Scottsdale Heat: a romantic light-hearted murder mystery (Laura Black Mysteries Book 1) (21 page)

“So who was it?” I asked, although I knew the answer.

“I thought you would have guessed by now,” DiCenzo said. “It’s your buddy, Alexander Sternwood.”

Well, I saw that coming.

“How could he have been so stupid?” I said aloud.

DiCenzo just made a small grunt of disgust and continued. “So, Sternwood makes the sale to Ingrid. Then, what do you know? When we reviewed the Tropical Paradise security tapes, we found someone was following him. That someone was you.”

Shit, I should have seen that coming too.

“From the cameras in the parking lot, we got your license plate. From that, we found out who you were and that you worked for that shyster Lenny Shapiro. So now you can see how you are beginning to fit in.”

Yeah, just what the hell did I walk into?

“I sent Max over to Lenny’s to do two things. The first was to find out what you knew about Sternwood and the diamonds. The second was to press you into helping us look for the bag. Sometimes people get lucky and maybe you had come across it without knowing what it was. As it turns out, you were approaching Sternwood from the angle of keeping an eye out on him for his grandmother. For us, that was perfect. You had a legitimate reason to follow his every move. I’ve had a team following you to see where you went and who you’ve talked to.”

OK, so hearing this pissed me off. I knew I should have kept my mouth shut, but hey, that’s just me.

“You’ve had guys following me? Did they happen to notice almost got shot by the Russians and was kidnapped by Smith and Jones? If I’m so freaking important to you, why’d you let them almost kill me!”

As I was yelling, I glanced over to see Max break out in a small smile. Milo had crept over to where we were sitting, presumably to get between Tony and me in case I got out of hand. Tony absent-mindedly waved Milo away.

“Laura, Laura,” DiCenzo said. “No need to get your panties in a twist. We were aware of your confrontation with the Russians. Matter of fact, it was Max here who fired the shots that got you outta that one. Maybe he shouldn’t have done it. We’re not supposed to be taking sides in the recovery of the diamonds, but it seemed to have worked out for the best.”

I looked over at Max, who was still smiling and holding up his glass in a salute. It was a sweet gesture and seeing his eyes on me gave me a warm feeling. It was a nice distraction.

“We also saw Smith and Jones take you,” Tony went on. “But, at the time we didn’t know if you were working with them or against them. By the time we found out they were trying to pump information outta you, you had already helped yourself escape. We didn’t interfere because we weren’t needed. Actually, you handled yourself pretty good in there. It made me think you were somebody that maybe I could do business with.”

Well that’s just great. I almost get killed just to impress the freakin’ Godfather.

“Tony,” I said. “If you knew Alex stole the diamonds, why didn’t you just pick him up and question him until you found out where they were?”

“Yeah, that mighta worked,” DiCenzo said. “But what if he had a partner who was holding the diamonds and would bolt if Alex didn’t call in every half hour? We might never have found them. We figured if we just followed him, he’d lead us right to them, no need for a heavy hand.

“You probably already know this,” I said. “But Alex disappeared two days ago. They also found a dead guy in his apartment, minus his hands. Do you know what’s going on?”

“Matter of fact, I do,” DiCenzo said. “You know Alexander’s gone missing, but what you may not know is the Russians have him.”

“Boris and Ivan?”

DiCenzo smiled. “That’s not their names, but yeah, those two.”

“Is he all right?”

“At the moment, he’s doin' OK.”

“What about the dead guy?”

“After the diamond courier lost the bag, Moscow sent orders to get rid of him. This was not unexpected. You can’t just lose that much merchandise and expect to come out in once piece. After taking care of the courier, the two Russians left the body in Alex’s apartment. That was after they had chopped off the hands. I heard they sent them FedEx to Moscow as proof of the job. After placing the body in the apartment, they performed that messy search. We, of course, already knew the apartment was clean because we had already searched it. Unfortunately for Alex, he came home while they were still there. The Russians had been keeping an eye out for him, just like us, in hopes he would lead them to the diamonds. This, however, wasn’t yielding them results. They saw Alex’s appearance as a golden opportunity to learn what he did with the diamonds directly.”

“Why did they put the guy in the apartment? It doesn’t make sense,” I said.

“Leaving the courier there was stupid. All that did was to pull the police into it. The Russians were going to use the courier to send a message to Alex. Come up with the merchandise, or else. Of course, since they snatched him as soon as he came home, the message was probably lost on him. From what I hear he has confessed only to giving the bag away to someone else.”

“Tony, there were two guys following Alex around on Tuesday and Wednesday. They were involved in a smash-up on the highway Wednesday morning. The car was registered to Arizona Security Enterprises. Were those two guys working for you?”

DiCenzo looked at me, a spark of surprise in his eyes.

“So, you knew about those two? Yeah, they’re mine. Damn shame about them losing Alex. We didn’t pick him up again until he came back to his apartment later that night when he was grabbed by the Russians.”

I took another sip of my Scotch and gathered my thoughts.

“OK,” I said. “I’m confused. You said Alex already sold all of the diamonds in the bag. What’s left to look for?”

“Like I said, the three diamonds in the pouch were only samples,” DiCenzo said. “Hidden in the lining of the bag are more diamonds.”

“How many more?”

“A lot more.”

“Tony, that doesn’t help me much. I’ll need to know what I’m looking for.”

DiCenzo looked at me for a moment; he then hardened his eyes, staring right at me.

“All right, you’re looking for almost three hundred diamonds. That’s a little over half a pound. They’re all big, three to five carats, perfect color, and most are internally flawless.”

“Half a pound?”

“Exactly,” he said. “Half a pound. So now you know why everyone’s so stirred up.”

~~~~

DiCenzo paused to take a drink. “Laura Black,” he said, his voice softer now. “Since we are going to be working together on this one, let me ask you something. The past few weeks the city has been uneasy, maybe not so you’d hear about it. Something fundamental has shifted but I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“When something’s about to happen, something big I mean, you tend to get warning signs. Sometimes they’re subtle, but I have had warning bells going off in my head for about a month now. Nothing on the surface, you understand, but on the loading docks, the warehouses, and in the back rooms, people are uneasy. My guys tell me a lot of the illegals have disappeared. I don’t think they actually went anywhere, but they are keeping off the street. The heads of the three gangs in south Phoenix have dropped outta sight. From what my sources tell me, even the cops have felt it. Since you get around during the course of your daily activities, I was thinking perhaps you might have felt something amiss.”

“Not a thing, but I’ve been busy with an assignment, and then this thing with Alexander came up.

“At first, I thought this Alexander Sternwood thing might have something to do with it, but now I’m not so sure. Nevertheless, keep your ears open and let me or Max know if you see something that doesn’t feel right. Can you do that?”

I was about to tell Tony the whole situation didn’t feel right when Johnny came over and whispered something to him, waving his arm in the direction of a door along the back wall. The whispering and arm waving continued for almost a minute. DiCenzo spoke a few sentences to Johnny. Johnny nodded his head and left the room through the back door. Three men then appeared in the door and DiCenzo waved them in.

Two goons walked a third man over to where DiCenzo was sitting. Everyone in the alcove turned to see what was happening. As soon as the third man came into the alcove, he started talking.

“Tony, I just want you to know I’m so sorry about what happened. I was out of my mind. I just went nuts. I’ll pay for everything and I swear to you it’ll never happen again.”

“You’ll have to excuse this interruption,” DiCenzo said to me. “I have to take care of some unfinished business. This piece of shit standing here is Sonny Boy Muzzi. He used to work for me, bringing merchandise up from Mexico. He’s been hiding in his sister’s basement for a week, but she ratted him out to us this afternoon. Seems she didn’t want any part of hiding his sorry ass any longer.” Although DiCenzo was talking to me, he was keeping his voice loud enough so everyone in our little room could hear him speak, even over the music being played on stage.

“A few months ago, Sonny Boy here took it into his head to start banging the wife of the manager of the Headhunter lounge at the Tropical Paradise. She also works there, as a cocktail waitress.” DiCenzo paused and looked at Sonny. “And in case you didn’t know, that’s one of my bars.” DiCenzo paused again and took a sip on his Scotch. “It got to the point where he was nailing her two, three times a week. They even started renting rooms at the Tropical Paradise so they could meet on her lunch hours. The manager of the lounge caught wind of it and started missing work. He’d wander through the hotel, listening at doors trying to catch her in the act. It was starting to affect his performance at my lounge. Not to mention it was starting to creep out the hotel guests. I mean, here’s this guy walking up and down the halls, pounding on room doors whenever he hears someone inside having sex.”

DiCenzo motioned for two more drinks.

“In order to help straighten things out, I sent a couple a guys over to have a little chat with Sonny. No violence you understand, just a friendly conversation. Personally, I think it is unseemly that the wife of one of my guys is disrespecting him like that. In my heart I just couldn’t let it go on. Things like this always lead to trouble. So after we have our little chat with Sonny here, what does this piece of shit do? He goes over to the Tropical Paradise, walks into the Headhunter, and smashes up the whole goddamned lounge. He smacked around both the girl tending the bar and the waitress. The waitress wasn’t the one he was banging, you understand, she was a different one who just happened to be working in the longue that day. He then kicked in an antique jukebox. He even used a chair like a baseball bat to break the lights that hung over the tables. Then just to top it off, he throws the chair over the top of the bar. It shatters the mirror and wiped out a dozen bottles of my best booze, all top shelf stuff. By the time hotel security got there, Sonny had bolted. You know the rest. So, now that I have him, I’ve gotta figure out what to do with him.”

Sonny started up again. “Tony, look, I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll pay for everything and leave the state. I’ll never bother you or your business ever again, ever. I swear.”

DiCenzo turned to look at him. He spoke in a low menacing tone. “Just what the hell do I look like to you? Do I look like someone you can fuck with? Do I look like someone whose bar you can smash up and then just walk away?” DiCenzo dope-slapped him across the top of his head. “Well, do I?”

Sonny started shaking his head back and forth like a bobble-head doll. DiCenzo looked over at me. “So, Laura Black, help me out. If you were me, what would you do with this piece of shit scumbag?”

Jeez, how do I get myself into these situations? I’m giving a gangster advice on delivering mob justice to a wayward henchman? OK, stay calm. Just think like a mobster.

I took a long sip on my fresh Scotch and put on my best gangster face. I looked over at Sonny Boy Muzzi. He wasn’t acting much like a tough guy today. His head was hanging down and he looked like he was about to cry.

“Hey, having an affair is a two-way street,” I said, adding as much bravado to my voice as I could without having it shake. “He didn’t make her do nothin’ she didn’t want to do. So, I’d give him a pass on that one. Maybe your lounge manager is lousy in the sack, who knows? But, tearing up your lounge, that’s completely different. He smashed the lamps? Kicked in the jukebox? Slapped around the women? Threw a chair over the bar and shattered the mirror? Wiped out the good booze? Hell Tony, if I was you, I suppose I’d shoot him.”

Shoot him? Why did I say that? I didn’t mean to. It just slipped out.

DiCenzo looked at me for a moment and then nodded his head. “Shoot him? OK, we’ll shoot him.”

Sonny Boy’s head shot up, his eyes bugging out, his entire body shaking. Terror filled his moist red eyes. “No, please Tony, no. I’m so sorry. Don’t do this and I’ll make it up to you, Tony, I swear on my children. Please don’t do this!”

DiCenzo dismissed him with a slight backwards wave of his hand. “Get that piece of shit outta here.” The two goons began to drag Sonny out.

Oh Jeez! Did I just hand that guy a death sentence? Shit! OK, Laura, stay calm. How the hell can I fix this?

“Hey,” I said. “Hold it a minute.”

Everyone stopped and turned to look at me. DiCenzo’s drink was in his hand, stopped halfway to his lips. He was staring at me, opened mouthed.