by Lee Driver
“Remember me?” Dagger lifted his sunglasses and looked at Pete Foster, who was hosing down a forty-two-foot Bayliner.
“Digger?”
“No, Dagger.” He placed his sunglasses back on the bridge of his nose. “I need to show you a couple of pictures.”
Pete turned the water off and dried his hands on his cutoffs. He followed Dagger to a shady spot by Salty’s office. “It was time for a break anyway.” Pete nodded toward the houseboat. “Want something to drink?” Dagger declined. Several minutes later Pete returned with a can of lemonade.
“Is this Rachel Tyler?” Dagger showed him Rachel’s picture with her blue eyes sultry and blonde hair flowing.
“I thought I confirmed this last time you were here.”
“Look again.” Dagger handed him a picture of Edie, her hair blonde, contacts blue.
Pete looked at the picture and grinned his surfer boy grin. “Is this some test?”
“They look alike to you?”
Puzzled, Pete looked at the pictures again. “They aren’t the same woman?”
“Nope. The only difference is the mole. Did the Rachel you bumped pelvises with have a mole?”
Pete held up both pictures, searching first one face then the other. “No, come to think of it, she didn’t.” He handed the pictures back. “All you really had to do was check for my skin under her nails.” The surfer boy grinned again.
“Of course,” Dagger smiled back. But he wasn’t smiling at what Pete said. He remembered that Edie had those long, art deco nails. Rachel didn’t like sculptured nails and never wore anything but clear polish on her short nails.
Edie pushed her way into Luke’s room, tugging at her sunglasses and shoving them in her purse.
“What? No hello?” He closed the door, folded his arms across his chest just below the bright yellow word Aruba on his shirt.
“Where is it?” She found the black earring on the coffee table. Taking off her shoe, she brought the heel down on the earring, shattering the plastic into bits and pieces.
“What the hell did you do that for?”
“No wonder Dagger didn’t follow you after you took the earring,” Edie said. “It’s just costume jewelry, for crissake. Rachel was wearing the real ones.” Edie smiled slowly. “She was clever enough to camouflage the damn things.”
“She had them all along?” He scraped the black fragments into his hand and dumped them in an ashtray.
Edie dragged one lacquered nail across her lower lip. “I don’t lie about diamonds.” Edie told Luke about Dagger’s visit.
“Well, he obviously knew we’d be after it so he made a fake one. I told you before, he isn’t anyone you should take lightly.”
“We need the mate to the earring, Luke. And what about the body? Someone is going to stumble on it.” She paced in a tight circle, pulled her hat off her head and flung it on the couch. Her nondescript navy suit was toned down so as not to draw attention. She had left the expensive pearls at home and the hat was an attempt to somewhat conceal her identity. When you’re one of the Tyler brood, you are easily recognized.
“Where are your goons hiding the body?”
“Just calm down.” Luke stopped her in mid-stride, placed his large hands on her back and massaged her neck. “I’ll get both earrings. It’s your job to find the necklace.”
She pulled away and continued pacing. There was a time when they would have left a trail of clothes to the bedroom or not even made it to the bedroom. But when it came to money, neither one wanted to be sidetracked.
Edie said, “I tore that damn house apart five years ago. And I questioned her family and friends til I was blue in the face.”
“Well, search the house again.”
“Like I haven’t? Our chances of finding it are…” Edie glanced toward the opened patio door. “What on earth is that?” The gray hawk stared back at her and ruffled its feathers.
“It’s a fuckin’ bird. Now pay attention.”
The gray hawk leaped from the railing and flew off.
“Just do your part, Edie. Dagger would be stupid to keep the diamond at his house. But we’ve been following him. I think I might know who he gave it to.”
CHAPTER 36
“What a bloody long plane ride.” J.C. Kinnecutt gulped the glass of water Dagger offered him and settled back against the cool leather. His pale blue eyes took in the chrome and black décor and airiness of the house. “Nice digs.”
J.C. had called Dagger from the airport, got directions to Sara’s house, and rented a car. He had yet to check into his hotel because his priority was to see the diamond earring. His white shirt was soaked. J.C. pinched the fabric between two fingers and fanned it away from his body.
The curator was younger than Dagger anticipated. The picture he had formulated in his mind of a gray-haired gent with bushy eyebrows couldn’t have been farther from the truth. J.C. was tall and slender with a head of thick blonde hair. He guessed him to be in his early forties only because of the crinkles around his eyes and the hint of gray at his temples. No wedding ring but a nice Rolex watch. He even had great taste in cars since J.C. had rented a Porsche.
“What on earth do you have in there?” J.C. walked over and stood in front of the closed Plexiglas door. Einstein was on one of the high tree branches napping. “A lovely bird. You just have one macaw in that big room?”
“Yes. Einstein and I both like to have a lot of space.”
Rubbing his hands together, J.C. returned to the sofa saying, “Let’s have a look at the darling.”
When Dagger removed the lid to the box and pulled out the earrings, J.C. gasped and quickly pulled a narrow black box from his pocket.
“You have both earrings now?”
“Yes.” Dagger sat on the leather love seat. He watched J.C. pull a cap off the pointed end of his instrument. A red Ready light was flashing. “What are you doing?”
“This is a thermal tester. There are some new fakes going around called moissanite. Can fool some of the best experts. Only one problem. Moissanite conducts electricity whereas diamonds don’t.” The Ready light stopped flashing and J.C. pressed the pencil-thin point to the diamond earring. The word Diamond lit up. He spent several minutes studying each earring, then peered through a loupe for the final examination. He groaned like a man in his last seconds of orgasm. “I can’t believe it.”
“They’re real?”
“My god.” He set the loupe down. “Absolutely.”
Dagger picked up the black box which could be mistaken for a beeper had it been three inches shorter. He scratched a finger across his jaw bone and eyed his visitor. “I can only assume you already tested the set you have back at the museum.”
“Practically had a coronary when I saw the results. But it still didn’t tell me if what you had was genuine.”
“What if someone didn’t have one of these nifty things?” Dagger asked, holding the box up. “How would he be sure?”
Smiling, J.C. opened a small case. It was the size of a shaving kit. He retrieved a stone and a pair of tweezers. “Do you have matches?”
Dagger walked over to the wall of bookcases where Sara kept a long butane lighter for lighting candles. He stood in front of J.C. and pressed the button, sending a flame out the tip.
“Good, now if you could hold the flame under this stone.” J.C. held the tweezers over the flame. “Not too close or we’ll have soot on the bottom.”
“What does this do?”
“This particular stone I brought is a moissanite. When it comes in contact with a flame that is at least two-hundred-and-fifty degrees centigrade, it changes color to a bright yellow.” Within twenty seconds, the colorless diamond changed color. Next, he held the flame under the earring. It didn’t change color.
Dagger turned the flame off and set the lighter on the coffee table. He settled into the leather love seat, crossing one ankle over his knee, right elbow on the armrest. “Tell me, J.C., how does someone get valuables out of your coun
try without Customs noticing?”
J.C. stared longingly at the earrings. “All anyone has to do is fill out a declaration form listing what they are taking out of the country.” He chuckled, adding, “And lie a little.”
“What about airport searches?”
“They only do them randomly,” J.C. replied.
“Perfect for a model. They have suitcases of costume jewelry.”
“Absolutely. And Customs will just rely on the declaration. That and a pretty smile from a gorgeous filly will get her through Customs quicker than you can say,” J.C. admired the earrings again, “diamonds.”
“You can come out now.” Dagger announced. Sara slowly made her way down the stairs from her bedroom. “I thought you might be slinking around somewhere. You didn’t want to meet J.C.?”
“He seems to know his diamonds.”
“Yes, he does. He’s going to stick around town for a few days in the hopes that we find the necklace.”
“He was pretty adamant about taking the earrings with him.”
“Guess he was afraid of letting them out of his sight. I really should give them to Padre to put in the police department vault but for some reason, even I don’t trust them out of my sight.”
Sara crossed her legs and sat on the floor, elbows on the coffee table. “Was that Worm who called?”
“Yes. He checked records from Rachel’s college days and did find an Edie Winthrop listed. And Pete remembered that the woman on the yacht that night did not have a beauty mark.”
“So you think Edie wore a wig?”
“Probably.” Dagger carried the earrings to his concealed room for safekeeping. He returned and sifted through papers on his desk, sat down and switched on his computer. As it hummed, clicked, and did all its other computer machinations, he watched Sara play with her hair, grabbing narrow clumps and braiding them. “And besides,” Dagger added, “Edie was the only one who went tearing out of the house after my visit this morning.”
The gray hawk had waited up in the trees to follow the first Tyler who left the house. Edie had gone straight to Luke’s hotel. Eric and Robert, on the other hand, kept their golf date.
“Are you going to tell Nick about Edie? She obviously is the one who convinced Nick he killed Rachel. And where do you think Eric was when all this was going on?”
“Lot of questions, young lady.” He looked over at her, the intensity in her eyes as she busied her fingers. It was a welcome alternative to her chewing on her knuckles. “I already know Eric was at the office the evening Rachel disappeared. He worked late trying to catch up on paperwork. And I don’t think we should break it to Nick just yet. I can’t predict what his reaction might be, and there’s a good chance he could screw up the entire investigation.”
“But Edie would have needed help getting Rachel to a hospital and then to The Carmelite Retreat.”
“That’s her buddy, Luke, I presume.”
“Hmm.” She busied her fingers some more until she had ten thin long braids on each side of her head.
Dagger shoved a fist under his chin and stared at the young woman, the fingers working over, under, over, under. Her bright eyes staring vacantly. He finally asked, “What’s happening in that head of yours?”
Sara shrugged. “I just remember the report Skizzy ran of the phone calls made from the Tyler house before and after Rachel’s disappearance. Some were to Australia.”
“Luke helped to steal the diamonds so he was probably still in Australia.”
Over, under, over, under. Sara’s fingers worked faster. “Maybe.”
Edie pushed open the door to Robert’s bedroom and slid in, closing the door softly behind her. Through the opened patio doors she could smell a variety of perennials from the gardens below. She went directly to a large cherry wood armoire in the corner.
When Rachel first disappeared, Edie had searched through every box of jewelry Rachel owned, every secret hiding place Edie knew of, and every wall safe. It wasn’t difficult to discover the combination. Robert uses his wedding anniversary, a major mistake most people make. They either use a birth date of a family member or some other significant date.
Edie had made one major blunder. When Rachel returned from her photo shoot in Australia five years ago, Edie had called her in the limo five times, insisting that she come right home, hysterical that she not let her suitcase out of her sight. She had under-estimated Rachel’s intelligence. But more seriously, she under-estimated her integrity. Edie could never keep a cool head when that much money was involved.
Being a Tyler had its advantages: prestige, name recognition, an enviable mansion to live in, access to a resort in just about any country. Unfortunately, Edie’s pre-nuptial entitles her to only the money her husband earns, not what was held under corporate purse strings. And with the way she and Eric spent money, there wouldn’t be enough to keep her in pearls let alone diamonds.
“Dammit, Rachel. Where did you hide it?”
Edie pulled out a stack of sweaters and set them on the bed. Then she started to press on the back wall. Most custom-made armoires were designed to specific recommendations. By using her best bedroom techniques, Edie had the cabinetmaker spilling every secret known to man and then some. She found out Rachel had requested a secret door in the back wall.
Suddenly, a door sprung open. Excited, Edie shoved her hand inside the compartment but felt empty space. “Damn!”
“Looking for something?”
Edie screamed and lurched back from the armoire. Lily stood in the doorway, a look of disgust clouding her face.
Pressing a hand to her chest, Edie explained, “Just looking for Eric’s favorite golf sweater. He thought his father might have it.”
“Didn’t mean to startle you but I usually don’t expect to find anyone in Mr. Tyler’s private bedroom.” She braced the door open and waited. Reluctantly, Edie left.
CHAPTER 37
“What have you got, Coffey?” Padre spoke into the walkie-talkie. Detective Ben Coffey was seated on the rooftop of the Dunes Resort with a pair of binoculars aimed at the road leading down to the beachfront townhouses.
“I’ve got a white sport utility vehicle headed your way. It looks like one Luke Gabriel behind the wheel. He’s alone.”
“Okay, let’s get ready boys.” Sergeant Duranski unfolded his body from the floor of the townhouse. He gave Padre a stern look. “Hope that friend of yours is right.”
“He’s rarely wrong.”
Duranski’s bulky shoulders shrugged. “All the private dicks say that.”
Padre and Dagger had it all pre-planned. After Dagger dropped the pink bombshell on the Tyler dining room table, it was his hope that someone would go racing out to the Dunes Resort to check the body for the other earring.
Duranski and his men were quite comfortable in the center unit with its wrap-around couch and entertainment center. They had rigged a surveillance camera in the storage room which housed the walk-in freezer. The monitor was sitting on the kitchen counter, ready to display whatever occurred in the adjoining storage room.
Lansing stood and pulled on his utility belt. He stared intensely at the monitor. The walkie-talkie blared again. “All yours,” Coffey announced.
The SUV’s engine died at the rear of the building. The blinds were closed. Luke wouldn’t be able to see in. They waited and watched, careful not to move, not to make a sound. If Luke had a key to the back door, there was a chance he also had a key to the door leading into the kitchen where the men were waiting.
They heard a rustling at the back door, a key being inserted, the door handle turning. They could hear the door squeak as it opened, heels click against the tiled floor. On the monitor, the lights in the storage room flipped on and the cops watched as Luke unlocked the freezer and entered.
Dead bodies shouldn’t bother Luke. He had seen his share. But there was something about seeing Rachel’s body that briefly saddened him. She was beautiful, even in death. He was sorry he ever hired Joey and Minc
e. Luke would have been able to get Rachel to tell him what they wanted to know. A woman that beautiful would do anything to keep from having her face marred. He would have had her chirping like a bird.
Luke checked Rachel for the second earring. There wasn’t one. A search under the body, on the floor, then the storage room itself, proved fruitless. It didn’t take long for him to find the silk scarf, bright yellow with splashes of scarlet roses. He inhaled deeply from the fabric balled in his hand and his eyes narrowed. Luke slammed the door to the townhouse and stormed back to his SUV.
“I thought Edie’s scarf might come in handy.” Dagger popped open a beer can and handed it across the bar to Padre.
“Oh, no,” Padre protested. “The doctor wouldn’t be too happy about that.”
“WHAT’S UP, DOC. AWK.” Einstein flew over to the couch.
“Hey, Einstein. How’s the feather flying?” Padre laughed as Einstein gave a good impression of a colorful fan.
Sara set a cup of hot tea in front of Padre and said, “This is my grandmother’s secret recipe.”
Padre asked Dagger, “How did you get Edie’s scarf?”
Dagger glanced at Sara and smiled. “Let’s just say a little bird flew in and stole it from her.”
“Right,” Padre chuckled. “However you got it, it was the perfect touch. About now I’m sure Luke is tearing into Edie accusing her of stealing the other earring.”
“You want him to think Edie is working behind his back?” Sara scooted onto the bar stool and rested her elbows on the bar, a fist pressed against her cheek, one pinky finger working its way toward her mouth. The bar was nestled in the corner of the living room. The black marbled top reflected the ceiling lights.
“Definitely.” Dagger took a long pull on his beer, his gaze resting on Sara’s fist. “Nothing like partners thinking they are being betrayed. All the dirt settles at the bottom.”
Padre’s eyes blinked wearily and he finished his tea in one long gulp. “At least Duranski has more faith in you now.”