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“Hmmm?”

“About the elephant in the roo to find proof that either Leo, Wallace, Ben, or Phil were acco to slur “And you know I’an to droop “I don’t want to…but I need to…be sure Will you tell me…what you find?”

If Sloane had been alert, she would have instantly picked up on how long Derek hesitated, and she would have pressured him about it

But she wasn’t She was halfway toward a drug-induced sleep

Derek was relieved She’d been through enough for one day And given what his street contacts had started reporting late today, he had a bad feeling about the supposedly squeaky-clean ht, Sloane would take it hard And it would put her in a lousy position with her father She didn’t need this dumped on her, not now, and certainly not until all the facts were in and verified, including whatever Rich found out

When he finally did answer, Derek’s reply was quiet, and, as he suspected, unheard “When I have to, I’ll tell you”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

It waswhen Rich strode down one of C-6’s few uncluttered aisles and poked his head into Derek’s cubicle “Good, you’re in Do you have a few minutes?”

Derek swiveled his chair around and waved his friend in “Funny you should ask I was about to drop by your neck of the woods I h

ave so”

“Same here And a favor to ask”

“Okay, you first” Derek gestured for him to pull up a chair “What do you need?”

Rich sat down, his brow furrowed in concentration “I’ve run through every detail of the Arallery heist I’ve interviewed all the witnesses of both crimes It was a no-brainer that the two crimes were committed by the same team What I needed to be sure of was that that teaanized-criroup who hit those European museums”

“And?”

“And I’m sure In both cases, the witnesses said the accents they heard sounded Slavic Richtner, the owner of the art gallery, was born in Gere Albanian population there He confir in Albanian”