Thieves & Liars, page 2
Her name was Lark and she was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen.
I remember the night that they brought her to the home. She was skinny, so thin that it looked like a stiff breeze could carry her away. Her clothes were ill fitting but so were most of the kids who lived here. She had pale blonde hair that hung like a curtain almost to her waist. It kept blocking her face from me and I remember being annoyed that I couldn’t see her clearly.
Then she had looked up.
Green eyes so pale they almost looked clear caught mine and it was like someone had sucker punched me. My spine snapped straight as if two strings were tied to the end and had been pulled taut.
I don’t know what it was about her. Couldn’t have explained it then and I still can’t now, ten years later. It was just this feeling, this connection. I’ve traveled the world, seen millions of girls and still have never felt anything like it again.
Lark and I weren’t at the same home long. Only a couple of months really, but it was enough to have me hooked. By the time that they moved me, I was in love with her.
She was fourteen, two years younger than me, and had only recently been orphaned. Her eyes always looked a little sad and it was rare to see her smile, although I did manage on a few occasions.
She was one of those classic beauties with a heart shaped face, pale skin, and a straight nose with just a smattering of freckles across the bridge. When I was deployed overseas, I used to dream about those freckles and wonder if she still had them or if they had disappeared as she got older.
I’ve never been able to push Lark completely out of my head and I even entertained the thought of finding her but if it turned out she had died in foster care or had married someone else, well I’m not sure if I could handle that.
I had tried to teach Lark everything I knew about surviving on the streets when we were together. I had taught her how to pick pockets, lie convincingly, and some sleight of hand tricks. She had been a fast learner and was as good as I was by the time we were separated.
“You want Morris’s address?” Laurent asks, tugging me out of my memories.
“Yeah,” I say, clearing my throat and pushing away thoughts of the girl who stole my heart.
Three
Ryder
Tracking down Morris is harder than Laurent. He has an address but it’s an abandoned storefront. Makes sense that a fence wouldn’t stay in one spot for long. It would be too easy for the feds or police to come by and catch them.
I head back to my Charger, sliding behind the wheel and grabbing my phone. I bring up Otto Finch’s number, hitting dial as I look around the deserted street once more.
“Ryder,” Finch says as soon as the call connects.
“I need an address,” I tell him and I hear the steady stream of fingers on keys in the background.
Finch is a hacker, a damn good one, and the closest thing I have to backup or a partner here. I can do basic computer shit but Finch is way better. He can track down anyone. Hack their phones, banking information, even hack into security cameras around the city to track movements and I know that I’ll need him if I want to find Morris.
“Whatcha got?” He asks me after a second and I rattle off everything I know about Morris, including his previous address and that he might be fencing diamonds.
“I’m outside his previous address now but it’s empty. The whole street is.”
“Give me a second. I’ll call you back.”
He hangs up before I can say anything else and I roll my eyes as I toss my phone into the cupholder. I start my car and head toward the closest fast food restaurant, ordering a hamburger and fries and eating it in the parking lot as I wait for Finch.
I don’t have to wait long.
“What did you find?” I ask as soon as my phone rings.
“Don’t know where he’s living now but I know where he meets his clients nowadays. TOH Nightclub. He takes meetings in the VIP room. Good luck getting in,” Finch says with a chuckle.
“You doubt me, Finch?” I ask with a smirk as I head back toward my place. I’ll need to change before I hit the nightclub to try to find Morris and whoever stole my client’s diamonds.
“Never,” Finch assures me and I laugh.
“I got a name of who he’s meeting,” he says and I perk up. Having an idea of who I should be looking for is always a good thing.
“Yeah, who?”
“Name is Rhys. That’s it. I’m not even sure if it’s a first or last name. Hope that helps though, bro.”
“Thanks, Finch. Talk to you later,” I say as I speed toward my place.
The sun is just setting as I head inside to change out of my suit and into something a little more casual. Black dress pants and a black button up shirt is casual enough for me to blend in with the other club goers but dark enough for me to disappear into the shadows.
TOH is on the other side of the city and with the late-night traffic, it takes me a good forty minutes to get there. I pull in just after nine and pray that the thief hasn’t already met with Morris.
I breeze past the bodyguards and into the dark nightclub. It’s two stories but an open area. A balcony on the second floor overlooks the dancefloor and I’d bet that’s the VIP section that I need to get into. The place is packed and music blares as strobe lights pass around the room.
I hate it. I hate everything about it.
I push my way toward the bar, sticking closer to the edge of the room as I scan the perimeter and check for exits. There’s no real good place to keep an eye on VIP from down here but I have a feeling that getting up into the second floor is going to take some convincing.
I order a whiskey at the bar, leaning against the bar by the wall as I scan the crowd. No one looks out of place but it’s still early. I do my best to look up to the second floor but if Morris is already up there then he’s sitting far enough back that I can’t see him from the first floor.
I spend an hour in that corner, nursing my whiskey and scanning the area. I watch the guards at the base of the stairs, noting any weaknesses in security. A few girls head down from the second floor but I don’t see any men head up or down.
The dance floor fills with more people as it gets later and I’m just about to make my move towards the VIP area when some woman bumps into me.
She almost spills her drink all over me but I manage to right it before that can happen. I notice her pale arm, her tight black mini dress, and a pair of stilettos that have to add at least four inches to her height.
“Whoa, sorry about that!” She says with a drunk giggle.
“Not a problem,” I tell her as movement from the second floor catches my eye.
It’s Morris. I sidestep the girl without another look as I keep my eyes locked on Morris and make my way closer. It looks like he’s looking for someone and I stop near the base of the stairs, waiting to see if anyone heads up to the second floor or if he makes eye contact with anyone. I wonder if Rhys got spooked or if he already came and left.
When the bouncer turns his back to hit on some girl who has been flirting with him on and off for the last hour, I make my move and head past him and up the stairs.
I spot Morris right away and I head over in his direction. I blend in until the last second and slip into the seat next to him. He stiffens when he turns and sees me next to him and I grin wolfishly at him.
Four
Ryder
“Morris. It’s nice to meet you,” I say, leaning in closer so he can hear me over the music and crowd.
Morris is a shifty looking thin man with thinning black hair and beady black eyes. He’s sitting in the middle of a curved couch, wearing a black, custom tailored suit with shiny shoes. His smile looks untrustworthy and I wonder how he got to be such a good fence when he so obviously looks and acts like a criminal.
“Who the hell are you?” He asks as I move closer to him.
“I’ll be asking the questions.”
He glares at me, starting to shift away and that’s when I pull my Sig 226 out from the waistband of my pants and shove it into his side.
“As I was saying, I need to ask you a few questions.”
He gives a tense nod, his body ramrod straight as I press the gun more firmly against him.
“I’m looking for someone named Rhys and for any other information you might have on the thieves who stole the diamonds from Randy Boker.”
“I don’t know anything about that. Rhys was supposed to be here half an hour ago but they’re late.”
“Do you know who Rhys is? Do you have a first name? Or a last name?”
“Nah, man. She’s always just gone by Rhys.”
“She?” I ask, my mind flashing back to that girl at the bar. The girl I had seen enter the club about forty minutes ago.
“Shit,” I mumble as I leap to my feet and make my way over to the balcony railing.
I scan the dark bottom level, looking for a pale girl in a black dress and shoes. Suddenly, I’m kicking myself for not taking a closer look at her face. I check back by the bar and spot her.
She’s looking right at me, a mischievous smirk stretching her lips. Her dark black hair helping her blend in with the shadows and her bright green eyes burn into me. She raises her drink toward me in a toast and I grip the railing so tight that my knuckles turn white. She downs her drink before she picks something else up, waving a dark brown square at me. My hand reaches into my back pocket and I swear as I realize that she has my wallet.
Whoever she is, she’s good. She’s most definitely the one who robbed my client. There’s also something about her that is familiar, something in my brain that niggles at me, like an old memory trying to break through.
She turns and heads toward the door and that’s when I see it.
A C shaped scar on her back, right over her left shoulder blade.
“Lark?” I whisper.
The girl who got away had the same scar, in the same exact place. She got it in the car accident that killed both of her parents.
I push away from the balcony, racing down the stairs and shoving my way toward the door, toward where Lark just disappeared.
Memories of the quiet girl that I met all those years ago flash before my eyes as I race outside and into the parking lot. She changed her hair and I find myself annoyed that she dyed her naturally blonde locks black, or maybe she was wearing a wig. Most thieves like her have disguises. At least her clear green eyes were the same as I remembered.
She was still small too and I see that all of the skills that I taught her when we were younger stuck. If anything, she’s only gotten better. I wonder if she’s better than I am as I look left and then right for her black hair.
A black sedan speeds past and I lock eyes with Lark for a brief second before she turns out of the parking lot and disappears into traffic.
Five
Ryder
I try to take in the car make, model, and the license plate but I only get the last two numbers of the plate and it’s too dark to make out what color the sedan is.
It’s crazy, but seeing Lark again has all of my training flying right out the window. I should be running to my car, chasing after her, making calls to Finch to help me track her but it’s like I’m frozen. I just stand there, in the middle of the parking lot and stare after her.
My phone starts to ring in my pocket a second later, jerking me out of my shock, and for a brief second, I hope that it’s Lark. Part of me is dying to hear her voice again, to talk to her. I try to tell myself it’s so that I can get this diamond business sorted out and finish this job for my client but I know the truth.
Lark is the only girl I’ve ever had feelings for. She’s the one who got away, my missing half. She’s the reason I never settled down, had a girlfriend, or a family, or all of that.
I wonder how she got mixed up in all of this. I wonder if she’s been working as a thief all these years. I always thought she would go to college. She was so smart when we were younger that I had assumed that her lack of financial help wouldn’t matter. She would get scholarships or financial aid and then graduate. She was supposed to have a better life than a kid in the system could hope for.
I grab my phone, disappointment hitting me hard when I see Boker’s number flash across the screen. I hit accept and bring the phone up to my ear as I stare after where Lark drove off.
“Mr. Boker.”
“Mr. Thomas, I’m calling for an update. Have you made any progress finding my diamonds and the people who robbed me?”
No small talk with this guy.
I know that I should tell him about Lark but I just can’t. I want to talk to her first and part of me thinks that I would still lie even if she didn’t have a good reason for stealing them. I just found her. I can’t lose her again.
“I’m getting close,” I hedge as I make my way across the parking lot to my car. I parked around the side of the building, close to a fire escape door, just in case I had to make a quick getaway.
“Care to expand on that? What kind of lead? How much longer do you think it will be?” Boker asks, his voice tight with anger and annoyance.
My spine straightens as I start to lose my patience with him. I never should have taken this job. Pricks like Boker always drive me crazy and the 50K that I’ll make from this job isn’t worth dealing with him for the next few days.
“I’ve got a lead. It won’t be much longer now,” I tell him, unlocking my car and slipping behind the wheel.
“I expect daily reports, Mr. Thomas. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” he says before he hangs up without another word.
I grit my teeth, letting out a deep breath as I try to refocus on my mission. I bring up Finch’s number, waiting impatiently for the call to connect.
Six
Ryder
I’m on my phone with Finch a second later, asking him to track down a dark model sedan that just peeled out of TOH.
“Do you know how many dark model sedans are in Miami, man? I’m good but I’m still going to need a little more. Did you get the license plate number? Or maybe get a look at the driver?”
“Last two numbers of the plate are 73. Driver is a brunette, about 5’3”, pale green eyes, beautiful, C shaped scar on her left shoulder blade. She was wearing a tight black mini dress.”
There’s a beat of silence and I don’t even hear the clicking of keyboard keys in the background.
“Finch?” I ask as I start my car, idling in the parking spot until he can point me in the right direction.
“Yeah, I’m here. Just… didn’t realize you got quite so good of a look at her. She must have really been something.”
“Don’t talk about her like that. I just… I know her.”
“Well shit, man. If you know her name, I can just track her that way.”
“Her name is Larken Heath. Or it was. I don’t think she has a lot listed under her real name. She’s the one who stole the diamonds.”
“You sure know how to pick them, Ryder.”
“Shut up, Finch.”
He chuckles and I hear him typing away on his computer.
“Alright, I’m in the nightclub security footage. If I can get a good shot of her face, I can run that through some systems and try to find her that way.”
I lean my head back against the headrest and stare at the roof of my car. I wish Lark hadn’t disappeared. Did she remember me? Or was she just playing with me by tipping her drink and stealing my wallet?
“Well, your girl is good. She keeps her face hidden from all of the cameras outside and it’s too dark to see clearly inside.”
“So you can’t find her?” I ask, growing frustrated.
“Not that way. I’ll run some checks for her name, see if I can find any aliases. I’ll hack into the traffic cameras too and see if I can track her that way. I’ll call you when I’ve got something.”
“Alright, thanks Finch.”
“Anything for you, partner.”
He ends the call and I shift the Charger into drive, heading back to my house. I have a feeling that it’s going to take longer for Finch to find Lark than it did for him to find the fence. Lark was good and if she knew to hide her face from the cameras and managed to pick my wallet without me noticing then she’s got to be better at hiding her tracks than Morris was.
It takes me half an hour to make it back across town to my little house. Traffic isn’t as bad since it’s late and when I pull into my driveway, I see that most of the houses on my street are dark.
I scan the perimeter as I step out of the car, making sure that everything is in its place. Nothing is amiss and I double check that the trip wire by my front door is still intact before I unlock the door and head inside. I head to the back of the house, scanning the backyard and making sure that all of the doors and windows are still locked before I head into my room.
I strip, rinsing off in the shower quickly before I plug my phone in and lay down on top of my mattress. I know that I should try to get some sleep since I didn’t get much last night, but I can’t stop thinking about Lark.
I need to find her. I want to know what she’s been up to for the past decade. How did she get into this life? Why did she steal those diamonds?
My mind races as I think of all of the questions I have for her that I won’t get the answers to until I track her down.
Seven
Ryder
It’s been close to twenty-four hours and I still haven’t heard back from Finch. This is the longest it’s taken him to find someone and I’ve been impatiently waiting all day long. Spies are used to laying low and keeping busy while we wait for intel but for some reason, this time is harder.
I’ve spent all day pacing my place, checking, double checking, and then triple checking the perimeter of my place. I’ve cleaned my gun about twenty times, had something to eat and then paced some more.
