Rarities Unlimited 02 - Running Scared

discussion. In any case, it was Factoid, Rarities Unlimited’s very own computer guru, who had done the hacking. That wasn’t something April needed to know either.
    “Take it as a given,” Niall suggested.
    April never looked away from Shane. “I’m listening.”
    “There were two sets of footprints going through the blood,” Shane said. “Tim Seton left one set. When the police get around to it, I’m betting that Socks will be a match for the other footprints.”
    “So?”
    “So we have the two of them fencing stolen gold artifacts,” Risa said, “and then killing the fence.”
    “Before he died, Cline turned the artifacts to Shapiro,” Shane said.
    “Can you prove that?” April asked.
    “Cline didn’t keep records, and Shapiro claims his computer ate his homework,” Shane said.
    Her black eyes narrowed. “Keep talking.”
    “The only real question left is why Morrison waited in a parking lot to blow Socks apart.”
    “You’re not buying the white knight bit?” April asked.
    “Are you?” Shane asked.
    “Not unless I have to.”
    “The other question is why a limo hauled Miranda and her shot-to-pieces son off into the night to a place where he could be treated without being reported to the cops.” Shane looked at Ian. “Did you get into her house?”
    Ian nodded. “My hat’s off to you, Tannahill. You hit it right the first time.”
    “What?” April said, turning on Ian like a tiger. “Spit it out, slick.”
    Ian’s smile was all edges and silence.
    “I have something you want,” Shane said to April. “You have something I want. That’s the traditional basis for making a deal.”
    Without missing a beat she switched gears, turned her back on Ian, and asked, “What do I have that you want?”
    “Druid gold.”
    “And you have for me . . . ?”
    “A pipeline to the Red Phoenix triad that’s better than I ever could be. Interested?”
    “Keep talking, you’ll get there.”
    Shane looked at Dana.
    “Ms. Joy has made deals with many people,” Dana said. “She keeps her end of any bargain she makes.”
    “Do we have a deal?” he asked April.
    “How did you find out that Uncle had already claimed the gold from Faulkner’s motel room?” April asked idly, but she was thinking at the speed of light.
    Shane didn’t answer.
    She hadn’t really expected him to. “I’ll see that you get custody of the gold. What’s the pipeline?”
    “Gail Silverado will deny it to the last breath, but she finally told me that Rich Morrison is behind the attempt to make me look like a laundry. Morrison is in bed with the Red Phoenix. If you take apart his computers, I’ll bet you find their fingerprints all over the laundry arrangements. I know Red Phoenix is the group that hacked into my computer and left damning trails leading to money I never took from offshore accounts I never created.”
    There was silence for the space of one breath, two, three.
    “Interesting,” April murmured. “If true.”
    “Talk to Miranda Seton. She called the Shamrock when her son showed up bleeding on her doorstep.”
    “How long have you known that?” April demanded.
    “Since I told Ian to go to the Seton house and hit redial,” Shane said. “Seton’s last call was to the Shamrock. Very quickly a black limousine pulled up and hauled her and her son away.”
    “Keep talking.”
    “Even a cursory background check showed that Miranda is no more a widow than I am,” Shane said. “She hasn’t worked since her son was born and receives regular fat deposits into her account, deposits I’m still trying to trace. I would put money on Morrison being the father of Tim Seton and the source of Miranda’s money. Now, you can blow a perfectly useful pipeline apart trying to prove all the linkages I’ve outlined, or you can use what you don’t need to prove as a twist to turn the ever-heroic Morrison into a patriotic mole snitching off the Red Phoenix to Uncle. And if you need any help in the twist department, you might try Miranda Seton. I’ve got a cast-iron hunch that the lady has something on her former lover.”
    For a moment there was only silence and waiting.
    Then April’s smile flashed at Shane. “I like the way you think.”
    “I’m frightened.”
    “In my dreams,” she retorted. “It’s a deal, Tannahill.”

Chapter 73
    Las Vegas
    November 19
    Evening
    T he golden dagger’s blade was as long as Shane’s hand. Ancient symbols that began with the wheel of the sun and ended