Free Rogue Angel 51: The Pretender's Gambit by Alex Archer

on him.”
    “He told me he didn’t kill Benyovszky.”
    “How did you have time for a discussion in the middle of everything that was going on?”
    “He brought it up. He asked me if I knew who killed Benyovszky. Calapez wants the elephant.”
    “Did he say why?”
    “No.”
    “If the guy’s going to shoot at you—and he did—” Bart pointed to his chest “—it’s a safe bet he’s going to lie to you, too.”
    “I don’t think he killed him.”
    Bart sighed, but carefully. “Neither do I. If Calapez had killed Benyovszky and taken the elephant—which this all seems to focus on, he would have disappeared. We took his shoes when we brought him in because we noticed dried blood on them.”
    Annja glanced down at Calapez’s sock-covered feet.
    “The lab has the shoes now, but there were traces of blood in the tread, and I’m betting that blood at one time pumped through Maurice Benyovszky.”
    “No bet.”
    “The lab will take a while getting the results back to us, though. So for right now, I can’t put Calapez in Benyovszky’s apartment. Which means all I have him on is a weapons charge and intent to murder at the diner.”
    “Isn’t that enough?”
    “I hope so. Depends on the judge and how much money Calapez can get his hands on. If this guy makes bail, he could be in the wind and we might never see him again.”
    “Even after him blasting away inside the diner?”
    “Yeah. Until we can prove he killed somebody, we can’t leverage enough to guarantee he’ll be held without bail. If we could prove he was a threat to national security, we could lock him down tight.”
    “But Calapez could walk away from this.”
    “He could.” Bart grimaced.
    On one hand, Annja couldn’t believe Calapez could be released, but on the other she knew that things often happened just as Bart described. When he was feeling particularly irritated at his job, he sometimes stated that the justice system protected criminals more than it protected citizens. Of course, that took a really bad day for him to bring that up.
    Annja thought about that for a moment. “Can you connect Calapez or the other man who was arrested to Fernando Sequeira?”
    “No.” Bart grimaced. “But I think the three of them would fit well together. Sequeira isn’t a squeaky-clean television and radio mogul in Lisbon. I did a background check on him. When it comes to television and radio programming, Sequeira is something of a golden boy. However, he’s got a bad habit of stealing artifacts from other countries, making illegal acquisitions. According to Interpol, Sequeira has hired people to get things for him off the books. They couldn’t make a case stick against him because he took care of his hired help.” Bart paused for a sip of the coffee he’d brought into the room with him. “But he’s never been indicted for murder.”
    “So why do these guys fit together?”
    “Sequeira’s name came up in the bidding on Benyovszky’s site. Calapez is in town asking about the elephant. Sequeira likes getting things. Calapez likes getting money for getting things for people, and he’s been suspected of retrieving artifacts for Sequeira before. The math is easy.”
    “If Sequeira has a lot of money—”
    “He does.”
    “—then why didn’t he just outbid Charles Prosch and acquire the elephant without anyone getting hurt?”
    “I’ll be asking him that, if the DA’s office ever gets through Sequeira’s lawyers so I can get a face-to-face with him. The man’s put up shields that are keeping our enquiries at bay.”
    “He must be hiding something.” Annja knew Bart had to be thinking along the same lines.
    “Maybe.” Bart shrugged and winced. “Sequeira’s also the kind of rich that likes to have privacy and can afford it. He’s got a history of avoiding publicity except when he wants to shine the spotlight on himself. Could be he just doesn’t want to deal with us.”
    Annja looked at the man in the interview room,