Stolen Prey

because that would have its own kind of trail. So it’s probably gold, in some form. Coins, ingots, something. Or maybe diamonds, if the paper trail ends in Amsterdam or Tel Aviv. And…”
    “And?”
    “And they’re buying it right now,” Bone said. “Whatever it is. They know you’re coming after them, they know the Mexicans are out there. They’re moving as fast as they can. But you can’t buy that much coin that fast without somebody noticing. So find those people. Find the people who are selling. You’re looking for somebody, maybe several somebodies, who are selling a lot of gold or diamonds or stamps or coins. You’ve got no time—no time. Once they finish buying whatever it is, they’ll bury it and go back to their day jobs. Nothing’ll move. Then, in a year or two, they’ll find a way to bring the money back in, probably in some other city or some other country, and we’ll never know. And I won’t know whether they can come back to the bank for another round.”
    Lucas and O’Brien were sitting back, taking it in. When Bone finished, O’Brien turned to Lucas and said, “He’s right. Finding those gangbangers gonna be mostly a matter of luck, if they haven’t already taken off. As far as we know, they’re driving through Kansas City right now. If they’re still here, you won’t get them … unless….”
    He paused, and Lucas prompted him, “Unless…”
    “Unless you find a way to suck them in,” O’Brien said. “They went after Kline. If you’d been there, you could have trapped them. If you could get them to come after somebody, if you were ready for that…”
    Lucas thought,
Hell, if I’d left Shrake and Jenkins on Kline …
    Bone said, “Aw, c’mon. He’s not gonna suck them in. They’re not reacting to Lucas—they’re doing what they’re told.”
    Lucas nodded. “Probably.”
    “So work on the thieves,” Bone said. He was leaning toward Lucas, intent with the sales pitch. “It’s really urgent. I’ll give you every scrap of information we come up with at the bank, I’ll make all of our people available to you, anything you want. Anything. If the BCA needs more budget for overtime, I’ll work that out, make a donation to the state.
I need these thieves
.”
    Lucas said, “I’d really like to get the shooters. But you might be right.”
    “If you get them, these fuckin’ thieves, the next time we play basketball—I’ll throw the game to you,” Bone said.
    “You’ll be a very old man before that could happen,” Lucas said. But he slapped Bone on the knee and said, “Let me think about it.”

12
    S am and the baby were asleep when Lucas got home. Letty was reading a fantasy novel involving vampires, and when Lucas tried to talk to her, she gently shooed him away—somebody was about to get kissed. Weather was getting ready for bed: “Anything good?” she asked.
    “Jim got on my case. He’s worried that the people who stole the money might somehow be able to get back in—that there might still be an inside man, and they’ll come back and hit him again.”
    “Is there an inside man?”
    “Probably at least one, and maybe two.” She knew about Kline getting shot, and he told her about the brief conversation in the hospital room. He didn’t mention searching Kline’s cell phone, because she had specific ethical viewpoints regarding the treatment of patients; a covert search of a patient’s personal effects while he was drugged would almost certainly be an occasion for a major confrontation and possibly a reeducation program of the kind meted out by the Communist Chinese to capitalist running dogs during the Great Leap Forward.
    So he kissed her good night and went down to the den and got out his Strathmore sketch pad and began doodling: names,connections, questions, possibilities laid out in boxes connected by dotted lines and arrows.
    One thing that seemed quite clear, and fascinating in its own way, was that information was leaking back to the Criminales. That meant that the gang almost certainly had an observer inside the bank, and the observer was close to the investigators—close enough to pick up clues and tips as to where the investigation was going.
    Lucas began working out some ideas about who that person would be: who inside a bank would have a connection with the Criminales. He (or she) must still be in place, because he (or she) sicced the killers on Kline.
    It seemed likely that the person would be Mexican … wouldn’t