“I’m very interested in these artifacts, Mrs. Black. How soon can you have these items brought to New York?”

“I have a private cargo transport pilot standing by. They will arrive packaged in furniture boxes, that way there are no questions asked.” Cora had a few ideas about how illegal artifacts were transported.

“Nice. So, how much is this going to cost me?” Mr. Davis looks at Mrs. Black.

“$320.000, half now and the other half upon delivery, Mr. Davis.”

“That’s a lot of money, Mrs. Black.” Mr. Davis was watching Mrs. Black, hoping to see if she was serious.

The thing was, he couldn’t read her at all. She was good at having a poker face.

“$260,000.” Mr. Davis was willing to pay the amount she was asking.

“Now the price has gone up, Mr. Davis. $400,000 for everything. I don’t compromise on the price. So, do you want to continue dancing, or should I just go to my next buyer?” Cora hopes he doesn’t call her bluff.

Mr. Davis looks at Mrs. Black and had a feeling she meant what she said. He normally doesn’t pay the full price on items the seller was asking
“fine, we have a deal, Mrs. Black. $320,000. Just give me the account number you want the fund's transfer to.”

“No problem, Mr. Davis.” Cora hands another card that had the number to an offshore account she had set up.

The offshore account was used for jobs like this. She sometimes transfers money from the account to another one to cover the expenses of her detective business. She watches as he accepts the card from her.

Mr. Davis accepts the business card and tucks it into his pants pocket. He was still suspicious about Mrs. Black.

“I heard you have a nice collection of Native American artifacts and I would love to see it.”

“I think that can be arranged. If you’ll follow me.” Mr. Davis escorts Cora further into his home.

Cora follows behind Mr. Davis into another room. There were all sorts of artifacts in the room. She spots the artifacts she was looking for. Mr. Davis had all sorts of pieces from various tribes. The amount of stuff he has collected was going to take more than her to remove. That’s not counting the other artifacts in the room.

“You have an impressive collection of artifacts and paintings.” Cora stops to look at one painting that caught her eyes.

Something about it spoke to her. She didn’t know what it was about the painting, but she liked it very much.

“Ah! I see you have spotted one of my favorites.”

“I have to say it is beautiful and well painted. Who is the artist?”

“A young woman by the name of Darlena Running Fox. She was a remarkable Native American artist. Too bad her life ended so early and nasty.” Mr. Davis knew if she hadn’t stuck her nose into his business, she would be alive today.

A shiver runs throughout her body as the fox choker around her neck tingled. Something about the way Mr. Davis described how Mrs. Fox died, set the choker off.

“How many of her paintings do you own?”

“Just this one. All the others were snatched up by her family. However, this one is the most valuable of them.” Mr. Davis was proud that he managed to snatch it when he did.

Cora makes sure to record everything she saw. The hidden camera in her necklace records what she saw. She also looks around for hidden security systems and such. She spots a few motion detectors and a laser system. Getting in will be a chore for her, but it will be worth it.

“I hope to hear from you, Mr. Davis.” As Cora shakes his hand.

“You’ll hear from me soon, Mrs. Black.” Mr. Davis escorts Cora to the front door.

“I’ll be waiting, Mr. Davis.” Cora walks towards her rental and gets in.

As she is driving, she tries to figure out who she can call to help her with this job. She was going to need several moving trucks and extra men to take everything. Also, she’ll have to be careful because of the neighborhood she was in. She couldn’t go through the courts or the US marshals because they would want evidence of Mr. Davis buying the items on the black market or from people she was pretending to be.

As for the other job she has to do. She hopes the information she was given by Maia was correct and Rachel was arriving today. She drives back into the city and stops to have some lunch.

After stopping for some lunch and looking over some notes she had taken from talking to Katie. Cora heads towards Rachel’s and Maia’s resident to talk with Rachel. She hopes Rachel hasn’t been killed yet.

It takes her about thirty minutes of driving to arrive at the address. She parks her rental in the visitor parking space.

“I hope Rachel is home and remembers Katie and the other lady or this is going to be a short trip.” Cora locks her purse in the car and heads towards the apartment.

Maia and Rachel’s Apartment:
Rachel was happy to be home. She didn’t mind doing the job Mr. Bounty had her do. Hell, if it had been Isis agents out there, she would have enjoyed it more. She takes her Go Bag and starts reorganizing it. The dirty clothes in it, she tosses into her hamper to be washed.

She replaces them with some clean clothes, just in case she needed to leave immediately. She noticed that Maia was sitting on her bed watching her.

“How can you always be so ready to leave?” Maia watches her friend.

“I’m not always ready to leave. It’s when it comes to Isis. I’m ready to kill all of them, because of what they have done. I hate religious
extremists and how they use it to justify killing people.”

“But isn’t that, their choice? I know what they are doing is wrong, but shouldn’t the people of whatever culture is allowing it, stand up to them?” Maia figures if that happened here in the states. The people would revolt and overthrow the leaders.

“They are scared to do anything against them. They have been condition to believe what is going on is the right thing to do, even if it isn’t.” Rachel wishes it were that simple.

“So, what are your plans now? I mean after you talk to this private investigator from Utah?”

“I want to know what you and Warewolf found out and if any more Isis sympathizers are trying to kill me.” Rachel looks at Maia with concern in her eyes.

“I hope not. You’ve been the best friend and roomie I have ever had.” Maia wouldn’t know what she would have done if Rachel hadn’t helped her out.

Once Rachel was done with her Go Bag, she and Maia head back into the living room. Just as they exit from the bedroom, there is a knocking sound coming from their front door.

“I wonder who that could be?” Warewolf had been sitting in the dining room, going over the papers they found.

“Let’s find out.” Rachel walks over to the door to answer it.