Toxic Diamonds (The Adventures of Xavier & Vic Book 8)

by Liza O'Connor

Vic studied the twelve eager fellows before her. Three were Barns’ choices and nine were Meyers. “I’m going to share bits about a former crime we solved and then ask you to solve it with the information I give you and the questions you ask. To make this fair, you will each write your questions to me and I will write you my response. Later we will solve cases in a group, but right now, I need to see how you think on your own. And please, take all the notes you can on the case.”

  She studied each of the men for a long while. Several wore smirks, evidently believing they knew far more than she did about investigating crimes. “A beautiful young woman with the tiniest of waists comes to our office and speaks to my secretary, a young man of sixteen. She tells him she’s lost her husband.”

  “Write down what your first question to the woman would be. Be certain to sign your page so I know who wrote what.”

  When she received the answers, she was rather disappointed. “How may I help you?” was the answer ten of them gave. The other two wished her to explain how she had ‘lost’ a husband.”

  “For the ten of you who said, ‘How may I help you?’ You may leave and return to your jobs.”

  “But that’s what we are taught to say,” a young officer protested.

  “Is it?”

  All the men nodded.

  “Then sit back down. But for the record, if you provide another question like that, I will send you from the room. I understand the need to be polite, but you also need to get to the point while you’re being polite.”

  “What do we know about this woman so far? Write it down.”

  “They all came back with some version of ‘she’s pretty’.

  Vic rolled her eyes. “What about her tiny waist? What does that tell you about this woman?”

  None had a clue.

  Vic discussed the pain, possible breaking of ribs, and the debilitating reduction of air capacity. “Now what does that tell you about this woman?”

  She had to say this for the men. They quickly caught on and suggested “she’s insane” and “she’ll do anything to catch a rich husband”.

  “Much better! So what does ‘lost’ mean?”

  They thought she must mean he’s dead or he left her for another woman.

  “She comes to our investigative office because her husband is dead? Would she not be better off going to a mortuary instead?”

  “Maybe he was murdered,” one fellow said.

  “You must pay attention to the exact words people use. If her husband were killed, she would say ‘killed’ or ‘murdered’, not that she lost him.”

  “Then he must have run off,” one officer said.

  “Don’t yell out answers, write them down. Now why would you think he ran off?”

  The replies were mostly that they must have had a fight and he left.

  “So every time you have a fight with your wife, she goes to an investigative firm and declares she has ‘lost’ you?” The men chuckled and shook their heads.

  She picked up the final slip of paper and was pleased to read Darby Jones suggested he might have had another woman on the sly.

  She focused on the serious young man. “You are very close to the truth. Well done.”

  “According to Ben’s notes, she insisted they were madly in love and had not yet had a fight.”

  “That’s a lie for sure,” one man grumbled.

  “Write your comments down. What question would resolve this issue?”

  “What issue?”

  “Good challenge, my question was not precise enough. What could you have asked to determine if it was remotely possible that the woman and husband had never had a fight?”

  Darby excitedly wrote then passed her the paper: How long have they been married?

  “Well done, Darby.”

  Six of the men provided no answer and the other five insisted if she claimed they had never fought, then she was lying.

  “Here’s a lesson for you. Don’t judge other people solely on your life experiences. This is why you’ll work better in a team later on. We all have prejudices and preferences, but do not let them blind you from the truth. Six of you were unable to ponder a question. Do it again, and I will send you out. Then five of you failed to think of the one possibility that might make the lady’s statement true.” A dark haired young man named Coleman wrote something down and gave it to her.

  This could be true if they just married.

  She grinned. “You didn’t form it as a question, but you and Darby both have the right idea. The question that needed asked was how long had they been married. In this situation, they had been married less than a week and were passionately in love. Therefore, I had my secretary delve into her husband’s friends and life. While it’s not unusual for a man to have a mistress on the side, he normally doesn’t visit her during the first week of his marriage, so something seemed off to me.”

  “Within a visit to his friend’s home, and the sincere concern and help of the butler, we discovered the man wasn’t ‘lost’, he simply had two wives. And his wife for nearly five years was having their fourth child and the doctor said she was dying, so the man left his new bride to go tend to his dying wife.”

  “What does that tell you about the man and his first wife?”

  When four of the guys said it just meant he was a man, she sent them out for ignoring her comments about paying attention to the details.

  Now with fewer men, the questions progressed faster. Soon after the four men left, Barns arrived and sat in the corner. In short time Meyers also slipped inside.

  She didn’t mind their arrival, but it did make the men nervous. “Stop worrying about impressing Barns and Meyers and focus on what these people are thinking. I assume you all know how long a pregnancy takes?”

  The men nodded.

  “Good, then write down how many months a pregnancy takes, then using your own experiences, add how much time should past before the next birth occurs. What we are trying to figure out is: what is normal and how does it compare to his first wife? So, do the math on her as well.”

  When the door opened again, she was about to turn around but caught Xavier’s scent and noticed the awe in the young men eyes. “Now without even turning around, just by the look in your eyes, I am quite certain the man who just entered is Xavier Thorn.”

  The remaining men all nodded.

  She turned and smiled at her beloved. “Are you here to steal me away, or just to listen?”

  Xavier chuckled. “The latter.”

  “Well, sit down and be quiet,” she ordered and turned back to her students.

  “Writing it down, what can you tell me about this man and his first wife?”

  She gathered up their responses. Two had no idea, so she asked them to leave. That left her with six officers all with determination not to fail.

  Darby passed over his answer first. Upon reading, she replied, “Excellent observations, Darby, you are right on the money.”

  She read through the answers of the remaining replies. “Cotter, if the pretty lady next door is having a new baby every three months, then she is probably what?” When he didn’t answer, she opened the question to the group. “Anybody?”

  “Sounds like a baby farmer,” Darby replied.

  “Well done.”

  “No, she’s a nice lady,” Cotter insisted.

  “You say that because she smiles and flirts with you, right?”

  He gave a vague shrug.

  “That’s because she does not wish you to investigate her.”

  She then glanced at Meyers, happy to see he was writing on his pad. “Cotter and I will check it out this evening.”

  “And Cotter, it generally takes nine months to have a baby. While some do arrive prematurely they usually die. And any child born at three months would certainly die. I recognize by your answers that some of you have never given the facts of reproduction a single thought, so for those who continue, I will see if we can get Dr. Connors to speak on the topic.

 
“How is that going to help us?” Cotter asked.

  “Well in your case, you’ve probably been flirting with a baby killer.”

  Cotter’s eyes flew open as he focused on Meyers. “Is that true, Captain?”

  “We’ll check it out this evening, but it is a strong possibility,” Meyers replied.

  “The lesson you need to learn here is don’t be afraid to learn new information. Constantly learning new information makes you a better investigator.”

  “Yeah, you no doubt went to college,” Cotter replied. “I’ve been working three jobs since I was born.”

  Vic was pondering how to respond to such an absurd claim. Fortunately, Meyers ordered him to leave.

  “We seem to have gotten off track. Let’s return to our case. Upon discovering the man had two wives, I took over and investigated the case with the assistance of Director Barns.” Barns gave her a tense stare, and she smiled at him in response. “I needed a police officer to go with me to the woman’s home, where the husband resided presently. Since neither were my client, my only chance to get in was with Barns’ help. I was certain that a crime was occurring, just as you are,” she said to Darby.

  “Barns did a fabulous job getting me in and kept the husband distracted as I discovered the man’s first wife was deathly pale. Also, there were white lines and horizontal ridges on her fingernails.”

  “Write down your suspicions at this point,” Vic advised the men.

  Vic was pleased with all five of their responses. “Well done, everyone.”

  One of the men rose to leave but Vic stopped him. “Oh, we aren’t done yet. We still don’t know who to arrest.”

  He apologized and sat back down.

  “Allow me to discuss teamwork and why it is vital. Barns allowed me to interrogate the servants while he engaged the husband. While that doesn’t sound like a big deal, if the man, for even a moment, had become nervous or felt threatened, he could have demanded us to leave and there would be nothing we could do about it since we had no evidence against anyone.”

  “But you had a poisoned victim,” Dawson said.

  “True, but the poison could have come from the floorboards or the wall hangings. To prove it was intentional, I needed time to interview the servants. Barns did a fabulous job keeping the man in his library so he hadn’t a clue what I was doing. Without Barns, this case would have never been resolved. So, if you get ‘stuck’ being backup, change your way of thinking. You are not being punished. You are fulfilling a vital part to ensure the team closes the case.”

  Vic let that sink in, then continued. Having established the woman was being poisoned with arsenic, she recounted each servant’s replies to her questions.

  Upon hearing the servants’ statements, all five of the men declared the nanny the attempted murderess.

  Vic then shared what the woman’s lady maid claimed.

  “Is this the case from last year where the nanny was sent to jail?” Darby asked.

  “It is. And matters will become even more complicated in our next lesson. Only I wish to stop here and ponder the answers to the following questions: Why did the wasp woman call her husband ‘lost’ and what did she hope to achieve by coming to our investigative office? Also, was the husband involved in the arsenic poisoning?”

  “And one word of advice. Don’t lock in your presumed solution and stop paying attention to what people are saying and what the new evidence says just because you think you know the answer.”

  Vic stood and shook each of the men’s hands. “That’s it for today. I’ll stop by tomorrow and work with whomever wishes to continue.”

  The men grinned.

  “We’ll be here,” Darby assured her.

  Meyers warned them not to discuss this case with others, since it still had some loose ends that needed to be closed. The men nodded to Meyers and Barns then shook hands with Xavier before they left.

  Barns approached her. “Thank you. You made me sound like a fine asset rather than the ass I recall being.”

  “I may not have appreciated your efforts at the time, but in retrospect, I realized you were vitally important.”

  Meyers gripped her shoulder. “You are both inspiring and amazing.”

  “Here, here,” Xavier stated. “Let’s go home.”

  “But what about Ben?” Vic protested.

  “He’ll remain in jail until his trial date.”

  “Any idea how hard the crash hurt the wasp woman?”

  Xavier patted her back. “They not only spent every dime on the stock, but borrowed against their mansion as well. They’ve lost everything.”

  Vic beamed with happiness.

  “Any chance you retrieved my vest?” Xavier asked.

  “I stopped by Samson’s, but neither he, nor the vest were home.”

  “Damn it all! I want my vest back.”

  “You never wore it,” she observed.

  “It is my vest, and I want it back!”

  “One of his men told me he was returning Stone and his family to their estate in the country. I suspect he had Stone wear the vest.”

  Xavier sighed.

  “What?” she demanded.

  “If you are correct, then I’ve no reason to be angry.”

  “Well, I’m pretty sure I’m right, so stop being grumpy and let’s go back to the office. We might have clients showing up. We won’t know unless we are there.”

  Chapter 22

  Davy drove Xavier and Vic back to the office. When he hurried the carriage past their place of business, now scorched from Ben’s attempt to burn it down, Xavier lost his temper upon seeing the damage. “Ben is the worst secretary I’ve ever had. And that is a grand feat to achieve. Before you arrived, I was firing boys every other week.”

  “That’s because you didn’t trust them.”

  “And what happens when I do? Ben runs off with our files and shares them with murderers!” He pulled her into his arms. “You are the only secretary I’ve ever had that has worked for me, and sadly, you have outgrown the job. You constantly amaze me. Take for example today’s effort to find a logical, qualified police officer to assist us. While you clearly prefer Darby, all five of those men show promise.”

  She nodded in agreement.

  Once Davy pulled into the carriage house, Vic and Xavier climbed out and headed to the library. Xavier smiled to see Gregory bringing the fireplace to life.

  “Thank you, Gregory.”

  “My pleasure, sir,” Gregory replied and left the room.

  Xavier returned to his interrupted compliment. “It is one thing to be intuitive, but the ability to teach others such skills is a great rarity. And by allowing Barns and Meyers to sit in, you subtly helped them learn how to better train their officers as well.”

  “And perhaps stopped a baby farmer,” Vic added.

  Xavier grinned. “Yes, I expect Cotter will wish to return to the group tomorrow.”

  “He can plead his case, but that doesn’t mean I’m taking him back.”

  “Not even if Meyers pleads his case?”

  “Why would—” Vic stopped talking as she realized there had been a strong resemblance between the two men. “Is he a nephew of Meyers’?”

  “He is, but Meyers doesn’t wish anyone to know that.”

  “I suppose I can give him one more chance—unless you want to train some of them.”

  “I haven’t the patience,” Xavier assured her.

  “Why is it you have all the patience in the world for the Queen and the Parliament, yet none for those who have an excuse to be ignorant?”

  Xavier warmed himself before the fire. “Because I was originally trained as a spy, and if you are disrespectful to those above you, you will die in your next mission. The logic being that if you have become disrespectful to your betters, you have clearly switched sides and thus must be eliminated.”

  “That is terrible reasoning!” Vic exclaimed.

  “Perhaps, but if you were actually a spy and had to deal with some o
f these men, it is very likely you would try to kill them.”

  “Men like Carlson?” she asked.

  “No, men like Barringbarn, only worse. Carlson is one of the best men in the Parliament.”

  “That’s a depressing revelation.” The man was barely tolerable.

  Xavier walked to the hidden bar and poured them both a drink. When he returned to the leather high-back chairs before the fireplace, he handed Vic her drink, then sat down in his chair. “Well, I’ve no intention of improving your opinion of him, for to do so will get you killed and you become more valuable by the day. What you, Casey, and Tubs did yesterday was absolutely amazing.” He held up his glass to her.

  “Well, I thought you amazing as well. I had no idea you could be so still,” she teased and clinked his glass.

  “Nor I. But the thought of losing you and Cannon gave me the strength not to move. Still, when you arrived, I feared I had made a terrible decision in trying to live and would instead, kill us all. That Carlson remained in the room says a great deal about how amazing he thinks you are, for he rarely puts his life at risk for anyone.”

  “Well, that doesn’t say much for him,” she grumbled.

  “He cannot save Britain if he’s dead, thus he rarely takes chances. A new spy can be replaced, but if he dies, Britain could fall.”

  Vic considered his words. “I suppose a new spy could replace his typical spy, but you are not typical. You are special. He showed no reluctance to save you from the moment I arrived. In fact, I now ponder if he had some advance warning that I was coming. For otherwise, I cannot explain how he discovered me so fast upon entry into the servant’s area, and how he recognized me when I was disguised.”

  “He is highly intelligent and, dare I say, almost as intuitive as you. He has probably expected your arrival from the moment I went missing. Nothing occurs in the Parliament that he does not know about. I am very glad that you went to him. But since I have purposely never mentioned him, how did you know how to contact the fellow?”

  “I asked Stone for someone in the parliament who could help me find you.” Her thoughts went to the former Director. “Do you believe Stone will recover and reclaim his position?”

  “No, but I believe without his father constantly degrading him, Barns will prove to be a very good director of Scotland Yard.”