Chapter 5
5
J AMES
A quiet buzz rolls in my ear.
I crack an eye open, swing my arm and pick up my phone from the nightstand, my eyes shifting to the patio doors first.
Wide open, they let in the panoramic view of the calm sea. The sky is lighted where the water meets the line of the horizon.
I check the time before I answer the call.
It’s five o’clock in the morning.
“Hey, Lex,” I say, my back buried in my pillow, my eyes shut.
“Ed said you wanted to talk to me.”
“Yeah. I need you here.”
A pause comes from the other end of the line while voices and live music echo in the background.
“Where are you?”
“Your place. There’s a party for Ed and Thea.”
“Oh, yeah... The party,” I rasp, rolling to my side before rubbing my hand over my face and opening my eyes.
“Did he talk to you?” I ask.
“Yeah. He told me,” he says curtly.
“I know it’s short notice, but I need to fly to London in a day or two.”
Rain’s voice rings at the other end of the phone line.
“Who’s that?” she asks Lex.
“James,” he says to her. “She wants to talk to you,” he relays to me.
I pull upright and prop my back against the headboard.
“Hey, baby,” she says, her voice sweet and mellow.
“Hey. How’s the party?”
“It’s good. Is everything okay?” she asks, rushed.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Um... Nothing. Lex just told me about Monaco. You said you wanted me to come to you this week as well.”
I stay silent for a moment.
“James?”
“Yes.”
“Are things okay with the business?”
“Yes. Everything is fine. I need to travel to London, and he has to be here when I leave. I’ll have to figure out what’s the best time for you to come.”
“I don’t need to,” she shoots at me.
“No. I want you to come, just not now. I’ll have the answer for you in a day or two. By then, I’ll know what the rest of the week looks like. Okay?”
A few moments pass.
“Rain?”
“Yes. It’s okay,” she says, slightly disappointed.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Okay. Love you.”
“Love you too, baby. Now let me talk to Lex.”
A few seconds pass before I hear Lex’s voice again.
“Is she still there?” I ask.
“No. She’s on the terrace.”
“Did Ed tell you the entire story?”
“Yes. Why don’t you want to tell her?’
“Because she’ll get worried for nothing.”
“Okay. I guess…” he says, not convinced at all.
“Leave it to me, Lex. I need to find out more about this story before I share the news with her.”
“How’s Theresa?”
“She’s good. I mean, she looks good. She says she’s doing okay financially. We spent a few hours together on Saturday before she flew back home. I told her about you and Ed. About Rain. Some of it, she knew. She must’ve kept in touch with someone from back home, I guess. Not everything is public knowledge. I’ll tell you more about her when you come here. How is the party?”
“Was.”
I laugh.
“Seriously? It’s over already?”
“The love birds are gone.”
I breathe a chuckle.
“Jealous much?” I ask.
“I’m happy for him. For both of them.”
“How’s Dahlia?”
“She’s good. Happy… David Moore was here too.”
“Did he like it?”
“He liked it a lot,” he says, a smile threading through his voice. “He spent some time with Eve Malone and then with Rain.”
“Keep an eye on him.”
He laughs.
“No need to worry. Rain is lost without you.”
I muse over his words.
“Okay… I’ll let you go now. Call me tonight.”
“All right.”
I hang up and set the phone on the nightstand before crashing back into the pillow.
The sun begins to rise just as I fall asleep again.
The alarm clock wakes me a couple of hours later.
I shower, shave, and put on some new dress pants and a crisp button-down shirt when my phone rings.
I scoop it up from the nightstand as I put my shoes on.
“Sexton, here.”
“This is Thomas, sir.”
“Where are you?”
“London.”
“Already?”
“Yes, I flew in yesterday. I have something for you.”
I freeze.
“Okay.”
“A trail. I don’t know if it leads anywhere or not. The cops checked it and dropped it. But I think it’s worth looking into it. It’s a contact of his. A woman. I haven’t talked to her yet.”
“All right. Don’t do anything. I’ll be there before noon.”
“Okay.”
I toss the phone on the bed, make the trip back to the walk-in closet, pull out a different set of clothes, and change.
On my way to the airport, I leave messages for Lex and Theresa.
An hour later, I’m on a plane, flying at cruising altitude and wrestling with mixed feelings.
Life can be so strange sometimes.
* * *
JAMES
London
“I’m listening,” I say.
I crash into an armchair, a lit cigarette between my fingers.
Thomas sits across from me.
“Abby Newtown. Thirty-five. Former teacher.”
“Former?”
“She switched careers when he graduated from high school. He was her student in Portugal.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“Really? What’s she doing now?”
I take a drag on my cigarette.
“Self-employed. Freelancing. Writing. Translating services. She’s bilingual. English and Portuguese.”
“Picture of hers?”
He slides his phone to me.
A young woman smiles at the camera, a bouquet of tulips in her arms. Her hair is brown and long, her eyes the color of the river stones.
She’s pretty.
“Status?”
“Single. No family. At least not here. Her neighbors spoke highly of her. Quiet, polite, and friendly. No parties, no guests. Other than the man in question.”
“And the police didn’t get more from her?”
“My source told me they’d talked to her, but the trail had gone cold, and they couldn’t establish a connection worth pursuing. According to her, he is nothing more than a former student who pays her a visit once in a while. For the most part, her neighbors concur with her statement except for a young woman who claims something entirely different.”
I lean back in my seat, my cigarette between my lips.
“Go on,” I say, talking around it.
“Isabella May lives in a building across from the woman’s flat. She’s a former classmate and has a crush on the man. She moved to London from Portugal to live with her grandparents when Tiago moved. To be close to him, I guess. The neighborhood is the go-to place for many Portuguese expatriates, yet he’s never paid attention to her, despite her crush on him. She says her teacher’s connection to her former pupil is not entirely innocent. She also says their mutual attraction turned into something different after his graduation, and that’s the reason Abby gave up on her teaching career. According to Isabella May, Tiago’s visits have been quite frequent these past few months, yet he’s rarely shown up during the day, and the two have never been seen in public together. As it turns out, Isabella likes to read and goes to bed late at night, which makes it easier to spy on her neighbor. That’s how she’s spotted Tiago sneaking into the woman’s place several times a week, usually around three in the morning. She hasn’t seen him in over a month, but she did see a group of men paying a visit to the former teacher a couple of weeks ago.”
I toss him a questioning look.
“There was something strange about them, she admits. They came in the middle of the night. Two cars, four men. They looked menacing and didn’t make any noise. The woman opened the door for them, but the lights never went up in the house except for a small lamp in the hallway that she always has on. They left fifteen minutes later, and Isabella has never seen her since.”
“Has this Isabella girl ever talked to Tiago?”
“A few times in high school. And then at the market recently. She noticed a scar on his chest and asked him what that was all about, and he simply concealed it and didn’t answer. She says he wasn’t very friendly with her, but she wasn’t surprised. He has a reputation of being a cold asshole and a smoking hot lad–– her words, not mine.”
“Did she know about him fighting for money?”
“Yes, she’s heard the rumors. Women who like him, like her, keep up with his doings and talk about him.”
“Male friends?”
“Not that she knows of.”
“Other women?”
“A few girls tried to hook up with him in school but didn’t make any headway. Rumor has it he hooked up outside the school and preferred older women. Stuff like that.”
“All right. When did he start fighting?”
“Right after moving here. Someone hooked him up with an underground circuit, and he made a killing.”
I lift an eyebrow.
He continues.
“He could earn up to fifty grand for a bout, and many times he did. His uppercut put many fighters on the sidelines.”
“Are these fights illegal?”
“Unregulated. The organizers have claimed the bare-knuckle fighting is legal, but no licensing body regulates it.”
“Where did he fight?”
“Mostly at an old cotton mill outside town.”
I ponder.
“You said someone had hooked him up with this. What does that mean?”
“Someone with a lot of influence has been his connection to this world. Tiago is a newcomer, and he’s young and has no history of fighting. So that person must’ve seen him and introduced him to the circuit.”
“They must’ve gotten a cut.”
“Possibly.”
“Boatloads of money, I guess. At least, until our boy bailed out on them.”
“That’s a high probability too.”
“Any chance he left the country?”
“If he did, he must’ve used a fake passport.”
I take a drag and put my cigarette out, blowing the smoke out.
“Have you located his address?”
He tips his eyes to his phone.
“Yes. His place is a few streets from Abby Newtown’s residence. I checked the apartment. It’s clean. Everything is in order, and it doesn’t look like anyone has spent much time in there. I have the key if you want to look for yourself. The landlord had no problems with him.”
He pauses.
I wait for him to continue.
“For a few British pounds, he had no problem dishing out on Tiago either. But Tiago was squeaky clean at least according to his landlord. He’d paid his lease in advance and never brought people home. There are no signs of forced entry or a scuffle. Nothing. Even the bed is neatly made. The whole place looks like it was cleaned by a professional.”
“Any belongings?” I ask.
“The usual stuff. Some books, clothes, a tablet, and a laptop.”
“Anything of interest? Search history on his computer? Travel destinations? Anything like that?”
“Most of it is bare-knuckle fighting related. The first legal US championship that was organized in Wyoming last year. Underground circuits. And some porn.”
“Emails?”
“Nothing personal. Bills, the usual marketing crap, and a few emails between your mother and him. I have a copy of them here.”
“Bank accounts?”
“He only has one checking account. The balance, however, doesn’t reflect the amount of money he’s supposedly made with his boxing. There are no cash withdrawals before his disappearance.”
“That’s because he tried to get away with his money. If, in fact, he’s managed to get away. Three weeks is a long time to be gone without a trace. Who runs this underground circuit?”
“Aside from the organizers, a few shady people.”
His gaze meets my eyes as he continues.
“The fights may be above the board and legal. That doesn’t mean certain people don’t see them as an opportunity to make some extra money. I came across a couple of names. Two Armenian brothers, Aleksander, and Sevan Azarian. They own the places hosting the fights and some other businesses, restaurants, and clubs. They run their business empire with an iron hand.”
“Hmm... Any trouble with the police?”
“They’ve been investigated and charged with fraud and tax evasion. Paid a lot of money in the settlement.”
I take a long breath.
“Okay. Let me make some phone calls before heading out with you.”