Chapter 12
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“Ricky just wants to read,” Naomi explained, “so I’ll let him find his own pace to deal with this right now.
” She walked to the police artist and thanked him profusely.
Naomi had to pass by their knocked-out prisoner, stepping over him as if he were just a rolled-up carpet that was in her way and needed to be carted off.
She viewed the police artist’s sketch again. “It’s rough to actually see it,” she said once more, “but I appreciate everything you’ve gone through to make this happen, and I’m so sorry for the welcome you received here.”
“You know that’s not your fault, right?” Peter asked, staring at her. “These criminals will be like this, and it’s not your responsibility. I’m sorry for everything that happened to you too. We’ll get them. That’s the bottom line.”
“Yeah, I hope you do.”
And, with that, Peter collected his tools and left.
Oakley frowned at Trent. “We don’t usually get police artists who make promises like that.”
Trent sighed. “I think, with everything that’s happened, people are on board with making Naomi and little Ricky’s world better, and they’re promising all kinds of stuff.” He shook his head. “I have to admit, I’m kind of under the same spell.”
“You look like it,” Oakley agreed, with a nod, studying her with almost a note of glee in his gaze.
She walked over and joined the conversation. “I don’t quite understand what that means, but there seems to be a certain underlying emotion going on here.”
Oakley added, “I’m just surprised at how quickly Ricky has become attached to Trent.”
“I think we all have,” she admitted a bit hesitantly. “He’s been a lifesaver, and we’re going to miss—Wait. Is that why you’re here? To pick him up and to take him with you?” she asked.
“Nope, not at all. I’m just here to confirm that he doesn’t need any further support from me,” he shared, a big grin on his face. When another knock came on the door, Oakley stated, “That’ll be the local PD, coming to pick up your lovely little gift for them.”
Trent grumbled, “You know they won’t think it’s a lovely gift.”
“Well, considering he broke in here to Ricky’s apartment,” Oakley pointed out, “I don’t think that’s really an issue.”
As the local police woke up the prisoner, Naomi watched as they secured and collected the gunman, who gave death stares to Trent and Oakley all the while. She faced Trent and said, “If you’re leaving, make sure you say goodbye to Ricky.”
He smiled at her and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “I’m not going anywhere right now, particularly after this.”
“Do you think our gunman has a partner?” she asked, her gaze going from Trent to Oakley and back.
Trent snorted. “I’m sure he does, but I don’t know whether the partner has anything to do with this mess or not. We’ll assume that he came here and acted alone, but I can’t be sure. Oakley will do a search outside, and he’ll stay nearby until we know more.”
Oakley told her, “This guy will be interrogated before he gets his wrist set.” He gave her a big smile. “We’ll see if he has anything to say. However, for a moment, I’ll take Trent downstairs for a minute. We’ll ensure this guy is secured in the police car so he actually makes it to jail.”
“Okay, yeah,” she agreed. “That’s a great idea.” She watched as they all left, and then she closed her eyes, sank down onto the couch, and whispered, “Dear God.”
*
On the way down, Trent looked over at Oakley and muttered, “You don’t need to say it.”
“Oh, I’m not saying nothing,” Oakley quipped, his lips twitching. “I mean, it’s killing me. It really is killing me not to, but, hey, I’m here for you, man.” He let loose a hard chuckle and stood there, rocking with laughter. “You don’t want me to say anything, that’s fine.”
“Yeah, well, then I’m telling you that you’ll probably be next.”
Oakley started to laugh again, all the while shaking his head. “Yeah? … Not. No way I am making it four for four.”
Trent clarified, “I’m not even saying it’s three for three right now because that’s just a little hard to believe.”
“Maybe,” Oakley acknowledged, “but I’m telling you that an awful lot of love is in that apartment and an awful lot of attraction. The place practically crackles with it, and that little boy? Wow.”
“Yeah, that’s actually one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you down here,” Trent began, checking out everything around the place.
As they waited until the prisoner was properly shackled and loaded up, Trent turned to his buddy.
“Something really suspicious is going on with that family lawyer. Bugatti looked prepared and all too pampered for my taste, but way too much is going on under the belly. I need information on him but not the usual stuff.”
Oakley turned serious. “What do we know so far?”
“His father’s got Alzheimer’s,” he relayed.
“And Bugatti Sr. brought Naomi on board? Legally?”
“Yeah, he handled all the original paperwork. Then the son inherited his clients once the disease took over and Senior was no longer able to handle the work. That’s what Junior told me anyway.”
“And you don’t believe that?”
“No, I do believe it. I’m just not sure what any of it means at this point,” he added, trying hard not to relay much because he wanted a fresh perspective, and Oakley could bring him that.
“But he’s consistently not willing to cut loose much of the money for Ricky as Naomi requests.
Little bits and pieces, you know, for school and for the dentist. But when they were kidnapped, she lost everything she had taken with her, and so did the little boy.
They needed clothes, phones, and stuffed animals, things like that.
Bugatti snapped, saying she should have bought insurance for the trip, which was supposed to be with the little boy’s family, so that doesn’t even make sense.
Anyway, I don’t know what’s at the bottom of it all, but some of it’s just not adding up. ”
“Lawyers are notoriously tight-fisted anyway.”
“Yeah, they sure are, and this one’s just … Let me put it this way. He’s protective of the money as if it were his, and I don’t really know why he would feel that way. So it’s definitely something we should take a closer look at.”
With that, he checked out where Oakley would be staying and contacted Mason on his way back up to the apartment.
Mason was more than a little shocked, but Trent also reiterated his concerns about the family lawyer.
He also noted how their initial intel that the parents were involved in the government somehow turned out to not be the case either.
“I’ll do a deeper dive into the lawyer,” Mason replied.
“They have a lot of power, but sometimes they take on a little bit too much. Maybe he’s been left to handle an awful lot of this himself, or maybe he gets a stipend for every transaction, I don’t know, but leave it with me.
We’ll take a closer look at it and share that with Oakley. ”
And that’s all Trent could do about it.
When he walked back into the apartment, Ricky bolted from the couch toward Trent. He held out his arms and just hugged the little boy. “I told you that I wasn’t going anywhere.”
Ricky didn’t say anything, just squeezed him a whole lot harder.
Trent picked him up, walked over to the couch again, and sat down with him in his arms. He looked over at Naomi, saw the worried expression on her face, and he sighed. “You know what would really be a good idea right now?”
“What’s that?” she asked, frowning at him in confusion.
He opened up his other arm and replied, “A group hug.” She snorted, but she came forward eagerly, and he wrapped her up and pulled her in, so the three of them were cuddled up close.
Ricky wrapped his arm around her too and whispered, “Now it’s perfect.”