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His eyes shift from me to his side drawer.
“I’ll tell you where your gun is after our chat.”
“OK. And then you’ll leave? My wife doesn’t know.”
“Doesn’t know what?”
“Whatever Lysander got me mixed up in. This trouble is way out of my pay grade, OK?”
“Lysander paid you to follow Anastasia Petrov. Why?”
“It wasn’t a regular gig. A handful of times per month, he would call me to track her. It was easy money for me. All I did was report if her usual behaviors changed. New patterns or hobbies. New people. New boyfriend, that sort of thing.”
“If he was basically stalking her, why hire you to do it? Why not do it himself?”
That’s what I did, as soon as I knew she was within reach. Not that anyone asked.
Briggs shrugs. “We’re not exactly buddies, OK? He found me, that’s all.”
“Did he tell you they were dating at one point?”
“No.”
“Did he tell you why he’s decided to disappear from the face of the earth?”
A shadow crosses his face. “The last time I reported to him, he said we were done. His instructions were to throw away everything I’ve got on her and to forget we ever met. Something about the problem being out of his hands.”
“What do you think that means?”
He doesn’t say anything, so I push further. “The woman you were following is being threatened.”
“Not by me!” His eyes bulge and his chest caves in.
“I know, but she’s in danger. You saw her enough to realize how harmless she is, right?” I move forward in order to loom over him. “If there’s anything you can tell me that will help her out, tell me and I’ll be on my way.”
“Nothing. I got nothing.” He shakes his head repeatedly.
I tried to play nice but it’s time to squeeze the proverbial trigger. “Your wife is a loyal woman. Do you know she was by your hospital bedside all hours of the day and night?”
“Leave her the fuck out of it,” he growls.
“How do you think she’ll feel when she finds out you’ve got a side piece? Lorna, is it? She works at The Gala Club as a server, right?” She’s actually a stripper, but that detail doesn’t matter.
“Keep them both out of this,” he hisses.
“Tell me everything, Eliot. Don’t even try to hold back. What was out of Lysander Wolfson’s hands? Think, dammit.”
“I think he was, I don’t know, outsourcing me. Like he was the one supposed to keep track of her, but it didn’t work out that way. He especially wanted to know if there were other men. There wasn’t. Anastasia Petrov was alone ninety percent of the time, when she wasn’t at work. Working, doing errands, then staying home. Beautiful girl like that should have a man.”
My anger flares, but it’s wasted on this idiot. “Lysander fires you. Why would he disappear right after? Did he ever mention a place he might escape to? Hide at? What was going down?”
He narrows his eyes like he’s trying to focus on a vague memory. “We talked about Cancun once, when I saw him checking out properties on his phone. He mentioned something about being out of the country when shit hit the fan.”
I look at my watch and know my time is running out. There’s no need to involve his innocent wife. I nod, satisfied that he isn’t holding back. There remains, however, one more thing that’s bothering me.
“By the way, how did you know I was here about Lysander before I asked?”
“Had a feeling that I was being followed after he fired me.”
