Page 56 of Benjamin and the Thief

Though on second thought, he could have driven her to his flat and left her there. It would have been safer, but he also didn’t want to exclude her from the investigation. After all, this was personal for her.

“Hopefully she just went to the bathroom,” Nicholas said. “So, where are the details about that public defender?”

Benjamin placed the tablet he’d picked up from Eddie’s office on his desk and snatched a piece of paper. “Here, that’s the info on the car and the dealership where she got it. Her name is Gloria Evans.”

He scribbled her name and the dealership’s address on the paper, then handed it to Nicholas.

“Anything else you can tell me about the case you think she tanked?”

Benjamin nodded. “It was the Preston burglary case. The kid, Santiago Vargas, was convicted of stealing a priceless necklace, which was never recovered.”

“Rings a bell. I might have read something about that in the papers.”

“Catalina is his sister.”

Nicholas whistled.

Suddenly the door opened without anybody knocking, and Benjamin whirled his head to it. To his relief, Catalina entered the room, Sebastian right behind her.

“Thank God, I was worried about you,” he said, looking at Catalina.

“You may thank Zane for that,” Sebastian said before addressing Nicholas. “Your father is a total stickler for rules. He insisted on Catalina getting a visitor pass. If I hadn’t taken her to the reception myself, he would have dragged her there by her hair.”

“He can be such an ass sometimes,” Nicholas said.

“Zane is your father?” Catalina asked, looking surprised.

Nicholas shrugged. “Can’t choose family.” Then he tipped his chin in Benjamin’s direction. “I’ll get right on this. I’m assuming you need this urgently.”

Benjamin nodded. “I’m under time pressure on this case. The sooner, the better.”

“Say no more.” Nicholas left the office and closed the door behind him.

“I’m sorry about Zane. Did you leave the office and run into him?” he asked, looking at Catalina.

“No, he came in, looking for you.” She cleared her throat. “He was very… uhm…”

“Rude?” Benjamin finished her sentence.

“He was harassing her with his usual manners,” Sebastian interrupted. “Or lack thereof.”

Benjamin put his hand on Catalina’s forearm and squeezed it. “I’m sorry, baby. I’ll have a word with him later.”

“Don’t,” she replied. “I don’t want you to argue with him because of me.”

He hesitated. But she was right. Besides, he had no time to argue with Zane. He had more important things to do.

“Alright,” he finally said. “Sebastian, thanks for taking care of Catalina. I guess I should have gotten her a visitor pass when we entered the building. My fault.”

“So, where’s the video you want me to analyze?” Sebastian asked.

Benjamin grabbed the tablet and navigated to the video he’d downloaded from the link Anita had emailed him. “This is it.”

Sebastian tapped on the screen, and the video played. When the video finished, he looked up.

“It’s pretty good. It would help if I had something to compare it to,” Sebastian mused.

“What do you mean by compare?”