by Curry, Edna
“I want the case wrapped up, too,” Bill said. “By the way, the car accident that killed Bart happened near a small town about forty miles from here. Bart’s totaled car is still in their auto salvage yard. We had a mechanic check it over. Apparently that wasn’t done at the time.”
“Yeah? What did he find?”
“That was no accident. The brake line had been cut, so it would fail the first time the brakes were really needed. They’re reopening the case.”
“So Amanda and Maggie were right to question it in the first place,” Luke said. “And it’s one more piece to the puzzle. Did you find out how it was missed two years ago?”
“We’re working on that. Right now, I’m not sure if it was just sloppy investigating, or if someone was paid to not find that problem.”
“I’m betting on the latter. I wonder how it all fits into this jewelry case.”
“I don’t know, yet,” Bill said. “But you can bet your last dollar it does.”
“I agree. Maybe we’ll find some answers in Bart’s address book. I’ll check those names tonight. I’m quite sure that safety deposit box will have something to tell us tomorrow, too,” Luke said.
Bill looked doubtful. “Or it might be another dead end. It could be closed, or only hold the stock certificates Bart bought for the girls. Or some sentimental stuff he wanted to leave them.”
“I don’t think so.” Luke shook his head. “If it did, why would Bart hold it under a false name? Why leave Jolene a cryptic message about taking care of it?”
“That does sound weird.”
“I think he was hiding it from someone. The question is, why? Because it holds something someone wanted and would try to take away from him if they could? Maybe even killed him for, hoping to find?”
“Maybe,” Bill agreed. “Should we tell Candi or her mother about the investigation into Bart’s death?”
“Yeah. We’d better, even though there’s not much to tell, yet.”
“All right. I have a couple of questions for Candi. She’s still here, isn’t she?”
Luke nodded. “She’s in the bathroom, talking to her mom.”
At Bill’s raised eyebrow, he added, “It’s the only other way to get privacy here. Guess we should have opted for a suite. I’ll see if she’s off the phone yet.” He went to the bathroom to get her.
Candi returned and sat curled up on the bed.
Luke told her about finding the tampered brakes on her father’s car. “So they’re reopening the case.”
She nodded, wiping away tears. “Mom and Grandma will be pleased. May I tell them?”
“Yes, it’s official,” Bill said. “We’ll let you know if we learn anything more. We talked to Allan Henderson, the man your dad worked for at the Top Notch Casino.”
Candi paled and Bill quickly added, “No bad news. I want to ask you about a couple things.”
“Yes?”
“Did you spend much time here with your dad?”
Candi shook her head. “Only a few weekends. I didn’t like the gambling and the nightlife. Jolene loved it. She spent a lot more time here with Dad.”
“Did you meet any of the people he worked with?”
“I may have met a couple of them. It’s been years. I don’t remember.”
“Think about it. It’s important.”
Candi shrugged. “I didn’t remember George or the tall guy who came to Florida with him although George claimed to be Dad’s friend. I think I remember the Top Notch Casino guy, Allen. He was good looking.”
Luke frowned at her assessment. She ignored him and continued, “Allen walked the Casino floor often, Dad said. He stopped to talk to us a couple of times when we ate in the restaurant. He rubbed one shoulder a lot. Dad said it ached and bothered him because he’d taken a bullet in it once preventing a robbery.”
Bill frowned. “Did you ever ride along with your dad when he drove people in his limo?”
She shook her head. “Dad made me stay in our room except for when he took me to restaurants for meals or to tour the city or something like that. He said his work was too dangerous for me to ride along.”
“Dangerous?” Luke asked in surprise. Had Bart been into more than driving a limo and gambling on his own time? Was that why he’d been killed?
They’d checked him out with the local police, but maybe a few more questions were in order. If Bart had used a false name on a safety deposit box, where else had he used it? Had he been living a double life? Luke needed to ask more questions of Candi, but hated the idea. She was grieving along with already being scared and upset over the break-ins and attempted mugging. Still, it couldn’t be helped. She might know more than she thought she did.
“Yes,” she said with a little laugh, answering his question. “I wondered that too. How could driving be dangerous? Except for the crazy traffic, of course.”
Luke and Bill exchanged looks. Luke mouthed, “Later.” Bill nodded and said, “Thanks for your input, Candi. I need to get going.”
After they’d locked the door behind Bill, Luke asked, “Do you mind going through your dad’s address book now? I have my laptop and there’s internet access here. If we can eliminate your family and friends, I can check out some of the rest of the names in it.”
She smiled ruefully. “Sure. I can do that. Not as much fun as what I was hoping for, but, what the heck?”
“Yeah, I know. Business before pleasure. That doesn’t mean we won’t have time for both, though.” He sent her a slow smile.
Chapter 14
Luke and Candi sat at the little table side by side and went through the names in Bart’s address book. Candi identified about a quarter of them.
Finally, coming to the last page, she said, “I’m sorry not to be more help on this.”
Luke smiled. “No, really, you have been. Eliminating family and friends will save me a lot of time.”
“So, you’ll try to find more information on the rest of the people?”
Luke nodded. “I’ll give the names to Angie, our office internet search specialist.”
Candi raised an eyebrow. “But—I mean, how can you possibly know whether they’re only someone he drove on a regular basis, or if he had some other relationship with them?”
“For one thing, we’re already pretty sure who is involved in this case. If we find a connection between our current suspects and the people in his book, we’ll take a closer look at them. Or if anyone on his list is in our files for any reason, that’ll pop up immediately.”
“I see. I think.”
“I hate to stir up sad feelings right now, but we need more info on your family. Do you mind if I ask a few more questions?”
She swallowed. “Is there ever a good time? Ask away.”
“To begin, tell me everything you remember about your sister’s life since she went to Las Vegas.”
Her mouth twisted in a wry smile. “That’s easy. The answer is almost nothing. We never heard from her at all. No phone calls, no letters, nada.”
“You’ve talked to her several times since she dropped off Jessie, though.”
She nodded. “And after I saw her, I told you everything we talked about.”
“I was hoping you’d missed something. Let’s go over it again.” So they spent fifteen minutes rehashing the phone calls and her visit with Jolene at the mall.
Finally, Luke said, “You can’t remember anything else?”
“No. Did I tell you Jolene looked about ten years older instead of two? So life couldn’t have been easy for her.” She swallowed and bit her lip.
“I’m sorry. How about your father? Can you think of anything you haven’t told me?”
“No. After he and Mom split, I didn’t see Daddy much except for a few weekends when I came here to Las Vegas.”
“He never visited his mother? Amanda?”
“Yes, but I was either in college or working. She was in Minneapolis, or Florida for several months in the winter.”
“You liv
ed in Minneapolis, too. Didn’t he stop to see you?”
She shrugged. “Yes, we met for dinner a couple of times and spent an hour or two together before he left for the airport. Usually he flew in to visit Gram for a few hours during the day when I was at work, then saw me on his way home. I do have a daytime job other than writing my novels, you know.” She yawned. “Sorry.”
She appeared exhausted, Luke realized. Those dark circles hadn’t been under her eyes when he’d first met her. Nor had her skin been so pale. “Why don’t you take a nap while I work on the internet for a while? Maybe my office has come up with something new.”
“Okay.” She leaned over to kiss him goodnight. He kissed her back, pulling her into his arms and hungrily running nibbles up and down her throat. The kisses turned into foreplay. Her exhaustion disappeared and, in no time, she was fully awake.
“Aw, hell. The internet can wait a bit,” he growled and started undressing her.
“Good idea,” she agreed with a laugh, reaching out to unbutton his shirt.
“Right. Who needs sleep, anyway?”
***
She looked lovely, sleeping, Luke thought later. He gently pulled the soft blanket up over her bare shoulder and smoothed a dark lock of hair away from her face. She didn’t wake.
He spent hours on his laptop, both doing his own searches and talking to his team members and Angie, who was working the night shift in their office tonight. He was fast, but she could do it faster and had more time. He gave her the names from Bart’s address book that he hadn’t already identified as being involved in some way with this jewelry caper.
He’d found police records for several others, but had no idea how they matched up with this local group, or even if they were connected to them at all.
By three a.m., he decided to call it a night. Angie said she’d get back to him on the other names.
***
The next morning, Luke and Candi waited at the bank’s front door when it opened.
After being passed on from one person to another, showing IDs and the death certificates over and over, they finally got to Mr. Anderson, a bank official who apparently had authority to give them access to the safety deposit box.
“Yes,” Mr. Anderson said, “Mr. Shakespeare’s box is still active. He also kept a savings account with us and authorized paying the rent automatically each year from that account.”
Candi asked, “But how did he even open an account under a false name?”
The official flushed and said stiffly, “We didn’t know the name was false. He must have shown us proper ID when he opened the account and rented the box. We’re very careful about such things, here.”
“You didn’t think Shakespeare was a suspicious name?” Luke asked.
The bank official laughed. “Lots of mothers name their kids after famous people. We get weird names all the time.”
“Oh. I suppose.”
The man took Candi’s key and used it along with the bank’s key to open the little door. She pulled out the green metal box, carried it to the private cubicle the man showed them and set it on the table.
They closed the door behind him and Candi looked at Luke. “Well, here goes.” She took a deep breath and opened the long, flat box. Inside were several large, fat, manila envelopes. The one on top was addressed to Candi and Jolene.
Candi swallowed and glanced at Luke.
“Well, I guess I’m the only one left, so it’s for me,” she said. Pulling open the envelope, she found IBM stock certificates and a short note from her father. She held it so they could read it together.
It said: “My darling daughters, I love you both so much and your mother, too, in spite of our split-up.
“If you’re reading this, I’m probably dead, so I hope it is now safe to turn all this info over to the FBI. I’m sorry I had to make finding this hard, but I was afraid if I left you more than clues, they’d catch on to where I kept this info and find a way to destroy it. I hope it’s enough to put them away for a long time.
“I kept putting off turning it over for fear of their retaliation. George said his boss would see to it I went to prison with them if I told anyone what I knew. The scandal would have killed my mother and also be hard on you girls and Maggie.
“Because I can no longer protect you from what’s going on, I’m going to have to trust the authorities to do that. I pray they succeed in locking up these guys before they hurt any of you.
“In these envelopes is the best info I have to date. I’ve kept it here and added to it as I got more. Don’t delay in turning it over, in case they’re watching you and will try to take it away from you.
“I was not involved in anything illegal, despite your mother’s suspicions and what the gang will try to say. I’m sorry we weren’t closer.
“Remember, ’Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.’ Love, Dad.”
Candi swallowed and dug in her purse for some tissues to wipe away her tears. “Jolene was right, Thank God. Daddy wasn’t a crook.”
Luke nodded and reached past her into the box. Several fat envelopes had FBI written on them. “I’ll take these,” he said. “Consider them turned over to the Bureau.”
She nodded and sat back to watch him as he opened and paged through the papers inside. “Do you think any of the gang followed us here?” she asked worriedly. “Apparently even Dad worried about being followed and watched. Do you suppose they killed him to silence him about this info?”
“I don’t know,” Luke said, giving her a reassuring hug. “In case they followed us, I think I’ll fax these into the office right from here. So we’ll have more than one copy if they are watching and try to take it from us. Some back-up to cover us as we head into the office wouldn’t be amiss, either.”
“Good idea.” His assurance of help sent a surge of relief through her. Not that she didn’t trust Luke. She did, but she feared the gang who’d killed Jolene more. They were ruthless. The thought that they’d probably killed her father as well made her stomach churn. Was anyone in her family safe?
Luke carried the envelopes to Mr. Anderson’s office and asked to use a fax and a copy machine. “Yes, sir. Anything to help out the FBI,” the man said nervously. “You can use these, right here in my office. I have a meeting to attend anyway.” He showed them where the machines and supplies were and left.
Candi watched him scurry out and grinned at Luke. “Your badge does have its uses.”
She sat in the extra chair while Luke sat at the desk. He talked on the phone a while, and then fed page after page through the fax machine.
Restless, she asked, “Shall I make the copies?”
“Yes, thanks.” He began passing each page to her as it came back through the fax machine.
A few minutes later Bill and Randy come into the bank. A clerk pointed them to the office where they were and Luke explained what Bart had left them.
“Evidently Bart knew a lot more than they thought he did and he kept careful records of who he took to which hotel or casino at what time on what day. And he wrote down stuff he overheard, too. I’m sure that will be very helpful in proving who was on the premises at the time of various robberies.”
“Hm,” Bill said, reading the nearest page of info. He’s got names, dates and even girlfriend’s names here. And suite numbers and phone numbers. Do you think it’s enough to wrap this up, Luke?”
“Yes, I think so. Along with what we already had. We’ll go into the office and see what the boss has to say after I get all these faxed in.”
Candi said, “Shall I go back to the hotel and wait for you there?”
“Not just yet.” Luke looked at Bill and nodded.
Bill pulled out his cell. “Only if I get you a guard. You’re not to be alone until we wrap this up. And don’t talk about any of this until then, either.”
She frowned at him, but he looked so serious, she decided he had good reason for his demand. With a sigh, she nodded.
***
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Hours later, Candi sat in their hotel room with Agent Pam. They’d eaten dinner and watched TV until both were bored. Finally, in desperation, she’d begun asking Pam about life as an FBI agent. Expecting some exciting tales, she was surprised to hear most of Pam’s time was spent doing boring stakeouts, interviewing neighbors and friends of suspects or doing computer searches.
“The men get most of the exciting cases,” Pam said. Then she began telling her of all the male prejudice she’d run into. Candi realized Pam was becoming bitter. At times, Pam declared, she felt ready to leave the bureau.
Surprised, Candi said, “Luke has never mentioned anything similar.”
Pam’s mouth twisted in a wry smile. “He’s a man, isn’t he? They have no clue. He’s probably not even aware that the good ole boy network is alive and well. But it is.”
“I’m sorry,” Candi said as Pam turned back to the TV.
“If you don’t believe me, look at this wrap up today,” Pam said. “The men in the squad are out rounding up the suspects. Where am I? Here, babysitting you in a safe hotel room.”
“You like danger? You’d rather be out in the action?”
“Of course,” Pam said with a sigh.
“I’m not sure I would,” Candi said with a shudder. “Much too dangerous. I’m glad I only write about the action, and don’t have to participate.”
“You write mysteries, I hear?” Pam asked. And they began talking about her work, which made Candi worry about when she’d be getting back to her job.
She wished she had her laptop. She could be working on finishing her novel during the long hours of waiting today. No, she was too keyed up to think straight anyway.
She hadn’t talked to her editor or agent in days. Both were getting impatient with her excuses for not turning in her manuscript.
Pam allowed her to call Maggie after Candi promised not to give away what was happening in Las Vegas. Jessie was asleep and doing fine. Maggie and Amanda were still exhausted, grieving and anxious to return to Florida to deal with the mess the burglars had left behind.