The Boy Who Stole from the Dead

CHAPTER 46

NADIA’S CALL SHATTERED what little inner peace Johnny had managed to find since allowing Victor Bodnar to discover the witness’s identity. There was no doubt about Victor’s motives now. He wanted the locket. That didn’t mean he knew for certain it contained a real formula. Something might have caused him to suspect this was the case. Career criminals had instincts that way. Especially thieves.

Bobby had the locket. Bobby was in prison. The locket was in prison. To get the locket, Victor had to get Bobby out of prison. Thus the offer to help the witness remember what happened the night of the murder. Just as Johnny suspected, the old man was playing him the entire time. Help those who helped him. What a load of crap. He knew it when he heard it.

And yet he still went along with it. For obvious reasons. He wanted Bobby out, too. And as long as the witness was telling the truth—which he seemed to be—Johnny had convinced himself he was within his moral boundaries. Maybe the witness had stretched the truth a bit at Victor’s request and suggested Valentine had drawn his knife first, but that’s probably what happened. Johnny was still an ethical warrior. The underdog defending the underdog.

What a pack of lies. Once a man compromised his ethics and let a thief into his life, the criminal’s most likely course of action was to burrow deeper inside. Victor Bodnar would do anything to get that locket. And if he was motivated by leaving his daughter and grandchild some wealth before he died, he was twice as determined. He seemed like a wise old man who never resorted to violence but that too was a lie. He’d killed his cousin. He’d kill again. If it was in his best interest and there was no alternative, Victor Bodnar wouldn’t hesitate to kill again.

Not two agendas. Three agendas. Bobby, the locket, and Victor Bodnar. In that order. Persuasion, protection, negotiation. These were his forte. He had to persuade Bobby to tell the truth and the DA to release him, protect the locket, and negotiate a settlement with Victor. He had no choice but to succeed at all three objectives.

He was the one Nadia trusted the most.