Scottsdale Sizzle: a romantic light-hearted murder mystery (Laura Black Mysteries Book 3)

by B A Trimmer

  “This is great,” she said between bites. “Chicago has the best deep dish pizza, plus a lot of fancy places, but they don’t do Mexican like this. I can see why you come here so often.”

  “You know,” Sophie said. “You’re going to inherit a big fancy house. Why don’t you move down here and live in it?”

  “Well, don’t laugh,” Elizabeth said. “But I’ve thought about it. I would love to live somewhere where it didn’t snow and I could be warm all of the time. Every time I scrape ice off my car, I imagine I’m lying in the warm sunshine next to a blue pool surrounded by palm trees. But the maintenance on a house that big would be more than I could ever afford and that’s assuming I could even find a job down here. Plus, I don’t even get the whole house. I’d need to split it with Les.” She sighed and got a sad look on her face. “In the end, I imagine we’ll sell it and go our separate ways.”

  ~~~~

  After lunch, we walked back to the office and we said our good-byes. Elizabeth and I got into my car and drove down Scottsdale Road to the Loop-202, then west to 7th Street. From there it was a short drive down to South Mountain Park.

  When we went through the main entrance to the park, we went over a series of speed bumps in the road. As we did, I heard the thumping of my trunk lid against my car.

  “What’s that?” Elizabeth asked. “It sounds like your trunk is open.”

  “The latch is broken. It’s tied down with a bungee cord.”

  Elizabeth looked at me with a slightly confused expression. “Oh.”

  We soon began to wind our way up the mountain. I thought it might be helpful to learn more about Elizabeth’s family history.

  “Tell me about your granddad and how he got to be so well off. Why did your dad argue with him so much?”

  “Sure, none of that’s a secret. Granddad was a fighter pilot in World War II. Right after the war, he was one of the Allied engineering specialists that went into Germany to evaluate the equipment they found in the secret military research laboratories. He later returned to the US and almost immediately ‘invented’ improvements to modern air conditioning. It was obvious to everyone where he got those ideas and he spent the next fifteen years in court defending the patents.”

  “OK,” I said. “I can see where there may have been some shenanigans with the inventions. But why did that make your dad so angry?”

  “Dad said it was Granddad’s patents that made air conditioning systems expensive to the point where only the wealthy could afford them. Everyone else was left to bake in the heat. Scottsdale could have started to grow ten years earlier if air conditioning had been cheap and more widely available. Dad thought Granddad should do something to give back to the community. Especially since it had given him so much. Granddad said he earned every dime and Dad didn’t know what he was talking about. It went on like that for years.”

  We pulled into the parking lot at Dobbins Overlook. As on Wednesday, the large parking lot had roughly a dozen cars spaced around it. I noticed the same groups of women were still selling the same Native American jewelry. We got out of my car and Elizabeth broke out in a huge grin. She wanted to go to the edge of the overlook right away. I first made her stop and put on sunblock. I then pulled out two big sun hats I had in the back seat and I gave her one. Hat on head, she rapidly walked to the stone ramada. She then stood in the window and took in the view of the city.

  “This is beautiful!” she said when I had caught up with her. “You can see the entire city from here.” She pointed to Camelback Mountain. “Is that where Granddad’s house is?”

  “Yes, if you squint you can see it from here. I have a pair of binoculars in the trunk if you’d like to search with those.”

  “OK,” she said. “Let’s look for a coffin rock.”

  Ten

  As I had done with Les, Elizabeth and I looked for over an hour for anything that looked like a coffin. As with Les, we didn’t find a thing.

  I saw Elizabeth was looking in an area near the stone ramada. I went to my car, grabbed two bottles of water from the cooler in the back, then went to the ramada and called Elizabeth over. We sat in the shade on one of the ledges looking over the city and sipped our cold bottles of water. Elizabeth looked flushed with the heat but she seemed happy.

  “OK,” she said as she fanned herself with her hand. “I do like the heat, but I think an hour in the sun is about my limit.”

  “Did you see any coffin rocks?”

  “Not one. I even took Gina’s advice and looked outside of the park. Of course, when you have a city of several million people stretched out in front of you, it’s sort of hard to know where to look first.”

  “Let’s look for another ten minutes and then call it quits for the day. It’s almost a hundred and ten out here. I don’t want you to lose your good feelings toward the heat.”

  We each did one more circuit of the trails around the lookout. Unfortunately, neither of us found a thing.

  On the way back to the car, Elizabeth stopped to look at the jewelry that was spread out on the colorful blankets on the edge of the parking lot. I went to my car, opened the windows, and walked back. Elizabeth was still shopping and talking with the women seated next to the blankets. After about ten minutes of looking at the pieces, she bought a nice turquoise and silver ankle bracelet.

  We walked back to the car and we were both happy when the air conditioning cranked up. We sat with the air conditioning blowing over our faces while we each sipped down another bottle of water.

  “I like your ankle bracelet,” I said. “Sophie has one that is similar.”

  “I hope you don’t think I’m being silly. I mean, here we are looking for millions of dollars in jewelry and I stop to buy an ankle bracelet. I can’t help it. I love jewelry, especially if it’s unusual. I caught the bug from Granddad, of course. When you spend your childhood putting on antique gold rings and necklaces it’s hard not to fall in love with it.”

  “Tell me more about the jewelry. Do you have any idea why your granddad collected jewelry and not stamps or rare coins?”

  “Well, he started collecting the jewelry in Europe during the war. He was never shy in saying he got some great bargains by buying from people who were desperate for money. The government didn’t ask a lot of questions about where the jewelry came from, apparently a lot of soldiers brought home war souvenirs.”

  “Les said the jewelry had full sales documentation and all of the historical paperwork.”

  “Well, yes. Everything except the original pieces from the war. There’s nothing to go along with those. To be honest, I think that’s why Granddad continued his collection. After the war, he found himself with a lot of valuable jewelry that could never be sold. I think he knew if he ever tried to auction off any of the nicer pieces without the proper documentation, the German, French, Italian, even the Belgium or Dutch governments might have filed a claim against him. Having a large collection of legitimate jewelry helped disguise the fact that so many of the early pieces were obtained under questionable circumstances.”

  “You don’t think any of the pieces were stolen from museums or anything, do you?”

  “No, nothing like that. I only heard Granddad talk about it a couple of times, but from what he implied, and from what I’ve been able to read in history books, a lot of people were desperate, both during and after the war. People went from being wealthy to wandering refugees. Many of these people fled with only a suitcase. Sometimes, the family jewelry was the only valuable things they could take with them. Granddad said whenever he was able to give out food and warm clothing to the refugees, they would often give him whatever they had in return. He said someone, who called himself a Duke, traded him a necklace that had been in his family for six generations for twenty dollars and two cartons of government issued cigarettes. That’s the same eagle necklace Granddad sometimes let me wear. If nothing else, I hope to find that one. It has a lot of sentimental value.”

  “I can’t imagine how anxious peo
ple were back then,” I said. “Trading basic necessities for the family jewelry seems horrible. And why cigarettes? That seems sort of odd.”

  “From what I’ve read, the economy was nonexistent after the war and people used cigarettes instead of money. A carton of cigarettes could buy two weeks’ worth of food for an entire family.”

  “I can’t imagine how terrible it must of have been for the people who lived through that.”

  “Well, from what I’ve read those were anxious times. But I don’t think Granddad was doing anything different from anyone else. He found himself in a bad situation and made the best of it.”

  My phone rang and I saw it was Les.

  “It’s Les,” I said to Elizabeth. When I answered, the voice on the phone sounded tired but alert.

  “Hey Laura,” Lester said. “Are you doing OK? I’ve been worried about you. I wasn’t sure if you could get out of your trunk on your own the other day.”

  “I’m alright. I’m more worried about you. Are you with those guys voluntarily?”

  “Yeah, for now anyway. They want a cut of the jewelry. I told you the story. They want to stick close and help me look. They’d like to meet tonight over at the house to go over strategy. I was thinking the parlor would be the best place to do it. You already know where it is and it’s a good place to talk.”

  “What time?”

  “Eight o’clock.”

  “I’ll be there. I hate to bring this up but the police are going to want to talk to you again about the murder. They have some evidence you were at the house earlier that night and there are some extra fingerprints they can’t explain.”

  “I can explain that but it will take a while,” Les said.

  “Do you want to get away from those guys? I can bring in the police.”

  “No, at the moment all they want to do is help find the jewelry. After that, they’ll take my share and hopefully go away.”

  “I wouldn’t trust them to stop at half.”

  “I don’t trust them either but at the moment I don’t have a choice.”

  Alright, see you at eight.”

  I hung up and looked at Elizabeth. “Les seems OK. I’m meeting him and the Chicago thugs at the house later tonight. Hopefully I can learn something.”

  We had a few hours until the meeting. I was tempted to go back to the house and look again. But without the clue, I got the feeling it would be pointless. Plus, there was a possibility Les and the crooks from Chicago would be there. I’d rather have a talk with them first and set some ground rules before we randomly ran into each other.

  “I’m not sure where to go next,” I said. “Les and I have been through the house twice. We’ve looked for secret rooms, lifted carpets, and looked behind paintings.”

  “I’ve done the same things,” Elizabeth said. “I don’t know why Granddad made this so difficult. If he wanted to keep the jewelry safe until we could pick it up, he could have left it in the vault and given the combination to his lawyer.”

  “I keep thinking the same thing. Maybe he thought you and Les would enjoy a treasure hunt?”

  “I’m sure that was part of it. When we were kids, Granddad would always play hide and seek with Les and me. He probably thought we’d have fun playing hide and seek with him one last time to get his treasure.”

  “Why don’t we call it a day? I’ll drop you off at your hotel and you can relax. It’s only four-thirty. Spend some time by the pool and have a nice dinner. We’ll get together tomorrow morning. Hopefully I’ll learn something tonight that will be useful. If not, we’ll keep going between the house and South Mountain until we figure it out.”

  “That sounds like a plan,” she said.

  ~~~~

  I dropped Elizabeth off at her hotel. I still had over three hours until I had to be at the house. I parked under the shade of a cluster of fan palms then pulled out my phone and called Reno.

  “Hey,” I said when he answered. “I know you’re working nights this week, what time do you start tonight?”

  “I need to be there at six so I need to be on the road by five-thirty. I won’t even have time for a quick dinner with you tonight. Are you feeling neglected after you took care of me so well last night?”

  “Yes, I’ve been thinking about it all day. I don’t think I can wait a week.”

  “Sorry creampuff, it can’t be helped.”

  “Easy for you to say. After last night, you’ll be all calm and relaxed for the next few days. I’m still ready to go.”

  “Well, you know the hours I’m working this week. Feel free to swing by my place sometime in the late afternoon. You can wake me up in that special way I love so much. It would only be a quickie but better than nothing.”

  “Oh, you know me. I prefer the romance that goes along with it. I love being with you for dinner. I love when you tease and flirt with me. I love the handholding and the kissing. Then I love spending the entire night with you. It’s the buildup that makes it so wonderful.”

  “So a quickie next week is out?”

  “I didn’t say that. I only said I like it better when we can spend the entire night together.”

  “So we’re back to next Saturday?”

  “It looks like it. But still don’t be surprised if you get woken up this week in an unusual way.”

  “I’ll look forward to that. Talk to you soon.”

  I hung up and texted agent McCoy to let him know when and where I was to meet with Lester. I then called Lenny to let him know what was going on. As usual, he wasn’t in a good mood.

  “So you still haven’t found the jewelry? You’ve been at this for four days already. When you meet with these guys tonight, make sure they’re OK with you working with Elizabeth. Now that our broke client has thrown in with the gangsters, she’s still our best path to getting paid. I can put off the detectives for another day or two but they’re going to want to talk to Lester soon. Make sure he’s available when they need him. What about your cheating spouse? Do you have evidence of the affair yet?”

  “I have five cameras going in George Anson’s, but so far nothing. I still need to review what happened today.”

  “Alright, you know what to do. Call me with some good news next time.”

  Lenny hung up. Out of frustration, I flipped off the phone. I know I shouldn’t let him get to me but you’d think after all of this time he’d let me do my job.

  Next I called Gina and talked to her about the meeting.

  “We’re meeting at the house at eight. I think they want my help in finding the treasure. I think I’ll be okay meeting with them.”

  “I’m uneasy about you being with gangsters even if you do suspect their motives tonight are clean,” she said. “I’d like to go over to the house as backup, just in case.”

  “We’re meeting in a room called the parlor. It has a big picture window and it’s clearly visible from the courtyard in front of the house. I imagine if you got there before I did, you could hide in the shadows and watch the entire thing.”

  “That sounds like a plan. You won’t see me but I’ll show up fast if something happens. Plus, if something looks like it’s about to go wrong, I’ll call in the police to assist. Don’t forget these are violent and dangerous criminals. Don’t take any chances. Sophie looked up Horace Morningstar and he’s homicidal. From what happened to you yesterday, Magic isn’t any better.”

  ~~~~

  Since I had some time before I needed to be back at the house on Camelback, I decided to go home and get some things done. I first tried to pay off some bills, but without money in the checking account, it was proving to be a hard thing to do. I then tried to read another chapter of a novel I had started. Unfortunately, it seemed like I had forgotten everything I’d already read and I didn’t want to start again from the beginning. My thoughts were on the meeting and I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I eventually gave up and started flipping channels.

  I ended up watching a game show marathon on a cooking channel where the
contestants had only a few minutes to make a wonderful dinner out of some really gross ingredients. It made me wonder what kind of sicko had picked out the slime in the baskets for them to cook. The funniest thing about the show was the announcer. The contestants would open up their baskets of nasty ingredients and the announcer would call out in a happy and excited voice that the secret ingredient for this round was duck testicles, or goat brains, or something as disgusting. The contestants would do their best to cook them. The judges would then eat the dish and talk about how great the goat brains tasted.

  Seriously?

  ~~~~

  At twenty minutes to eight, I went down to my car and took off. I found a Pitbull CD I had downloaded onto my phone and played it through the car audio system. I found a song I liked then turned it up loud. The pulsing music helped calm my nerves and it also helped me think.

  I parked in the courtyard, went in the front doors of the house, and then walked down to the parlor. I’d already been in the room several times from our previous searches of the house so I knew it well. It was a large and formal room near the front entrance and seemed to be set up for meeting visitors. There were several oil paintings on the walls, mostly landscapes. There was a small built-in bookshelf that held a few books and several items Elizabeth’s granddad had apparently picked up on his travels around the world. There were two separate groupings of comfortable couches and chairs so multiple meetings could occur at once. Against the wall on the left side of the room was a huge stone fireplace with cast iron logs for a gas fire. There was no fire at the moment, but I could see it would be nice on a cool winter night. Along the wall on the right side was a large wet bar with a complete assortment of bottles on three glass shelves. The room was dominated by a large picture window that looked onto the courtyard and then to the valley below. As always, the twinkling lights of the city were hypnotic.

  I purposefully didn’t spend time looking out the window. I knew Gina was somewhere in the shadows, watching what was going on in the room. Knowing I had a friend like her gave me a wonderful feeling. It helped cancel out some of the anxiety I was feeling by being in a room with gangsters.