by Lee Driver
“It hasn’t sunk in with her yet.”
Sara tapped on the grated door to the aviary. “Past your bedtime, Einstein.” Einstein flew up to his favorite tree branch and Sara slid the grated door shut first, then the soundproof Plexiglas door. She checked the humidity controls on the panel near the door for the aviary.
“Sheila has called the precinct at least three times to get an update on her father’s forged checks. They keep telling her the chances of catching the guy are zilch.” Padre accepted a beer from Dagger and they sat on the couch while Sara retreated to the kitchen. Several moments later they heard the dishwasher humming.
“Sheila tried to hire me to find the guilty party. But I’m not getting involved.”
Sara returned with a cup of tea, said her goodnights, and went upstairs to her room.
“Do you have the medical examiner’s report?”
“She was definitely shot close range. We’ll get Ballistics on it immediately.”
“You are sure these guys are being followed?” Dagger heard the familiar sound of Sara’s patio door sliding open.
“We know where they are staying. We’ll know if they make a move.”
“All we need now is a plan.”
The gray wolf darted through the underbrush, around trees, over deteriorating fences, and through creeks as it made its way to the Tyler mansion. The night air was heavy and damp, the remains of an earlier storm clinging to the foliage. The sky was dark and thunder rumbled in the background.
The wolf stopped to listen. Streetlights filtered through the branches; and traffic sounds, although a mile away, sounded to the wolf as if cars were a few feet away.
With a giant push, the wolf leaped for a branch twenty feet from the ground, shifting in mid-flight into the gray hawk. It ruffled its feathers as it shifted its body, letting its talons search for a better grip.
It could see lights in the distance from the Tyler mansion. The hawk lifted off and in less than a minute was on the patio railing outside the third floor library.
Edie paced in front of the patio doors, the phone pressed to her ear, talking to Luke. She slid open the door and welcomed the cool breeze which had followed the earlier storm.
“Are you sure they have a clear plan?” She opened the humidor but changed her mind. A headache was developing, and the last thing she needed was a cigar.
“Yes. We went over it. Why are you so jumpy?”
“I don’t know.” She rubbed a finger and thumb across her forehead, trying to press away a tension headache. “Can’t wait til this is over with. I keep seeing cars following me, wondering if it’s the cops, or maybe even your two buddies.” Stopping long enough to light a cigarette, she continued pacing. “When are those two idiots taking care of the body? According to the schedule, the resort staff will start to stock those pantries and freezers soon.”
“That is their main priority after getting the girl. Now, what about your husband? Is he going to be a problem?”
“No. He hasn’t a clue. And I’d never let him in on it anyway. This is my nest egg. He already gambled away as much money as I care to entrust him with.”
“And your brother-in-law?”
“I think I’ve managed to convince him that it wasn’t Rachel whom Dagger’s client saw murdered. And a body will never be found. So…” Peering out the door, Edie saw two eyes glowing from the railing and jumped back. “My god. What is with these birds?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The bird…hawk…whatever was outside your hotel window. It’s outside the library window. This is really bizarre. It’s like it has been following me.” A cold chill ran up Edie’s back as she stared at the bird.
“That’s ridiculous. You’re going to tell me it’s the same hawk?”
Edie studied the bird’s coloring. “I know it is. It’s the eyes. Hawks don’t have blue eyes, Luke, do they?”
CHAPTER 44
“DON’T TOUCH. AWWK.” Einstein gripped the perch, spread his wings, and bobbed his head to look around Sara who was seated at the computer monitor. Morning sunlight filtered through the half-opened blinds embedded in the skylights.
“I can touch, but you can’t.” Sara turned and handed Einstein a piece of orange. “Now, tell me again about the kangaroo, Einstein.” Sara accessed the Internet and went to AOL Net Search. She looked at Einstein, who was busy eating. “Kangaroo, Einstein. What is kangaroo?” She thought back to the night Einstein had blurted out the word. “What was it you said?”
Einstein pulled out the orange long enough to say, “AWWWKK, KANGAROO PAW, KANGAROO PAW.”
“Good,” Sara smiled, “that’s what I wanted to hear.” She typed kangaroo paw on the search line and waited. A few seconds later 283 matches lit up the screen. “Mangles’ Kangaroo Paw?” She read the description of the emblem of the State of Western Australia. Clicking on the first entry, she waited for the screen to fill. The image was familiar. “Oh my.” Turning from the screen, Sara said, “Einstein, I know where the diamonds are!”
Sara drove Dagger’s truck toward the Tyler residence. She had been unsuccessful at trying to reach Dagger on his cellular phone. He had planned to meet Padre. There was always the possibility Sara was wrong which is why she wanted to check things out first.
The Cedar Point Police Department was a buzz of activity. Tuesdays seemed to be the chosen day for every lawyer in Cedar Point to pick up an arrest report. Men in power suits nodded at Padre as they walked past. The women in power suits smiled at Dagger. They stood outside a door marked Homicide.
“I don’t know what it is with you, Dagger,” Padre pointed out as another woman in a thigh-high skirt and carrying a briefcase cast one of those, I’m available smiles. “Must be that long hair or I don’t have time to shave look. You’ve had a stream of ladies here for the taking. Thank god I’m married. I wouldn’t want to make the decision on which one.”
Dagger stood, arms crossed, leaning against the wall. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as the next woman rushed by. “You just give them what they want. Let your gaze tell them they are looking good. Now they can go into court and give the judge hell. By lunch time they won’t even remember me.”
Padre nodded in agreement and chuckled. “Right, until they go to bed. Look at me.” He gestured toward his pinstriped suit. “I’ve got the power suit thing going, hair trimmed, though slightly receding. But for reasons that escape me, women with all that education and culture go ga-ga over guys with grease under their nails, five-o-clock shadows…” he glanced at Dagger’s head, “hair six months past a trim, and in desperate need of a wardrobe.”
Dagger grinned. “Yeah, but I clean up nice.”
Padre opened the door and led Dagger past three sets of desks butted together in twos. Ceiling fans circulated warm air and an air conditioning unit jammed in one of the windows clattered and droned.
Padre’s desk was in a far corner of the room. He sat down and motioned to a chair in front of his desk.
Dagger remained standing. He jammed his hands in his pants pockets and paced, looking up whenever someone entered. “I don’t like this,” Dagger said. “I’ve got a bad feeling.”
“You always were edgy in a police station.”
“Why couldn’t you just call me with the information?”
Padre rose. “Come on.” He led him down an aisle and into a conference room. When he closed the door, he said, “Feel better?”
Dagger surveyed the twelve-foot-square room with faded green walls. “It’s not your office. It’s not this room. Hell, it isn’t even the building.” He paced, clasping his hands in back of his head.
“You look like you’re going to jump out of your skin.”
“Something doesn’t feel right.”
Padre pulled a notepad from his pocket. “Maybe you have a premonition of what I’m about to tell you.”
Dagger stopped pacing and stared at Padre. He unclasped his hands and took a seat across the marred table from t
he sergeant.
Padre studied his notes, pursed his lips in thought. Finally, he said, “I’ve had my people checking out these three yokels. It seems Joey was a guest of the Boston Police Department during the week Rachel was modeling the Williamsburg Collection. Mince was in California. There are a string of hotel receipts from him. And Luke was in New York, under surveillance by the Justice Department.”
Dagger threaded his fingers through his hair. “Damn, maybe Sara is onto something.”
“Sara? What did she find out?”
Dagger drove Padre to Sara’s house. The answering machine had been left on but that didn’t mean Sara wasn’t home. She could be outside in the garden or in the throes of cleaning Einstein’s aviary and not want to be interrupted.
“Sara?” Dagger called out as he entered the kitchen, Padre close behind.
“Maybe she left a note.” Padre checked the kitchen counter, then walked to the phone on the desk. He could barely see the desktop. “Damn, when are you going to get organized?”
Dagger checked the aviary. The doors were closed, Einstein was alone and napping. Next, he ran up the stairs to Sara’s room where he located his laptop. This was where Sara had disappeared during Worm’s visit. Something Worm had said about moissanite had triggered her curiosity. Dagger brought the laptop downstairs, set it on the coffee table and sat in front of it.
Turning it on, he accessed AOL. “Let’s see what she was working on.”
“How can you tell?” Padre loosened his tie and took a seat next to Dagger.
“She will usually save something in My Favorite Places so she can return to it when she wants.” Dagger clicked on My Favorite Places. “The last one listed is usually the last one accessed.”
He ran the cursor down the list, clicked on the item, and read the contents. “Interesting. Why was she looking up the Mayfair Gallery in London? I’m going to check her Email, see what messages she has sent.”
Padre peered at the screen and read along with Dagger. “Sonofabitch,” the two men said in unison. The phone rang but Dagger let the answering machine pick it up.
“Mr. Dagger, if you’re home, I’d advise you to pick up.”
Dagger looked up. He and Padre exchanged glances.
“I’ve got someone here who wants to speak to you,” the voice continued.
After a few moments, a voice said, “Dagger?” It was Sara.
“SARA?” Dagger yelled, as he ran for the phone. “Where are you?”
“Not too fast.” The man had taken the phone from Sara.
“Sara, are you all right?” Dagger pressed the record button on the phone so the conversation could be recorded.
“You have something of ours and we’ve got this gorgeous piece of meat.”
“If you hurt her I’ll…”
“That’s all up to you. She has a knife to her throat right now, so her life is in your hands.”
Dagger knew Sara wouldn’t shape-shift, couldn’t take the chance of being seen even though it might be her only way to save her life.
“What do you want?” Dagger demanded.
“The diamonds. All of them. Give me your cellular number.”
As he gave the caller the cellular number, Dagger pulled his Phoenix Raven from the bottom drawer and checked the clip. “I don’t have the necklace.”
“Then I would suggest you and old man Tyler get your heads together and figure it out. I’ll call you back in thirty minutes. If you don’t have the necklace, she dies.” He hung up.
“Dammit.” Dagger punched the speaker button off. He rifled through papers on his desk until he found a phone number. He grabbed the box containing the diamond earrings, shoved the piece of paper at Padre, and said, “Come on. You call while I drive.”
CHAPTER 45
Sara struggled against the ropes that bound her hands and the tape across her mouth. She didn’t like the way Joey glared at her. His eyes rarely looked at her face, only her body, as if she were some tasty meal and he hadn’t eaten in a week. He had weasel features, thin and pointed. He never left her alone, always leering, always playing with the knife.
Her trip earlier to Tyler’s to check on what she had discovered on the Internet, had been interrupted when the truck engine died. Sara had let her foot off the clutch a little too long. Then she couldn’t get the truck started again. When a man stopped to offer his help, she noticed it was one of the men who had broken into her home and beaten up Dagger. And his friend, the man with the marred face, had opened the driver’s side door and forced her to scoot to the middle.
After shoving her down on the seat, Joey had taped her hands and mouth. He had kept her head down so she couldn’t see where they were headed. All she could do was concentrate on the sounds outside the truck, anything that could give her a clue where they were going. When the truck finally came to a halt, they lead her down a dirt driveway to a cabin. She could hear the rush of water, maybe from a nearby creek. But no traffic, no human sounds. They were deep in the woods somewhere.
And as they walked, her eyes kept roaming, searching for some trail marker and identifier. And she had found it. A small sign nailed to a tree said Possum Creek. They were in a wooded area near a field where Dagger used to take Einstein. But Einstein had kept going too deep into the woods and refused to obey Dagger’s commands. All she needed now was one chance to talk to Dagger to possibly give him a clue as to her location.
Mince had just left with Dagger’s truck. He was to abandon it somewhere in town. Joey pulled the tape off Sara’s mouth. She ran her tongue over her parched lips.
“Like how you do that,” Joey sneered. He strolled around the cabin, pulled open the shutters, and let the sunlight stream in. “You can try to scream all you want but we’re pretty isolated here.”
The cabin was dusty and smelled of stale air and kerosene. A small wood-burning stove was nestled in a corner and a twin-sized bed with a stained bedspread occupied the wall near the window.
Turning away from the window, Joey asked, “I’ve really been curious, Sweetie. How did you survive that plunge into the quarry the other night?”
Sara blinked and thought back to that harrowing night. “The car mangled the fence. I was able to reach for the fence and hang on until Dagger pulled me up.”
Joey circled Sara slowly. She felt trapped, vulnerable, and his eyes had the hunger of a predator. Her wrists were starting to ache and she had to go to the bathroom.
Before leaving, Mince had warned Joey to not do anything to Sara until Luke gave him the okay. That had sent chills down her spine. All it meant was whether or not Dagger gave them what they wanted, Joey was still going to kill her.
“Mr. Tyler!” Dagger tore past Lily, who had opened the front door to him and Padre. They ran through the foyer with Lily close behind.
“He’s in the dining room,” Lily called out, her hands pressed together.
As they entered, the Tyler clan was seated around the table. Edie looked calm, her steepled fingers lightly tapping against her chin. The patio doors were open and a warm breeze filtered through the room. The air was tense, and both Dagger and Padre detected it immediately. They turned to see Luke standing next to the bookcase, a cellular phone in his hand.
“Well, if it isn’t the dick-and-dick twins. Did you bring the earrings?”
Dagger and Padre pulled their guns at the same time. Luke just waved his cellular at them. He pointed at Lily and ordered her to join the others at the table.
“If I don’t call my partners back, I don’t have to tell you what will happen to that sweet, innocent child.” He dragged a tapestry upholstered chair from the corner by the door and took a seat.
Undaunted, Dagger walked up to Luke and shoved his Raven .25 in his face. “You’ll get the earrings when Sara is safe.”
“That wasn’t our deal.”
“You’re lucky I haven’t put a bullet between your eyes.”
“Tsk, tsk. So much pent-up frustration.” He motioned toward the two men w
ith a long-barreled pistol. “I’ll take your weapons, nice and easy. Set them right there on the floor.” Luke pointed to a spot about five feet from him. “Oh, and the earrings, too.” Dagger shoved his hands in his shirt pockets and retrieved an earring out of each.
“On the floor.” Luke picked up the weapons and earrings. “Please, join the rest.” Luke was seated about twenty feet from them where he could see everyone. “Has Detective Martinez clued you in on Joey’s rap sheet?”
“I read his rap sheet.” Dagger said. He and Padre took a seat at the end of the table away from the Tyler clan.
Luke smiled and crossed his arms, the bulk of his muscles oozing from under his short-sleeved shirt, the phone almost hidden under his thick fingers.
“I bet the rap sheet doesn’t have the rape and murder of a fifteen-year-old girl in Boston six years ago. Or the rape and mutilation of a twenty-year-old college girl in Florida last year. Or how about the twenty-two-year-old he sodomized and beat so bad she lost her eyesight. That was six months ago in Indianapolis.”
Dagger shifted in his seat, looked to Padre who shook his head. It was obvious Padre had not known this about Joey. Dagger’s thoughts turned to Sara. He had done his best to teach her about his world. But he had never exposed her to the dredges of society like Luke and his thug friends before. She was fine when Dagger was around for backup. But he wasn’t sure how she would handle Joey and Mince.
Robert spoke up. “He said he wants the diamonds.”
“They have Sara,” Dagger explained to Robert.
“Sara?” Nick jumped to his feet, almost knocking the chair over. “That pervert he just talked about has Sara?” He made a move for the giant.
Luke pointed his pistol at Nick. “Sit,” he ordered.
The room grew quiet. The grandfather’s clock in the far corner of the room clanged loudly. Lily twisted her hankie while Robert wrapped a consoling arm around her shoulder.