Alicia nodded. He was right.

“Second,” he said, “I think it’s a safe bet that the guys who ripped you off aren’t family men stocking up for their own kids’ Christmases. And from the look of that door, they weren’t pros. I smell a quickie, spur-of-the-moment heist. I’ll bet they don’t have a fence in place to dump their loot, which means they’ll be looking for one. I know people…”

He left that hanging. What people? she wondered. People who buy stolen Christmas gifts? Was he some sort of criminal himself?

She looked at him and realized that his mild brown eyes revealed nothing… absolutely nothing.

“So… you ‘know people’… people, I assume, who might lead you to the thieves. And then what?”

“And then I will prevail upon them to return the gifts.”

“And if you can’t ‘prevail?’ What then? Call in the police?”‘

He shook his head. “No. That’s one of the conditions of my involvement: no contact with officialdom. If the police recover the gifts, fine. All’s well that ends well. If I return them, it’s a wonderful occurrence, a Christmas miracle. You don’t know who’s responsible, but God bless ‘em. You’ve never seen me, never even heard of me. As far as you know, I don’t exist.”

Alicia tensed. Was this some sort of scam? Rob the gifts, then charge a fee to “find” them. Maybe even collect a reward?

But no. Gia DiLauro would never have anything to do with something like that. Her anger this morning had been too real.

But this man, this “Just Jack”… he might have involved Gia without her knowledge.

“I see,” she said. “And what would you charge for—?”

“It’s taken care of.”

“I don’t understand. Did Gia—?”

“Don’t worry about it. All taken care of.”

“There’ll be a reward.”

She’d had calls—businesses and individuals offering to contribute to a reward fund for the arrest of the perpetrators. The total was mounting.

“Keep it. Spend it on the kids.”

Alicia relaxed. All right. So it wasn’t a scam.

“What I need is some information about the gifts—anything distinctive that’ll help me make sure I’m on the right track.”

“Well, for one thing, they were all wrapped. We only accepted new toys or clothing—all of it unwrapped—and then we wrapped them ourselves as they came in. You saw the kind of paper we used. Other than that, what can I say? It was a real hodgepodge of gifts, a beautiful, generous assortment…”

Alicia felt her throat begin to lock with rage.

And they’re all gone!

The man rose and extended his hand across her desk. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Alicia gripped his hand and held it. Should she tell him about Thomas and the will and the house, about the bomb that obliterated Leo Weinstein, that perhaps the theft of the toys was connected? No, she didn’t want to get into that with this man. And besides, the toy theft felt different.

“What are our chances?” she said. “The truth. Don’t think you have to make me feel good.”