelle,” he said, and waited as he met his father’s gaze, steel for steel. One way or another, this was going to end.

  “Fine.” His father lowered his gaze, blinking for the first time James could remember.

  James waited on the line while his dad turned and left the coffee shop. He watched his dad go and finally breathed a sigh of relief
before Pierre came on the line. “Is Mattias there? I need to speak to him.” He hadn’t been bluffing for a second, but it looked like he wasn’t going to need to take the nuclear option, and he needed something to ask Pierre now that he had him on the phone.

  “No. He gathered his things and left a few minutes ago. His computer and everything is gone,” Pierre said. “He was talking like the case was over and he wasn’t needed any longer. Also, the guys returned with two more suspects, and we need to interrogate them. They’re in holding cells right now.”

  Shit. James really needed to find Mattias and explain what an ass he’d been. Damn it all, he’d let the crap with his father color the way he looked at Mattias, and it could cost him everything. “Okay, I’ll be right there.” He couldn’t go back to his house right now. The round trip would take too long. Instead, he made sure everything was paid for and then hurried to his car and back to the station.

  JAMES SPENT the next two hours talking to suspects, playing each of them off the other until a much clearer picture of what had been happening emerged. It seemed there had been a leader, and they had her in custody… but only through sheer luck. When the deputies had gone to pick up the two suspects, they happened on the third leaving the house, and when they called it in, she matched the description of the seller they had been tracking. Getting the story out of them was difficult, especially since the leader lawyered up immediately. But the others were willing to sell her out to save their skins, and James had a pretty good idea of how they were recruited and brought up here. Finally, he sat across the table from Ellen Mavle and her lawyer.

  “It seems we have a very good case. The four people who work for you all turned on you.” James grinned. “It seems you didn’t engender any sort of loyalty. And now we have you as an accessory to child endangerment and abuse. That’s going to carry as much time as the burglary and larceny.” This was turning out to be totally beautiful.