The Color of Death

by Elizabeth Lowell

  “You’re sure the voice was distorted?” Sam asked, pocketing the tape.

  “Yes. I could hardly understand the words. Then I wished I hadn’t.”

  “You could hardly understand, yet you assumed the caller was somehow connected with the FBI?”

  “No. I assumed that whoever sent the message knew that I’d been to the FBI again. It could have been the local cops. That’s possible, isn’t it?”

  “If this someone has access to FBI files, or local police files, and somehow knew that the Lee Mandel file had been updated, yes, it’s possible. Just.”

  “You don’t believe me.”

  “Ms. Chandler—”

  “Never mind,” she cut in. “You won’t believe me even after you file your report and Lee’s file is updated and I’m found with my throat slit in my own house. Suicide, no doubt.”

  The sarcasm didn’t move Sam, but the edgy fear in Kate’s eyes did. Whatever he believed or didn’t believe about the quick, sexy con artist, she was sure her life was at risk if she kept trying to solve the mystery of Lee Mandel’s disappearance.

  “You’re going to keep pushing anyway,” Sam said.

  “Until I have answers, yes.”

  “Or you die.”

  She bit the corner of her mouth and said nothing.

  Sam decided quickly, going with his gut rather than with FBI procedure. Trusting his own judgment was just one of the many things he’d been in trouble for over the years.

  “Ms. Chandler, do you know what a confidential informant is?”

  Chapter 18

  Scottsdale

  Early Wednesday morning

  Kirby grabbed his digital phone off the bedside, looked at the incoming number window, and swore. The number was blocked.

  “If this is a six A.M. telemarketer from Nebraska,” he muttered to himself, “I’m going to find the asshole and make his headset a permanent part of his equipment.”

  Kirby answered the phone anyway, but only after he started the built-in digital recorder. The person he knew only as “the Voice” used the digital phone to send him new information. He—or even she, who could tell?—used a voice distorter. The meaning of the conversation was always clear though. Every call put Kirby onto a courier who was carrying portable, anonymous wealth. Gems. Rolex watches. Bearer bonds. Even cash. Kirby had several sources, but the Voice was the best. He didn’t mind putting half of the take in an offshore account, even though he couldn’t trace the money’s ultimate destination.

  And he had tried. He wanted to know who his informant was. More important, he wanted to know how the caller had gotten the information to blackmail Kirby into working for him in the first place.

  “Yeah?” he said roughly.

  “Mike Purcell. Clean him out and give him a Colombian necktie.”

  Adrenaline kicked as Kirby recognized the Voice. “That’ll cost more.”

  “I won’t expect a split on this one. It’s all yours. Should be worth at least a hundred thousand to you, maybe more.”

  “And if it isn’t?”

  “Have I ever cheated you?”

  “No.” It was the sole reason Kirby put up with taking orders from a ghost. The Voice was smart, thorough, and wired into the gem trade. Since the Voice had started calling three years ago, Kirby’s overseas accounts had fattened into six figures, heading toward seven. “When do you want it done?”

  “ASAP. Purcell is sleeping in a motor home parked in the Royale’s employee lot. An old Winnebago. Security is battery operated. Pull the leads in the service panel.”

  “He’s not using the hotel safe for his goods?”

  “He doesn’t trust anyone.”

  “Smart,” Kirby said. “Dumb too.”

  “Make sure you get the big sapphire. Size of your big toenail, emerald cut.”

  Kirby smiled. “Where’d a crud like Purcell get that?”

  “Who cares? Just be sure that nothing weighs more than four carats when it goes back into the market. Don’t use Hall. At least one of his cutters is unreliable.”

  “Which one?” Kirby asked.

  The Voice ignored his question and asked another. “You have enough men for another job at the same time?”

  “Depends on the work.”

  “Standard hijack.”

  “Scottsdale?”

  “Yes. Incoming from L.A., usually stops for fuel in Quartzite and at McDonald’s for a clean john. Beige rental car, Taurus, Arizona license…”

  Kirby was already writing on the pad he kept beside the bed. “Electronic key?”

  “Yes, but use a crowbar anyway. Rough up the courier. Have one of your boys drop some gutter Spanish.”

  “Sí. ¿Cómo no?”

  Eerie mechanical sounds came over the line. Kirby assumed it was laughter.

  Hoped.

  He wasn’t a pussy, but sometimes the Voice creeped him out.

  “Be ready to do it again a few days later,” the Voice continued. “They’ll have to send in more gems for the show. I’ll tell you when. The second lot should be the best.”

  “Usual split on that one?”

  “Fifty-fifty.”

  The connection went dead.

  “Fucking-A,” Kirby said, grinning and counting money in his head. Even if he gave half of his half to one of his men, it was still a good score.

  He turned off the phone, stretched his wiry body, scratched his crotch, farted, and walked naked to the bathroom. While he emptied his bladder, he went through his various gem-cutting connections in his mind. Mexico had a few cutters, but like a lot of black-market workmen, they tended to skim the cream off incoming shipments and resell on the side. If the Voice didn’t want anything bigger than four carats out there, Mexico wasn’t a good bet. Maybe Burma. Tricky though. His connection there had pissed off some drug warlords and was still in the hospital.

  “Hell,” he muttered, shaking off the last drop. “Gotta be Pakistan or Afghanistan. Wonder if Abdul is still alive.”

  A few phone calls, a little patience, and the news came back that Abdul was alive and well in Karachi.

  Kirby looked at his watch. Too late to do anything about Purcell. That left the courier. Only question was, Who to call? Murphy was in New York following some merchandise. Rodrigo was in Texas, but he had a new baby and was taking some time off. Sumner was making noises like he wanted out of the game, which made Kirby nervous about assigning him anything physical; if he was caught, he’d roll over in a New York minute.

  Time to check through the files of unhappy ex-agents and soldiers again. Someone is bound to be interested in a little adrenaline and cash.

  Unfortunately, he needed someone now. Someone reliable. Or mostly reliable, which was how John “Tex” White was becoming.

  What makes him think he can do drugs and not turn into a mutt? Stupid bastard.

  Shaking his head, Kirby punched in a number. It was picked up on the forth ring.

  “Yah,” said a man’s voice, yawning.

  “ ’Morning, Tex. You ready to rock and roll?”

  Chapter 19

  Scottsdale

  Noon Wednesday

  Sam’s stomach growled as he climbed up the steps to the strike force’s big motor coach. He was carrying a plastic bag from a nearby minimart and thinking wistfully of the taqueria three miles away. Then he pulled a soda and two packages of peanut butter and cheese crackers from the bag, wadded the plastic into a ball, and fired it toward the first trash basket he came to.

  It missed, but so had a lot of other trash.

  With a nod of greeting to the men and women whose attention was buried in the array of electronics that were crammed into the coach, Sam popped open the soft drink and went toward the SAC’s office. The door was open, so he walked in.

  “ ’Morning. Oh, wait, it’s lunchtime.” Sam saluted Doug Smith with a package of crackers. “Good afternoon.”

  “Close the door.”

  As Sam did, he braced himself for whatever came next. He was
n’t sure how he’d pissed off his immediate superior, but he was sure he had. If he’d had any doubts, the fact that Doug didn’t ask him to sit down was another bad sign. With a sigh, Sam stuffed the crackers into the pocket of his casual jacket and waited for his boss to drill him a new asshole.

  He didn’t have to wait long.

  “What in hell were you thinking?” Doug snarled.

  Since Sam didn’t know why he was being reamed, he didn’t answer.

  “Well?” Doug shoved back his chair and gestured to a slender file that lay on his desk like an accusation.

  Sam had long since perfected the art of reading upside down. The file’s jacket said it all: Lee Andrew Mandel. Well, Sam had been prepared for that. He just hadn’t expected it to hit the fan so fast.

  “If you discovered anything about the Cutter woman, you were supposed to tell Sizemore,” Doug said. “Direct order from Kennedy. Simple to follow. And you fucked it up.”

  “I’m sorry, sir.” Sam worked very hard at sounding contrite. “I was following a CI’s leads. There could be some intersection with the woman Natalie Cutter. Even so, Bureau policy has always been that an agent’s confidential informants aren’t given to anyone in the Bureau without overwhelming reason, much less to a civilian like Sizemore, who is no longer with the Bureau. A civilian, I might add, who knows more than we do about some aspects of the crime strike force’s objectives and keeps that information to himself. His privilege. He’s a private citizen. A CI is an agent’s privilege.”

  Doug blew out one long breath, then another, before he said neutrally, “You have a CI.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “So instead of working with Sizemore as directed by SSA Kennedy, you’re following leads from a CI you’ve turned up somewhere, somehow, all on your own.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Leads that made you curious about a five-month-old case that has career suicide written all over it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Leads that were so red fucking hot that you just had to put highest priority on your requests?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Do you have any idea how many man hours it could take to trace a rental car after five months?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Confidential informant,” Doug said with a bitter twist to his mouth, as though the words tasted bad.

  Sam didn’t answer. It wasn’t a question.

  Doug picked up the file. “I’ll cover you with Kennedy as long as I can. Again.” He threw the file at Sam, who caught it without flinching. “You better come out smelling like a rose garden or you’ll finish your twenty in Fargo and I’ll laugh out loud when I sign the orders.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Get your smart ass out of my sight.”

  Sam was shutting the door behind himself before Doug finished his sentence.

  Chapter 20

  Quartzite, AZ

  Wednesday afternoon

  Tex White acquired his target just where he’d been told she would park: the McDonald’s in Quartzite. He watched her make a short call on her cell phone—probably checking in with her boss. Then she got out, locked the car with a remote-control key, and stretched like she hadn’t been out of the vehicle since L.A.

  Probably she hadn’t. Couriers didn’t take many breaks, because they knew that was when they were the most vulnerable.

  He moved his white van into the parking space next to hers, near her left front door, but he allowed her plenty of room to open her door. He didn’t want her to feel so crowded that she got smart and went around to the passenger side to get in.

  The van’s windows were very dark, even on the driver and passenger doors. The windshield was just light enough to get past the law in California. Quickly, White unfolded a wide sunscreen on the inside of the windshield. Not only would it keep heat out, it would give him complete privacy.

  He got in the back of the van, cracked the side door so that the courier wouldn’t hear it open, and pulled on a ski mask. He reached for the exam gloves he’d stashed in a grocery bag. He pulled on the gloves, flexed his hands, and examined the gloves for flaws. The damn things came apart quicker than a rubber. Satisfied, he pulled a spring-loaded sap from his rear pocket.

  Ready to rock and roll.

  With the patience of a trained hunter, he crouched in back and waited for the courier to use the john, pick up her order, and come back to her car.

  Sweat seeped into his ski mask.

  He ignored it.

  There weren’t many people around the parking lot. The snow-birds had mostly pulled up stakes and headed north again, following the melting ice. Nothing was going on in Quartzite this week, so there weren’t thousands of people crammed onto the dry, dusty grounds of the annual gem and mineral show. It was too late for lunch and too soon for dinner. Only people traveling between L.A. and Phoenix stopped here for a break.

  Not that the nearly deserted parking lot mattered to White one way or the other. He’d taken people out of theater lines with no one the wiser.

  The glass door to McDonald’s opened and the courier came out. Middle-aged, dyed brown hair, lightweight slacks and T-shirt for the hundred-degree heat. Her purse was as unremarkable as she was. She already had the key to the car in her hand. She punched the button that opened the driver-side lock and opened the door.

  White went out of the van like a hundred-and-seventy-pound cat. His lead-filled sap hit the base of her skull with a meaty sound. As she slumped forward, he grabbed the key from her hand and used her momentum to dump her over the car’s center console and into the passenger foot well. He ripped off the ski mask and threw it on the seat. Then he turned and closed his van’s side door.

  Five seconds after the courier had unlocked the door to her car, White slid into the driver’s seat, shut the door, and started the car. He drove to an empty stretch where desert and town overlapped right next to a motel that was barely clinging to survival. Most of the action here was at night, when girls took their customers for a fifteen-minute spin. In the daytime, the place was a ghost motel.

  He drove around to the back, parked next to the big trash bin, and dropped his pants. Gritting his teeth, he ripped off the tape holding a steel bar to his right calf.

  After a quick look around to assure himself that nobody was watching, he went to the trunk, wedged the bar beneath the rim, and gave a brutal yank. The trunk of the little car popped open. He saw a suitcase and a package with brown paper wrapping closed by various security seals. He stuffed the package under his shirt and closed the trunk. Because it had been forced, the lid didn’t shut completely, but it was close enough to look good from across the lot.

  Again he glanced around without seeming to. Still alone. He started to walk back to his van, then remembered the rest of his instructions.

  Rough up the courier.

  He pulled on black leather gloves with lead inserts in the back of the fingers and opened the passenger door of the white car.

  Chapter 21

  Glendale

  Wednesday evening

  Why hasn’t he called? Did he tell his boss about me and now he doesn’t want to face me?

  Kate paced her workshop, wondering if by trusting Special Agent Sam Groves she’d effectively signed her own death warrant.

  Don’t be silly. No one has called to threaten me.

  Maybe that’s because they won’t threaten this time. They’ll just kill me and be done with it.

  Automatically, she glanced at the bolts securing the doors to her home workshop. Still locked. Status lights on the security system were still green. She wished it made her feel better, but it didn’t. She was smart enough to know that all the locks and alarms in the world wouldn’t keep out someone who was really determined.

  The knock on the front door made Kate jump. Heart racing, she went to the nearest intercom, flipped the switch, and said curtly, “Yes?”

  “Sam Groves.”

  “Are you alone?”

 
“I keep my promises, Ms. Chandler.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  What she didn’t say was that she’d be praying every step of the way.

  Sam waited with barely leashed impatience while Kate went through the ritual of peering through the spy hole and undoing the heavy-duty locks and bolts. An afternoon spent memorizing a career-breaking file and making calls to agents who blew him off was just the thing to put a fine edge on his temper.

  When the door finally opened, Sam stepped through fast, making sure she didn’t change her mind about talking to him.

  “Did those locks come before or after Lee died?” he asked bluntly.

  “Before,” she said, shooting the bolt.

  “Why? Do you get a lot of death threats in your business?”

  “No, just hijackers. Some of the rough I cut is quite valuable even before it’s worked.”

  “Like the Seven Sins?” he asked.

  “Yes. They were far and away the best quality rough I’ve done.” She walked three steps and armed the security system again.

  Sam remembered what the dealer had said about the big synthetic sapphire. “So the rough had great color, clarity, and rarity?”

  “All three to the max.” Kate pushed a wave of black hair away from her face as she turned toward Sam. “It was the most beautiful rough I’ve ever worked. Even better, it was one hundred percent natural.”

  “As opposed to synthetic?”

  “You really want to know?”

  “That’s why I asked.”

  She sighed. “It’s tricky. I mean, lab gems are synthetic through and through. Everyone agrees on that. But at what point does a natural stone become so enhanced by man that you can hardly call it natural anymore?”

  “You got me.”

  “Daunting thought.” The corners of her mouth twitched upward. “Every gem association in the world has long, tedious, occasionally short-tempered meetings about where to draw the line between acceptable enhancement of a gem and treatments that are so extensive that they effectively make the stone not natural.”

  “Unnatural translates into less valuable?”