Gabe leaned back in his chair. “Putting those two questions together, the answer might be that Mitch was trying to go legit and start a business selling sex toys. Maybe training his replacement—Zack. He probably expected a cut of the profits from Zack for a while.”
I was amazed that Gabe could put that together. But it made sense—criminals probably got tired of hiding from the law. But why did he need to train someone to take over for him? “Replacement? But Mitch works for himself, doesn’t he?” I really didn’t grasp the criminal way of business.
Gabe said, “Remember you told me that when Mitch called the two of you in Angel’s bedroom, he said that Zack screwed up and that his clients don’t wait patiently?”
I nodded and looked at Angel. She nodded, remembering it, too.
Gabe added, “I think we are dealing with a smart, ruthless jewel thief who is connected.”
I whipped my head around to Gabe. “Connected to what?”
Gabe’s mouth twitched.
Breathless, I said, “The mob? In Lake Elsinore?”
Gabe blasted me with a full-on grin. “No, not in Lake Elsinore. Mitch might be from anywhere, Sam. If he’s the Casino Jewel Thief, the theory is that he goes shopping for a certain kind of jewelry. Once he spots something close to what he’s looking for, he probably takes a picture of it and shows it to his client. Once the client gives him the go-ahead, he steals the piece, and gets a very nice fee from the client.”
“Oh.” This was not good. “Oh! That means Mitch has promised someone this necklace.”
Angel added, “And that someone might be nasty if the necklace isn’t delivered on time. The kind of nasty that motivates Mitch to be nasty to anyone who stands in the way of getting that necklace.”
Now it was starting to make sense. “Like us.” Shooting Zack in the head definitely rated as nasty. Another thought slammed into me. “That’s why he had to kill Zack—he would have known about Mitch’s connections if Mitch was training him as a replacement.” Which made Mitch even more dangerous. I took a sip of my lukewarm coffee. “So what do we do now?”
Gabe said, “I have the victim’s name and information. I’m going to talk to her, try to get as much information from her as possible. I’m sure that Mitch made the first contact with her, maybe even getting a picture of the necklace with a hidden camera, or maybe a cell phone camera, to show his contacts. Then I’ll go to the casino and see what I can get there. Barney’s going to follow the sex-toy trail. See if he can find Mitch that way. Maybe a sex-toy Web site—anything he can think of. I’ll ask around Daystar to see if anyone else talked to a man who was selling sex toys.”
“What about Angel and me?” This could take too long.
“Stay here in the house and try to contact Zoë. If we get that necklace back, then we have something to give Vance.”
“Wait! That’s why Vance came here when he got my voice mail that I found the necklace. He knew that necklace was connected to the Casino Jewel Thief. That’s why he was so furious when things kept going wrong. He wanted to solve the Casino Jewel Thief case.”
Gabe nodded.
“But why didn’t he believe me about Zack being dead?”
Gabe’s face hardened. “Because both of you look guilty. And Angel looks desperate.” He stared at her. “You have thousands of dollars on your charge cards, your business is not making a profit, and you’ve sold off more than half your stocks.”
“Been busy, haven’t you?” Angel answered, her voice cool and uninterested.
“You weren’t honest with Sam about your financial problems. That made her, both of you, look guilty.” Gabe said flatly. “And stuff like taking off to Vegas when she’s expecting to meet with you . . .” He stopped for a second, his eyes blazing in anger. “Pointlessly worrying her.” Each word came out an accusation.
They stared at each other in icy anger. My boyfriend and my best friend.
The phone rang.
I jumped up to answer it just as the doorbell rang. As I said, “Hello,” I saw Gabe get up, take out his gun, and go to the front door.
“Samantha.”
My back snapped rigid. Zoë! The necklace! The need to fix this whole mess solidified in my words. “Zoë? Thank God, where are you?”
“Never mind that. You have one more chance to tell me the truth or I’m throwing this paste necklace into the lake.”
I barely noticed Gabe walking back into the dining room carrying two boxes of pizza. “No! Zoë, you don’t understand! That necklace . . .”
“All you’ve done is lie to me!” Her voice rose to a screech. “I trusted you with my heart! I told you R. V. Logan is my heart mate, but you lied to me! I don’t care what this necklace is. Tell me R. V. Logan’s real name and address or I’ll . . . I’ll . . . that . . . creature . . . was not R. V. Logan!”
“Zoë! Calm down. I’m sorry that I gave you a fake name and address for R. V. Logan, but you have to listen to me.” I fought to get my voice into a soothing tone. My heart slammed against my chest and panicked sweat trickled down my back. I had to get that necklace. In hindsight, I saw that pretending Hugh was R. V. Logan had been a mistake. “Zoë, tell me where you are.”
Silence.
“Zoë?” Calm voice, calm voice, I reminded myself. She sounded crazier than usual. “Listen, Zoë, you might be in danger. I want to keep you safe. Tell me where you are.” Angel slipped up close to me to listen. I glanced at Gabe where he stood next to the table.
His face was set as cold as Italian marble.
“I want R. V. Logan’s real name and address, Samantha. No tricks.”
How was I going to get her to listen to me? “That necklace is stolen, Zoë. It could get you killed.”
“Tell me who R. V. Logan is.”
Talk about a one-track mind. I blinked and looked over the handset into Angel’s face. What was I supposed to do? Vance already didn’t believe us, and telling Zoë that Vance was R. V. Logan would make things worse. Vance would kill me. But Angel could die! On the other hand, all I had to negotiate with Zoë for the necklace was R. V. Logan’s identity. “Zoë, just tell me where you are. I’ll come to you and tell you R. V. Logan’s real identity.”
“I don’t trust you.” Click.
She hung up. “Damn it!” I wrenched the phone from between Angel and myself, and slammed it down on the base.
“Mom?” Joel said. He came in from the backyard with Ali.
I fought to keep from screaming. I looked at Joel. “It’s OK, Joel. I’m just mad at myself. Can you go tell TJ to get off the phone and come eat pizza?”
Grandpa got up and came around the table. “Come on, Joel, let’s go round up your brother and take our time doing it.”
Joel opened his mouth, then shut it and went with Grandpa through the long kitchen. They disappeared down the hallway.
Gabe closed the distance between us. “Still protecting your detective, Sam?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?” Hey, I was ready for a fight. Someone to yell at. Someone to blame this whole mess on.
Gabe softened his voice. “Why didn’t you just tell Zoë who R. V. Logan is?”
Was he that dense? “Because it’s all I have to negotiate with to get that necklace back!”
A black cloud of danger rolled over Gabe’s face, darkening his eyes and thinning his mouth. “We are out of time to negotiate. Are you sure you aren’t protecting Vance?”
Cold fear dropped into my stomach. Was Gabe right? Had I just endangered my best friend’s life to protect Vance? Omigod. Automatically, I defended myself. “Don’t be stupid!” I shouted.
Raw fury wiped out all remnants of the flat cop look on Gabe’s face. His Italian heritage bloomed into hard cheekbones, flashing dark eyes, and a cold voice. “Want to talk stupid, sugar? Stupid is giving Zoë a fake name in Smash Coffee to protect Vance. Whose name did you give her?”
I glared at Gabe. “What were we supposed to do? Just give her the name? As it turns out, she didn’t b
ring the necklace with her anyway! She said we’d get the stuff back after she verified the information.” I was surprised I remembered that, since Angel’s car had exploded into flames right about then.
He leaned in closer. “Whose name?”
What difference did it make? “Hugh’s.”
“Christ.” Gabe hissed it at me. “Did you really think you could pull that off?”
“We had a plan! We were going to Hugh’s house to catch Zoë when she showed up, and then we’d get the necklace back from her!”
“How’d that little plan work? About like all the rest of your plans?”
He was really ticking me off. “What’d you want me to do, Pulizzi? Make an appointment with your assistant and hire you?”
“Sugar, that would have been the first smart thing you did. But you didn’t, so here I am, trying to keep you and Angel alive. And what do you do?”
I was pretty sure he didn’t want me to answer that question.
“You play with the first solid lead we get, protecting Vance. Why is that, Sam? Why are you so afraid to piss off Vance?”
“I was trying to find a way to meet with Zoë! I would have told her!” I wanted to believe I would. Vance hadn’t done anything to help Angel. He had called me a liar. And yet, I understood the stigma that romance writers endured. For Vance, as a cop, it would be a hundred times worse.
“But she doesn’t trust you, because you’ve already lied to her, right? That leaves you with a missing necklace, a missing body, and a determined killer. So here’s the new plan, Sam. You and Angel stay in this house. No one leaves this house.” He turned and stalked off toward the door.
I followed him. “Where are you going? I thought you said no one leaves this house! Who do you think you are, telling me I can’t leave my own house?”
He stopped when he had his hand on the doorknob. Every muscle in his body was pulled tight enough to snap. He turned his frigid fury on me. “I’m the private investigator that’s going to save your ass. That’s who I am.” He yanked open the door and slammed it closed behind him.
15
The slamming of the front door was still ringing in my ears when I heard Gabe’s truck roar to life out in front.
Angel came up beside me. “Your boyfriend is pissed.”
“Jealous. Vance is a sore spot for him. The fact that Dee had forwarded his calls from his cell phone to her cell phone isn’t helping. Gabe’s got that whole hero-complex thing.”
“And he loves you.”
I stared at the closed door, still unable to believe he’d broken the rules this morning. We were supposed to dance around that issue. On the other hand, it made his anger at me easier to deal with. He might be mad, but at least he cared enough to be mad. And he was coming back. “Doesn’t give him the right to be high-handed and so damn male.” Telling me to stay home and let him fix everything. Yeah, right.
“No man saves my ass.”
I turned to Angel. “I’m not against a man saving my ass occasionally, but I won’t be told to stay home while he does it.”
She pursed her mouth thoughtfully. “And it has to be reciprocal. If he’s gonna save my ass, I have to save his once in a while, too.”
“Good point.” I nodded while my mind ran over everything. “Though right now, his ass doesn’t look to be in as much trouble as our asses are.”
“True. Which means we’d better start thinking of ways to save our own asses. I know just where to start.”
I shifted around to face her. “Hugh?” I could see why Gabe thought Angel had lied to me, but he was wrong. The truth was that I hadn’t heard Angel. She’d been trying to tell me something about Hugh, and I hadn’t wanted to hear it.
With a level gaze, she said, “Hugh.”
The boys and Grandpa came down the hallway. Joel was first and asked, “Mom, where’s Gabe?”
I decided I would continue the conversation with Angel in the car. To Joel, I answered, “He went to do some work. You guys get started on dinner. Pizza’s on the table. Angel and I also have some work to do. Grandpa, can I take your Jeep?” My car was still at Gabe’s house, plus it was probably crawling with electronic bugs.
“Where are you going, Sam?” Grandpa held a handful of paper plates and napkins.
I started to answer when I heard a knock at the front door. Angel hurried into the dining room and grabbed her purse, which held her gun. Grandpa set down the paper plates and napkins and pulled out his switchblade.
Why were all the people I knew so weapon-happy? “It’s all right. It’s probably the babysitter Gabe sent over.” Gabe might be mad, but he wouldn’t leave us unprotected. Chances were good he had called whoever was at the door before our little fight. I looked through the peephole, then opened the door and said, “Blaine.”
My assistant walked in. “I smell pizza.”
Shutting the door and locking it, I said, “How long ago did Gabe call you?” He had his blue button-down work shirt hanging loose around his jeans, but I’d have bet my car he had a gun tucked into his pants.
“At least he called me.” Blaine picked up a plate and selected a couple of pieces of pizza. “More than I can say for you, boss. I closed the office.”
“I’m sorry, Blaine. I should have called you.”
He waved away my apology and looked at the boys, who were piling their plates with pizza. “I got some new bearings for your skateboards. We’ll put them on after dinner.” He bit into a fully loaded slice.
“Cool,” Joel said.
“Mine needs new grip tape,” TJ set down his cheese pizza and looked at Blaine. “Do you know how to put that on? I have some.”
“Easy to do. I’ll show you and you can put it on,” Blaine said.
“Did you bring your board?” Joel asked.
Blaine got up and went into the kitchen. I heard him open the fridge, probably looking for a drink. When he came back carrying a beer, he said to Joel, “Of course I brought it. This time I’ll jump over the two of you long ways.”
What? “No!” I shouted. “Blaine, do not—”
All three of them were laughing. I’d been had. Cripes. Joel used the back of his hand to wipe sauce off his face and leaned across the table. “Mom can’t even stand up on a skateboard! Gabe can, Grandpa can, but Mom falls off.”
This brought another round of laughter.
I marched into the kitchen. “Yeah, well, maybe Mom can’t pay for those boards, either.” I picked up my purse and kissed both boys just to annoy them. Then I stopped next to Blaine and put my hand on his thick shoulder. “Thank you.” I meant for more than just protecting my sons.
He drank his beer. “No problem, boss. Everything is set for the open house tomorrow night. It’s going to be a solid turnout.” He picked up his beer and took a sip, then added, “You know that suite next to us that was available?”
The one I had been lusting for, with visions of expanding Heart Mates? After slinging my big black purse over my shoulder, I went into the kitchen to pour two glasses of milk for the boys. Even if this open house brought me enough clients to lease that suite, I wouldn’t have enough money left to furnish it right. I really didn’t need that much space. Setting the glasses on the table next to TJ and Joel, I glanced over at Blaine. “Of course I know the suite. Did the owner drop the price?”
He shook his head. “Nope, but a new tenant signed papers on it today. A year lease.”
Damn. There went my dream of opening up the wall between the two suites. I’d even thought of asking Angel to come in with me so we could work together. It would be big enough for two businesses. And with two budgets, we could have made it look more upscale. “It wasn’t the right time for us to expand, anyway.”
“Sam, you never answered my question.” Grandpa carried a glass of iced tea and set it down at his place. “Where are you going?”
“To Hugh’s house. We want to find out a few things from him, including if he got any information from Zoë. We told Zoë that Hugh was really R.
V. Logan,” I explained.
Grandpa grinned at that, then said, “You told me that you think Zoë went to that conference Romance Rocks magazine holds, right?”
I nodded yes.
“Then I’m going to see if I can crack into the conference attendance logs and find what I can on Zoë. Maybe there’s a cell phone number or something. I’m going to stay on the Mitch-the-Casino-Jewel-Thief trail, too.” He came back to stand between Angel and me. “You two be careful. Take Ali and check in by phone every twenty minutes.”
Careful. Right. I’d dropped my can of defense spray after dousing my own eyes, and that can had disappeared from Angel’s house. Mitch was good at tidying up. I repressed a shiver that revealed my terror of Mitch St. Claire. “I’ll be right back.” I ran into my bedroom and opened my closet door. I reached inside and pulled out the box of stuff that Grandpa and the boys had ordered for me through the Internet. I found my stun gun in the box and dropped it into my purse. There were advantages to suitcaselike purses sometimes—like room for storing weapons and sex-toy kits.
I went back out to Grandpa at his desk and kissed his cheek. “I’m taking my stun gun. We’ll be careful. Tell Gabe where we are when he calls.”
Grandpa studied me with his fading blue eyes. “Not if he calls?”
That struck me. Somewhere along the way, I’d begun to believe in Gabe and me. “He’ll call. And he won’t be happy to hear Angel and I left the house.”
He smiled. “He won’t be surprised. Just be smart. The stun gun is a good idea.”
I looked over at Ali, who had stationed herself at Blaine’s right leg to stare at his beer. “Ali, Blaine is not going to give you any beer. You’re coming with us.”
Blaine laughed. “She’s waiting for me to look away so she can steal it.”
“Ali,” I warned her.
She sighed a huge gust of doggy disappointment, then got up and trotted to the front door. She liked going for rides almost as much as she liked beer.
Once we got settled in the Jeep and were on the road, I looked over at Angel. “Tell me about Hugh.”
She kept her gaze on the road ahead of us. “I don’t believe it was a coincidence that Hugh was at Daystar last Friday night. He was so pissed at me, believing that I was destroying his work and marriage, that I think he was up to something.”
Jennifer Apodaca - Samantha Shaw 04 - Batteries Required Page 20