The crystal pelican, p.18
The Crystal Pelican, page 18
Two other officers walked out with Julie Sanders, her hands cuffed behind her back. She gave me a look, her eyes narrowed. “Did you have anything to do with this?”
I didn’t know what to say to her.
Chris turned to me, squinting his eyes. He folded his thick arms at his chest. “Are you going to tell me what she meant by that?”
I shrugged and shook my head. “I have no idea.”
Alex said, “Can you tell us what happened?”
Chris slowly started to nod. “She’d been stealing jewels from members...replaced whatever she took with fakes.”
Alex said, “Is it okay if we go inside...have a look around?”
He paused a moment. “Why don’t you just tell me the truth? You weren’t really just driving by, were you...”
Alex gave him a slight smile. “We’ll only be a few minutes.”
He looked around and took a deep breath. “Make it fast. And don’t touch anything.”
We walked through the open door. A couple of officers stood around talking, but didn’t seem to be doing much else. Another officer in plain clothes with a badge on his belt watched us as we walked in. A woman who appeared to be in charge told two younger officers what to do as they carried cardboard boxes out the front door.
I looked for the wooden crate but didn’t see anything that even resembled what Carla and Dominic had dropped off.
Alex walked ahead of me and slipped through a doorway. She said, “Henry...in here.”
Alex was in a small room reaching under a long table. She pulled on a blanket and revealed the wooden crate.
“Is that it?” I said.
She looked back at me over her shoulder and lifted the wooden top off the crate. She reached her hand inside and pulled out a black velvet bag. It was tied tight with a gold string.
She handed it to me and I untied the string. I looked inside. “Are these diamonds?” I reached inside the bag and showed her what I’d pulled from the bag.
Alex reached inside the crate and pulled out another velvet bag.
I looked behind me at the door and made sure nobody was coming in the room. “Should I close the door?”
She shook her head. “That’ll attract attention.” She struggled to slide the crate out from under the table, just enough to get her head over the top. She looked inside. “There must be twenty more bags like this.”
“How do we know if they’re real?” I said.
Alex didn’t answer but grabbed the bags from my hands and stuck them back in the crate. “Let’s cover this up before someone walks in.”
“They’re cleaning this place out. They’re going to take them,” I said. “We should keep a bag. I don’t mean we keep the diamonds...but see if—”
One of the officers stuck his head in the small room. He looked back and forth at me and Alex. “Who the hell are you? What are you two doing in here?” His hand was close to his holster.
“I’m Henry Walsh. This is my associate, Alex Jepson. We’re with Walsh Investigations.”
The officer took a step closer, his eyes moving down toward the crate under the table. Alex had already slipped the blanket over it.
“I don’t give two shits about who you’re with. I asked you what you’re doing. This here is a crime scene, under investigation by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.”
I opened my mouth to speak as officer Carson stepped in behind the young officer. “Everything okay?”
“I caught these two snooping around. No idea how they even got in here. I think we ought to—”
“They’re okay, officer. They have permission to be in here.” Chris was a big man who towered over the shorter, younger officer. “Why don’t you go help officer Knox move the rest of those boxes out to the truck?”
“Yes, sir,” he said. The officer turned and left the room without saying another word.
Chris was quiet for a moment, his eyes down toward the table. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
Alex shook her head. “We were just talking...came in here so we could discuss something in private.”
Chris gave an unconvincing nod. “Well, we’re done here. Recovered what was reported stolen.” He looked down at the blanket covering the crate. “Please keep yourselves out of trouble.”He turned to leave the room and stopped just outside the doorway. “Come on, we gotta lock up.”
Alex and I gave each other a look then followed him out of the building.
Outside, I said, “Chris.”
He stopped in the driveway and looked back at me.
“What was Julie Sanders involved in? Do you know what it was she was stealing?”
Chris looked over at the boxes being loaded into the truck. “Rare gems...worth quite a bit of money.”
“You know the name?”
“The name?”
“Who she stole from?”
He shook his head. “No. We received an anonymous call.”
Chapter 37
IT WAS LATE INTO THE night when Alex and I went back to the Jacksonville Gem and Mineral Society. We parked up on the hill, as we did earlier.
Alex leaned on the hood of her Jeep with binoculars up against her face. “How are we supposed to get in?”
“Assuming there’s an alarm, that’s a good question,” I said. I reached under my seat and pulled out a flashlight. “Or we break a window and get what we need before the cops show up.”
Alex removed the binoculars from her face. “You really think this is a good idea?”
“Probably not. But I need to see if there’s anything we missed, buried in that crate.” I stepped from the Jeep and started down the hill.
Alex followed and we both stopped when we noticed headlights reflecting off the building. We crouched down behind the row of shrubs.
A black car—the Lincoln Town Car—pulled up in front of the building. Carla stepped out of the driver’s side and closed the door behind her. She looked around and I swear her eyes passed right over me and Alex.
The back door opened and Annie—the old lady who’d only a few hours earlier been taken away in an EMS vehicle—stepped from the back of the car. She handed Carla a flashlight and Carla walked away, shining the light toward an area behind the building.
She walked to a shed tucked under some live oaks.
Annie walked up to the front door, walked inside the building, and closed the door behind her. A light went on inside.
Carla was at the shed with the flashlight and opened the doors.
A white van drove down the driveway and stopped behind the Lincoln. The driver’s door opened and Jayray stepped out. He walked around the back, pulled open the doors and reached inside. He pulled out a woman who appeared with a black hood over her head.
In a whisper, Alex said, “Who is it?”
“I don’t know. It’s too dark.”
She reached behind her back and handed me her Glock. “Where’s the 9mm?”
“In the Jeep,” I said.
“Be right back,” she said as she stayed low and made her way up the hill to the Jeep, came back and crouched down beside me. She handed me the 9mm.
It was hard to see, but I could tell the woman Jayray pulled from the van had her hands tied behind her back. He held one of her arms and walked with her toward the shed.
I took a few steps closer and stopped behind a wide, old live oak. It was dark enough outside that I didn’t think they could see us. The only light came from the flashlight in Carla’s hand. She stood in front of the shed, watching Jayray walk toward her with the woman.
Jayray stopped and Carla took the woman by the arm and pulled her into the shed.
I turned and looked back at Alex, still behind the shrubs.
There was a distinctive click behind my head followed by a cold, hard muzzle jammed into the back of my skull. The voice from the man behind me said, “Where’s your gun?” He pulled Alex’s gun from my pants. “Come on out, sweetie.”
Alex stood up from behind the shrubs with her hands in the air.
The man had a gun on each of us.
The man, I knew as soon as I heard him speak, was Dominic.
“Is that Philip’s fiancé?” I said.
“Shut up,” he said. He gestured with the guns for us to move out of the wooded area and toward the driveway. “Why don’t you go see for yourself?” He shoved me ahead of him.
Alex and I stood side-by-side outside the rear doors of the van. I looked over toward the shed.
Dominic yelled, “Carla, your boyfriend’s here.”
Carla stuck her head out the doors of the shed. “Told you we’d see him here,” she said. She walked toward us. “Oh, Henry, part of me honestly thinks it’s good to see you.” She turned to Alex. “He’s such a good looking man. You’re lucky.” Then looked back at me. “Or should I say...was lucky.” She yelled toward the shed. “Jayray, grab some more rope.”
I looked at Carla. “Is it Victoria?”
She paused, shaking her head. “Good guess. But I’m sorry. You’re wrong.”
She kept her eyes on me as she walked to her car. She reached inside the open driver’s side window and pulled out a pack of cigarettes from the dashboard. She took one out and lit it with her hand cupped over the flame, took a drag and blew the smoke into the air.
Jayray walked out of the shed and gave me a nod when he saw me.
I looked at Carla. “Isn’t he a little young for you?”
Carla smiled, the cigarette between her two long fingers up near her face. “You mean, my boy toy?” She shook her head. “No, not my thing.”
Jayray grabbed my arms as Dominic stepped in closer with the gun still pointed at my head. Jayray wrapped the rope around my wrists.
He moved over to Alex and grabbed her hands. He lifted her shirt. “What’s this?” he said. He pulled her Glock from the back of her pants. Jayray looked up at Dominic. “You even check to make sure nobody was carrying?” Jayray looked over at Carla. “Told you he was a dope.”
I could hear Dominic’s breathing getting heavier. I watched him, his eyes narrowed. He turned the gun away from me and Alex and swung it hard against Jayray’s head.
Jayray fell to the ground.
Carla stared back at Dominic. “What the hell are you doing?” She pulled her own gun on him. “You have to control that temper, man. He’s just a kid.” She leaned over, grabbed the rope from Jayray’s limp hand and finished tying Alex’s wrists together.
The door to the building opened and the old lady, Annie, walked out carrying a case in each hand and one tucked under her arm. “What the hell’s going on?” she said. She looked down toward me, my arms tied behind my back, seated on the ground next to Alex. She turned to Carla. “Where’d you get these two?”
I watched Annie come down the steps and walk to the car. She popped the trunk and placed the cases she was carrying inside. She didn’t appear nearly as old as she had when we’d first met. She said, “Did he see his girlfriend yet?”
Carla shook her head.
Jayray got up from the ground and rubbed his head where Dominic cracked him with the pistol.
The old lady walked with Carla toward the shed, stepped inside, and came right back out holding their hostage by the arm. She pulled her toward us and ripped off the hood.
My heart stopped when I saw who it was. “Kathleen?”
Chapter 38
KATHLEEN, ALEX, AND I were tied-up and locked inside the shed. The windows were boarded-up with plywood. And other than thin slits of light slipping through the cracks, it was impossible to see anything at all.
The voices outside grew louder. There was yelling.
And then a single gunshot.
Nobody said a word as both engines started, followed by the sounds of tires moving over gravel. The sound from the cars faded until it was quiet.
I couldn’t see her, but Kathleen said, “They’re just going to leave us here?”
I didn’t answer her as I struggled to get free from the rope tied around my wrists. It sounded like Alex was doing the same.
“Kathleen?” I said. “How did they get you?”
“I was outside my hotel waiting for a cab. A man came up to me, said he had a gun and told me to get in the car. He told me to be quiet or he’d shoot me dead.”
“Did anyone tell you why?” I said, my voice uneven as I worked at getting loose.
“Because you wouldn’t back off.”
I stopped for a moment. “That’s what he told you?”
“Said I was insurance that you’d stay out of their way.”
Alex said, “Did you hear anything else?”
All three of us were quiet.
“Kathleen?” I said.
“Oh, were you asking me?”
“Alex asked if you heard them say anything about what they’re doing,” I said. “Or anything that’ll help us.”
“I think they’re trying to catch a plane.”
Alex said, “All of them?”
Kathleen was quiet for a moment. “I’m not sure.”
I finally got my hands loose and got up on my feet. I stepped toward the door and led with my shoulder into the doors. They opened with a loud bang. I stood in the doorway and rubbed my shoulder, turned out toward the driveway and in the distance saw a body on the ground. “It’s Dominic,” I said. “I think he’s been shot.”
“There’s a knife up in my Jeep,” Alex said.
I ran up the hill and grabbed the knife from her center console, then went back in the shed and cut Alex free.
“Is he dead?” she said.
“Let’s get us out of here first.”
I sliced through the ropes around Alex’s wrists, then cut Kathleen free.
I said to her, “I thought you were leaving?”
The sounds of sirens screamed in the distance, growing louder as they seemed to be moving closer.
“Let’s go,” I said as the three of us walked from the shed.
Alex turned and looked toward Dominic, face down in the driveway. “What about him?”
“We need to get out of here,” I said.
ALEX HAD HER EYES ON the road without saying much at all as we drove to Billy’s house.
Kathleen was in the back.
I turned my head over my shoulder and looked at her. “When I first saw you with your head covered, I’d hoped you were Victoria.”
Kathleen stared back at me. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to take that, but...”
The three of us were quiet.
I turned to Alex. “We still have nothing. No answers. I can’t make sense of anything.”
She gave me a quick look. “Not yet. But we’re getting there, don’t you think? Dominic might be dead. And Carla and her mother are clearly...”
“We don’t know what Carla and her mother’s roles are,” I said. “Looks to me they sold diamonds to Julie and, for some reason...stole them back. And there’s a good chance none of this has anything to do with Philip or Victoria.”
Alex turned the wheel and pulled the Jeep to the front of Billy’s garage.
He stood outside on his porch, watching as we stepped out. With his voice lowered, he said, “Chloe’s here, too. She had a fight with Jake, asked if she could stay here for the night.”
I turned and gestured toward Kathleen. “Billy, you remember Kathleen?”
He gave me a look, then nodded toward her with a smile I knew was forced. “Of course I do.” He held the door open and let Alex and Kathleen walk in ahead of us. I stopped just outside the door. “I appreciate you letting her stay here. I just need to keep her safe...”
Billy put his hand on my back and guided me through the door without a word.
Chloe leaned with her elbows on the island in the kitchen, talking to Kathleen and Alex. She smiled when she saw me walk in. “Hey, Henry.” She came over and gave me a hug. “I have something for you.”
“A gift?”
She gave me a look. “Didn’t you get my message?”
I pulled my phone from my pocket. “It’s dead.”
Alex said, “He won’t listen to them even when the battery’s good.”
“Let me get it,” Chloe said as she walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
She came back to the kitchen a moment later with a manilla envelope. “A man dropped this off for you the other night.”
Billy looked at her. “The other night?”
Chloe looked at Henry. “I’m sorry. He said it was for Henry and nobody else.” Her eyes went down toward the floor.
“What’d he look like?” I said.
She shrugged. “Older man. White hair, bald in the front...shirt untucked...had one of those big pot bellies.”
Alex and I looked at each other.
“Charles.”
Everyone watched as I opened the envelope. Inside was a key attached to a keychain with a plastic tag on it. The tag had Rebel Storage printed on it. There was a number written in black marker on the back. I read the number out loud. “One-seven-eight-six.” I had no idea what it was. I looked inside the envelope for something else, but there was nothing. Just the key in a big, oversized envelope. “You sure there wasn’t anything else?”
Chloe nodded.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and remembered my phone was dead. “Billy, any chance you have a charger?”
He nodded and walked through the front door.
Kathleen stepped closer to me. “Do you have any idea what it’s for?”
“The key?” I shook my head. “Honestly, I have no idea. If I had to guess...”
I glanced at Alex, who had her eyes on Kathleen standing a little too close to me.
Alex’s eyes moved away when she noticed me watching her.
“You know where it is?” Kathleen said.
“Rebel Storage.” I shook my head.
Kathleen put her hand on top of mine. “Maybe we should take a ride, go check it out.”
I looked up just as Alex was rolling her eyes. “Probably best you stay here with Billy. Alex and I will go.”
Billy came through the front door with a black wire dangling from his hand. He handed me a charger. “This should work.”
Alex smirked at Kathleen. “You’ll be safe here.”
