The Fire Triangle -- Part II, Oxidizer

The Fire Triangle: Book II - Chapter 11

Nick looked at Bogo, raising his eyebrows as if to say, 'Will you ask her, or shall I?'

It was Bogo who asked, "If that's true, then why the Devil would The Mister have entrusted him to deliver that diamond shipment?"

"Because," Claudia answered, raising a brow of her own, "Like I said, he was The Mister's only son; as far as THAT guy was concerned, his kid could do no wrong. You know the type."

"I do," Nick answered, figuring he'd better get back into this conversation while the getting was good, "But what I still don't understand is, where'd the Zoo York PD ever get the idea that HE was the diamond courier?"

A deep frown creased Claudia's muzzle. When she spoke, she was tapping her fingertips together, as if keeping time to a song that only she could hear.

"I have to admit, I was as surprised by that as anyone...but when they fished Junior's body out of Gravesend Bay, he had something like a fifty thousand bucks' worth of uncut stones sewn into the lining of his trench-coat. And then we found out he'd been on his way Zoowark Airport when he made that jump; had a first class ticket to Cancoon booked, with a stopover in Ft. Leopardale. Ergo, HE had been the diamond mule; elementary my dear detectives."

"Maybe to everyone else...but not to you." Nick almost said it, but held his tongue in check; that was a question for later. And in any case, he didn't need to know who the diamond courier hadn't been; he needed to know who it HAD been.

And with that in mind, he raised finger and drew an invisible 'X' in the air. "Oh-kayyyy, scratch one Junior. Then who else might The Mister have recruited to deliver those diamonds?"

Claudia made a soft grumbling noise, "Ahhh, that's a toughie, lemme think for a minute." She sank into a short, brooding silence.

Unperturbed, Nick settled back to give her some space. He hadn't expected an immediate answer—not to this, nor to any other questions. After all, it was more than three years since ZYPD Detective Sergeant Nizhang had last crossed swords with The Company. And at the time those blood diamonds were being picked up by Ismael Rafaj, she'd been on her way to the ER with a bullet in her leg.

Finally, she looked up, "Well, it's not an entirely satisfying idea, but McCrodon might have used an outside contractor for the job. He was always doing that; hiring independents for out-of-town work. That way, if things went south, it would be that much harder to pin it on him."

"Makes sense, but why is it unsatisfactory?" Chief Bogo asked, while Nick Wilde nodded in concurrence. He himself had once served Mr. Big in a similar capacity; it all made perfect sense..

"Because of the size of that shipment," the red panda explained, "more than $200 grand worth of blood diamonds. Believe me; McCrodon would have been very reluctant to put that kind of temptation in front of someone he wasn't 100% certain he could trust." Her face screwed up into a wry expression, "by which I mean, someone over whom he had some leverage."

"Leverage," Nick repeated the word, feeling his head tilt sideways. Something was telling him that this was a key point.

It was.

"Yep," Claudia nodded, "leverage was always a huge thing with The Mister. He used to say, 'I don't never trust nobody I can't destroy with a single phone call.' It's a big reason we had so much trouble getting the goods on that dirt-bag; no one wanted to testify against him because he always knew something about our witnesses that we didn't."

Listening to the red panda's reminiscences, Nick realized instantly that she had been swept away by her memories; she was back with ZYPD again, working to take down The Company. The transformation was so complete, he would have been unsurprised to see her stand up and walk without the aid of her cane.