Page 82 of My Crazy Killers
“Are there a lot of shipments mentioned in the phone calls?”
“Lots,” Elias answers, also staring down at the notepad.
“So one of those is probably the one we need, right?”
Both Elias and I shake our heads as he answers for us. “They never seem to be about Black Heat. They mention other types of guns.”
“So what do they say about Black Heat if it's not about shipping?” Dex asks.
“It’s about the production of it mostly,” I tell him. “They’ve only mentioned it a couple of times.”
Beside‘Shipments’Dex writes‘Black Heat’. “Okay, that’s easy to write down if it’s only a couple of instances. When’s the first time you remember it being mentioned?”
“The first phone call we heard where they mentioned it was about four days ago,” Elias tells him, but I shake my head.
“But that’s not the first time I’ve heard that phrase.” My mind starts to search for an answer, as if it’s right in front of me, just out of reach of my grasp.
“I heardchyornyy uzhogmentioned when we were atIvan’s. But I thought they were talking about me being Blackburn’s sister at the time. Most of their words were garbled.”
Dex writes‘In person at Ivan’s house’under Black Heat on the notepad. “Did you hear it anywhere else? Or maybe you read it somewhere?” he asks me.
“Read it…” I mutter, so close to remembering.
“That’s okay,” Dex says, rubbing my back as he tries to comfort me. “It’s not like we expect Ivan to have written down the exact date he’s shipping them. Maybe he doesn’t even know yet.”
An image of a shipment manifest flashes in my mind, and I reach out and grab Dex’s wrist as I try to piece it together. “Wait. Say that again.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know yet?”
“No, before that,” I say, excitement filling me as I narrow in on the answer. I turn to him as he tries to remember what he said.
“Uh, I said we can’t expect Ivan to have written down the exact date he’s shipping them.”
“That’s it!” I exclaim, squeezing his arm with both hands as my eyes widen with excitement.
I whip around to face Elias. “Did you ever get a photo of the letter I found in Robert’s desk? The one that said he was selling me?”
He frowns, his eyes bouncing between mine like he’s trying to figure out where I’m going with this. “Well, I got an image of it through the surveillance camera. And it was good enough for me to read your name.”
“But there was more,” I tell him. “I think it mentioned Black Heat, but that name was in Russian, and thehandwriting made it look like Blackburn. I need to see it again. Do you have an image of it?”
“I think so,” he says, grabbing the laptop and quickly clicking around. “Give me a minute to find it.”
I tap my fingers on my thighs as I watch him move through his files, opening up different images until he finally pulls up an image taken in Robert’s office. I’m standing there, my back to the camera as I kneel on the floor, clutching a piece of paper tightly.
“Got it,” he says as he starts to zoom in.
At first, it’s blurry, but then the program does its thing, clearing it up until we’re left staring at the letter that changed my life. Pete, Jagger, and Sly move around behind the couch so they can look over our shoulders as we read it silently.
05/28 — $350,000 -transferred
06/10 — 1,000 AK47 -delivered
07/12 — $400,000 -transferred
08/02 — 1,500 AK47 -delivered
08/08 — Wren Rivers - TBT
