by Zara Chase
“Do you really think they would have set fire to the place if they knew there were people inside?” Leo asked.
“That’s just it, they didn’t know. They were out of state at the time, probably to establish an alibi.” Chelsea tilted her chin. “They had told their staff to close the place up. The problem was, the hotel where my parents booked into had screwed up their reservation and they didn’t have anywhere else to go. The manager of Bellvue Lodge took pity on them and let them have a room, provided they ate out because the restaurant had been closed down and the kitchen staff let go.” She shrugged. “It was plain bad luck that Mum and Dad tried that particular hotel, out of all the ones they could have chosen.”
“You think the owners paid someone to torch it while they were out of town?” Jack asked.
“I’m sure of it but didn’t have a hope in hell of proving it.” She let out a prolonged exhale. “Anyway, that’s what got me started in the business.”
“And you think there’s something worthy of investigation in Nevella?” Leo asked. “Something we can help you with.”
* * * *
So far, so good, Chelsea thought. She’d managed to talk about the accident without making a total fool of herself and Jack was still there, listening to what she had to say. She’d thought at first that he would storm out when he saw her sitting in the lounge with Leo. The swirling anger in his eyes hadn’t abated and it was obvious he had a pretty low opinion of her. With justification, as it happened.
Astonishingly, talking in detail about her parent’s death—something she rarely did—had been the easy part. Now she would have to tell him and Leo why she was really in Nevella and that she suspected Jack, and possibly Leo too, of being involved in a major crime. When he heard that, he really would think it was why she’d slept with him, in spite of her assurances to the contrary. It shouldn’t matter what he thought but she was there to do a job and she couldn’t do it without his help. Assuming he wasn’t involved—and she had no actual proof of that other than a gut feeling that the residents at Hadleigh’s weren’t up to their necks in the business—then she couldn’t sort it out without his help. Waiting for Rob to go wading in, either messing it all up or claiming the glory, wasn’t an option. She had to trust someone, and she really wanted Jack and Leo to be the good guys.
“What do you know about the diamond heist that went down in Amsterdam three months ago?” she asked.
“What!” Leo and Jack said together, sharing an astounded look.
“Only what was on the news,” Leo said, recovering first. “Black diamonds, right?”
“Not just any black diamonds.” Chelsea pushed the hair back from her face. “Black diamonds are only found in Brazil and certain Central African republics. No one knows why. One theory is that they were brought to Earth by an asteroid thousands of years ago. Anyway, because of their rarity, they are more valuable than their white or colored counterparts. The must-have accessory for the woman who has everything.”
“There was a big hoo-ha about it at the time, I seem to recall,” Jack said, rubbing his chin. “There were a dozen large stones, worth an equally large fortune, flown into Amsterdam and then disappeared, right?”
“Right.” Chelsea watched him closely, seeing nothing more in his expression than mild interest. There were no flashes of guilt, or any of the tells in his facial expression she had been trained to look for when interviewing suspects. If he knew any more about the diamonds’ disappearance into Europe than he’d learned from the news, then she was losing her edge and would have to find a new line of work. Her relief was palpable. “It was a huge embarrassment for the Dutch authorities and their police were all over the usual suspects. They shook up the underworld, making life so uncomfortable for the small-time criminals who are usually left to their own devices that eventually word leaked out.”
“Let me guess,” Leo said. “They know who masterminded the heist but he has a cast-iron alibi that can’t be shaken.”
“Right again.” Chelsea shook her head in frustration. “Word on the street is that the stones are destined for a certain wealthy purchaser in London, but so far they haven’t surfaced.”
“So,” Jack said, hoisting one foot over his opposite knee and exposing the bulge beneath the worn denim around his crotch. Deliberately? Get a grip, Chelsea. You’ve blown your chances with Jack Gower. Even so, she couldn’t help looking, and moistening her lower lip in appreciation. “What’s your interest?”
“The owners are screaming at their insurers to pay up, which they’re naturally reluctant to do. There’re unfounded suspicions that the owners leaked shipping information to the thieves, but that will never be proven. Anyway, the insurers are stalling on the grounds that the stones will eventually show up.”
“Can’t they be broken down?” Jack asked.
“That would greatly diminish their value. The buyer wants them precisely because they are so large. Besides, black diamonds are almost impossible to break. They’re so hard that they were actually used to drill the rocks that formed the Panama Canal.”
“Okay,” Jack said. “So they haven’t been broken up and haven’t surfaced.”
“And the police have moved on to other things and so…”
“The people you work for have been called in.”
Chelsea shook her head. “Actually, I’m freelance nowadays. I was let go from my regular employment a couple of years back when they restructured…I think that was the word they used.” She could tell from Jack’s skewered glance that she had allowed her resentment to surface and adopted a more professional stance. She had no intention of getting into her problems with Rob. They weren’t relevant and were no one’s business except hers. “However, they called me in on this one. Mind you, I would have worked it on my own anyway. Every half-decent investigator not up to his or her eyes in other work is already on it. There is a big incentive to do so.”
“You get a chunk of the value if you succeed in recovering the stones?” Leo suggested.
“Right, but zilch if I fail.” Chelsea set her chin in a firm line. “Failure isn’t an option. I need to eat.”
“That still doesn’t answer the question of what brought you to Nevella,” Jack said, leaving her reasons for snooping through his things hanging unsaid between them. “Although I’m guessing it has something to do with those two Dutch guys I took up yesterday.”
“Right again. My former boss,” she said, spitting the word, “has people all over this but I found those two all on my lonesome, just by digging into the mastermind’s background. I knew he’d been clever. It was simply a case of trying to be cleverer. Anyway, yesterday’s duo, Bushnell and Closson, are both squeaky-clean and the only connection I could find to the guy who we know organized the heist—we’ll call him Smith because his real name’s unpronounceable—is that one of them is his son’s best buddy. They went through the Dutch school system together and Klaus Bushnell spent most of his vacation time in the Smith household.” Chelsea paused, aware that she had their full attention. The only sound in the room was the crackling of logs in the fireplace and their breathing. “But they do have one thing in common.”
“They are advanced skiers,” Jack said slowly. “So what?”
“Rob, my former boss, laughed at me when I suggested they might be the couriers but told me I was welcome to follow up if I had nothing better to do.”
“You need his permission?” Jack asked, scowling.
“No, but if I succeed, I stand a better chance of getting a decent payday. Anyway, last night, Rob called me and his whole attitude had changed. They’ve exhausted other avenues and it now seems more likely than not that they are involved. In other words, all the approved investigations have drawn a blank. Think about it,” she said, sitting forward and fixing them both with an intense look. “Neither Bushnell nor Closson has any connection with organized crime, they’re both students with big loans to pay off and Klaus feels he owes Smith for including him in his family life. He did
n’t have much of a one himself, it seems. They would pass in a crowd. No one would give either man a second glance.”
“Their behavior was odd yesterday,” Jack conceded. “I put it down to nerves. Skiers think heliskiing will be a breeze, until they get up there and see what they’ve actually let themselves in for.”
“Right,” Chelsea said, nodding her approval. “But they managed that descent with ease. What is odd about them is that they’re not mixing with anyone else, which does make them stand out.”
“I still don’t get where you’re coming from with this,” Leo said. “Surely you don’t think they smuggled the diamonds into Nevella.”
Chelsea shrugged. “Why not?”
“Because no one smuggles anything into Nevella.”
“Now you’re thinking laterally, like me.” Chelsea beamed at Jack. “Nevella’s part of the European Union in that you can drive in without having your passport checked. People only get stopped at customs on the way out, and then only randomly, but our pair can’t take that risk.”
“You think they’re going to try and ski out of Nevella with the stones?” Jack shook his head. “The moment they don’t return to their hotel, a major search will be instigated and even dumb cops will piece it together.”
“Besides,” Leo added. “Why bring them in just to ski them out again? Why not just drive to Calais and hop on a ferry to Dover?”
“Because every customs man in the service has been alerted to stop and search anyone in a Dutch vehicle, or anyone with a Dutch passport who fits the profile of the thieves. They do check papers going into England.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Jack said. “But like Leo just pointed out, if they ski out of Nevella…hang on a minute.” Jack’s feet abruptly hit the floor and he towered over Chelsea, drilling her with a ferocious scowl. “Now I get where you’re coming from. You think I’m in on this and that I was going to pick them up and bring them back again.”
Chapter Seven
“That’s why you were going through my stuff?”
Jack glowered at Chelsea, his blood pressure spiking to the point where he felt light-headed, ready to implode.
“No, you have to understand—”
“Oh, I understand all right.” A hint of sarcasm shaped the arch of his brow. “No wonder you were such an easy lay.”
She winced.
“Truth hurts, does it?”
“I’m sorry about going through your things. If I had my time over, I wouldn’t do it again, but you need to know I went to bed with you because I wanted to.”
Jack snorted. “Yeah, you already said.”
“I don’t blame you for not believing me.” She set her chin in a defiant line. “But since you have such a low opinion of me and I’m never likely to convince you, let’s stick to the facts and leave our personal relationship out of things.”
“Fine by me.”
“Right. Well then, I followed Bushnell and Closson here, thinking Rob was probably right and I was wasting my time. But that goes with the territory. Half of what I do in my line of work doesn’t pan out and I figured worst-case scenario, I’d get to have a vacation. I changed my mind once I got here and saw how nervous the two of them were. One of the first things they did was ask about heliskiing, which set my antenna twitching. I’d already decided that if they were the couriers, then that must be how they planned to get the stones out. It’s what I’d do in their position and I also knew it would appeal to Smith’s cocky nature.” She spread her hands. “I mean, like you said yourselves, who smuggles illicit goods into a tax haven?”
“Pass them on to someone who isn’t Dutch over the other side of the Spanish border?” Leo suggested.
“That’s my take. They know anyone Dutch won’t be able to get them into England.”
“Always assuming you’re right, why not just drive them into Spain and pass them on there? Why make it unnecessarily complicated?”
Jack asked his questions laconically, thinking if she could put what they’d done behind her and be so businesslike then he sure as hell could, too. Their activities clearly hadn’t resonated with her in the way that they had with him. That was why he was so goddamned grumpy. In spite of her having used him and suspected him of being a crook, he couldn’t get images of her begging him to fuck her out of his head. That infuriated Jack, to say nothing of confusing him. Why? What was it about Chelsea that was so special? He didn’t do emotional involvement—not ever—and yet it would be so easy to…
Get over yourself!
“I assume because they’re being ultra-careful. I’m pretty sure they don’t know they’re being watched but Smith’s a wily old fox and wouldn’t discount the fact. With good reason, as it happens, because I’m onto them. Besides, all this subterfuge probably appeals to Smith’s sense of the dramatic, to say nothing of ensuring his continued freedom. He likes to think he’s cleverer than the rest of us and, much as it pains me to admit it, so far he has been. He’s suspected of a ton of other crimes connected with diamonds but has never been prosecuted.”
“Okay,” Leo said. “So you think they’re going to ski out of Nevella, into Spain, pass the stones on to the next couriers, and get back to Nevella…how? They would be stranded in the middle of nowhere.”
“No idea.” Chelsea shrugged. “I’m guessing the couriers would be on a snowmobile and someone else would be there with snow scooters to take them to the nearest highway. Then they would simply be driven by someone else into Nevella. One carful of tourists amongst thousands of others with their skis on the roof. Passports wouldn’t be checked and no one would give them a second glance. They could be back at their hotel in time for dinner, the people who picked them up could drive straight out again through the French border, and no one would suspect a thing.”
Jack and Leo shared a loaded glance. “It’s just crazy enough to work,” Leo said slowly.
“Except that all heliskiers have to have a guide,” Jack pointed out.
“Yes, but I heard Bushnell and Closson asking you if that was absolutely necessary,” Chelsea said.
“So, you think they would have bribed me to fly them up there, off the books, no questions asked, no guide necessary?”
She fixed him with a steady gaze. “The thought crossed my mind.”
Jack shook his head. “Of all the…”
“I’m sorry, Jack, I know now that I got it wrong but in my position, what would you have thought? When I arrived at the heliport yesterday, you were in deep conversation with the two of them and they weren’t best pleased when I joined the party. In fact I heard them say they’d asked for a private flight and you told them your assistant added me to the group without your knowledge.”
Jack shrugged. “So…”
“I also overheard them at the hotel, asking if there was another helicopter service in Nevella.”
“The Garcia family in Darwin Valley have one but it’s currently out of service. Now they would be open to bribes,” Leo said. “As it is, this whole business makes me nervous. If the Padrons are involved, even by implication, the other families will be down on them like an avalanche and everything we’ve worked here to achieve will be history.”
“Is it really that competitive between the families?” Chelsea asked.
“Yeah, it really is,” Jack said. “Leo’s worked his nuts off to make a success of Medina Valley for the Pardons, which has caused a lot of resentment in other valleys slow to update their own facilities.”
“And that’s why I’m glad you decided to tell us about this,” Leo added. “We can do something about it, always assuming you’re right.”
“I’m pretty sure that I am.”
“I agree, those guys are suspicious,” Jack said reluctantly. “What’s less obvious is why you’ve decided to confide in us now. You obviously didn’t trust me yesterday.”
“Look, I wanted to, really I did.”
“You thought that if I was involved, I’d conveniently keep details of the plot in writing in my
desk.” Jack shook his head. “Geez!”
“I wasn’t really thinking straight, I’ll give you that, not after…Anyway, you can’t really blame me. Your place is soulless, Jack. It’s not natural and made me curious about you. I had to know what you were hiding. What all of you are.” She shot Leo a defiant look. “Six intelligent Yanks, all holed up here. I mean, Nevella’s nice enough but it seems to me you’re all wasting your talents. It doesn’t feel right. You keep a loaded gun, Jack. This place has locked doors everywhere and you don’t hardly ever invite people in. I’m paid to have a suspicious mind. What would you have thought in my place?”
Chelsea and Jack were both standing, glaring at one another like prize fighters. Except Jack didn’t want to fight with her anymore. Despite all the things she’d suspected him of being, despite her having violated his privacy, the animal attraction that had hit him like a snowstorm the first moment he’d set eyes on her hadn’t diminished. The need to fuck her senseless, to lock her in his rooms for the next ten years or so and never let her out transcended his justifiable anger. Which made him angrier still.
“She has a point.”
Leo’s voice had them both turning to look at him.
“You think that gave her the right to snoop?”
“Let’s not get into that now,” Leo said, raising both hands in a supplicating gesture. “What we need to do is decide how to stop these guys using Nevella as a staging post for their criminal activities and bringing the whole house of cards crashing down. Let’s all cool down, sit down and decide where we go from here.”
Chelsea resumed her seat and Jack did the same, still spitting tacks but knowing Leo was right.
“Okay, Chelsea,” Leo said. “I guess you’ve decided to trust us because you need our help. So what do you want from us?”