That's Not My Suitcase

by Laina Turner

  “Is something wrong, Sterling?” Wendy asked, because I still hadn’t got in the car and was sort of staring into space.

  “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Sorry, just got distracted,” I said, finally sliding into the taxi. I leaned my head against the back of the seat and closed my eyes. I didn’t feel like talking. It was silly of me to be upset over seeing Steve with another woman, but with just getting back in the swing of this talking to other men thing, it was hard. I liked him. Obviously, more than I should.

  Chapter 13

  I was up before my alarm and in a surprisingly good mood. Even once I remembered seeing Steve with another woman last night.

  Things did look better in the morning, just like Steve had said. Today was a new day and I wanted to make the most of it. I only had a few more days of vacation left in this tropical paradise before heading back to the wintery mid-west and I wanted to enjoy every second of it. Who knew when my next vacation would be. I peered out my window and gazed out at the beautiful sunshine and water. What a view to look at first thing in the morning. It was impossible not to be happy here.

  I contemplated lying in bed for a while and being lazy, but the buzzing of my phone compelled me to get out of bed as it was still in my purse on the table. I could have ignored it, but then wondering who it was would have driven me crazy. Stupid technology and its insertion into our lives, where we felt attached to our phones and laptops and being accessible 24/7.

  I reached into my purse and pulled out my phone. Then went back to sit on the bed. It was a text from Steve.

  “Coffee?” it said.

  I was annoyed at myself for being excited over a text from him. I almost wanted to say no but then I wanted the chance to ask him who that woman was or, even better, maybe he would offer up some information. Even though he didn’t know I had seen him with someone last night. And I needed to be honest with myself, I wanted to see him. I just needed to remember this was a vacation friendship and not be so emotionally invested. I texted back, “Sure, thirty minutes?”

  “That works. See you then.”

  I had enough time to get ready and I made it down to the café almost ten minutes early and before Steve. I had to get to the police station today since I hadn’t made it yesterday and planned on taking the shuttle in to town after coffee with Steve. Maybe even ask him if he wanted to come along. He could be my reinforcement that I wasn’t crazy.

  It was just a few minutes before he joined me and we had a nice replay of the previous morning’s coffee and conversation.

  I was keeping it lighthearted, not wanting to bring up what I had seen yesterday and I was still struggling with whether or not to even ask. It really wasn’t my business but then as friends what was the harm in being nosy?

  I was pretty sure he could sense something was wrong as he had asked a few times if everything was OK. I wasn’t as chatty as normal. I just wasn’t ready to talk. I didn’t want to come across as some psycho chick, jealous when she had no right to be.

  “I think I’m just tired,” I replied to his latest inquiry. “All this fresh air and all.”

  “If you say so,” he replied. “I was wondering if you wanted …”

  “I should have known I would find you here with another woman,” screamed a tall, very attractive brunette interrupting him. She looked like the woman I had seen him with last night but it had been from a distance, so I wasn’t a hundred percent sure. Though, I did hope this wasn’t yet another woman. That would be too much for me to handle this early in the morning.

  He looked shocked and then embarrassed. “Melanie, what are you doing here?” he said very gently. I could tell he was also very angry, just trying to not show it. I wondered what the hell was going on.

  “I could ask you the same thing!” she shrilled.

  “No, Melanie. You really can’t. Listen, I’m not going to have this conversation with you here.”

  “What, don’t want to ruin things with your new girlfriend?”

  “Oh, I’m not … I mean we just met,” I stammered. Not knowing what was going on but not wanting to give her the wrong impression either because we certainly weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend. This situation was making me very uncomfortable. I didn’t want to be part of a love triangle.

  It didn’t matter. She wasn’t paying any kind of attention to me.

  “Listen, I should probably just be going. Let you two talk. It seems there is a lot for you two to discuss,” I said, sliding my chair back and standing up. I didn’t want to be a part of whatever this drama was.

  “Sterling, I’m sorry,” Steve said, looking at me with a grimace.

  I smiled brightly, trying to hold back tears I didn’t understand. I wasn’t about to cry in front of him, or her for that matter. I didn’t even know why I wanted to cry. Damn hormones.

  “Don’t worry about it! Nice to meet you,” I said to Melanie, not really meaning it but trying to be polite. She again ignored me. She seemed pretty focused on being angry with Steve and I walked away. I wasn’t more than a few steps away when the tears started flowing fully. I don’t think it was the incident that just happened as much as it was the accumulation of the last few days, even the last year, of pent up emotion.

  I made it back to my room, getting some stares on the way. People probably wondered why this middle aged woman was practically running through the hotel crying.

  I made it to my room and just sat on the bed. By this time, I didn’t feel like crying anymore, go figure.

  I think what I needed was some solitude, a day to myself. As much as I had enjoyed Wendy’s company, and Steve’s until just now, I think I needed some alone time. I called up Wendy and cancelled our beach plans, being honest about why. She graciously understood. I changed into a suit and cover-up and grabbed a book I had bought in town and right now, I wanted to relax and regroup and then I’d head to town a little later to talk to the police. I knew I shouldn’t keep putting it off but then again, maybe I was overreacting to things. After all, I did just run through the hotel crying.

  I headed down to the beach and found myself a spot on a chair under an umbrella. This would be a perfect place to just enjoy the quiet and the beautiful scenery.

  I had a hard time reading, uncommon for me, because my mind kept wanting to thinking about Steve and what had happened at breakfast. After twenty years of what I considered a relatively tame existence, my life had exploded into one dramatic episode after another. At least, in the last week it had. It made me want to laugh it was so unlike anything I had experienced before. I guess what they said was true - life was definitely stranger than fiction.

  I opened my book back up, determined to read and enjoy it, dammit.

  The book reading didn’t take long to evolve into napping and when I woke up an hour later, I felt in a much better mood. Except now I was hungry. I had found a table a bit away from the beach area serviced by the hotel staff, mainly to have the privacy I wanted, but now I had to move if I wanted service down here, or go back to the hotel and grab something.

  Since I was hot and sweaty from sleeping under the sun, I decided a cool shower and lunch was in order. I gathered my things and started to walk back to the top.

  I headed up the same path Steve and I had used last night which started me thinking again about him and wondering about what happened this morning. Then I happened to glance over at the patio to my left and my heart stopped. At least it felt like that. Then it started beating like crazy. Adrenaline rushed through me and I felt tingly all over. That man was up there again. The one who kept popping up everywhere. Clearly, whatever Tom had said to him last night hadn’t worked one bit. Not that I had completely believed Tom when he said he told the guy to stop following us. I’d had enough! I had questions for him and I wanted answers. I walked the rest of the way up the path and I didn’t think he noticed me. He was looking off in another direction. Not a very effective bad guy, I thought to myself as a way to gather my courage to confront him. However, there were plenty of peop
le around. What could happen? And at this point I was almost beyond caring. I just wanted to find out what he wanted and for him to go away.

  I made it to the top of the path and opened the half door to the patio. The man still hadn’t seen me. Enjoying what appeared to be a glass of wine and a cigar. A little early for that for my taste since it wasn’t even noon.

  I was about five feet from him when he finally noticed me. It didn’t seem to faze him at all. It was almost as if he’d been expecting me. He simply sat his wine glass down and held out his hand.

  “Good afternoon, Ms. Towne,” he said, shocking me that he knew my name. Though if he was following me it made sense he would know my name. I shook his hand which wasn’t as creepy as I thought it would be and then gathered my resolve to ask him some questions.

  “Who are you and why are you following me?” I asked before I could back down.

  He had the audacity to laugh and blew cigar smoke in my face in the process. It pissed me off.

  “Tell me who you are or I’m calling security!” I said, hands on my hips giving him my best dirty look.

  He laughed again and held his hands up in mock protest. “No worries, lady. I’m on your side. Come, sit,” he said and motioned to the chairs surrounding the table where he had set his glass when I walked up.

  I was apprehensive and it showed.

  “C’mon, there are plenty of people around and I promise I’m not going to hurt you.”

  His accent was hard to place, not that it was relevant to him being a bad guy or good guy, but the news reports had said the robbers were Americans. This guy wasn’t an American but he didn’t sound local either.

  I sat down and waited for him to speak. Growing impatient, I asked again, “So why are you following me?”

  “I’m not exactly following you. I’m following the people who are following you.”

  That completely confused me. “What do you mean? Others are following me?”

  He nodded.

  “But I haven’t seen anyone else but you!” There was no reason to believe him and maybe this was just a tactic to throw me off, but somehow I didn’t get that vibe from him. Which made me want to laugh at myself because it’s not like I had experience with such things.

  “I wanted you to see me and it’s distracted you from the other man following you.”

  My stomach dropped. “I don’t understand?”

  “The statue you found belongs to a private collector. He hired me to get it back.”

  I wasn’t shocked he knew about the statue. I mean, why else would he be interested in me? “So, you’re like a private investigator?”

  “Sort of. By the way, my name is Roberto Cassidy.”

  I had been so flustered I hadn’t even asked him his name. I was losing it.

  “I’d introduce myself but obviously you already know who I am. So why is anybody following me? I don’t have the statue. The hotel does. I don’t even have my things, they’re in the room that was ransacked.”

  Realization dawned on me. “Did these guys you say are following me do that?” The thought made me shiver a bit in spite of the heat.

  He nodded.

  “Then why don’t they realize I don’t have what they are looking for?”

  “It’s not that simple. They know you turned the Buddha statue over to the hotel but that’s not all they’re after,” he paused as if to choose his next words carefully. “The statue was just a cover. They used it to smuggle in diamonds. The diamonds, that’s what everyone wants.”

  “And they, you, think I have the diamonds?”

  “We know they were with the statue up to the point at the airport. My sources at the local police here haven’t reported diamonds being found, so they must still be in your possession.”

  “You mean the diamonds in the statue aren’t all of them?”

  He looked surprised at this statement. “What do you mean?” he asked.

  As I sat there listening to him I couldn’t help but wonder what twilight zone I was living in. I didn’t live in a world with stolen statues and diamonds, and people following me.

  “How do I know you’re telling the truth and are who you say you are,” I asked suspiciously, not wanting to say anything else that could draw more of this unwanted attention to me.

  He leaned forward and reached into his back pocket to pull out his wallet. Opening it and grabbing out a card, he handed it over to me.

  Roberto Cassidy and Associates, it read and just had a number and email.

  I wasn’t stupid, after all I printed things for a living. He could have had these made anywhere.

  He must have read my mind because he said, “Go ahead and check me out.”

  “What is it you want from me? That’s the part I really didn’t understand.”

  “I need you to get your things back from the hotel and get me those diamonds. The owner wants to keep this discreet, out of the papers. He doesn’t need this kind of publicity. There will be a handsome reward in it for you. Money useful for your business I would think.”

  That jolted me. How did he know about my business? Before I could ask, he stood up.

  “I need your help. My client needs your help. Check me out and I’ll be in touch.”

  I just stared as he walked away.

  I looked down at his card, turning it over in my hands. I suspiciously looked around trying to spot the people Roberto said were following me but everyone I could see looked pretty normal to me. I got up to head back to my room, I needed to call Nadine. She could help me sort this out. I was paranoid the whole way back, every person I came across being a potential suspect, at least in my head.

  I opened the door to my room and walked in. Crap, I just stared.

  All my stuff was here from my old room. Twenty minutes ago, I would have been elated. Now, I was almost fearful. If there were people watching me who thought I had these diamonds then they probably knew I had my stuff back, which meant by default they would think I had them. Except, that Roberto hadn’t known I had my stuff back, so what did that mean? I could feel a migraine coming on from too much thinking.

  I walked over to the corner where they had set my suitcases and wondered why the police had brought me the one that had contained the statue. Hadn’t they realized it wasn’t mine? Maybe since it was empty they didn’t care?

  If there was something in that suitcase, that was causing people to follow me, I wanted to know. I grabbed the suitcase, tossed it up on the bed and unzipped it. Roberto seemed surprised when I mentioned the diamonds I found, leading me to believe those weren’t all of them? Diamonds were small and easy to hide. They could be tucked away somewhere no one would think of looking.

  I went to my big suitcase and got out the small sewing kit I always carried. Pulling out the seam ripper, I brought it back to the bed and started working on the lining of the suitcase. I’d made it three quarters of the way around the interior of the suitcase and not only hadn’t found any diamonds but my fingers were getting tired. The thread used in making suitcases I found was much stronger than in clothes. I was almost done and ready to give up when my fingers felt a bump. Up to this point, the lining had been just that, smooth lining. I worked the thread loose and pulled the fabric away. Out fell a black velvet pouch and my heart raced with a mixture of excitement and fear. This could be it, the diamonds Roberto was talking about. I opened the pouch, and poured what ended being six extremely beautiful and sparkly diamonds into my hand. I was no expert but they looked valuable to me. Except now that I had found them, what was I going to do with them? The police. I needed to take these to the police. I didn’t want them in my hotel room since I now knew for sure people were following me.

  I stared at them mesmerized until the ringing of my phone snapped me out of my trance.

  Holding the diamonds in my hand, being careful not to spill them, I hustled over to where I had dropped my phone on the bed.

  “Just the person I wanted to talk to,” I said to Nadine when I answered.<
br />
  “Why, has something else happened?” She said, sounding worried.

  “Yes, but you first. You’re either calling because another one of my ex’s got married or you have more information on the robbers for me,” I tried joking, but Nadine didn’t laugh. Guess it wasn’t any funnier than the first time I said it.

  “I found out more about the robberies.”

  “OK.” The sound in her voice was making me nervous. She was being way too serious. She was using her lawyer voice.

  “There have been a string of robberies in the Miami area and while they have some leads they, meaning the police, aren’t saying much.”

  “So we already knew that.”

  “Just wait. I’m getting to the good stuff. I had to do some digging and call in a few favors to find out exactly who they felt was behind this. I felt there was more to the story than what the prosecutor had told me and thought, like a typical prosecutor, he might be holding something back. It’s a group who call themselves the Merry Robbers and they claim to take things off peoples’ hands they don’t need.”

  “What like modern day Robin Hoods? Besides having an uncreative name, I’m not sure what you’re worried about.”

  “I am because one of the gang members is suspected in a few murders. Unrelated to the robberies, but this isn’t a nice group of people and that makes me worry.”

  I took in what she just said and looked down at my hand holding the diamonds, wondering what exactly I was involved in.

  “Sterling? You still there?

  “Yeah, I’m still here.”

  There was a knock on the door startling me. “Listen Nadine, I need to call you back,” I said hanging up as she started to speak. I walked toward the door, fearful of who it might be with what I had learned. Maybe ignorance was bliss. I put the diamonds in my pocket, thinking it wouldn’t be smart to open the door with them in my hand. As soon as I got rid of whoever this was, I was calling the police.