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“Hey, it’s dinnertiht”

Derek whistled “Compared to you, I’m a slacker”

“Hardly I slept all day yesterday I knehat kind of night it would be” Rich glanced up, gestured for Derek to have a seat “How’s Sloane?”

“Better I finally got her to relax this weekend But she’ll go stir-crazy if she’s stuck in today Sodown leads—by herself, since she refuses to have full-time security on her”

“I get the feeling she’s pretty good at taking care of herself,” Rich noted drily

“Most of the ti’s line of fire, I’ her full-time security whether she likes it or not” Derek’s tone was as unyielding as his words “Anyway, speaking of leads, I’ve got a un dealer who’s the uyen He’s Ah-priced deals He does a lot of business with Chinese gangs Apparently, it was his guys who stole those four MP5Ks from an upstate New York police departuyen, whoThey paid top dollar for the to letwith your Albanian art thieves”

“Thanks for ju on this so quickly” Rich was clearly relieved “Let ”

“I’ll track you doherever you are”

“Probably right here at al-size pad of paper, on which he’d scribbled tons of infor Kong police They confirmed that the shady art dealers our Dutch collector did business ere Chinese More specifically, they were linked to the Fong Triad”

“Interesting” Derek’s forehead creased in thought “That triad was thriving in the nineties It’s lower profile now But it’s still alive and kicking Any proof they were in possession of the Rothberg?”

“Yup That’s one of the questions I aiting for an answer on Thanks to defecting triad members who are now confidential informants for the police department, we have positive evidence that Dead or Alive was in the hands of the Fong Triad before it was sold to the Dutch collector And it gets better I was hoping for a naive us That would be the starting point we needed to fill in the holes in the provenance”

“If they gave you a naht” Derek was perched at the edge of his chair

“I was ready to do the saht a lucky break The na He’s a for Triad, as personally involved in the purchase of Dead or Alive Evidently, he irated to the US and turned his life around”

“Where in the US?” Derek demanded

“Right here in Queens,” Rich supplied “He’s working as a youth counselor in the Chinese-A And before you ask, yes, he’ll talk to us We can go over there and meet with him this afternoon”