“I’m Ian,” he said. “Tiffany’s friend.”
“Eli Cohen. I was just asking Tiffany some questions about her friend Stone.”
Ian turned to look at me, his eyes full of confusion. “And what about Stone?” he said.
I shook my head quickly. “It’s nothing.”
Eli said, “So, Ian, you know Stone?”
I held Ian’s glance, praying silently that he wouldn’t start blabbering on about what good friends we all were.
For once, Ian seemed to understand my glance and said, “Um, I’ve met him once or twice. But, Tiff, I thought you were working on a special project today.”
“It didn’t work out the way I’d planned,” I told Ian. “And as you can see, now Eli’s here. He wants to know if I know where Stone is.”
Ian creased his brows. “Do you and Eli know each other?”
I shook my head. “I just met Eli today.”
“Are you sure you two don’t know Stone that well?” said Eli. “I’d heard he made some new friends here in Vegas.”
I needed to stop Ian from saying anything incriminating by accident, and my heart beat wildly in panic. I glanced at the cupcakes Ian had baked and said the first thing that came to mind. “Would you like to try one of Ian’s hazelnut cupcakes? They really do look delicious. I think I might have one myself.”
Eli waved away my offer for a cupcake, and I sunk my teeth into one and moaned out loud. “Mmm, yum! These are delicious! I think these are the best hazelnut cupcakes have ever had!”
Ian smiled, pleased with himself, and I wondered how I could get rid of Eli, when there was another knock on the door.
“Who’s that?” said Ian.
A flash of panic made my chest constrict.
What if Stone had chosen today, of all days, to turn up at my apartment and ask me what was going on? But that couldn’t be possible—he’d check with Johnson first.
Seeing me frozen to the spot, my mouth half-full of hazelnut cupcake, Ian went and opened the door for me.
“Carl!” he said. “Fancy seeing you again.”
I swallowed my mouthful of cupcake and glared at Carl. “What are you doing here?”
Carl smiled at me lecherously. “Remember how I said I’d be happy to stop by your apartment anytime?”
“I told you not to,” I reminded him. “I told you I’ve got a boyfriend, and I don’t want to see you again.”
Cal looked around at Ian and Eli and nodded. “I didn’t expect you to have company at this hour. I figured you’d have just come home from the casino and would be waking up about now. Is this your boyfriend?” He looked at Eli, taking in his salt-and-pepper hair and gray eyes.
To Eli’s credit, he didn’t say anything, and only smiled politely.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I said. “And I don’t want you coming around again.”
“I have something that might make you change your mind,” said Carl, producing a gift bag from behind his back. “I brought you something.”
I looked at the bag as though it might contain live scorpions, but finally, my curiosity made me take it and I peered inside.
“A teddy bear?” I said, pulling out a small plush toy with funny-looking eyes.
“I thought you might like to keep it in your bedroom,” said Carl. “If you don’t want me to keep you company in there, that is.”
I glared at Carl and contemplated throwing the teddy bear at him. But that seemed like too much effort, and at least Carl’s presence meant that none of us could talk about Stone.
“Thank you,” I said, forcing myself to be polite. “Ian, can you show Carl out?”
“I thought we would hang out for a bit,” protested Carl.
“I’m a bit busy. Ian,” I repeated, “why don’t you show Carl out? Thanks again for the cupcakes.”
Ian looked hesitantly at Carl, who glared first at me, and then at him.
“I can show myself out,” said Carl. “This is the thanks I get for giving you such a nice gift.”
“I thought it would be nice for Ian to walk you out. I’m sorry I can’t be any more attentive right now.”
Carl shrugged, and Ian gave me a questioning look as he followed Carl out the door.
“Thanks, Ian,” I said as I closed the door behind the two of them.
Once they were gone, I breathed a sigh of relief—as much as I hated Carl, he had shown up just in time to prevent Ian from saying anything incriminating about Stone.
I looked again at the small teddy bear that was in my hand.
Even if I hadn’t noticed the funny eyes, there was no way I would have overlooked the fact that the teddy bear’s tummy seemed to be made of a solid, square box; plus, there was a zip on its rear. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, wondering why Carl thought I’d be stupid enough to fall for this.
I put the teddy bear facedown on the sofa; I would decide what to do with it later.
“You’ve got some interesting friends,” said Eli.
“Tell me about it!”
“You do realize that’s a nannycam?”
I nodded. “I wonder why men think I’m so stupid.”
“I don’t think you’re stupid.”
I shrugged. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you about Stone. I hope things between you two get sorted out.”
Eli nodded and stood up. “Thanks anyway.”
We shook hands politely, and I watched as Eli headed down the hallway and pressed the button for the elevator. I waved goodbye to him once again, closed the door, and rang Ian on his cell phone.
He answered after half a ring. “I just saw Carl get into his car,” said Ian. “What was all that about?”
“Never mind about Carl—just make sure you don’t say anything to Eli. He’s looking for Stone, and I don’t want you talking to him.”
“When will you tell me what’s really going on?”
“As soon as I find out for myself,” I said. “You can count on it—I should’ve told you everything earlier; I guess I need to trust people a bit more.”
Chapter 12
I assumed that by now, Eli was on his way to his next meeting, being followed by Johnson.
I sent Johnson a text, asking him to let me know where he was, and we’d meet up. I changed into a “new” disguise—taking off my glasses, switching to a pink dress and blond wig.
Fifteen minutes later, I got a text from Johnson—Eli was meeting a businessman who lived in Summerlin, and I drove straight over to the address.
I managed to arrive at the place just in time to see Eli pulling away, and Johnson and I followed him over to his next appointment in North Las Vegas.
Stone had once explained to me that professionals use at least two cars when surveilling someone. Now that Johnson and I were working together, I could see why: working in a team made things much simpler. We spent the rest of the day following Eli around, but I wasn’t sure that we’d learned anything new.
Eli went back to his hotel at around five in the afternoon, and Johnson and I rushed into a nearby room that Johnson had booked for surveillance purposes.
We sat in silence as Johnson turned on the listening device, and various noises from Eli’s room floated over to us.
Eli seemed to spend his time taking a shower, flipping through a couple of TV channels, and finally making a phone call to his girlfriend back in Florida. The call was uninteresting, and full of sweet nothings, which made Johnson and me both roll our eyes.
Finally, he made a call to someone named Steve.
Much of the call didn’t make sense to me; Eli talked vaguely about some project and mumbled a lot. But I did understand when Eli said, “None of the people here will talk to me. Stone somehow managed to warn them all off.”
Those words made me beam, and Johnson nodded at me in gruff acknowledgment while we listened to a few more seconds of Eli grousing about how nobody would give him any information.
“And that girlfriend of his,” said Eli, “Tiffany Black. She claims
they were never together, and I’m kind of tempted to believe her. Stone would be too careful to get involved with some floozy casino dealer—even if she does work as a PI on the side…
“No, nothing… Absolutely nothing… Well, on the plus side, nobody seems to know that Tariq is back. If we can just get to Tariq before Stone does, we’re safe. Yeah. That’s right.
“Could blow us all apart if he talks to Stone, and then everyone would know the truth… I agree… I’m just going to focus on Tariq… I might as well leave Vegas on the seven o’clock flight tonight—no point sticking around here…”
The call went on for a few more minutes, but Eli’s side of the conversation seemed to consist mostly of grunts and meaningless platitudes, until he hung up.
Johnson and I exchanged a glance, and muffled noises floated up to us from Eli’s room.
“I’ll go wait in my car,” I told Johnson. “If he wants to catch a seven o’clock flight, he’ll be leaving soon. Is there any way you can join me?”
Johnson nodded. “I’ll bring this surveillance stuff with me to the car, but I doubt we’ll learn anything else.”
I’d been waiting in my car for fifteen minutes when I saw Eli drive off. I texted Johnson that the man was on the move, and then I tailed him over to the McCarran Rent-A-Car Center, where he took his time parking the Toyota in the drop-off area.
I knew a shuttle would be by shortly to take Eli over to the airport, and I texted Johnson to give him an update.
Johnson replied within seconds. “I’ll wait inside the airport. All you have to do is follow the shuttle to the terminal.”
The shuttle came by a minute later, and I watched as Eli got on with the rest of the passengers. It was an easy job to tail the shuttle back to the airport, and I drove past, expecting that Johnson would be able to follow Eli once he entered the airport.
I waited in my car for a few long minutes, until I got a text from Johnson. “He’s headed in through the gates. We’re done for today.”
“You still need to tell me what’s going on,” I replied. “I want to know the whole story—including who Tariq is.”
“I’ll tell you tomorrow,” Johnson texted back. “Or I’ll ask Stone to tell you himself.”
I forced myself to ignore the harsh sting of anger that made me narrow my eyes and glare into the distance. Johnson had to keep his word—one way or another, I was determined to find out the truth about Stone.
Chapter 13
I woke up the next morning, feeling refreshed after a proper night’s sleep. When I checked my phone, there were no messages or texts, and I had a brief flicker of doubt that perhaps Johnson wouldn’t tell me the truth about Stone after all.
But I pushed that thought from my mind, got dressed, and called the Treasury Casino to let them know that my “cold” had gotten much better and I could come into work today if needed. It turned out there was a shift available starting at four in the afternoon, and I promised I’d be in.
I headed over to the living room, not quite sure what I’d be doing for the next couple of hours till the start of my shift—perhaps I should compile notes on what I’d learned about April’s death up until now, or perhaps I should start running background checks on everyone I’d met so far.
I was about to grab myself one of Ian’s hazelnut cupcakes for breakfast when I noticed the piece of paper lying in the middle of my living room floor. Someone had shoved a small white envelope under my door, and I assumed that it had been Ian again—perhaps he’d decided that instead of texting me, he’d go all old-fashioned and send me notes to ask about our plans for the day.
I picked up the envelope, only slightly surprised when it felt heavier than I’d expected. I opened it and pulled out a piece of paper with a short message written on it: “I think you should stop now.”
Puzzled, I put the note on the coffee table and peered inside the envelope to see a photograph.
My stomach sank like a rock. This couldn’t be good.
Bracing myself, I pulled out the photograph and peered at it closely.
It was a photo of April’s body lying in the desert; clearly, she was very dead.
The photo had been taken at night, the scene illuminated by the camera’s flash. The blood on her clothes and unnatural angles of her arms and legs made my stomach recoil, and I forced myself not to gag.
I pushed the photo back into the envelope quickly, dropped it onto the coffee table, and sunk down onto my sofa.
This wasn’t good.
I sat in shock for what felt like a couple of hours, but was probably only a few minutes.
My mind raced along, thinking of all kinds of crazy things, and then going blank for a few seconds at a time. My hands were clammy, and there was a prickly sensation on the back of my neck.
Finally, I forced myself to take a few deep breaths and called Ian, almost on autopilot.
“You’re up!” he said cheerfully, answering after four rings. “What’re the plans for today?”
My voice seemed to float down from far away. “Can you come over to my place now? There’s something we need to discuss.”
“Sure,” said Ian. “This sounds serious—I’ll be there right away.”
A few seconds later, there was a knock on the door.
I checked carefully through the peephole, and when I was sure that it was Ian, I ushered him inside.
It took me an additional second to register that he’d brought Snowflake along, and I shook my head.
“Put her on the kitchen countertop. I don’t want her touching the coffee table.”
Ian did just that, and Snowflake looked at me curiously.
“What’s on the coffee table?” said Ian.
I killed time by scratching Snowflake between her ears and stroking her gently until she purred. “She seems to be in a good mood.”
“She’s always happy to see you. But what’s this about?”
I rummaged through my kitchen cabinets and found a pair of latex gloves that I tossed over to Ian. “Put these on, and then have a look at the note.”
I’d already gotten my fingerprints on it, but I didn’t want Ian’s prints messing things up even further.
Although, if my experience with anonymous note-senders has taught me anything, it’s that they tend to be quite careful about not getting their prints anywhere.
“And there’s a small white envelope there, too,” I added. “You can open it and look at the photo.”
To stop my brain from thinking scary thoughts, I checked behind my stash of cereal boxes and found a few cans of wet cat food, one of which I opened and dumped out for Snowflake.
After she started eating it hungrily, I finally admitted that I needed to face the music and went over to join Ian and peer at the photo again.
“They discovered April’s body in the morning,” said Ian, not taking his eyes off the photo. “Do you think the cops would’ve left it lying around till night, taking photos the entire time?”
I shook my head. “That’s what makes the whole thing even worse.”
“Maybe it’s just a prank,” suggested Ian, clearly trying to cheer me up.
I took a deep breath. “I’m thinking of taking the photo to the precinct and having Detective Ryan check whether it’s one of the crime scene photos or not. Of course, even if it is one of the official photos, that doesn’t make it much better—it means that someone dangerous has access to those.”
Ian shook his head sadly. “Whoever sent this photo is obviously a step ahead of everyone else.”
“Exactly. And not only are we dealing with a crazy killer, we’re dealing with someone who likes to take photos of their victims.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Maybe as proof? Maybe some kind of trophy?”
“Do you think it’s Richard?”
I thought back to our conversation with Richard and frowned. “It could be, or maybe if Richard hired someone to do it, they took a photo to prove that they’d done the job.”<
br />
Ian nodded. “That kind of makes sense. But how would they even know where you lived, to send you this envelope?”
“Quite a few people know where I live, but I don’t think this person asked around to find my address. Perhaps they followed me on the day I talked to them.”
“In that case, we need to find out if someone could’ve followed you after talking to you. We know it can’t be Vince, because he was at the nightclub all night long.”
“It could’ve been Richard or his housekeeper; it could’ve been Ruby, if she decided not to go to work. It could even be Adrian or anyone from the café, if they decided to finish their shift a bit early.”
Ian nodded. “Well, I guess we know what we need to do today.”
My heart sank. I’d never expected this investigation to be easy, but now it had taken a turn for the decidedly unpleasant.
Chapter 14
To take my mind off things, I said, “Have you had breakfast?”
Ian shook his head. “I was planning to have a hazelnut cupcake or two.”
“That was my plan, too.”
While Snowflake finished up her cat food, Ian and I busied ourselves with making mugs of instant coffee and placing cupcakes onto plates for ourselves.
I packed four of the cupcakes into a small box for Detective Elwood, and then Ian and I headed over to the sofa to enjoy our breakfast before we needed to tackle the day’s work.
As I was about to sit down, I noticed the nannycam teddy bear that Carl had given me, lying facedown on the sofa. Snowflake was looking rather bored, so I decided to give her the teddy bear—which she promptly flung into the kitchen sink.
“Even Snowflake doesn’t like Carl’s gift,” I muttered. “I wonder where my mother finds these crazy guys.”
“I’m sure he’s not going to bother you again.”
“He’ll come by to get the teddy bear back,” I said. “But hopefully that’ll be the last time I see him.”
***
When Ian and I headed over to the precinct, we found Detective Elwood sitting at his desk, scowling away at some paperwork.
High Stakes and Hazelnut Cupcakes in Las Vegas: A Lighthearted Tiffany Black Mystery (Tiffany Black Mysteries Book 10) Page 8