by Hadley Quinn
“Did you put it in a safe deposit box?”
“No, I was in Italy. I was there three years ago and that’s when he gave them to me. I was twenty when I brought them back with me.”
“A half-million in jewelry?”
She smiled. “Pretty much. I wore half of it—people are hardly aware of what’s real and what’s fake—and my sister wore the other half.”
“Your sister Jaime?”
She eyed him for a second. “You ask questions like a detective,” she teased.
He tried not to seem guilty. “Sorry. This is just fascinating, I guess.”
She shrugged. “My other sister, Fontaine. She and I did a shoot together—one last hurrah for me with my sister, I guess. My parents didn’t know about it because I didn’t want them to know. They found out about it later on, but only Fontaine got the backlash from it since I wasn’t speaking to them.”
“How come they were so upset? Because you kept it from them?”
She shrugged again. “We didn’t get along. I had quit the industry because of them and told them I didn’t want anything to do with it. I guess I didn’t want them to know about the shoot because it was like…letting them win a tiny battle in a war. But they found out about it from one contact or another.”
“So what of the jewelry? How would Quincy have it?”
She sighed. “I don’t know for sure.”
“Well just...tell me what you think.”
“Okay, well first of all, the jewelry was missing when I moved out of Brian’s apartment. The box it was in wasn’t where it should have been when I looked for it later.”
“Did Brian know you had it?”
She sighed again. “Yes. Unfortunately. I didn’t mean for him to come across it, even though he knew I had a lot of high dollar things. But I kept it in a handbag that I pretty much just hung up to look pretty. He had tossed it to me one night when I was trying to decide on an accessory and the box kind of dumped out.”
“The jewelry did, too?”
“Yeah, just a bracelet. Desiderio had given me a bracelet, a necklace, a ring, and two sets of earrings. I put it away, letting Brian think it was just the one piece. That was the night we broke up. I didn’t think anything about it until I went through all my things after moving out. I couldn’t find it anywhere. I just assumed that he’d found them and pawned it all. I was heartbroken but… What could I do?” Her face darkened when she added, “He had the nerve to ask me about it later on.”
“He did? When?”
She swallowed, caught in her own summation. “Um… Well…”
Cole could only assume. But if he didn’t ask about it, wouldn’t she be suspicious?
He didn’t have to because she quietly said, “Before he raped me.”
Just hearing her say the words was like a punch to the stomach. He knew the entire story already, so why was he feeling like it was the first time he’d heard it?
Because it was. Studying case files was one thing; sharing intimate secrets with a friend was something entirely different.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly.
She took a deep breath, obviously still affected by it. “Anyway, he paid Quincy to get me there, but I didn’t know that at the time. Brian asked me where the jewelry was and when I said I didn’t have it, he got all upset. Apparently it’s what he’d been scheming for. I think that’s why he was so crazy about getting back together with me.”
Cole had to slow his mind down. It was like seeing half of the puzzle with various pieces scattered around, but it still wasn’t enough to tell what it was. “And he only knew about it since the night you guys broke up?”
“I think so. He looked surprised when he saw it because I’d had to sell a lot of items to take care of my financial situation. When I first started dating Brian, I had already used up most of my savings to help my brother out. I knew Simon would pay me back eventually when he could, but there were more and more things that just added up and… Brian was really sweet to me. It makes me sick to say that, but he was. And he even helped me out quite a bit when I didn’t have money for this or that. He paid for a lot of things without ever expecting anything in return. Or so I thought at the time,” she frowned. “I wasn’t in love with him, but living with him made things so much easier. He even asked me to marry him and I said I would think about it. But my life seemed so much better because I had a place to live rent-free and someone that treated me well. I said yes, eventually. I guess I felt like I owed him that, but maybe I was using him because it was convenient? It’s probably why I deserve all of this,” she sighed.
“Jesus, Dani. You don’t deserve any of this.”
“Well eventually his true colors started to come out. Thank God I started to see it before I really did marry him.”
“He became abusive?”
“No, not physically right away. But stupid little things, like questioning what I was wearing, or how I did my hair. He started to make me feel really self-conscious. And then he moved on to bigger comments about my friends or where I went or what I did.”
“The subtle signs of an abuser,” Cole nodded knowingly.
“Yeah. But then it became not so subtle, you know? When he hit me at the club that night…”
“He hit you?”
“Yes. And once was one time too many.”
“Good for you.”
“That’s when I met Van. He saw me a few minutes after it happened.”
Cole forced himself to smile. God, why couldn’t he have been there that night? “And Van made an instant enemy, huh?”
“Yes,” she frowned. With a sigh she added, “Sometimes I wish things had happened differently but… Who knows if things would have turned out different or not. Sorry for the pity party. I guess I just wanted you to see why I was with that creep. Maybe I feel like people are judging me, and now Van is in this big mess because of it…”
“I don’t judge you. And if other people do, they can kiss off. We live and we learn. If it wasn’t that then it would have been something else. We all have shit that we have to struggle through. Nobody’s exempt from it.”
Hearing that made Dani feel a lot better. It didn’t fix anything, but at least she felt comfortable talking to Cole about it. He had a way of making her feel at ease.
“But anyways,” she sighed. “Back to the jewelry.”
Cole nodded. “So did Brian ask about the bracelet when he saw it?”
“Yeah, he said something like, ‘Nice, was that a gift?’ So I told him yes, and told him about Desiderio’s daughter.”
“And that was it? He didn’t ask anything else?”
“No. He knew I had things like that before, but I’d been gradually selling them to help my brother after a car accident. Those weren’t going to be sold, though. They were too sentimental.”
Cole was silent again as he thought. “Okay, so how does Quincy come into all this?”
She took her time answering as she tucked her legs up under her. “Van broke his nose when he found out about what happened. Um, what Brian did to me and how Quincy was involved. A few days later Q came back to the apartment building to move his stuff out. I was the first one to see him there because I was finishing up in the laundry room.”
Cole nodded. The laundry room was right by the stairwell.
“He saw me and we just kind of…had an awkward moment. I was…so hurt about what he’d done and… Anyway, I loaded up my laundry really fast and headed back to Van’s apartment before he found out Quincy was there, but Eddie had already called up to warn Van that Q was in the building. Van bolted out the door to find him. Thank God Cody was there to stop anything from happening but…” She sighed and looked Cole in the eye. “I saw the box.”
Cole raised his eyebrows. “The jewelry box? Are you sure?”
“Not positive, but it was a silver case that looked exactly like it. It was in a cardboard box that Q was moving his things out in, just right there on top, stuck in a pair of shoes.”
>
Cole settled back against the couch after he realized how into her information he was. It blew his mind, but he had no idea if it had anything to do with Van’s case or could set him free. “So how do you think Quincy got the jewelry?”
“I don’t know if he has it.”
“You didn’t assume? How come you didn’t say anything? I mean right then would have been the perfect time.”
“There was too much going on. But he did set the cardboard box down when he thought he was going to be defending himself against Van, and when no one was looking, I opened the silver case. There was nothing in it. Then Quincy told everyone to fuck off, picked up his stuff, and left for his car.”
“So what makes you think he’s got them? Maybe he pawned them?”
“I had pictures of the items. I took them to all the pawnshops in the area. I didn’t get anywhere. No one had come across anything like it. I’m not sure if I’m glad about that or not.”
“So how do you think Quincy got the diamonds? If he even did.”
“I don’t know. That’s what I want to find out. He had the case, but that doesn’t mean he had the jewelry.”
“So you want to break into his place—wherever it is he’s living—and just…look for them?”
She sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Maybe Brian had misplaced the jewelry and then ended up finding it again. Maybe that’s how he paid Quincy or Quincy stole it from him.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t do anything with them except hang the purse back up on the closet door when we left that night. If he went to take them from the handbag and discovered them missing, did he think I somehow took them with me?”
That was a good question, Cole thought, and another puzzle piece was reappearing right in his mind but he couldn’t tell her about it yet. “Who helped you move?”
“Van. And Cody and Paul met us there. That was the first time I met them.” When he didn’t say anything she defensively added, “I didn’t know them then, but I know them now. Neither one of them would steal something like that.”
“I didn’t say they would.”
“Well you looked like you were considering it.”
“I was only thinking to myself.”
“Fine, but I love those two like brothers. They would never do something like that. And all they did was carry the big stuff and the things that were already bagged or boxed up.”
“Have you mentioned this to either one of them?”
“The jewelry? No.”
“And you didn’t even tell Van?”
“No. Well not in so many words. I’ve said things in general like how Brian had gotten rid of a lot of my things. Van didn’t really know at the time that I owned so many things of value. He didn’t really know the extent of my career.”
“You kept it from him on purpose.”
She didn’t answer right away. But it was the truth so she said, “Yes. I really just wanted to move on from all of that. When I met Van it was like the real part of my life was just beginning. Whatever it was about him…I just felt like it was where I was meant to be. I didn’t care about my past or anything else. It didn’t mean anything to me.”
Cole was silent. He knew this was a dead end street he was on and his feelings for this girl weren’t going to go anywhere. He wished he could just flip a switch to turn them off.
“Well?” Dani asked. “What do you think?”
“I do think you’re nuts,” he stated.
“Gee, thanks a lot.”
“Well, I have two questions. No, three. Well, probably more than that. How do you know where Quincy lives?”
“I saw him yesterday.”
Cole almost choked on his own spit. No one had been able to find Quincy. He tried not to reveal how big this news was to him on a professional level. “Where?”
“Up town. He was trying not to be seen, that’s obvious, but he was coming out of a billiards bar.”
“Which one?”
“Dixon’s.”
“And what were you doing over there?”
She smiled at him and said, “Aww, you worried about me, Cole?”
“Yes,” he replied honestly. “That’s kind of a shitty part of town.”
She raised an eyebrow. “And you learned that when, newbie?”
She’d caught him off-guard. Damn, he needed to stop being so casual.
“I heard about a crazy bachelor party someone had there,” he lied. “They mentioned it was the worst part of town or something. Anyway, you didn’t talk to him or anything, did you?”
“No. I saw him as I drove by—”
“And why were you in that part of town?” he interrupted. Obviously it wasn’t a day or time he’d been following her.
“I used the street for a photo project,” she said. “If you look closely at Cody’s fight poster, it’s faded in the background. It’s where Cody grew up. I’d already done the photos a while back, but I went there yesterday to get an extra few shots during the sunset. I’m not sure if I’ll change the design with a new photo or not, but I wanted the option.”
He slightly nodded. He was normally good with detail like that but hadn’t noticed.
“I was there for, like, two minutes tops. I took my pictures from the north end of the street, and then I left. I saw Q when I was heading for home so I pulled over and just started following him while he walked.”
“You tailed him, huh.” Cole chuckled, trying to picture it.
“Hey, I did a pretty good job. He walked four blocks and then unlocked a trashy looking duplex and disappeared inside.”
“But are you sure he actually lives there?”
“No,” she admitted. “But I watched the house for a bit. No one else came in or out.”
“Hmm,” Cole thought. “So you actually want to go in there and… And what, Dani? Turn the place over, looking for stolen jewelry?”
“I know you think I’m nuts,” she said. “I just have this weird feeling about something.”
“Okay, I understand hunches. But what about Van’s case? They’ve been looking for Quincy, haven’t they? And you don’t want his defense team to know?”
“Of course I do,” she scoffed, seeming cross. “I want that little shit to confess to everything that he’s done. But I only saw him yesterday. Do you really think Quincy would stick around if he knew he wasn’t in hiding anymore? It’s happened before. He feels the heat, he’s gone. I don’t want that to happen this time. And it’s not even about the jewelry. I know how badly Jack needs to find him, but I’m just scared. What if he disappears for good?”
“And you don’t trust that people will handle it this time? You don’t trust Van’s defense team?” He told himself not to take it personal, but he couldn’t help it. Damn it, he wished he could tell her.
“No, to be honest. I don’t trust anyone.” As soon as she said it, she scoffed to herself. Here she was, confessing all of this stuff to Cole.
“His lawyer is Mickey’s brother, right?”
“Jack. Yes. And I know Van trusts him, but I don’t know these people. God, I feel like a fish out of water here.”
“Who do you trust?”
She sighed but didn’t answer the question. She was thinking over her options. “I guess Quincy bolted when the police were involved, right? If Jack has private investigators… That’s different, isn’t it? They can do things a little more discreetly.”
“Definitely,” he nodded. This he knew for a fact. He could understand her hesitation when it came to the police being involved. “Who does Jack have working for him?” he tried. “Do you think they’d be discreet enough?”
“Pssh, I don’t even know who his minions are. Van doesn’t even know, either.”
Cole chuckled, which caused Dani to smile and nod her head. “Okay, I see your point.”
“Talk to Jack, Dani. Or at least just say that you think you saw Quincy and… I don’t know. You say whatever you need to. Just don’t do this on your own, okay?”
She looked at him and the embarrassment returned. “I’m so sorry Cole. I can’t believe I asked you to… Jeez, I am really losing it…” She put her face in her hands and he heard her sniffle. “I’m a mess,” she said, starting to cry.
Don’t do it, don’t do it… He got up and sat next to her. Stupid ass, he told himself as he put an arm around her shoulders. She leaned against him and cried a bit more.
“I don’t know what I can do for Van,” she sniffled. “Earlier today he said he wished he could be let out so he could prove his innocence. It just…broke my heart.”
“We’ll figure it out, Dani. You need to take it easy, okay? You’ve got a little one that you need to consider. Getting all stressed out and upset isn’t good for a pregnancy, is it?”
“No, it’s not,” she replied, crying even more.
God, I really am an idiot, he realized. “Dani, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you more.”
“It’s not you,” she mumbled. “I honestly believe I’m losing my mind. I can’t think straight. I don’t sleep well. I’ve been doing things that I don’t even understand. This morning I put on clothes that didn’t even match.”
That made him chuckle. He couldn’t help it.
“Hey,” she said, playfully smacking his chest. She sat up and wiped her face of the remaining moisture that hadn’t ended up on Cole’s shirt. “That just goes to show how screwed up I really am right now. I can normally match my clothes in my sleep.”
“Well, some of us can’t match our clothes in broad daylight, so that is definitely a talent.”
She smiled at his teasing.
“I think you should call Van’s lawyer, Dani. Tell him where you think Quincy is living, okay? It could be what Van’s case needs right now.”
“And what if it makes things worse?”
“What could make it worse? You’re afraid Quincy will skip town? They’ll put a tail on him, Dani. It won’t happen. I promise. Just make the call, okay?”