1.2 | The Prince of Thieves

Chapter 4

'I see,' she said simply.

'Then one week ago,' he continued, 'A picture of the Tokyo Philharmonic appeared in the papers. One of my officer's found it. And ever since, we've just been waiting for you to land in New York. Just now, before you went to the cafe, you went to the apartment, didn't you?'

'I don't understand.'

'The apartment that you shared with Leonidas Federov, as husband and wife.'

'So you were following me ever since then?' Her spine tingled as she scolded herself internally for not paying more attention. What the hell? What a creep. 'Yes, I went up.'

'He doesn't live there anymore.' Anderson seemed to be studying her out of a pair of very empathic eyes.

'I know.'

'Then why did you go back there? Didn't he tell you?'

Her fingers found each other under the table. She swallowed, trying to keep her frustration under wraps. This policeman seemed to know more about Leon's movements than she did. Really, what did he do to warrant being tracked by a policeman?!

'I just left some things there and went to get it.'

That was the partial truth. Anderson gave her tiny handbag a glance.

'It must have been...' He peered around her, then under the table and then finally rested his gaze on the chair beside her on which nothing sat. 'Really small,' he said at last.

'Yes.'

~

'The police are being such nosy parkers,' Mickey commented offhandedly as he let himself into Leon's office with a cup of coffee in one hand. With an air of casual indifference, he settled down onto a chair and took a long draft from the cup before letting out a loud, satisfied sigh.

'Are they?' Leon muttered, not bothering to look up from his work.

'Oh, they are.' Mickey set his cup down and leaned forward with a smirk. 'Stalking and harassing innocent people, asking questions when there's no trouble... Aren't they being annoying?'

Aren't you being dramatic? His gaze went back and forth between one file and the other. Now where was that line he had been reading when he was interrupted? One of this days, he would install a mute function in Mickey's mouth.

'Just let them do their job,' he said with a sigh. 'Like how you should be doing yours.'

He let out a yawn and proceeded to examine his fingernails. He was making no effort to move, and judging by how he was making himself comfortable in that chair, he was likely to stay for a while. Leon was amazed at how he could partially listen to instructions while discarding the rest.

'Anything else?' Leon prodded, trying but failing to keep the strained annoyance out of his tone.

'I took the liberty of preparing a gift for Kai.'

'Did you?' he continued with much disinterest. 'I haven't agreed to going.'

'Yet. But after you hear this, you'll definitely want to go.'

Mickey was grinning at him with full confidence in what he had said. Did he want to be swayed like that? No. But curiosity was getting the better of him. He let out a sigh. His eyes were heavy and tired, and the beginnings of a headache was making itself felt in the base of his head. He carefully put his file aside.

'And what's this that you want to say?'

'I heard from Ilya who's friends with someone who works under the Udinov's that, ah, if you're not planning to go, then Aleks Udinov will send Val instead. Of course, you can both go, since you haven't seen in each other in – '