Dead on Her Feet (An Antonia Blakeley Tango Mystery Book 1) by Lisa Fernow Page A

Sanchez?”
    “How’s that?”
    “Jaury is his mother’s maiden name. His legal name is Eduardo Sanchez Jaury for passports and credit cards, but in social situations, and in the phone book, he would be known as Eduardo Sanchez. A venerable family.”
    Hell. Morrow tossed back the dregs of his third coffee. He’d been out until two in the morning and the caffeine wasn’t helping. “Know anything about him?”
    “Very little. Except what one hears.” Ruiz went silent and for a few seconds Morrow thought the line had gone dead. “The Sanchez family once owned cattle ranches and vineyards in Mendoza. When Perón came to power he instituted reforms that ruined many of the old families completely.” The Argentine coughed. Ruiz was a heavy smoker. “We’re all banging pots in the streets half the time so that part of the story is perhaps not so interesting. The Sanchez family would undoubtedly have disposed of some assets over the years.”
    And Rothenberg and Guest were antiques dealers. Morrow briefly outlined the case to Ruiz, including the details that Rothenberg had wired money to Argentina and called Eduardo Sanchez Jaury and several antiques dealers the day he died.
    Ruiz said, “You believe those two facts are connected?”
    “Don’t know. This isn’t public, but we just got word two point eight million of Rothenberg’s money went to the B’nai B’rith of Argentina.”
    Ruiz grunted. “The Jewish community service organization? They must have been very grateful.”
    “But not helpful. They had no idea why Rothenberg did it.”
    “And the three antiques stores you say he called the night he died – any connection there?”
    Morrow stifled a yawn. “They remember talking to him all right, but they all say he was just checking on the status of his shipments.”
    “All? Using those exact words?”
    Ruiz was right, of course. It was too neat. Guest had had plenty of time to square the dealers if he’d needed to.
    Guest’s company did a multi-million dollar business in Europe, Japan, and Latin America, much of which was conducted in cash and dutifully reported every year to the IRS, making the IRS very happy. If Guest was up to any funny business it probably wasn’t tax evasion.
    “Hell,” Morrow said, kicking back in his chair. “Why did Rothenberg want to atone to the tune of nearly three million dollars?”
    “At least you know he’s dead. In Argentina one doesn’t always have that luxury.”
    “Can you find Sanchez? Find out what connection he had to Rothenberg and Guest and what Rothenberg said to Sanchez that day. And anything you can get on the antiques shops.”
    “I will try.”
    “And if you could get me a check on Sanchez’ criminal background, if any.”
    “It can be dangerous to seek out such facts, if in fact they exist. The Dirty War may have ended but it has left us paranoid.”
    “Even today?”
    “All it takes is a new president to hand out a pardon.”
    Morrow waited.
    “Some of the government files have been opened,” Ruiz said, cautiously. “Perhaps some truths can now be held up to the light. But you have to know what you are doing.”
    Morrow tried to think what he could say that would convince Ruiz to investigate Sanchez. “You told me once everyone has a right to justice.”
    “That’s true. But not everyone receives it.”
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER 9
    Sacada
    A displacement
    IN THE COUPLE OF WEEKS following Trasnochando, Antonia saw little of Christian. He’d gone to ground in his apartment and reunited with his computer, most likely spending all his free time on line, tweeting, chatting, blogging, role-playing, doing God knows what. But her plan to expose him to the real tango through Eduardo had borne fruit because right after the fall school session started Christian called her up and asked her to help him buy a pair of dance shoes. That led to Antonia giving him a quick series of private lessons over Labor Day weekend. Today was his first actual