Dashing Through the Snow (29 page)

“Oh. Well, why didn’t you say so?”

“Because you didn’t --”

“Take the fight out of my alley, children. I
need my peace.”

Lily looked at Andrew. “Sorry. We’ll be
leaving now. I’ll see you on Christmas Eve.”

He nodded without smiling. “That you will.
Did you check for the green in the well like I told you to?”

Lily looked at him. He stared right back, his
gaze keenly intelligent and lucid. She shook her head. “No, I
didn’t, Andrew. Why?”

He suddenly looked agitated. “You should
listen to your Cousin Andrew, Lily,” he told her urgently. “He
wouldn’t steer you wrong.”

Smith put a hand on his arm. “She’s sorry,
Andrew. We’ll look now. Should we go now?”

Andrew nodded. “Yes, that’s good. That’s very
good. You go now and you go with our Lily-girl. Keep her safe in
this dangerous world. Go now,” he said again before turning and
walking into his home.

Lily looked at Smith. He grabbed her arm and
rushed from the alley. “Come on. I think your cousin’s just given
us a clue.”

“Crazy as it sounds, so do I,” Lily said as
she slid into the passenger seat.

“I don’t know how he would know, but at this
point, anything’s worth a shot,” Smith said as he started the
car.

“Maybe it comes from living on the street.
People try not to notice people like Andrew, but he probably tries
to notice everything just to survive.”

“Good point,” Smith said, taking a sharp
curve at a dangerous speed.

“You’re going to the old well on Town Square,
right?”

“Yes.”

“What could he be talking about when he says
green, though?” Lily murmured as she thought about it.

“Maybe he means the diamond, but calls it
green because he knows it’s worth a lot of money.”

Lily bit her lip. “I don’t know. With the way
his mind works, that theory’s certainly a good one.”

“Well, we’re about to find out,” Smith said
as he parked the car a block away from their destination. Cars
weren’t allowed on the Square.

“Come on,” he said and took Lily’s hand when
they were out of the car.

“Gosh, I’m excited,” she murmured as they
hurried along.

Smith looked at her and smiled at her
contagious grin. “Me, too. Let’s go see what we can see.”

The Square was mostly deserted at that time
of night, something they were both grateful for. Lily slowly made
her way to the well. She lifted her leg high and stepped over the
rope blocking it off. Turning on her flashlight, she positioned it
so that it shone down in the well. Smith added his light.

“See anything?” she whispered after a few
minutes.

Smith continued to look. “It’s not that deep,
so we should see something if it’s there.”

“Well, I don’t,” Lily said after a few more
minutes of searching in vain.

“Unfortunately, I’m forced to agree,” Smith
said as he withdrew. “I see nothing but sediment.”

Lily straightened as well. “Maybe he meant
actually in the well, you know,
in
between the stones,” she
said hopefully and kneeling, began to shine her light on the
outside of the structure. “Maybe Andrew saw Landry hide it behind a
loose stone. And remember, Kip did say he saw Landry at the well.”
She raised her hand with the though of pressing her fingers between
the stones. “Well, shit,” she muttered in disgust at her
immobilized fingers. “You’ll have to do it by yourself, Smith. I’ll
go to the other side and look and call you if I see anything.”

“All right, but be careful. We don’t want to
ruin the landmark, and we need to hurry before the cops come by.
I’m sure this is a usual beat.”

“I’m hurrying,” Lily murmured.

The well wasn’t that large in circumference
and after a few minutes, they’d made their way around it twice.

Lily sighed in frustration. “Nothing.”

“Goose egg,” Smith agreed.

Both their heads snapped up when they heard a
door close. Smith froze and put his hand on Lily’s arm. “We can’t
be too careful. Let’s go,” he told her. And since the sound had
come from the side of the Square that was nearest to his car, he
began to lead her in the opposite direction once they’d climbed
over the rope.

Heart slamming a tattoo against his chest,
Smith quietly pulled Lily in front of him and guided her where he
wanted her to go. He put his mouth on her ear. “We’re going to walk
toward the funicular and double back to the car.”

Her breath shuddered out between stiff lips,
but Lily nodded. Smith put his lips on her ear again. “When I say
run, I want you to take off like the hounds of hell are after you,
understand?”

Lily nodded again. “Only if you come with me,
though,” she whispered.

“I have a gun; you don’t.”

Lily winced. “Good point, but I’m not leaving
you.” A sudden thought occurred. “I can call John.”

Smith was trying to watch both of their
backs, his eyes slowly scanning. “Do that!” he said more forcefully
than he’d intended and pushed Lily farther in front of him. He’d
seen and felt a presence to his right and a little bit behind him.
Catching the man by surprise, Smith stepped back into the other
man’s space, turned his body into the step and raising his elbow,
slammed it underneath the man’s chin, snapping his head back on his
neck. There was a loud crack and Smith knew he’d at least broken
the other man’s jaw. The man didn’t make a sound, rocking on his
heels for a moment before crashing to the ground.

Lily stood there stunned at the violence for
a moment, but then grabbed Smith’s hand and started running. “Is he
dead? That’s one of the men from the museum, isn’t it? The one who
stood watch while his partner hurt me.”

“No, he’s not dead, and yes, I think it is
him, so the other guy’s probably not far behind. Go, go, go, go,
go!” he said urgently as he steered her ahead of him. Footsteps
were pounding behind them, and putting on a burst of speed; Smith
grabbed Lily’s hand and dragged her toward the funicular.

She kept up with him, her breath blowing out
in brief pants. The funicular was closed, as Smith knew it would
be. He tried the doorknob of the ticket seller’s cabin and found it
locked. He looked across the platform at the funicular car that sat
there empty. It too was locked. Smith pulled out his gun and
holding it by the barrel, slammed it against the glass window of
the door several times until he had a big enough hole to reach his
hand through.

That accomplished, he went to work on his
second task. The interior was pitch-black dark and he pulled Lily
inside. “Lay under the bench,” he told her.

Pulling his gun from his holster, he kneeled
on the bench seat across from her, hunching down just far enough so
that only his eyes and the top of his head were in the window.

He let his eyes adjust to the darkness and he
waited.

Chapter Twenty-five

It wasn’t long before the man in the Fedora
lumbered onto the platform. “Didn’t keep me waiting, did you, ya
big bastard,” Smith muttered as he thought about how the man had
tortured Lily. He almost shot him just on principle.

“Don’t, Smith,” Lily hissed. “You’ll regret
it.”

Smith frowned. For someone speaking from the
floor, she sounded remarkably close. It was almost as if she were
sitting right next to him. He turned his head. Scowled. She
was
right next to him. She was kneeling on the other end of
his bench. He turned back to look out the window. “God damn it,
Lily; I told you to get on the floor.”

Lily kept her eye on the window. “I’m not
hiding. I have just as much right to be here as you do.”

“It’s not a fucking rivalry.”

“Now’s not the time to argue. Pay attention;
he’s coming closer.”

They watched as he crept closer to the car.
Smith waited for him to get close enough to tug at the door. “Stay
here,” he told Lily before rushing out of the ticket seller cabin
to sneak up behind the other man. He ground his gun into the man’s
back. “How does it feel, you thick son of a bitch, to be the one
with the gun in your back? Put your hands in the air,” Smith
demanded and when the man complied, searched him one-handed until
he found his gun.

“I’m afraid you’re the one with the gun in
your back now, Smith.”

Smith stiffened and closed his eyes in
disgust when he heard Kip Beech’s soft, cultured voice.

“Give me his gun and yours,” Kip said.

Smith was trying to formulate a plan when he
suddenly heard Kip make a choking, gasping sound and then the gun
was gone from his back. Kip continued to make choking sounds and
Smith felt him tug heavily at his coat and then he heard a crash.
Puzzled, Smith turned. Kip was passed out on the platform. And
there stood Lily. Barefoot and holding a stun gun to Kip’s
neck.

All Smith could do was grin.

She scowled at him. “You weren’t even
watching your back.”

“Didn’t have to; you were.” He grinned.

She grinned back.

The man in the Fedora took the opportunity to
run.

“Shit,” Smith muttered and took off after
him. “Stop! Don’t make me shoot you.”

The man looked over his shoulder, trying to
gauge how close Smith was. “Watch out!” Smith yelled. “Watch where
you’re going!” But he was too late. The man was on a collision
course with a row of newspaper boxes that lined the platform. He
noticed them a second too late and in trying to avoid them, twisted
his body and took a tumble. Right off the platform. Smith caught up
just in time to see him roll ass over teacup as he fell down the
incline. Lily arrived beside him.

“Oh, my God.”

“Yeah,” was all Smith could say. He turned to
her. “Did you call your cousin?”

“I tried, but I couldn’t get service. I sent
him a text and told him to come to the funicular.”

“And how about Kip?”

She pointed. “He’s still down there. I had to
stun him again because he started to come out of it. He’s huge and
the stunner didn’t pack enough of a punch. I had to zap him three
times.”

Smith laughed and threw his arm around her
shoulders as they began walking back toward Kip. “Sweetness, you
make a perfect private eye.”

“I wouldn’t go that far, but I’ll tell you
something,” she said just as the sound of screaming sirens
penetrated the air. “I think I know where Landry is, and he’s got
the diamond.”

***

Three hours later, Lily, Smith and John stood
on Jasmine Street in front of an SRO with the unlikely name of
Jonah’s Whale. It had been a long night in which they’d taken a
trip to the police station and given statements.

“It’s right across from Cousin Andrew’s
alley,” Lily pointed out, “so he probably sees everything that goes
on. I thought about it while we were running, Smith. I’ve seen the
place hundreds of times -- every time I come to visit Andrew. He
wasn’t saying well, he was saying whale. We just weren’t paying
close enough attention.”

“All right, let’s go in,” John said. They
waited while John approached the desk clerk with his badge and a
photo of Charles Landry.

“How’s your hand?” Smith asked her.

Lily looked at it, turning it one way and
then the other. “Hurting, but I can handle it. I’ll take my
medicine once we wrap things up here.”

John approached them. “He’s here all right.
Down the hall in room number eight. He’s registered under Juan
Tawnee.”

Smith and Lily exchanged a glance.

“The clerk gave me the key. Let’s go surprise
Mr. Landry, shall we?”

They arrived at the room and John knocked
once, perfunctorily, before using the key to open the door. Lily
would have followed John into the room but he’d stopped dead in his
tracks with a surprised, “What the fuuuuhck?”

Smith, who could see over John’s shoulder,
muttered, “Jesus,” in a disgusted voice and said nothing else.

“What?” Lily asked anxiously before pushing
and squeezing past them to crash into the room. What she saw had
her bursting into uncontrollable laughter.

Charles Landry lay on the bed. Stark naked.
With the Golddigger’s Folly strapped to his penis.

Lily couldn’t judge who was more shocked: him
or them.

“Jesus, Smith,” Lily said later as they
waited in the police station. “If she was in on it; we’ll never get
paid!”

Smith winced. “I know, but I believe she is,
and what’s more, I think she hired us just to find her husband, not
figure things out about the diamond. Think about it, Lil. We were
reporting everything we found to her. She could have been the one
to send those guys after us at the museum.”

“But he told me to stay away from the diamond
and
Landry
.”

Smith shrugged. “Maybe, he didn’t follow her
orders, or he just went overboard. Whatever. She’s in on it.”

“So your theory is that they were all in it
together: Landry, Tam, Fedora hat, Fedora hat’s partner, Kip Beech,
Mrs. Landry and Ramirez at the museum because he had to give them
access.”

“Yes, but the only problem is Landry took the
diamond and ran. Obviously, he wasn’t supposed to do that. That’s
when we were brought in.”

“But don’t you think Mrs. Landry would have
thought sending us after him was too risky because we might unearth
some things she didn’t want us to know about?”

Smith snorted. “She probably didn’t think
that he’d be dumb enough to talk to someone outside of the group
about the diamond, like he did with Mr. Anders. And I’m sure she
didn’t expect that he’d leave a map to the museum behind. Just like
she didn’t think he’d run. But obviously, the man is arrogant and
careless. Hell, he didn’t even have the chain on the door at that
SRO he was staying at.”

“But you have to admit it was smart of him to
hide in town, right under their noses.” Lily said. “I don’t think
we’d have found him if not for Cousin Andrew.”