by Dale Mayer
She looked at him in surprise. “Actually … I didn’t. Let me grab my laptop, and I’ll see where it is.” She brought her laptop outside and logged on. From the email, she picked up the tracking number and checked it. “It’s coming into the office tomorrow morning,” she said. Then she frowned. “Maybe not though. Another email is here. Something got changed.” She read through it, her frown deepening.
Dezi waited, then finally asked, “And?”
“It was switched out in Austin for some reason. So it’s coming in from a different company now.”
“What company is that?” Vince asked, his voice clipped. “You’ve got to understand how, anytime there’s a change like this, it’s not good.”
Startled, she raised her gaze. “But this is a change within the actual courier company. They’re just using a second courier for the delivery.”
“Is the piece insured by the courier company?”
“I would imagine so,” she said, “but I don’t know if they insure something like that for the full amount.”
“What is the full amount?”
She glared at him. “This piece is worth $147,000.”
Dezi felt the air gush from his lungs. “And they send that by courier?”
“How else?” she demanded. “How do I get a piece to Dubai? Will they come here and pick it up? More than likely they’d want me to go there and deliver it. I don’t have time for that.”
He nodded. “True enough. Some security companies though handle the higher-priced items. Most couriers don’t handle insurance at that asset level.”
“I do have an extra insurance policy for pieces I’m sending out.”
“Interesting,” Vince said. “When do you let the insurance company know about the extra insurance needed to ship a piece?”
“As soon as it’s packaged and I have a tracking number, but, before then, we’ve already established the value with pictures, etc., for each individual piece, confirming the amount of extra insurance I need.”
The two men looked at each other.
Dezi said, “Bingo.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked. “It’s an insurance company. They will hardly steal their own insured products.”
“Maybe not,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean somebody in the company isn’t connected to somebody who is forging.”
She sagged in her patio chair, reached for her wine and tossed the last of it back in one gulp. “I think you guys are looking for devils where there aren’t any,” she said.
“What we’re looking for is the devil who’s forging your work, and what you’ve done is given us another place where there’s a weakness.”
“How would I have known it was a weakness?” she asked. “That’s stupid. I pick up extra insurance to make sure my pieces are safe, and that gives me a weakness?”
“In the chain of who knows what pieces are traveling when and where, the insurance company is definitely one of those insiders privy to that tracking system.”
“Sure,” she said, “but so is every courier company then. If whoever is doing this can access or hack a courier company, they would certainly have researched the pricier pieces in my collection. The insurance per piece would have told them that.”
“But you add extra insurance, don’t you?”
She nodded slowly. “Yes. My pieces are individual and, therefore, priceless. And, in a lot of cases, they’re worth a lot more than they are insured for as there are no duplicates,” she said. “But I’m not the only one to move high-ticket items.”
“No, but you’re probably one of the few people who use regular courier companies to do so.”
She nodded. “That’s quite possible, but that’s also why I do the extra insurance.”
“And the extra insurance involves extra eyes, extra people, extra databases that can be hacked,” Dezi said. “We’re not saying for sure it’s them. And that’s only one of the many possible answers. But it is one we should track down.”
Vince interrupted, “We need names and contacts for the insurance company. Do you have tracking numbers for each of these recent shipments, since the last six weeks or so?”
She groaned. “I have emails for every one of them.” She glanced up at the silence. “Now what?”
“It seems to me everything comes back to your email,” Dezi said. “How secure is your email?”
She groaned. “I have no idea about that. I use a regular email account.”
“Passworded?”
“Of course.”
“How well passworded?”
She closed her eyes. “I’m pretty sure you’ll say not very well. So now you think it’s my emails? Sounds to me like you’re grasping at straws.”
“Not grasping at straws,” Vince said. “We have to know all this stuff so we can make an informed decision. Levi will check out your email accounts, make sure nobody has hacked them. Is this a business account?”
She nodded. “Yes, it is. And, yes, I have an IT professional handling our company software.”
Both men sighed.
“Okay. Look, guys. I mean, I run a business. I can’t handle everything. We hire professionals for that reason.”
“Absolutely,” Dezi said. “And now that we have a problem, we have a lot more people to sort through. That’s fine. But we need all the contact information for everyone you hire, so we can get the answers we need.”
“You should probably talk to my IT guy first,” she said.
As Dezi waited, she opened up her emails and rattled off various names and numbers.
“If you have any of this in writing,” Vince said, “start forwarding the emails to Levi. We need the courier’s insurance company that handles your packages, the courier companies with a manifest, particularly the one coming in tomorrow morning. And anything to do with your IT guy. The company, your contract, anything that helps us figure out who has access to your designs.”
“What you’re saying is, it could be anybody,” she whispered. “As in it could be damn near anybody in my life.”
“That’s about it,” Dezi said. “The good thing is, we’re the ones who can help you fix this.”
*
The guys were back in their hotel room, all set up, both with their laptops on their laps as they ran down the list of names Diamond had given them. It was one of the most research-intensive jobs they had done recently. Levi and Ice had Stone and Merk working on the IT angles back at the compound, while Levi and Ice cleared the insurance angles. At least Diamond’s IT professional had been cleared already. From the results, it appears someone outside her company and the insurance company had hacked in. So far Levi had cleared twenty of the twenty-two men associated with the three sisters but they hadn’t been able to clear two of them yet.
By now there were just too many ways somebody could have hacked into one or more of her systems and gotten the information they wanted. Dezi pulled out his phone and called Di. “Diamond, what about competitors?”
She laughed. “My biggest competitor is my family’s company,” she said smoothly, humor tinging her voice. “But they handle large quantities of high-end jewels, whereas I handle one special piece at a time. I don’t do mass market.”
“Do they do mass market?”
“They wouldn’t like me to say it, but, if you compare it to what I do, then definitely they do.”
“So then, are you competitors?”
“We are in the sense that we both run jewelry stores,” she said pensively. “But the family business has stores all over the world, and they carry some of my designs, so I don’t know that we’re actually competitors.”
“Okay, so dig deeper,” he said. “Think about other designers. Did you ever go to school with any? Did you do any art shows with anybody? Were you ever good friends with another jewelry maker who might see you as direct competition?”
“You’re barking up the wrong tree,” she said.
“It can’t be the wrong tree,” he stated, “unless y
ou’ve climbed up the tree and checked it inside and out and can confirm it’s off the list. We never bark up the wrong tree.”
“You know what I mean,” she snapped in exasperation. “You guys didn’t have to leave so early, you know.”
“We were hungry, and you had already eaten,” he said, “so we went to the restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel. We’re back in our room now, working on the research. Besides you didn’t exactly invite us to stay, and we figured we’d been in your face enough for the last two days.”
At that, she laughed again, the sound light and airy as it filled his phone. He found himself grinning like a silly fool. He glanced at Vince who rolled his eyes at him. Dezi tried to sober up and then gave it up.
“Besides, if you wanted us to stay, you should have said something. But maybe now that we’re talking, we can do dinner tomorrow night.”
“Yes,” she said. “And maybe this time it won’t be all work.”
“Nope, not all work,” he said. “But there still has to be some work because it’ll be one of the few chances we get to connect with you regarding all these questions.”
“I’m surprised you’re staying in a hotel in Houston. Your compound isn’t very far away, is it?”
“No, we’re staying overnight again tonight,” he said. “We’ll probably end up going home tomorrow night. We had a lot of places to hit today.”
“Places, like what?”
“We hit the security company, and we were at the insurance company, at least the local office here. Levi contacted the head office in both cases. We also tracked the routes from your workplace to your home, checked on timing, locations, where parcels could have been switched. Things like that.” He chuckled. “Really just groundwork. Not a whole lot of brains engaged just yet.”
“Kind of like my life,” she said, joking.
Her voice was almost sardonic, as if she’d heard it many times over.
“I’m looking forward to seeing my father though. That’s always a bright spot in my day. Especially after I had canceled many other appointments over the year just to catch up with him.”
“Has his business always been an issue in the family?”
“Always,” she said. “Particularly for me. Don’t forget. When I was growing up, his jewelry store was already a megabusiness, and my three sisters had been born over a short three-year span, then I came along seven years later. I don’t think he expected to have another child at that stage in life.”
“And then I suppose he didn’t really know what to do with you when it did happen.”
“Exactly. Although we’re close, I’m not sure I’m a priority.” Her tone was light, friendly, as if she’d already come to terms with it.
“Will you tell him about this?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I wasn’t going to, but I’m not sure what I want to do. He would understand and probably have some suggestions on how to stop the problem. But I don’t know if I want to listen to his suggestions. They tend to be more like orders.”
Dezi chuckled. “That’s part of being, A, a father, and, B, a big businessman. They always figure they know what is best.”
“But he doesn’t handle any of that. He has the same security company I do, just the main European branch,” she said lightly. “That’s why I went with them.”
Dezi’s back stiffened. “Meaning he hires the same IT company, same courier companies?”
“Yes to all of it,” she said. “Why would I need to use anybody different? The companies he uses are fantastic and have worked well for his company, so it only makes sense for me to continue to use them. Besides, I worked in the family business long enough that I had personal connections with these companies. They all worked out well for getting me started.”
Dezi abruptly ended the call.
As soon as he hung up, Vince looked at him and said, “I hear it in your voice. You’re heading into trouble.”
“Hardly that kind of trouble,” he said jokingly. “She wouldn’t consider someone like me. She comes from big money. I come from a single mother, working at minimum wage, doing the food bank on weekends,” he said with a drawl. “Nobody in Diamond’s position would look at me twice.”
“I didn’t get the impression she is concerned about your bank account,” he said.
“No, but she’s also not looking. And, if she were to look, she wouldn’t see anything to appeal. You know her family would have a lot to say against it.”
“I’m not sure what her family will say. Considering her previous choices, they might see you as a hell of an improvement,” Vince said. “Did I just hear she uses the exact same companies for her business that they do?”
“Yes. There’s a Liechester store here in Houston. Therefore, we might need to expand our search parameters if we don’t get any other pops.”
“Back to that competition angle again then?” Vince’s fingers were busy sending the new information out.
“Yes and no. She says they aren’t in competition.” Dezi explained the differences. “When I asked her about other competitors, other designers, she just said I was barking up the wrong tree.”
“I just sent that information to Levi. He should have some answers for us soon.” Vince glanced at his watch. “We’ve been here two nights. Not sure we need another. We can commute back and forth to the compound.”
“I’d be okay back at the compound myself. It would beat the meals here totally,” Dezi said, looking at his watch. “I wonder why they asked us to stay in Houston.”
“In case Diamond ran into more trouble,” Vince said, “we’d be close on hand.”
“We’re hardly very far away though at home,” Dezi said and frowned. He called Diamond back and asked, “Have you ever had any problems at your own house?”
“What do you mean?”
“Burglaries, dead phone calls, intruders. I don’t know. Maybe weird people coming to the door. Anything like that?”
“No,” she said lightly. “Again you’re grasping at straws.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But you hired us, remember? And we have to look at everything. Just make sure you stay safe and that the security is on, okay?”
After he said goodbye, he tossed his phone on the coffee table. It had barely bounced when it rang. He lifted it to see it was Diamond. “What did you forget?” he asked in a teasing voice.
“I did have a guy deliver a pizza I didn’t order.”
“When you opened the door, did he say anything to you?”
“Just said he had a pizza for me, and, according to his instructions, it was the right address.”
“And yet, you didn’t order it?”
“No,” she said, “I didn’t. What do you think? Does that mean anything?”
He could hear from the hesitancy in her voice that she’d taken his warnings to heart. “I’m not sure. Do you have a way to see who’s at your front door without opening it?”
“Yes,” she said. “But I didn’t use it that time.”
“Well, don’t open the door again unless you know the person on the other side. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Is your security set up, and are you locked inside?”
“The front is. I don’t have any security on the backyard. That’s where I live too, remember?”
“Do you have anything around the perimeter?”
“No,” she said. “The only security I was worried about was for the diamonds and the jewelry and my designs.”
“Are you inside or outside right now?” he asked.
“I’m outside because I’m talking to you. But I was inside when the pizza guy came.”
“Are you saying that was tonight?” he asked in a sharp tone.
“Yes,” she said. “Stop it. You’re really scaring me now.”
He got up and paced the small room, his gaze on Vince. “I’m coming over,” he said sharply. “I don’t like this one bit. Anything that’s an anomaly right now is not cool.”
; “Or do you just want to come over and spend time in my backyard?” she asked in an attempt at humor. But it fell flat.
“I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes,” he said, already throwing his stuff into a bag.
“Okay,” she said. “Maybe come around back.”
“No,” he said. “Don’t let people come around to the back at any time. You have no idea who they are. I’ll ring the doorbell. You make sure you check it’s me before you open the door. Got it?”
“Got it.” But she didn’t sound happy. She hung up the phone.
He pocketed his cell and grabbed his overnight bag.
Vince looked at the bag and asked, “You want backup?”
Dezi considered it. “I’m probably making too much of it, but, when a pizza guy shows up with a pizza she didn’t order, and it’s supposedly the right address, it makes me nervous.”
“With good reason,” Vince said calmly. “I’ll stay here. I’ll let Levi know about the change. As soon as you get there safe and sound, send me a text.”
Dezi nodded. “I know it sounds stupid …”
“Hell no. Not at this stage of the game. There’s no reason why a forger would go after her there, unless he thinks she moved her designs to her house.” He glanced at the bag and then back up at Dezi. “Did she?”
The two stared at each other. “You know what? She was probably freaked out just enough that she might have. I won’t be at all surprised if everything she’s got is back home now.”
“All the more reason to go, good thing we brought two vehicles,” Vince said. “Remember. Let me know when you’re there safe.”
Chapter 5
It seemed like an hour before Dezi finally arrived. She didn’t know if he was coming alone or with Vince. She hoped Dezi would be alone. There was something very magnetic about his personality. He always had that quiet sense of humor but yet seemed such an indomitable force. Of course his size was also extremely comforting. She was no small female though. At five feet, ten inches, she was taller than a lot of her colleagues, and she was the tallest of everybody in her own store. But Dezi towered over her. It was a good feeling.
