"I'm not sure how I feel about young guys fantasizing about me, but I get what you're saying." Andrew frowned. "I think."
I smiled.
Andrew smiled back as the tension faded from his shoulders. "I guess we all add our little piece to the puzzle, huh?"
"We do, and right now, my piece of the puzzle is tracking down anything I can find on Officer Brody." I turned back to my computer to see if anything had come up on the searches I'd started on the man. "There's no way he's squeaky clean."
My smile broadened when several boxes of information began to pop up. They were slow at first, but gradually picked up speed until they were popping up faster than I could keep track of.
"Damn." Andrew whistled. "That's a lot of information."
"This guy is so going down." I started with the first box and went through the information my search programs had discovered. It was a lot. I cataloged everything and sent it to my secured cloud. I was pretty sure I was going to need it when this guy went to prison.
"I have a name," I told the room in general. "Robert Atkins, and he does live in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood." I was pretty sure he could afford to buy the entire upper-class neighborhood, and maybe a good portion of the city. "This guy is seriously loaded."
Which explained a lot to me. Spoiled rich kid came instantly to mind. From the information on the man that was starting to filter through, I was pretty sure Atkins was bored so he was making other people's lives hell to get a thrill. He was an ass who thought he could have anything he wanted.
Unfortunetly, he seemed to want me.
I sucked in a painful breath when a series of pictures all featuring Robert Atkins came up in one of my little search boxes. I suddenly had a very good idea why Atkins had been after me so much, and it made my skin crawl.
"Andrew?"
"Yeah?"
"I think this guy is trying to capture me because he wants to add me to his collection." And it was quite the collection. Not only did he have rare animals, he had houses, cars, artwork, jewelry and gems, pretty much anything the common man couldn't afford to look at let alone own.
"What collection?" Andrew asked. "What are you— Oh, my god!"
Right?
"Well, on the upside, none of those animals are dead." Andrew squinted a little as he leaned in closer to the screen. "Are they all wearing tracking collars?"
"It's some sort of collar." One I was positive would never be placed around my neck. "It looks like these are all exotic animals, some of them endangered. I'd wonder how he got permits to have them here in the States, but I'm pretty sure he paid someone off at some point. Like I'd said, the guy is seriously loaded."
"See if he has any connection to Maxwell Crammer."
My eyebrows lifted. "Your old agent? Why would you want to know if Atkins was connected to him?"
"Because, from what you've found, Atkins like to collect pretty things, and Max dealt in supplying pretty things. I'm just curious if there's a connection."
"Okay." That was a good enough explanation for me. I didn't think I'd find a connection, but weirder things had happened, at least in my life. I started tapping away, looking for any possible link between the two men.
When I found something, I sat back in my chair and stared at the screen. "Well, shit."
"You found something, didn't you?"
"Atkins paid for Max's attorney."
"Really?" Andrew sounded surprised.
"Wilson and Finch, attorneys at law, specializing in acquisitions, corporate and criminal law, and it looks like their main client is one Robert Atkins. They have offices on the east coast, the west coast, and oddly enough, Montana. There's also a satellite office in Dubai."
"Dubai?"
"It's the largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates and the capital of the Emirate is Dubai." I pointed to the screen where I had read that bit of information. "Says it right there."
"No, I know where Dubai is. I just don't understand why they would have a satellite office there."
