Shiny Things
Page 14
“That’s no help. Sounds like more of a drinking trip than a fishing trip. What did the detective think about it all?”
“No proof of any wrongdoing. Glen Welch said he wasn’t drinking but he wasn’t feeling well so he was asleep too. When he woke, he noticed the two men were missing and it was he who raised the alarm.”
“How do we find out how friendly Glen was with Josephine before her husband died?”
“That might be difficult. She’s going to deny it and I don’t think we’ll find the proof. Even if they were having an affair at the time, that doesn’t mean Glen pushed poor old husband number one off the boat.”
She sighed. “What If Glen suddenly confessed to killing husband one and Josephine was outraged and plotted to kill Glen?”
He smiled. “Not likely to have kept silent all these years. We have to keep asking, keep poking around until we find something. This aside, our main focus has to be on the case at hand, not what we think might’ve happened in the past.”
“Where does finding Ryan Castle fall on the attention scale?”
“Right up there at the top. I’m focused on that too and even more so with him connected to this case, but we can’t do anything until he surfaces again. We’re waiting and watching. Trust me, it’s under control. You’re out of prison, you just have to make sure you stay out.” He pointed at her. “Don’t do anything silly like going off on your own.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“You already have. You went to Ryan’s apartment.”
“Oh that. Okay, I won’t do anything like that again. When can I get an official pardon, one in writing?”
“It’s underway.”
“I guess I’ll have to trust you on that one.”
“Yes.” He reached over and gave her another handful of papers. “Read.”
She took them from him and looked at the first page. “How about you check to see if Josephine’s got safe deposit boxes somewhere? Maybe she’s visited them recently.”
“It’s been checked. We can’t find she’s got any.”
“She wouldn’t risk hiding jewelry in the house. I wonder if she has a really good friend she can trust?”
“It’d have to be a particularly good friend. One who wouldn’t ask what she was doing and could be entrusted with a fortune.”
“And I imagine friends like that would be hard to come by.”
“I’d say so.”
Gretel put her head down and kept reading.
When it started to get dark, Jack suggested he take her home. It was Friday night and Gretel wondered if he had somewhere to be. A date perhaps? Hopefully not with Monica.
On the drive to her house, he suggested that she have a break tomorrow since it was Saturday.
“Are you having a day off too?” she inquired.
“I’m going to do my best. A break might clear my head. Clear both our heads. It never usually works out, though. I’m usually called in over something or other.”
“A break sounds good. I’ve got so many things to catch up on.”
As soon as she got home, she called her sister. She needed to speak to someone normal and her sister was the most normal person she knew.
Hazel couldn’t talk, but promised she’d stop by the next morning and bring breakfast.
Chapter 24
Gretel stared at her sister who was sitting on the opposite couch in Gretel’s living room. “I wonder why Ryan’s been so hard to find. He’s gone completely off the radar. Even the FBI can’t find him.”
“Perhaps he died and he’s lying out there somewhere.”
“I’ve already considered that. If he’d died then the body would show up. There’s been no news.”
“But strange, you said he had been at the lake house.”
Gretel nodded as she thought back to the dreadful time at the lake house. “Someone had been there. It might not have been him. I know he’s alive because he tried to run me down.”
“That’s really awful. I couldn’t believe that when you told me.”
“I have bad judgment with men, it seems.” Gretel looked down into her black coffee. She didn’t really feel like drinking it.
“How well did you even know him before you got involved with him?”
She sighed. “Not well enough obviously. We met in Rome when he was in the middle of a sting. I watched, knowing what he was doing. He was a thief, but not my kind. I could never look anybody in the eye like he could and lie to them.”
Hazel scoffed. “You were pretty good at lying when we were younger.”
“Only if it was a choice between telling a lie and getting the strap. And, I had a guilty conscience every time I lied. Ryan has no conscience.”
Hazel brought her legs up onto the couch and sat cross legged. “Are you going to go straight now?”
“Yes. I really don’t have any other choice. Now they know who I am, they’re watching my every move.”
“What made you get into doing this? You’ve never given me a proper answer.”
“It’s just that this system is unfair and it’s run by men. People have turned into puppets. The laws are weighted so no one thinks for themselves and no one can get ahead financially with all the silly rules. I simply didn’t want to be one of the pack being told what to think, being told what to do. I for one don’t want to be what they want us to be.”
“Oh, Gretel. You’re just doing what you want, aren’t you? Then making some stupid excuse to make it look like someone else is to blame. Dad always said you never took responsibility.”
“You asked me, and I told you. There are people who control everything, the world.”
“So your solution is to steal?”
Gretel smiled at her younger sister by one year. “It makes sense to me. That way I don’t fit into the mold.”
“Mom told me not to go anywhere near you or I’ll get influenced by you.”
“Nice to know she thinks so highly of me.”
“Influenced, not in a good way,” Hazel told her.
“I know exactly what she meant. She never did like me. I used to think I was overlooked, but now I know she was overlooking me because she didn’t like what she saw.”
“That’s not so, Gretel. I don’t know why you think so badly of them. They’re not that awful.”
Gretel laughed. Her sister preferred to see things like that because she was still living with them. “Let’s agree to disagree. Better yet, let’s not talk about them at all.”
“That’s probably best.”
“You know that I’m working on the Welch case?”
“Yes, you told me already."
"You’re still good friends with Gizelle, right?”
“I haven’t seen her in a long time. We were never that close, but we do share a lot of the same friends. She’s in my group of friends. I didn’t go to Glen’s funeral. I don’t like funerals.”
“Your social life sounds very complicated. Anyway, no one likes funerals.”
Hazel’s cell phone beeped, and she pulled it out of her bag. “Ah, got to go.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I’ve got a date tonight with someone new.” Hazel smiled as she looked at her phone, and then her fingers got busy texting someone back.
Gretel’s sister had only been gone two minutes when Gretel’s phone sounded. It was from a 'no caller ID.' “Hello.”
“Now that your sister’s gone, make sure you’re not being followed and meet me at our café in ten minutes.”
The call ended. Her heart raced at a million miles a minute.
She knew the voice.
It was Ryan Castle.
Chapter 25
Gretel threw the phone onto the couch. He was watching her. How did he know Hazel was her sister? They’d never met. And, he knew she was alone in her apartment.
Her hand went to her stomach to still the nausea swirling and she moved to the window and looked out. As her eyes traveled over the trees in the park and the other buildings i
n the street, she knew there were so many places he could be hiding. The nausea overcame her and she ran to the bathroom, heaving.
She leaned over the toilet and was sick. When she was done, she rinsed her mouth out and looked at herself in the mirror.
Ech. That was what she felt when she saw her white face with dark mascara smudges under her eyes. With a moistened swab, she removed the smudges, and then applied blush and lippy to make her feel more human.
What he’d referred to as ‘their café’ was a brisk five-minute walk away. She grabbed her bag, threw in her phone and set off. A million questions raced through her mind.
Was he finding it hard to move such large stones and he needed her connections?
Was he going to offer to split the haul with her, and apologize for branching out and going solo?
Apologize for abandoning her to drown in the car like a rat going down with a sinking ship?
Would he have some excuse for nearly running her over with his car?
Each step on the pavement pounded inside her head as her heart continued to race. The disconcerting thing was, part of her wanted him to suffer and be out of her life completely, another part of her wanted to be held in his arms. It was sick to miss him and hate him at the same time. She couldn’t go back in time to the way things were.
Just as the café came into sight, she decided that she had to be crazy right now. Why was she meeting him at all?
She stood on the other side of the road and looked through the floor-to-ceiling glass that made up the front of the café. He wasn’t at their usual table by the window. Maybe he wanted to sit in the back to talk. She dashed across the road to the café as soon as there was a break in the traffic. When she pushed through the open doors of the coffee shop, a quick look around the room told her that he was nowhere.
Her first reaction was that it had been a cruel trick. Was he merely playing with her, pulling her strings as though she were a puppet just because he could? She glanced down at the time on her cell phone. Still five minutes to go.
She sat down at the first table she came to and waited, drumming her fingertips on the table while looking around. She hated that there was a tiny part of her looking forward to seeing him, swirling amongst the parts filled with fear. Maybe she needed therapy.
“Hi, Gretel.”
Gretel looked up to see the young waitress that often served her.
“Hello, Dee.”
“Your friend said to give you this.”
Gretel took the note from her. “My friend?”
“Yes, the man you often come here with.”
“Thank you.” She didn’t want to open the note in front of Dee.
“Will it be the usual today?”
“No, thanks, I’m not staying.” She opened the note when Dee walked away. It was an address somewhere on the other side of town. Under it, he’d told her to go there, and to leave immediately.
A half-hour taxi drive later, Gretel stood looking up at a warehouse. Since Ryan was nowhere to be seen, she walked around trying to find a way in figuring he might be waiting for her inside. There was no way she was walking into that place to be alone with him. What she planned was to coax him outside to talk.
On the side of the building was a sad-looking, rusty red roller door with half the paint peeling off. She leaned down and pulled on the handle. To her surprise it opened.
Someone came from behind her and before she could turn around, large hands grabbed her, pushed her inside, and pulled the door down.
Just like that, her plan was ruined.
In the dark gloominess of the deserted space, she stood looking up into the deep green hazel eyes of Ryan Castle. Locked in his gaze, so many questions raced through her mind.
He pulled her in against his hard chest. “I’ve missed you, babe.”
She pushed him as hard as she could. “Get away from me. What’s this all about?”
“You’re free, I’m free and we have the diamonds.”
She was pleased he still had the diamonds. There was a chance he’d be caught. “Are you crazy or do you just have the shortest memory of any person on earth?”
He said nothing, and his eyes opened wider.
“I’m talking about you trying to run me down in the street. Why would you do that?”
He tried to touch her hair and she put up her hand to stop him. “I found out you were working with the FBI and I thought you’d turned on me.”
“How could I? I clearly know nothing about you. And you left me to drown in that car as well. You knew I couldn’t open the door of the car until it was completely submerged. Do you know how scary that was? I still have nightmares about it. I told you I wasn’t a good swimmer.”
“I thought that was an exaggeration. You know how you’re always telling stories. Every time you tell a story it gets better.”
“What about the lake house? Did you have anything to do with that shooting? Wait! Why am I asking you, the biggest liar on earth?”
“I heard about the shooting at the lake house.” He shook his head. “There are people after me, and you too, it seems. You shouldn’t have gone there.”
She stared at him trying to work out if he was trying to scare her. When she’d been shot at, she had hoped it was only because she was there with Jack Fletcher. “What people are after you?”
“How would I know?”
Gretel wanted to scream. “You just said people are after both of us. Who were those people with guns? They pulled up in two white SUVs.”
“I’ve got no idea.”
He was still a liar, still keeping things from her.
“You were shot at and I had my place ransacked and it wasn’t the police, that’s all I know.”
He tried to run over her, but right now she had to know about Glen Welch. “Did you have anything to do with the robbery at the Welches' place?”
He frowned. “No! Of course not.”
“Don’t look so surprised. There was no love lost with you and your stepfather. Seems no one wanted you around.”
“You have done your homework.”
“Where are the diamonds?”
“In a safe place.”
“What do you plan to do with them?”
“'What do we plan to do with them,' you should be asking. They’re ours.”
Now that she was face-to-face with him, she wished she had called Jack Fletcher. It was dumb of her to think she could handle Ryan Castle by herself. Then she realized she still had her cell phone in her bag that was slung over her shoulder, and she hoped Jack was tracking her through it. She fanned her face. “I’m getting hot. I feel like I’m going to faint. Can you open a window?”
“I’ll try.” While he walked to the window, she dove into her bag, fumbled for her phone and pressed Jack’s number that she had on speed dial. Then she followed him to the window. He tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge.
“No go, sorry.”
“Ryan, why don’t you cut the nonsense and tell me where the diamonds are?”
“How do I know I can trust you now that you're best buddies with the feds?”
“I’m not. That’s the only way I could get out of going back to prison. What was I going to do, turn down my only chance?”
Ryan threw his head back and laughed and she wanted to hurt him for hurting her.
“Where have you been staying?” she asked.
“I can’t tell you that until I know I can trust you.”
“What do you want from me?”
“In exchange for half the diamonds I want the name of a fence who’ll be able to move big stones and other things. I know you’ve got contacts you’ve never shared with me.”
“Other things? Do you mean like the Welch collection?”
He stepped closer and loomed over her and she sensed the threat when his body tensed. “I need the name of your fence—the best one.”
“And then what? You’ll give me half of something that’s rightfully mine anyway?”
“Since you’re a liar and a thief what guarantee do I have that you won’t stiff me like you did last time? I’ve heard that the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
His lips turned upward into a smile. “You have my word, babe.”
She walked toward the door hoping that Jack was on his way. “But you see, the word of a liar is quite unreliable.”
“It’s not personal, this is business.”
“It was personal though. We were supposed to love each other.”
“I do love you, Crystal, and I want us to be together.”
Her mouth dropped open in shock. “It’s Gretel.” No wonder he called her babe all the time. It was easier than making the effort to remember her name. “Who’s Crystal?”
“No one. I’m sorry. She was my past and I want you to be my future. Come away with me. Let’s go together.” He took a step toward her and she pushed him hard with both hands.
“Get away from me.”
“Don’t be like that.”
“I wish I’d never met you.”
“Hey, I didn’t come after you in Rome. You chased after me.”
She walked towards the door and when she was halfway there, she turned around. “I’ve never chased anyone. You’re probably thinking about Crystal.”
“You approached me in that casino in Rome, not the other way around.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” As much as she wanted to leave, she had to delay things, so Jack had time to get there. She sure hoped that he would be able to locate her. Or had she accidentally turned off her phone by bumping it?
He walked forward and put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m sorry, all right? I’m sorry for everything. Let’s put the past in the past and let’s get on with things. You must admit in our game it’s difficult to trust people, but now I’m sure I can trust you.”