Hidden Deception: A Shelby Nichols Adventure

by Colleen Helme

  He wasn’t as big either, and his cropped hair, along with the couple days’ growth of beard on his face, was mostly gray. It made his face look kind of dirty, but his black eyebrows evened things out a bit. He spotted Uncle Joey and hurried over before the hostess could lead him our way.

  He took the chair across from Uncle Joey with a stony face, waiting for his guards to sit on either side of him. The same waitress took their drink orders, and no one spoke until she left.

  “Manetto,” Yuri said, with an obvious Russian accent. “It seems we have a problem.”

  “It pains me to agree with you,” Uncle Joey answered. “First, I want to thank you for meeting with me so we can work this out.”

  “It is the least I can do for my friend.” He glanced at me with curiosity. “But before we get started, you must tell me who this beautiful lady is, and what she is doing with an old man like yourself.”

  Uncle Joey narrowed his eyes. He didn’t like being called an old man, but he let it go. “This is my niece, Kate. She’s my protégé, and I wanted her to see how I do business.”

  “You are very lucky to have such a beautiful niece with the brains to run your organization.”

  The waitress returned with everyone’s drinks, and we all kept our mouths shut until she left.

  “So,” Yuri continued. “It seems as though we are at an impasse and must determine what happened with our diamonds and money. Perhaps Kate has some idea about that?” He focused a reproachful glare my way, and I quickly swallowed the sip of wine in my mouth before I choked on it.

  Wow, he didn’t waste any time accusing me of double-crossing Uncle Joey. Of course, he was convinced this was all Uncle Joey’s fault, and that someone in our organization had both the money and the diamonds. Swallowing my fear, I sent a reproving glance his way.

  “I definitely have the brains to run the business,” I answered. “That’s why I would never double-cross my uncle; I know better. But what about you? Can you say the same?”

  He inhaled through his nose, and his nostrils flared at the insult. “That is not how I do business.” His glare at Uncle Joey held cold anger. “After all these years, I expected better from you.”

  Uncle Joey glanced at me, asking in his mind if Yuri was responsible. I didn’t have quite enough information to go on, so I shrugged, and Uncle Joey turned his gaze to Yuri. “As we agreed, I would like to see the diamonds before we proceed.”

  “Of course. I have kept the few that were real, but you are welcome to the rest. They are of no value to me.” He nodded at the guy on his left, who pulled a black velvet case from his jacket and passed it across the table. Ramos took the case and opened it in front of Uncle Joey, who pulled a magnifying eyepiece from his jacket pocket to examine the diamonds.

  He took his time to study a few he picked up at random. After examining about ten of them, he knew that Yuri was right and they were all fakes. Anger rose inside him that Zack had done this. He’d worked so hard to procure this deal, and now Yuri would never trust him again. Unless Yuri had planted them after he killed Zack. He glanced at me, urging me to listen harder.

  I tried not to sigh with frustration, since I was listening as hard as I could without a lot of success. With nothing to lose, I decided to go for a frontal assault, and caught Yuri’s gaze. “How do we know you didn’t orchestrate this whole thing? You could have taken the real diamonds and exchanged them for these. You also could have killed Zack and kept the money.”

  Yuri’s face hardened, but his lips tipped up into a cold smile. “You are a bold one to make such an accusation against me. You may do well in this business; I will give you that.” His cold gaze flicked over me with undisguised anger, and he leaned over the table toward me. “But take a care who you insult. The fact that I am here is proof enough.”

  In his mind, he pictured squashing me like a bug under his shoe, and I shrank back into my chair, all bravado gone.

  “You’re right,” Uncle Joey said, using a low placating tone. “Kate was out of line. I’m sorry for the insult. All I can say is that she’s new at this, and I hope you can understand that we’re all upset and want to get to the bottom of it.”

  After Yuri nodded and sat back in his chair, Uncle Joey continued, “I can see that my man must have double-crossed me.” He shook his head in disbelief. “How far did he get before you found him?”

  “Not far. He had just left the building. We think that whoever he worked with, probably the person who picked him up, shot him and took the money. You should start there.”

  “Was he still alive when you found him? Did he say anything?”

  “No. By the time we reached him he was quite dead. And my money was gone.” I picked up that Yuri was telling the truth, but I wasn’t so sure about the two bodyguards. One of them had a smugness about him that raised my suspicions. And the other seemed a little jumpy. He wasn’t thinking about the money, but something definitely put him on edge. They both knew more about it, but I couldn’t pick up what that could be.

  Yuri finished his drink and stood, signaling that we were done. “Enough talk. Forget about the diamonds. I want my money back. I will give you until this time tomorrow night, but no later… or there will be… reprisals.” His gaze caught mine, and he thought about killing us, one by one, beginning with me.

  “I need one more day,” Uncle Joey said, standing tall. “With both the diamonds and the money missing, I need more time to question my people and find out what happened. Once I find the diamonds, I’m still hopeful that we can conclude our business and I can make this right. Our arrangement is valuable to me, and I want to repair it.”

  Yuri let out a breath, thinking Uncle Joey might be innocent after all. Maybe he shouldn’t be so hasty. “Fine. You have until Friday at midnight.”

  Uncle Joey nodded and sat back down. With that, Yuri turned to leave, and his men stood to follow. Just before turning away, the smug one glanced at me, sending a nod that threw me for a loop, and I caught that he was convinced I was the one who’d shot Zack and taken the money.

  “Shelby, what is it?” Ramos asked.

  I snapped my mouth shut and turned my frightened gaze to his. “That bodyguard thinks I did it. That I killed Zack and took the money.” I turned to Uncle Joey. “Are you sure Kate isn’t behind this?”

  Uncle Joey shook his head dismissively. “It can’t be her. What else did you get?”

  “Yuri’s convinced someone in our organization did this, so I’m pretty sure it’s not him. The bodyguards know more than they’re saying. I just couldn’t pick up any particulars. One of them seemed kind of smug about the whole thing. He’s the one who thought I did it. I think it’s because he thought the person driving the getaway car was a woman with blond hair. But the other one was really nervous, like he had something to hide. He’s the one who might know what’s really going on.”

  “The one who was sitting on your left?” Ramos asked. I nodded, and he thought he’d better grab the guy and make him talk before we handed over any money.

  That didn’t sound like an easy thing to me. “Let’s see if we can figure it out first. It sounds like Zack was working with a woman. Did you know anything about that?”

  “No,” Uncle Joey said.

  “But now we know one thing for sure,” Ramos added. “If Yuri’s guards are involved, we need to find out more before we give him anything. Even if Zack had an accomplice.”

  “I agree,” Uncle Joey said. “But if Zack was working with a woman, it would help to find out who she is in all of this.” He was thinking that she could be someone involved with the Russian mob.

  “I’m not so sure about that… uh, that she’s part of the Russian mob.”

  “Why not?” Uncle Joey asked.

  “Because they thought she was me.”

  “Huh… well maybe that’s only because she has blond hair like you. It could still be someone involved with the Russians who has blond hair.”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

 
Uncle Joey knew someone close to the Russian mob who owed him a favor, and he figured now was the time to call it in. “I’ll see what I can do about the woman and the bodyguard, but our biggest problem is finding out everything we can before this time Friday night. That’s the day after tomorrow. So we’d better get on it.”

  With that, he rose from the table and started toward the exit. I followed him, with Ramos trailing behind. On the way out, Ramos texted Nick that we were done, and the proprietor met us on the other side of the metal detector, holding the container with our weapons.

  It took a minute for Ramos and Uncle Joey to stash all of their guns and knives in their rightful places, while I plopped my stun flashlight in my purse. Then the proprietor ushered us to the door, and we hurried down the stairs to the alley.

  As we followed the alley to the street, Ramos kept his focus on high alert for an ambush. Following his lead, I did the same, listening hard for anyone with thoughts of attacking us. Hearing nothing, it was still a relief to see Nick waiting at the curb with the limo.

  We all quickly jumped inside where I could finally breathe again. Once I had calmed down, I picked up that the meeting tonight had cost Uncle Joey a pretty penny, and he wasn’t as satisfied with the results as he’d like, but at least we had something to go on. He wracked his brain for any idea of the woman with whom Zack had been cavorting, but no one came to mind.

  Then frustration came over him that if he’d had my help when he’d worked out all the plans with Zack, this wouldn’t have happened, but my trip to Paris with Blake had nixed that. He tried not to get too upset, since there was nothing he could do about it anyway, and settled back into his seat to figure out what to do next.

  Ramos was also thinking up plans that would keep him going for most of the night. He was glad the meeting had ended early enough for him to make progress getting to his source with the Russian mob. Then thought about the process of getting the guy to spill his guts. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear how he was going to do that, so I put up my shields and turned my gaze out the window.

  Once we got on the freeway, I noticed a car that kept pace with us, but with so many cars around, I didn’t think it was following. Still, I watched as the headlights stayed with us, exiting off the freeway and all the way to the turnoff for my street.

  As it followed us up my street, my breath hitched a little. But as we pulled into my driveway, it continued up the street and pulled into my neighbor’s driveway, which relieved me more than I expected.

  Ramos got out and held the door open for me.

  “Thanks for your help,” Uncle Joey said, stopping me before I left. “I’ll be in touch.”

  “Okay. Uh… I’m sorry I was in Paris when you needed me, but I’ll do what I can now. And… good luck with your inside man. I sure hope he can help you.”

  Before he could sputter a response, I scrambled out of the car and headed toward my front door. Ramos stood on the curb and watched me go, thinking I was way too nice for my own good, and that maybe I should toughen up a bit.

  At the door, I turned back to Ramos and called, “You’ll be careful too, right?”

  He did a chin lift and smiled, but I heard him say, I will, along with a sense of warmth that let me know he cared about me, even if I was a pushover. I smiled back and stepped inside.

  I quietly locked and dead-bolted the door, letting out my breath now that I was home, safe and sound. Loud noises from a video game on the TV floated up the stairs, letting me know Josh had won the big screen. That meant Savannah was probably watching the smaller TV in the office. Knowing they hadn’t heard me come in, I hurried up the stairs to my bedroom and quickly changed out of my little red dress.

  More comfortable in my jeans and a tee, I slipped back down the stairs and into the kitchen, pretending like I’d come in from the garage, and shut the door as loud as I could. I knew Savannah heard me, because the TV in the office clicked off, and she hurried out with a guilty smile on her face.

  “Hi mom. I’m almost ready for bed. Did your meeting go okay?”

  “Yeah, it was good. Where’s Josh?”

  “He’s downstairs playing his video game.”

  “Did he get his report done?”

  She shrugged like she didn’t know, and figured it was enough to get him in trouble with me, which was just what she wanted. “Hey Josh,” I called downstairs. “I’m home. Can you come up here?”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll be up in a minute.”

  At least Savannah had her pajamas on. Still, it was close to ten-thirty and late for a school night. Craving something sweet after all that stress, I got out the cookies and milk with some glasses, and sat at the table. “You want some?”

  “Sure,” she said, happy for a snack, and a little surprised that I wasn’t mad at her or Josh.

  Josh came up from the basement with slow, deliberate steps, mostly because he knew he’d be in trouble. He paused in the doorway with surprise to see us eating cookies.

  “Pull up a chair,” I said, dipping my second cookie into the milk.

  “Okay,” he agreed, grabbing a glass and taking a seat. After taking a few cookies, he glanced at me with confusion. Why wasn’t I upset? “How was your meeting?”

  “Good, but tiring. I’m glad it’s time for bed. How’s the report coming? Almost done?”

  “Yeah, I’m real close. It’ll be easy to finish up tomorrow night.” He was thinking he’d found a good source on the Internet that he could pretty much copy with a few changes to make it different enough to work. It might take an hour or two, but he could get it done.

  “That’s great,” I said, figuring that’s exactly what I would have done. I didn’t think his teacher would spend a lot of time researching his paper anyway. “Well, we’d better get to bed.”

  It was close to eleven-thirty before I finally got into bed. With no sign of Chris, I sent him a text. He responded, saying he’d be a little while longer, so not to wait up for him. I stayed up reading my book anyway, but finally turned the light off around twelve-thirty.

  I woke when the bed dipped with his warm body, and rolled over to hug him for a minute, then promptly fell back to sleep. The next morning, I wondered if I’d dreamt that part, since he was gone when I got up. A note on the kitchen table let me know he’d had to leave early this morning, but he’d see me tonight.

  Well, at least that got me out of telling him about my meeting with the Russian mob. But I didn’t know if that was good or bad. At least he couldn’t say I’d hidden it from him on purpose though, right? I got my kids off to school and was just about to get in the shower when my phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi Shelby,” Dimples said. “Can you swing by the precinct this morning? I got the list from that inmate we questioned yesterday, and I want you to take a look at it.”

  “Sure. I can be there around nine.”

  “Great. See you then.”

  After we disconnected, I realized I’d hoped the call was from Uncle Joey or Ramos, telling me they’d figured everything out so I didn’t have to worry about the Russian mob. On impulse, I glanced out my living room window to check up and down the street for any suspicious-looking cars. I hadn’t worried about any of this last night, but it finally hit me that if those guards thought I had something to do with taking the money, they might come after me.

  Of course, they thought I was Kate, so how could they know where I lived? That was just silly. I shouldn’t worry so much. I sighed and pushed away my doubt, then hurried to finish getting ready. Still, I made sure all my doors were locked and dead-bolted before I hopped into the shower. No need to tempt fate, right?

  Since I’d dressed up yesterday, I decided to go with jeans and my jewel-print t-shirt today. With the dark, heavy clouds overhead, I threw on my trench-style jacket as well, knowing it gave me more of a detective look. To top it off, I added a cute, lightweight scarf with Paris written all over it, and I smiled. I may be in a spot of trouble, but at least I looked good.r />
  I pulled into the precinct and hurried inside, throwing my honorary ID card around my neck to hang below my scarf. Dimples smiled and greeted me as I sat beside him, thinking I looked great, and he liked the scarf, too. Then he wondered why I hadn’t called Billie yet. Hadn’t I told him I would?

  “Crap. You’re right,” I agreed. “I’ve been a little busy, but that’s no excuse. I’ll call her right now if you want.”

  “Oh… that’s not necessary,” he said, frowning that I’d picked up his thoughts. “I didn’t mean… I mean… I wasn’t going to say anything about it.”

  “Sure, I know, but I’m glad you did. I need to take her to lunch, but I’ll figure it out later. So what did you want to show me about the list?”

  He tapped his fingers on a huge bundle of papers on the left side of his desk. The stack was at least ten to twelve inches tall. “This is only half of it, but it’s the part Lincoln was working on just before he closed up shop.”

  “Wow, that’s big.”

  “Yeah, and worth almost five million dollars, too. Not a bad haul, right?”

  “Yeah. I had no idea. No wonder the inmate-guy wanted it.”

  “This is what I wanted to show you,” Dimples began. “Yesterday, I checked his phone records against the list, and everything was business as usual until he made these calls to an address just north of the city. It looks like he made a face-to-face visit there that changed things, because after that, he closed up shop.” He showed me the calls, and how they coincided with the layoffs, and his death a week later.

  “Hmm… looks like you’re on to something,” I said. “Do you want to pay them a visit?”

  “Yes. Maybe whoever lives there can tell us what happened.”

  “Okay,” I agreed.

  The drive to the address didn’t take long, but we were both surprised to find it wasn’t a residence at all, but a small shop on the street directly in front of a construction site. The sign above the door read, “Bella’s Bakery,” and it looked like something right out of a fairytale.