Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

didn’t end with the good detective in dug into the cobbler. I didn’t bother with ice cream this your bed last night?” Finn asked in a sly tone. time. I just wanted warm sugar, and a lot of it. In addition to treating me like a sister, Finnegan Lane “But you were right about the diamonds,” Finn said. also had an annoying tendency to analyze my sex life—“According to the cell phone photos the detective took along with everyone else’s.
    in Dawson’s office, the dwarf is planning a major expan“No,” I snapped. “The detective didn’t spend the sion of his current mining operation. And guess where night, although I invited him to.”
    the new primary shaft leads to?”
    Finn shook his head. “Idiot. The man’s an idiot. But I didn’t even have to guess. “Warren T. Fox’s country don’t feel bad. I didn’t have any luck myself last night.”
    store.”
    I raised an eyebrow. “You mean the evening didn’t end Finn nodded. “Actually, our good friend Tobias Dawwith you having a threesome with Violet Fox and Eva son has already started shoring up the mine, and he’s even Grayson?”
    crossed over into Warren’s land.”
    “Touché.”
    “Explains all the rumblings and mini earthquakes Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 252-253
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    they’ve heard and felt.” I took another bite of cobbler. The it wouldn’t be much of a stretch. The woman’s got her oat topping provided a crunchy, chewy contrast to the hands in everything in this city. Including Dawson’s syrupy sweetness of the blackberry filling. Mmm. Perfect. pocket, I imagine.”
    “But wait, there’s more,” Finn said. “Dawson might be
    “In a big, big way,” Finn said. “Mab’s been floating mining his brains out, but he’s not making a lot of money him money for the past several months. She’s writing it doing it anymore.”
    off as a speculative business venture.”
    “Why not?”
    I looked at him. “Speculative venture? So she knows Finn shrugged. “The usual reasons. Equipment’s more about the diamonds then.”
    expensive, the coal’s harder to get to, and there’s less of it,
    “Probably,” Finn said. “Dawson must have told her which means more man hours and more money invested about them, maybe even given her a couple of samples as in getting it out of the ground to start with. Dawson also a good faith gesture.”
    got sued last year. There was a cave-in at one of his other
    “So all Dawson has to do is get rid of the Foxes, and mines further up in Virginia. Killed almost a dozen men, he can tear up the whole mountain mining diamonds.”
    injured that many more. Despite the dwarf’s attempts to
    “Pay off his creditors, become solvent again, and make keep it quiet, the accident got a lot of press. Dawson had himself and Mab Monroe a pile of money,” Finn added. insurance, but he still had to pony up almost thirty mil“You were right, Gin. Tobias Dawson isn’t going to stop lion for the families.”
    until Warren Fox’s land is his. He can’t afford to. Not with I whistled. “That’ll put a dent in anyone’s wallet.”
    Mab Monroe breathing down his neck to come up with Finn polished off his muffins and reached for the bassomething worthwhile.”
    ket of rolls. I passed him some butter. “It put a bigger
    “Knowing the dwarf’s dirty secrets is all well and good, dent in Dawson’s wallet than most. It wiped out most of but we knew I was going to have to kill him all along,”
    his personal fortune. He’s barely making ends meet these I said. “What I want to know now is how I can pull it days and is mortgaged to the top of his ten-gallon hat.”
    off—and get away clean afterward.”
    “So he just doesn’t want the diamonds, he needs them.”
    Finn buttered another roll. “I’ve been working on that
    “Like a wino needs wine,” Finn agreed. “But wait, too. Like I said before, Dawson is all about his business. there’s more. Guess who one of his primary lenders is?”
    Mining is his life.”
    Another easy guess. “Mab Monroe.”
    “So I take him out at his house or the mine office. No Finn pouted. “You ruin all my fun. How did you big deal.”
    know?”
    Finn shook his head. “I did some more digging last I shrugged. “I remembered seeing Dawson’s name night. I wouldn’t suggest either one of those options. in the file Fletcher compiled on Mab. Even if I hadn’t, Dawson has a pretty tight security setup at home. Lots