The Daisy Dunlop Mystery Box Set: Lost Cause, Lost & Found, Lost Property

by JL Simpson

  Daisy scooted across the floor, and unzipped a dark holdall. She tugged out a tiny black leather skirt and skimpy white top, along with the most beautiful pair of knock-off Christian Louboutin ankle boots she’d ever seen. She chewed her bottom lip. If she refused to change, Bogdan might shoot her, but the outfit he’d provided had nowhere to hide the phone. Why did he have an outfit in the van?

  “How did you know I would leave the hotel?”

  Bogdan smiled. “You are lady who likes cake.”

  “Doesn’t mean I would leave the hotel.”

  “It does, if you know about bakery. Now dress, or I come over and help.”

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Solomon slid behind a concrete pillar. Daisy’s phone had gone silent twenty minutes ago, after Bogdan told her to change clothes. There was no movement in the van, but he held on to the slender hope that Daisy was still somewhere inside, out of sight. He checked Paul’s phone. It still showed Daisy’s location as the car park.

  Paul’s voice sounded in his ear. “Are we good to go?”

  Solomon only carried the one radio transmitter in his SUV, so he could hear Paul but couldn’t respond in kind. Instead he shifted left, so he was still hidden from the van but in Paul’s line of sight, and signaled a countdown from three to one.

  Paul strode toward the van with his hands in his jacket pockets. Anyone watching would see a man making his way back to his car. Solomon saw the unease in Paul’s gait and the coiled tension in his muscles, as he shifted his focus from the asphalt to the side window of the van without breaking stride.

  “Clear. Van appears empty.”

  Solomon checked his watch, waited the minute and a half until the agreed time, and then sprinted toward the back of the van. Paul ran from the other direction, heading for the driver’s door. They slammed into the vehicle, and forced the doors open.

  Paul’s voice sounded in his ear. “No one in front.”

  The only thing in the back was the clothes Daisy had been wearing. With a growl of frustration, Solomon leapt inside and started searching. Paul’s face appeared on the other side of the grille, as Solomon retrieved Daisy’s phone from the interior of an empty black holdall. “Shite. We’re too late. They’re on the move.”

  Paul growled with apparent frustration. “Where?”

  “If I had to guess, I’d say he was taking Daisy to meet the buyer.”

  “Plan B?”

  Solomon nodded. “Aye. Plan B.”

  * * * * *

  Daisy’s heels tapped out an echoing beat on the concrete floor, as she glanced around the cavernous room, searching for a means of escape. A few owners were still styling their dogs, but the preparation room was almost devoid of human life. Everyone she knew in the dog business was dead, hiding out, or under arrest. Her arrival barely raised an eyebrow.

  The gun jabbed into her ribs. Bogdan was in a hurry, even though the buyers weren’t due to show up for another twenty minutes. A tall, middle aged man, resplendent with beer belly and thinning red hair, scooped up a tiny primped, teased, and terrifyingly snappy dog, and stepped into the aisle in front of them. Daisy’s knees threatened to buckle, and her body vibrated with barely contained terror, as the yapping monster approached. Daisy shrank back against Bogdan, ignoring the deep prod of the gun between her ribs. She should be brave. She should beg the man to help her. She should do something. It might be the only chance she had to save herself. The man shoved his way past them, and Daisy’s shoulders sagged with a mixture of relief the dog hadn’t gotten any closer, and disgust that she’d been too scared to take advantage of the distraction.

  “Move.”

  Daisy’s legs shook, as she stepped in the direction Bogdan indicated. He seemed to know where they were going, even though the exchange was never supposed to happen. What would he do when the buyers were a no show? Would he shoot her? She glanced at the large clock on the back wall, ticking away what could be the last minutes of her life. Waiting for Solomon to rescue her was no longer an option; she would have to save herself.

  *

  Solomon slid along the side of a dog trailer, reversed up to the loading area. The roller door to the preparation room was wide open. Having Fiona show him around the night before was more useful than he imagined. Daisy was walking toward them with Bogdan close behind. If only Solomon had his gun, he could take the maggot out. Bogdan might be using Daisy, as a human shield but his head was exposed and begging to be drilled with a bullet.

  Paul nudged his shoulder, and Solomon turned his head and lifted his chin in a silent nod. Paul edged back, and Solomon followed. They squatted down behind a pile of empty crates.

  Paul checked his watch. “Are we waiting for the cops?”

  “They’re still ten minutes away. Besides, do you want to trust Daisy’s safety to strangers?”

  Paul grunted. “Why not? They couldn’t do any worse than you.”

  Solomon winced. “Granted, this is not ideal, but nothing is going to happen to Daisy. You’ve my word on it.”

  “Okay, what’s the plan?”

  “We need a distraction.”

  “What are you thinking? You could pretend to be the buyer.”

  Solomon shook his head. “Bogdan knows me.”

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  Daisy tried to remember Solomon’s email. What had Bogdan read, when he intercepted it? What did he think was going to happen? Her mind was blank. They headed toward the back of the hall, which was the only area that still had people milling about. Was that where they were supposed to meet the buyer?

  She needed to do something to upset his plan. If he was off guard, she might be able to take the gun away from him. She’d done it before. Of course, he’d been too focused on throttling Solomon to see her coming. If only Solomon was here this time…she’d gladly let Bogdan kill him, for not showing up to rescue her.

  Movement in the loading bay caught her attention. Her stomach did a somersault, and tears stung her eyes. Paul. She checked her desire to scream out for him to help her. What was he doing in Bristol? He hadn’t had enough time to drive from home since she’d sent the text telling him to give Solomon her location. If he spooked Bogdan, they could both get shot. He had no idea what he was getting into. She needed to keep Bogdan focused on her.

  Daisy kept walking toward a petite young girl putting a Yorkshire terrier through his paces. Heart pounding, sweat oozing its way down her back and between her breasts, and every muscle in her body tensed to turn tail and run, she kept moving closer to the dog.

  She glanced around the room, and caught the eye of Fiona, who was bustling around near the entrance to the show area. The blonde waved, making her expansive chest jiggle like an overly excited plate of custard.

  “If we don’t interview someone, people will get suspicious.”

  “What people?”

  “See the woman by the door?”

  “What about her?”

  “She knows I’m a reporter, and she met my partner. She’s bound to come over and ask where he is, unless we give her a reason not to.”

  “What reason?”

  “She might not interrupt, if I’m working.”

  Bogdan gave Daisy a shove toward the girl with the terrier. “So interview her.”

  Daisy lifted her voice. “Excuse me?”

  The girl stopped barely three feet away. “Yes?” Her dog immediately sat and stared up at his owner.

  Daisy shifted her focus to Paul, who was walking toward them with a frown on his face. He sped up. “Daisy, I need a word.”

  She felt Bogdan pull the gun from her back. No! He was going to kill Paul.

  Daisy stumbled toward the woman, and scooped the dog up from the floor. It growled as she spun around. “Bogdan?”

  He had the gun aimed at Paul.

  She threw the dog at the Pole. “Catch.”

  The dog howled, the woman screamed, and Daisy pressed the palms of her hands to her face, as Solomon barreled into Bogdan, wrapped an arm aro
und his throat, and pulled him to the ground. The gun slipped from Bogdan’s hand and skidded across the floor. Paul flung himself forward and caught the dog in a move that would have had every rugby team in the land signing him if they’d seen it. He landed on his back with a loud umph, the dog cradled in his arms.

  Daisy lurched forward and grabbed the gun. Chest heaving with each breath, she stood legs wide, and aimed the gun at the murdering bastard’s head. He stopped struggling, and Solomon dragged him to his feet. A warm hand covered hers, and she let the gun go before the world started to fade and her knees finally gave out.

  Chapter Fifty-Nine

  Back at the hotel, Daisy and Paul sat on the end of the bed. She reached over, and grabbed his hand. He kissed her knuckles before resting their linked hands on his thigh. She glanced at him, and he smiled.

  Solomon slammed the hotel room door, wandered over, and sat on the sofa. “Do you two need a moment?”

  Daisy glared at him. The cops had arrived and arrested Bogdan. They’d all given statements, and she had finally showered and dressed. Solomon treated them all to breakfast, but had spent half of the meal on the phone, talking to Dan Maloney. Daisy had pieced together some of the story from Solomon’s end of the conversation, but nothing made sense. “What we need is to know what was going on.”

  Solomon leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “We needed to move on Bogdan, to flush out Nobby.”

  Daisy stared at him. “Nobby?”

  Paul frowned. “What exactly does Nobby have to do with all of this?”

  “She was arrested fleeing Lisa’s house, wearing a blonde wig, and carrying the real diamonds taped between her boobs.”

  Daisy frowned. “Nobby has reverted to being a woman?”

  “Nobby was always a woman.”

  “With a huge tattoo on her forehead.”

  “Fake, just like the rest of her. She’s a chameleon, doing whatever it takes to fit into her surroundings. Nobby the hardcore drug dealer wasn’t needed, now she had enough diamonds to pay for a new life.”

  “But how did she get the diamonds? Where were they?”

  Solomon’s mouth kicked up in a lopsided smile. “She had them from the start. She claims she was keeping them safe for Bogdan and had no idea they were stolen.”

  Paul frowned. “But?”

  “But Bogdan says Nobby has been sending him on a wild goose chase. Bogdan and Chester brought the diamonds in from Europe, and were to meet a contact in London next week, to hand them over and collect their fee. They decided to double cross their European counterparts, sell the diamonds, and flee before the meeting was supposed to take place. They’d be safe and sound before their business partners knew the deal had gone south.

  “Chester was holding the jewels but got nervous, so he told Bogdan he handed them over to their good friend Nobby for safe keeping. Next thing Bogdan knows, Nobby tells him he gave the jewels to Sean to hide. Nobby and Sean must have had a falling out, so Nobby told Bogdan Sean refused to give them back and was planning to go to the police, unless they cut him into the deal. Bogdan goes after Sean, and kills him when Sean denies ever having seen the jewels. Nobby tells him Sean arranged to meet Chester at Lisa’s, so Chester must know where the jewels are and be planning to cut Bogdan out of the deal. Murder number two. My guess is Nobby told Chester the same thing, and Bogdan was the only one who turned up with a gun.

  “With Sean and Chester dead Nobby had to widen the conspiracy theory to keep suspicion away from herself, which is why Bogdan threatened Poppy’s dad and how Candy got her head blown off. Are you with me so far, Princess?”

  Daisy nodded. “I’m following along, but I don’t understand how and when you knew Nobby was behind this.”

  “Nobby gave herself away when she said she never double crossed me in Morocco. She couldn’t tell the truth if her life depended on it. Anyway, Bogdan fled Lisa’s in the van that was seen outside the office when the computers were bugged. It wasn’t much of a stretch to assume Nobby was pulling Bogdan’s strings all along. Her mistake was thinking she could use me as a decoy.”

  “So where is Johnny?”

  “Nobby had him hidden at her flat. She knew where he was all along and had him stolen from Mr. Randall’s by her henchmen. Apparently she has a soft spot for Poodles. Reminds her of her childhood.”

  “Why was I hired?”

  “My best guess is Nobby stole Johnny from the dog show, and passed him onto Sean to hold as a way to keep Chester in line. Maybe she told Chester Sean had Johnny, which is why he turned up at Lisa’s in time to be shot by Bogdan. However it played out, hiring you was her suggestion. She knew I would come along, as part of the deal.”

  “So she wanted what from you?”

  “Protection, which she got, and probably to put you in danger as a way to get back at me and Paul, in some twisted game of revenge.”

  “For what?”

  Solomon looked at Paul. “Morocco.”

  Daisy shifted her focus to Paul. “What happened in Morocco?”

  Solomon looked at Paul. “Do you want to tell her?”

  “It was your funeral.”

  Daisy frowned. “Why was it a funeral?”

  “It killed Solomon’s career in the army.”

  Solomon shrugged. “I was done with the army anyway.”

  Daisy took a deep breath. “Can one of you just tell me what happened?”

  Paul dropped her hand, got to his feet, and wandered across the room to the window. “We were called in to work with Nobby. She was supposed to play decoy, while Solomon and I worked to extract a diplomat who’d pissed off the wrong people.”

  Daisy frowned. “Who was Nobby working for?”

  Solomon shook his head. “Can’t tell you that, Princess.”

  “Okay. Well, what did she do?”

  Paul turned and rested his backside on the windowsill. “Solomon was in charge of the operation. We had no idea Nobby had another agenda. The diplomat was caught with a married woman, and the jealous husband held a lot of political power in the Middle East. While we worked on getting our man out, Nobby worked on a way to get an assassin in to kill him. She set us up against each other.”

  Solomon snorted. “We fell for her lies. I found her in Paul’s bed one afternoon, and she told me Paul was sleeping with her. I got mad at Paul. I thought I knew him better than that.”

  Paul rubbed his chin. “I came back from a reconnaissance mission, and found Nobby in bed with Solomon.”

  Daisy wrinkled her forehead. “Why were you in bed with her?”

  “I wanted Paul to see what a callous bitch she was.”

  Paul stepped away from the window, and crossed back to the bed. “I never slept with her and I thought his dick was compromising the operation.”

  “While I slugged it out with Paul, Nobby snuck away and completed her mission.”

  Daisy shifted her focus to Solomon. “What happened to the diplomat?”

  Solomon made a cutting motion across his throat with his finger. “We caught Nobby and turned her in, but it was too little, too late. The mission had gone up in smoke. Nobby was kept in solitary for a month or two but never cracked, and they didn’t have enough evidence to prove anything, so they had to let her go. She’s probably hated us ever since.”

  She turned to Paul. “I didn’t think we kept secrets.”

  “I never kept what we did in Morocco from you. It was a job, not a secret. Why didn’t you tell me about working with Nobby?”

  “Solomon told me not to.”

  Paul shifted his attention to Solomon. “What other secrets are the two of you keeping?”

  *

  Solomon leaned back and smiled. “I’m not sleeping with your wife, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  Daisy grabbed Paul’s arm. “You didn’t think that. Did you, Paul? Because I would never sleep with him, even if we did technically sleep together, but it was just sleeping. He was supposed to stay on the sofa, but he got into bed withou
t me knowing.” God, she was rambling and making things sound worse than they were. “I’d rather sleep on the floor, than sleep with Solomon. It would be wrong. So wrong.” She shuddered with apparent disgust.

  Solomon raised an eyebrow. “Am I that unattractive, Princess?”

  Daisy glared at him. “You know what I’m talking about.”

  “No idea, but neither of you have any reason to worry. Daisy is yours, and you’re welcome to her. I would never come between you and your wife.”

  Paul’s eyes turned dark with suspicion. “Something is going on. You used to hate each other, and now you’re inseparable. She’s spent more nights this week at your house than she has at ours. She shot you in the arse, and you still want to work with her. Why?”

  Daisy stared at Solomon. “Tell him, before I do.”

  Paul shifted his focus from Daisy to Solomon and back again. “Tell me what?”

  Solomon kept her gaze, until she looked away. He knew she would blab eventually. If she told Paul his secret, it could blow Paul’s relationship with his parents out of the water, and would ruin a friendship he had built over years. “It’s not your secret to tell, Princess.”

  “I’ll tell it anyway. Better he finds out the truth from us than someone else.”

  Paul stepped between them. “What truth? Will one of you just bloody well tell me?”

  Solomon peered around Paul. “Don’t do it, Princess. If you do, you have nothing to blackmail me with, and your heir hunting days are over.”

  “I can heir hunt alone. It would be safer. No one is going to shoot me when I tell them they’ve come into an inheritance.”

  “Don’t do it, Princess. Please.”

  Paul glared at Solomon and then at Daisy. “Just fucking well tell me.”

  Solomon frowned. “Did you not give up the swearing?”

  “I’ll fucking swear, if I want, and I’ll kick your arse all around the room, if you don’t tell me what’s going on. What does Daisy have on you?”