Scottsdale Heat: a romantic light-hearted murder mystery (Laura Black Mysteries Book 1) (23 page)

“I’ve met Milo. Next time I see him I’ll let him know about your needs.”

~~~~

The first place we went to was Alex’s apartment. Crime scene tape was still on the door, but there was nobody watching and Danica had given me a key. We slipped in and started searching. Although some of the clutter had been rearranged, the place was still a mess. Somebody had cleaned up the kitchen, throwing away the perishable food that had been thrown on the floor. I guess the police thought rotting peas and French fries weren’t going to help in the investigation.

Sophie searched the kitchen and the living room. I searched the bathroom and the bedroom. I didn’t find anything useful in the bathroom, but the bedroom looked more promising.

In the corner of the bedroom was a desk. I remembered it as having a computer, along with several stacks of papers. The computer was gone, presumably still in the crime lab, but the papers were still there. The piles had been rearranged but everything was still as I remembered it. I sat down and started on the first pile. It seemed to consist mainly of old bills. Unfortunately, as I went through the stacks I didn’t find anything helpful.

I had just finished the last stack when Sophie came into the bedroom holding a small key.

“I found this in a drawer in the kitchen,” She said. “Looks like a mailbox key.”

While Sophie searched the living room, I went down and used the key in Alex’s mailbox. There were two flyers from Wal-Mart, a catalogue from Land’s End, and a couple of pre-approved offers for credit cards. There was also a letter from
Catalina’s
, a high-end jewelry store in downtown Scottsdale.

I took the letter and went back up to the apartment. Opening it, I saw it contained two diamond appraisals dated four days before Alex disappeared. The first stated the object being appraised was a 4.21-carat diamond. There were a lot of numbers and letters describing the diamond, but my eyes went to the bottom of the page. The appraised value was listed as $33,500 per carat for a total value of $141,000. The second was an appraisal for another diamond. This one was valued at $31,700 per carat for a total value of $147,000.

I took the appraisals and put them in my purse. Sophie didn’t find anything in the living room except for a handful of hundred-dollar bills, which had been hidden in the pages of an old Bible. I wondered how the people who ransacked the apartment could have missed it. Maybe they weren’t looking for money.

“You know, it’s a damn shame we don’t know if Alex is dead or not,” Sophie said. “If he were dead, he wouldn’t need this money. As it is, I have to put it back. If I took money from his Bible and he was still alive, I’d probably burn in Hell. Maybe even
La Llorona
would come for me.”

“Who is La Llorona?” I asked.

“La Llorona is the weeping woman of the river. A long time ago she drowned her children in a river, in order to keep a man. I guess he hated kids. Then she killed herself out of grief over what she had done to her children. Her spirit still roams lakes and rivers, looking for her kids. Since now she is so old and blind, she can’t tell if you are one of her children or not. If she finds you, she just grabs you and pulls you under the water.”

“Then you’re probably right to leave the money there,” I said.

~~~~

The next stop on our list was Scottsdale Audi. Sophie stayed in the showroom looking at the new cars while I went in and found William Martin. Even though it was Sunday morning, he was energetic and seemed happy to see me.

“On the Tuesday before he quit, was Alex at the Scottsdale Blue Palms?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “But, I can find out in just a second.”

He turned to his computer and typed for several minutes on the keyboard. At last he looked up.

“Yes, that Tuesday, Alex delivered a new TT Roadster to a client who was staying at the Scottsdale Blue Palms. Is it important?”

“I don’t know. I’m just checking out a story I heard. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything.”

I stood up to leave. He again gave me the thumb and forefinger gunslinger’s salute.

~~~~

Next we drove over to the Scottsdale Tropical Paradise. Ingrid wasn’t working the art gallery. Instead there was a pushy older man who kept telling us he could arrange financing on any piece in the gallery. We left without making a purchase and without finding out anything new.

~~~~

From the Tropical Paradise, we made a stop at the Scottsdale Blue Palms, and the scene of the bag switch. Sophie and I walked around the main lobby then into the back lobby. The tape from the hotel security camera showed that Alex had come into the main lobby from this semi-hidden back lobby.

As we explored, we found there was nothing in the back lobby but a few shops and a rear entrance. Sophie decided to look around in a shop that sold high-end, shoes, purses, and dresses. I went out to see what was beyond the back entrance.

I opened the door and went into the warm Arizona sunshine. I followed the path from the back lobby and saw it wound down to a parking lot and the main pool area. I assumed Alex had come up this way to make a quieter entrance into the lobby.

I turned and climbed back up the path to the rear lobby. Sophie had moved to a souvenir shop. She was holding up a paperweight of a dead scorpion encased in clear plastic.

“Isn’t this the nastiest thing you’ve ever seen in your whole life?” Sophie said. “I hate scorpions. Just looking at it makes me want to throw it on the floor and stomp on it.”

“So, go ahead. Buy it and stomp on it.”

“Nah,” she said, now holding the paperweight up and looking at it from the side. “You know what I’m gonna do instead? I’m gonna buy it. But then I think I’ll keep it on my desk. It’ll be sorta like having the world’s ugliest pet. The best thing about this kind of pet is I never have to feed it, or walk it, or pick up its crap from the carpet. Then, if I ever do get tired of it, I’ll take it out and stomp it. Maybe I’ll even run it over with my car.”

~~~~

Meyer’s Jewelry was our next stop. Jimmy Meyer was there, still looking like the world’s oldest hoodlum. We browsed the store for several minutes without finding any clues. Sophie bought a nice silver and turquoise ankle bracelet. She stopped outside the store and added it to the collection on her ankle.

It was getting late in the afternoon. I dropped Sophie off at the office in time to go to the wedding. She flipped me off when I told her to catch the bouquet.

~~~~

I called Max and my heart did double-time when he answered. I asked him if the bag had been found.

“There hasn’t been any word of it,” he said.

“What if the Russians or the brothers find it first? Won’t they just take the diamonds and leave the country?”

“The Russians are the sellers. If they find the bag they’ll call and tell us they have the diamonds. Then the sale would take place and everybody’s happy. If the brothers find it first, they might try to sandbag us for a day or two. They’d then most likely insist they had been insulted and try to leave the country with the diamonds. We’ve taken safeguards against that possibility.”

“So, what do you think? Does anyone have the bag yet?”

“I don’t think so. I just talked to both groups about an hour ago. I didn’t detect anything like that. They’re all the same ill-tempered jerks they’ve always been. Both groups are still demanding we find the diamonds and conduct the exchange. We have men shadowing both groups. Other than the fact that the Russians are still holding Alex, nothing of note is happening.”

“Any word on how Alex is doing?”

“None at all. The Russians are playing this pretty close. But it wouldn’t make sense for them to kill him or even seriously harm him. Every move they make is directed by Moscow and they don’t kill or maim without reason. As long as there still is a chance to get the diamonds back, he should be OK.”

I said good-bye to Max and hung up the phone.

~~~~

I drove through the now-darkened streets of Scottsdale, ending up in front of Dos Gringos. I was feeling more than a little hungry and I knew a three-pack of street tacos would hit the spot. I went to a booth and ordered the tacos, along with a Diet Pepsi. The sound of the people laughing and the music playing in the restaurant helped me think.

In about ten minutes, the waitress delivered my dinner. As I slowly munched the tacos, I started at the beginning, piecing together what I knew:

The Russians brought the bag containing the diamonds into the country a week ago Tuesday. Alex delivered a car to the Blue Palms that same morning. While there, he stole the bag from the Russians. I had confirmed Alex was leading his usual life up until the point when he was asked by his boss to drive the car to the resort. Until he went to the Blue Palms, Alex didn’t seem to be involved with any of it.

After he stole the bag, Alex most likely took it back to his apartment. He had probably looked into the bag on the way back to his apartment. This could account for where I found the CD, under the seat next to the passenger door. If Alex had just found the pouch with the three diamonds, he wouldn’t have noticed if a disk had fallen out.

Alex had two of the diamonds appraised, but once he was told they were real, he didn’t wait for the official reports to come in. He fenced the first diamond at a pawn shop in downtown Scottsdale. He got a pile of dough, quit his job, and then went crazy spending the money. A few days later, while I was following him, he fenced the second diamond at Meyer’s Jewelry, and the third at the Tropical Paradise.

Jimmy Meyer alerted Tony DiCenzo that he had just bought one of the missing diamonds. Ingrid Shanker, the pinched-faced art dealer, called DiCenzo and told him Alex was in the gallery fencing the third diamond with the Iceman, Albert Reinhardt, at which point DiCenzo’s men began trailing him.

Since Alex was fencing the diamonds, DiCenzo’s guys naturally assumed Alex was the one who had the bag and was acting alone, but they couldn’t know for sure. If they were wrong and they just grabbed Alex, his partner would bolt, diamonds and all, never to be seen again. Instead, they followed Alex around for a couple of days to see if he would lead them to the bag and the rest of the diamonds. They had already searched his apartment and knew the diamonds weren’t there.

DiCenzo found out about my involvement through the hotel security tapes at the Tropical Paradise. He then used Lenny to hire Gina and me to help him search for the missing bag independently. DiCenzo probably told both the Russians and the Consortium brothers he was going to have me assigned to the case. Tony didn’t realize how quickly the Russians and brothers would become impatient and both groups would try to kidnap me to find out what I knew.

The Russians then tried a more direct approach. They trashed Alex’s apartment. When they didn’t find what they were looking for, they kidnapped Alex in hopes of torturing him to find out what he knew.

The brothers were also frustrated the diamonds hadn’t been found. Since the Russians already had Alex, they decided I would be the next best hope of finding out what they wanted. Unfortunately for them, I escaped. I know they would have come after me again if DiCenzo hadn’t warned them off. So now there was nothing for them to do but to wait, at least I hoped they would wait.

Danica’s house was trashed the day after the Russians kidnapped Alex. Under torture Alex must have spilled the beans that Danica was his girlfriend and where she lived. The Russians must have thought her house would be a likely place for him to hide the diamonds. I also assumed the reason my apartment hadn’t been trashed was that DiCenzo’s men had already gone through it and had told everyone it was clean. Maybe I need to install another deadbolt.

So where was the bag? If Alex thought the gym bag was empty, there was a real possibility he had thrown it away. A shudder went down my spine at the thought of that. No, if Alex had simply thrown the bag away he would have confessed that to the Russians. They would have then tortured him until they were convinced he was telling the truth. Everyone would have stopped looking for the bag, or at least be looking for it in the Maricopa County landfill. Since that hadn’t happened, it must still be around somewhere. The question is, where?

~~~~

After dinner, I got back in my car and drove around Scottsdale. This helps me think and sometimes I’ll drive past something that will jog my memory. I shoved a Katy Perry CD in the player and turned the sound up. The light bouncy music helped me concentrate.

I drove around Old Town. I drove the neighborhood around Alex’s apartment. I drove around Gainey Ranch. I even drove back up to the north Scottsdale golf resorts.

After almost two hours of driving, I had to admit I had nothing. I drove back home to Marlowe and went to bed.

~~~~

I had another sleepless night and got up in a bleary-eyed depression. A hot shower helped clear my head. I pulled on jeans and my favorite red knit top, swiped on some make-up, and again did the ponytail thing with my hair.

I got in my car and drove to the office. It wasn’t there was anything going on there. I just didn’t want to sit at home waiting for another idea to pop into my head.

~~~~

Sophie had just arrived. I could tell this because she was still reading the southern California surf report on her tablet. I had seen her do this a hundred times. In her youth she had been a California surfer chick and old habits die hard. She heard me coming in from the back offices.