Bennett scoffed. “Don’t ask me dumb questions.”
“Does he have any other kids?” I asked.
“No,” Bennett replied. “He has a young niece and nephew that come around often. He’s really close with his dead sister’s widow.”
“Good,” I replied. “What about a partner or anyone he works closely with?”
Bennett shook his head. “I haven’t been able to find anything so far. Mom’s got a contact at the PD, but he got close to getting busted a couple months back and has kept at a far distance from this brand new investigation. We’re working on someone new right now, but we gotta play it safe thanks to the other guy’s royal fuck up.”
The car went silent after that. We all watched Detective Alcina enjoy his evening with his family, helping Rayna with her homework and having a spirited discussion with his wife that seemed like an argument at first but ended in them laughing. They seemed close, which was both good and bad. It meant that Detective Alcina’s family couldn’t be convinced to turn against him, but it also meant that they were one of his bigger weaknesses.
I, however, was looking for different signs.
Others in the life, people like Bennett, Anthony, or all of the Binachis, were extortionists. They ruled through fear and made otherschoosecertain things based on not wanting to see their loved ones meet an untimely demise at the gun of someone they made a deal with that they shouldn’t have. One of the things that Marco Varasso was best at, I’d learned, was using this tactic to keep cops at bay, all until he ran off and fell in love with a cop’s sister.
I, however, was a con artist.
Though I was slightly taller than the average woman, I was still lithe and didn’t pose much of a physical threat to anyone. I could get ruthless when I needed to, but when it came to trying to strong-arm someone into doing what I wanted them to do, it typically didn’t go over well. After Illiana introduced herself to me, she took me under her wing and started helping me learn the tricks of the trade when it came to conning, and I quickly saw the benefit of being able to trick someone without so much as a second thought. I’d gotten nearly all of the Varassos, and if Willow hadn’t been so staunchly devoted to not letting outsiders in, it would have worked.
Someone like Bennett had to look for weaknesses to exploit, like Detective Alcina’s wife, daughter, niece, and nephew, things he cared about that he might be willing to bend in order to protect. People like me looked for something different. We look for openings, cracks in a person’s story that we can fit into. Ways to introduce ourselves into someone’s life that are believable and easy to lie about. Just about everyone goes to the grocery store, so when yourandomlyrecognize someone from the grocery store, they’re inclined to believe you because they’ve been to the grocery store recently and don’t often pay attention to anything other than themselves.
Cops were trickier, though, especially detectives. They knew better than to offer up information willy-nilly, and they frequently fact-checked anything they were told, especially by a random stranger. It made conning them much more difficult. I’d learned from Illiana that cops were short-tempered, so using a persona in a field in which they lacked patience was key. That’s what I was looking for. What annoyed Detective Alcina enough that he’d rattle off the information I was after as quickly and carelessly as possible just to get me on my way?
Then it came.
Detective Alcina and his wife were embroiled in a deep conversation. They were both angry, though they didn’t seem angry at one another, rather both irritated by a separate event. Finally, Detective Alcina threw his hands in the air and walked out the front door of the house. The floodlight at the front of his house flashed on, and he walked down the front sidewalk, following the light’s beam, until its reach died out about halfway into the street.
“What the hell is he doing?” Bennett asked.
I smiled. “Giving me my opening.”
Both Bennett and Cherri looked back at me, confused, but I didn’t explain, only continued to watch. We could hear the roar of Detective Alcina’s voice from where we were parked, even if we couldn’t make out what he was saying. He was waving his hands and pointing at the house behind him before finally being beckoned back inside by his wife, who closed the door behind him.
“Too easy,” I hummed with a little arrogance in my voice. I grabbed the door handle and prepared to climb out of the car when Bennett grabbed my arm and held me in place. “What?” I asked.
“Car,” Cherri answered, peering into the side-view mirror.
Slinking back into place, I waited as a squad car pulled up and parked directly in front of Detective Alcina’s house. A man climbed out, bronzed skin, younger, with short black hair and glasses. He had the typical cop trench coat and badge hanging from his belt, and he strode up to the house with the kind of arrogance I knew would be easy to make use of. He knocked on the door, and it opened. Detective Alcina shook his hand before letting him in. He hugged Alcina’s wife, and I grinned.
“A partner,” I said. “Lucky us.”
Again, I started to climb out of the car, but Bennett pulled me back again. “You can’t go up there with two detectives.”
It was me who was arrogant then. “Have a little more faith in your big sister, Benny.” I nodded my head up toward the car lights. “Turn those off.”
Bennett pulled his hand away and turned the overhead car lights off as I opened the door and climbed out. Instead of shutting the door, which I suspected might make the cops look outside, I cracked the door. Otherwise, the lights would have come on, but forcing them off kept the vehicle both silent and hidden. I made my way down the street and up to Detective Alcina’s door. I knocked, a little forcefully as if I was there out of frustration.
The door opened, and Detective Alcina appeared on the other side. I smiled at him. “Hello. I’m looking for Tessa Alcina.”
“Who’s asking?” Detective Alcina replied. Tessa peeked around his shoulder and stepped a little closer.
“My name is Marjorie. You may not remember me, but I’m one of the people you met in that long string of people you were introduced to when you first joined our Homeowners Association.” I furrowed my brow. “Unfortunately, I’m here about the floodlight.”
Detective Alcina scoffed. “God fucking dammit,” he growled over his shoulder at Tessa. “You deal with this shit. I can’t do it.”
“Watch your language, Cado,” Tessa huffed as she walked around him and stuck a hand out toward me. “Sorry about that. Hi.”
“Hi. Uh, can I come in? You know…” I nodded backward in the direction of the house I’d seen Detective Alcina angrily pointing at earlier.
