I thumbed a text instead and hit send before I could change my mind.When’s the next meeting?
Aslan’s response came as I stubbed my cigarette under a boot.
I can find one anytime. You need to go? I can pick you up right now.
I growled and typed,No. Too busy.
Do you want to talk?
No, I didn’t want to fucking talk. If I did, I would have called. I wrote,Tomorrow?
Sure. Everything okay?
“Fucking peachy.”
Why had I started this?
Fine, I typed,Let me know where to meet you.
I pocketed my phone as it buzzed again with an incoming text. I didn’t check it. I’d reached my limit when it came to discussing failures. On second thought,tomorrowwould only work if we found Darcy. Otherwise, I would cancel. Darcy came first.
I returned upstairs to the office, and Tallus handed me a printout the second I collapsed in the chair. “List of properties he owns. Can you check if they’re vacant or under construction? His home address is a penthouse in the Eglinton Park area, and I doubt he brings Darcy there.”
I skimmed a list of half a dozen addresses.
Tallus clicked a pen and made a note on a pad of paper. “I uncovered the guy’s name on a few real estate deals from pre-2018, before he founded his company, but they weren’t anything worth writing home about. I also discovered an old home address in a shoddy neighborhood in North York, an ex-wife from a marriage that lasted less than a year, and employment as a low-level accountant for some insurance company. He lived a middle-class life at best. His riches are new, D. It’s like this guy went from average Joe to mogul overnight.”
He glanced up, expression unreadable.
“Are you going to look those up?” he asked.
“Do you have the iPad?”
“It’s in your office.”
I located the device and researched the addresses on the list. The first two were empty plots of land, yet to be developed. Neither of them was local. One was in Southern Ontario, near Windsor, the other was in the Niagara region. The third address waved red flags, and I drew a star beside it. The four-story commercial building was located in Mississauga. Recent photographs led me to believe it was undergoing extreme renovation. A deeper search drew me to an article posted on a news website, written in December the previous year.
“Listen to this. ‘Contractors working on the development of future lakeside condominiums in the Lakeview area of Mississauga have walked out on the job today due to repeated unpaid contracts. A worker, who wished to remain nameless, shared that this was an ongoing issue with owner Lukyan Andrich and the Andrich Development Company. The worker claimed Andrich is notoriously underhanded with his contractors and often reneges or changes his mind long after deals have been struck. Andrich was not available for comment.’”
“I told you it wasn’t all positive. I read a few similar articles. Only after the threat of legal intervention does he pay his bills. Which place was that?”
I flipped the iPad around to show him the images. “Some complex in Mississauga.”
“Is it abandoned?”
“I assume so. Although this article is from December. They might have made peace and resumed work. I can’t find anything more about it.”
“What about the rest of the properties?”
“Still checking.”
The next two on the list included an immaculately reconstructed, multi-level office building in Richmond Hill and another high-end apartment complex in Brampton that was under construction. The last took me to an undeveloped plot of land in Oakville.
I couldn’t think in a straight line. Every nerve in my system twitched. The task of locating Darcy in a vast city like Toronto after he’d been taken by a guy who had the means to vanish felt impossible.
I tossed the paper on the desk and rested my elbows on my knees, scrubbing my face. This had started as an unpromising attempt to assist an elderly man to find out who had scammed his aging fatherbecause the police were overrun with similar cases and hadn’t given much of a shit.
Locating Darcy and discovering what he did for a mysterious guy named Luke was already far more than I had expected to learn. Yet, instead of keeping the police abreast, I’d chosen to protect Darcy, knowing he could land in a shitload of trouble, despite being a small fish in a huge ocean. Uncovering the guy behind the scheme was more important. Without pausing to consider the ramifications, I’d used Darcy as bait to lure the leader from hiding.
