I said, “Jeremy Bentham. So I won’t get a chance to meet him.”
“Not without a séance or a Ouija board.”
“I told Catherine to be careful.”
“Too late for that. She found out the hard way. Stubborn woman. Not good at listening. Real nice, but has her ways. At least I see where you got your hard head from. I will say one thing; she loves her children and she is real protective of her boys. And they are real protective of her.”
“Who was Jeremy Bentham after? Her or me? Both of us?”
“No idea. But all of his identification was fake. Real good forgeries.”
“How much ID did he have?”
“Your momma found six passports in his house. And about one hundred grand in cash.”
I asked, “What currency?”
“Most was American money. Some British pounds and euros.”
“No reals from Brazil or Argentine dollars?”
“We didn’t see any. What does that mean to you?”
“He wasn’t out of South America. Someone from across the pond put him there.”
“He could’ve been like your momma. He could’ve been a man with a past, some kind of a nasty past and had come to Atlanta to start over. A lot of folks go to big cities to get lost. In the South, the ATL is the best place for that. He might’ve liked the name Jeremy Bentham because of the English philosopher, or he might’ve just been a fan of the television show Lost. Hell, I asked him if he chose the initials because of James Brown. But he refused to say, got real angry and combative when he was confronted. He doubled up his fists. So the Bajan kicked him in the head three times. That changed his attitude. When we hogtied him to chat, he told us to eff the eff off. We didn’t have time for no foolish games.”
“You did the right thing. I wouldn’t have been that nice.”
“Was he part of that blackmail thing against you?”
“The guy who blackmailed me, he’s at the bottom of the ocean.”
“Well, who was this one? Where did that roach come from?”
“I never met him. He never tried to contact me. Only Catherine.”
“And now you never will meet him.”
“Was one of the passports from France?”
“Sure was. France. Germany. Russia. And one for here in the USA.”
“The other two passports?”
“Belgium and the Netherlands.”
“And she didn’t know him from France or Europe?”
“She said she didn’t. Said it was her first time meeting him when he flirted with her.”
“She was his target.”
“I guess. But your momma is real pretty. Coulda just been that he was a con and liked pretty women. Her accent gets men’s attention too, especially down here in Bubba-ville. And she has a nice figure too.”
“Any weapons in his house?”
“None that we could find. Everything else was normal.”
“Computer?”
“He didn’t have one. He didn’t even have Wi-Fi at his townhome.”
“He could get Wi-Fi at any Starbucks. He might have been someone’s eyes and ears.”
“He was seeing your momma. He was sleeping with her. She’s broke up about it, but I told her, then showed her all the evidence. We went over it all together so she could be clear. She felt like a fool behind it, I will tell you that much. And she got real angry. Real angry.”
“I’ll talk to you when I land in the USA.”
“Well, since you’re okay, and everything is handled, we’re going to leave soon.”
“We?”
She whispered, “Gideon, I know you’re probably looking at the cameras.”
“Not yet.”
“Well, the Bajan helped. Konstantin didn’t want to take no chances and sent him down here . . . up here after they got Shotgun.”
“Where you off to?”
“Have to break out my passport again and go to Wales.”
“Need backup?”
She hesitated. “MX-999 is going with me.”
“Who is MX-999?”
“The Bajan. That’s the name he uses when he works with some collection agency called RCSI. He’s got some issues with them.”
“He mentioned that to me. How bad?”
“Big-time issues, so I might end up trying to help out.”
“MX-999. What does that mean?”
“Long story on that one. That RCSI group, they are some horrible people. Anyway, the Bajan is going with me. But thanks for the offer.”
“He’s still there?”
“He’s been here, locked and loaded, watching over Catherine and the boys. We didn’t know how many Horsemen were up this way. She was staying in a motel with the boys, but decided to come home, as long as the Bajan and I stayed around and helped her look for trouble. We just got here a few hours ago. The Bajan came first, made sure it was safe.”