Secrets & Lies (28 page)

“What's with the guns?” I asked, gesturing to the case.

“I've told you that Christina and I go to the shooting range sometimes. Christina loves guns. She has quite a collection. We were at the range this morning. I promised her we'd go before I left town.”

I broke the embrace and slowly moved toward the window. Dear diary, he wasn't lying, but the crazy radar in my brain indicated he was holding back.

“So, are we just going to continue like this forever?” I asked. “I see you every once in a while, we
sleep together
, and then you go away? Leo, a girl needs more than that.”

“Judy, I've told you before, I'm—”

“You're not the marrying type, I know.” I turned back to him. “I suppose I'm not either. Not yet, anyway. But there's something unfulfilled here, and I don't know what it is. I don't have the words to describe what it is I need.”

He held out his hands. “Well, maybe we can figure out what it is together.”

That was a pretty good answer. I leaned against his desk and noticed a beautiful jeweled box next to his telephone. It appeared to be Asian. “This is pretty,” I said. “May I?”

“Sure. That's my Chinese jewel box,” he said. “It was my mother's.”

I picked it up, examined the intricate craftsmanship, and shook it. It felt empty.

“I keep objects of great beauty inside it,” he said, as he pulled the key chain out of his pocket again. For the first time I noticed a bright gold key on the chain, and he used it to unlock the jewel box. “This key is the only thing that will open it. The Chinese made the locking mechanism very intricate; it can't be broken into except with a sledgehammer. See, it's empty.” He showed it to me; the inside was lined with red velvet. “I've never had an object beautiful enough to earn a place inside.”

“Will you ever find an object that's worthy?”

He shut the box and locked it. “Maybe someday,” he said with a smile. He replaced the box on the desk, adding, “It's just my good luck charm. That's all.”

There wasn't much else to say. Whenever I tried to talk to Leo about us, the conversation always ended in the same place. I said, “Okay, I guess I'll go back to Hollywood. Have a nice trip, wherever you're going.”

“I'm flying to New York this afternoon.”

“Wow, New York.”

“You miss it?”

“Sometimes. Want to take me with you?”

He took me in his arms. “I can't. Strictly business. But we'll do that someday soon. We can go and you can see your old friends.”

“That'd be great.”

He kissed me again and, like usual, the electricity went from my lips all the way to my toes. I don't know what it is about Leo Kelly, dear diary, but he has charisma in spades and magic in his touch. At that moment, all of my concerns flew out the window.

I said good-bye to him and Christina. She said, “We'll have that lunch someday soon, okay?” And I drove home.

Did he believe my story that I had come to speak to Christina? I doubt it. At least he hadn't caught me breaking in. That would have been a little more difficult to explain.

Just like our relationship.

T
HE
P
AST

I was surprised to see Judy at my office yesterday morning, and not in a good way. In fact, I was pretty angry, but I did my best not to show it. I didn't believe for a minute that she was there to be “girl-friends” with Christina. Was she snooping? It didn't make sense. What did she think she was going to find? I know she wants more out of our relationship, but I can't give it to her. Especially, not now. Not after last night.

I had told Judy I'd be out of town over the weekend; that was only partially true. Saturday I had things to take care of. Sunday morning Christina and I went to the shooting range. My God, she's good. My sister is a regular Annie Oakley. She's a goddamned expert sharpshooter. During our entire session, I don't think she ever missed the bull's-eye. Not once. She hit every target perfectly. Even Bobby, the manager, came over and watched her shoot. He rarely did that, because a lot of people were good shots. But not too many girls. He asked her if she wanted to enter a competition, but Christina just scoffed. That's not her style.

The incident at the office with Judy rattled me a little, but I was pretty sure I smoothed things over. She is such a honey, such a gorgeous, sexy girl. There's no way I could be mad at her for long, and it would be impossible to stop seeing her. So I won't. It was going to
be tough, though. I would have to pull out all my resources, all of the Kelly allure, to pull it off.

After Judy left the office, I said good-bye to Christina and drove to Vegas. I was supposed to have dinner with the DeAngelos. Maria was expecting me, and Vince wanted to talk to me. I couldn't say no, nor did I want to. Maria had been dropping hints that she might be ready to, you know, go a little farther than first and second base. I wasn't about to pass that up.

So I took the Karmann Ghia and got to DeAngelo's ranch around five. I spent the next two hours with Maria out by the pool. She's a knockout in a bikini; she looks like that French dame, Brigitte Bardot. Oh, my God.

Dinner was a barbecue outside, overlooking that magnificent lawn. Vince offered me a drink—I had a martini—and pulled me over to the side so we could talk before we sat down to eat. Paulie was there, of course, and he was privy to our conversation. Maria was in the house helping her mother with stuff for the meal. They had servants and all that, but Carlotta liked to prepare some meals herself. She's a great cook. Maybe some of that'd rub off on her daughter, which would make Maria an even better catch.

“Remember that thing I asked you about a while back?” DeAngelo began.

“Sure, Vince.”

“Well, we're ready to talk about it. How's your sister?”

“She's great.”

“Is she working?”

“At my company. I made her office manager. She's a quick learner.”

DeAngelo rubbed his chin and looked at Paulie. His son shrugged, so the old man continued. “You think she still has the stuff for a bank job?”

“Absolutely. I think she's itching for it.”

“She's not worried about going back to jail?”

“Nah. She'd make sure she doesn't
go
back to jail. Christina's tough as nails, Vince.”

“And what about you, Leo?” He poked a finger hard into my chest. It hurt too. “Are you tough enough for a serious bank job?”

“Yeah, Vince. Sure.”

“How many did you do with your sister?”

I lied. “A bunch.”

“Yeah?”

I held out my hands. “Hey, she's the expert. I was the bagman.”

“You weren't with her when she got popped?”

“No. That was pure dumb luck. Two beat cops happened to come into the bank just as the job went down. Her two companions were shot and killed.”

“I remember now.”

“So what have you got, Vince? Tell me about it.”

He handed me a cigar. I didn't smoke them, but I let him light it anyway. It tasted like horse manure. I think it was from Cuba.

“You ever heard of a guy named Frank Santorini?”

“Sure. He was a big mob boss in Chicago back in the '40s, wasn't he? I read that he died a few months ago, in L.A.”

“Yeah. Heart attack. He moved to L.A. after he served some time. The guy was in his seventies then. He was a widower and lost two sons in World War Two and a third on the streets of Chicago. Frank was ninety-five when he died. I knew him, he was a good man. He ran his business like an admiral, but he handed it over to his crew and walked away in 1947.”

“He must have been a tough old guy,” I said.

“He was. Anyway, you ever heard of the Florentine Diamond?”

“I don't think so.”

“It's a big yellow diamond, around a hundred and thirty-seven carats, cut very intricately. It originally came from India, but its travels are the stuff of legends dating back to the fifteenth century. The Medici family owned it, because we do know that a French jeweler and traveler named Tavernier saw the diamond among the Duke of
Tuscany's treasures and sketched it. It eventually passed to the Hapsburgs of Austria, because the Grand Duke of Tuscany married Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna. The diamond became part of the Hapsburg crown jewels in their palace, the Hofburg. Have you ever been there?”

I had no idea what he was talking about. “No.”

“I have. What a palace. Those people lived like kings.”

“They
were
kings, Dad,” Paulie said.

DeAngelo frowned at his son. “Shut up, I'm telling the story.” He puffed on the cigar a moment and continued. “After the fall of the Austrian Empire at the end of World War One, it's believed the diamond was taken by the imperial family into exile in Switzerland, but it was stolen along with other gems and possibly brought to South America. However, it's a long-standing rumor that the Florentine somehow found its way to America in the 1920s, and then it disappeared. As of today, no one knows where it is.”

“Really.”

DeAngelo held up a finger. “But I do. Our friend Frank Santorini bought it on the black market, brought it with him to Los Angeles, and hid it in a safety deposit box at the Security First National Bank on Hollywood Boulevard.”

“The diamond is in L.A.?”

“Yes, it is. You may ask how I know this. I will tell you. Frank Santorini and I were close friends. He revealed his secret to me shortly before he died. He was planning to take it out of the bank and sell it, but he passed, may he rest in peace, before he could do it. All this time I've been trying to find out if it really is in the bank. I had to pay off a bank manager to confirm it.”

“How much is it worth?” I asked.

“Depending on the fence, it could fetch up to five million dollars. Maybe more.”

I whistled. “And it's sitting in that bank?”

“Yeah. And the thing is, Frank didn't leave any next of kin who can inherit the contents of the safety deposit box. I've learned that if
the box goes unclaimed by the end of September, they'll open it and reveal its contents. If that happens, all hell will break loose. The diamond would be analyzed and identified, and most likely it would go back to Vienna and sit in the Hofburg Treasury, useless to anyone.”

“That's quite a story, Vince.”

“It is, isn't it? But the final chapter involves you and your sister.”

I felt a shiver go down my spine. “We're gonna snatch the diamond?”

He nodded. “I've hired one of the best bank men in the business. Marco Maroni, do you know him?”

“Christina does. She's worked with him before.”

“Perfect. He's the boss of the operation. You and your sister will join his team and do whatever he says, understand?”

“Sure.”

“He has one guy already, but he needed two more reliable people, and I suggested you and Christina.”

“I appreciate it.”

“Marco is doing all the planning. The job will be sometime in September. You're going to break into that safety deposit box and take the Florentine Diamond.”

“Wow.” I swallowed hard. “You can count on us, Vince.”

“I hope so. That diamond is going to be a Christmas present for Maria.”

What?
A five-million-dollar diamond—for
Maria
? “That's wonderful, Vince. I'm sure she'll love it.”

“Okay, we'll talk closer to the day. I'll have Marco contact you directly. Not a word to anyone.”

“Of course, Vince.”

We shook hands and had another drink together. Then Carlotta called us to dinner. Maria had changed into a sundress that amplified her bosom and bare arms, and we sat together. The food was out of this world. Even Paulie was friendlier than usual.

Later on, Maria and I took a nighttime walk around the grounds. We stopped in the gazebo and talked about stupid stuff—her car, her dog, her clothes, her this and that—the same old superficial selfish stuff. I especially can't stand her little foo-foo dog. Mitsy. A toy poodle. All it did was yap at me. I'd like to kick it into the swimming pool and watch it drown.