Scottsdale Heat: a romantic light-hearted murder mystery (Laura Black Mysteries Book 1)

by B A Trimmer

  I heard more shots being fired from the inside of the building. It seemed like Boris, Ivan, Smith, and Jones were going to finish each other off after all.

  I looked ahead and saw Max being helped into the back seat of a car. His eyes were dazed but open and very much alive. I looked but didn’t see any blood. In my slow motion time frame, that sight both surprised and pleased me. I wanted to go to the car and find an explanation as to why he was still alive but my legs weren’t responding. Johnny Scarpazzi was waving his arm and shouting that we had to get out on the back road.

  I stumbled four or five steps away from the building when there was a blinding flash and a tremendous explosion. Something that felt like a big warm hand gave me a hard shove. I flew forward ten feet and landed on my face. Pieces of the building landed all around me.

  I got up and took a step toward the car. Suddenly, something smashed against my head. Bright lights danced in front of me. I went down to my knees as I felt the pain of the impact. The bright spots were now black spots. The blackness grew until the daylight faded and was gone. The pain faded. Then there was nothing.

  FIFTEEN

  When I came to, I was in a semi-private room of a very modern hospital and I had a bitch kitty of a headache. On the bed next to mine was Max. His shirt was off and there was tape wrapped around his ribs. He looked surprisingly good for someone who had taken a bullet in the chest. He was awake and he smiled when he saw me.

  “I thought you’d be dead,” I mumbled. I found it hard to focus my thoughts and my words were coming out with difficulty.

  “Hope I didn’t disappoint you.”

  “No, I’m happy to see you’re alive. What happened? I saw you get shot.”

  “Bullet-proof vest.”

  “Oh, I didn’t think tough guys like you were into things like that.”

  “After today, I may never take it off.”

  I looked out the window and saw the orange glow of a sunset or maybe a sunrise. It was hard to tell which it was.

  “How long have I been out?”

  “You’ve been out about 14 hours, but you haven’t been unconscious the whole time. You woke up a couple of times last night. They’ve wheeled you in and out of the room several times. You’ve had X-Rays, CAT scans, MRIs, and I don’t know what else. So far, they’ve been letting you sleep it off and no one’s in a panic over you. I take that as a good sign.”

  “That still doesn’t explain what happened to me.”

  “You got hit with a shoe. I saw it happen. The explosion must have shot it pretty high in the air. When it fell, it landed on your head.”

  “A shoe shouldn’t have knocked me out.”

  “Well, umm, there was still a foot and part of a leg in it. I think it was Smith’s.”

  Uuggh.

  Black spots danced in front of my eyes and I fell back on the pillow.

  ~~~~

  When I woke up again the room was much brighter. I was guessing it was around mid-day. Max was still there, now with a shirt on, reading a book. Somehow, I was disappointed he was fully dressed. I kind of liked it the other way.

  “Welcome back,” he said. “How do you feel?”

  I thought about it for a moment. The headache was gone and I wasn’t feeling fuzzy anymore. “Better,” I said. “I actually feel better.”

  “Good,” he said. “When we get out of here, you and I have some unfinished business.”

  “Hey, it’s not my fault the building blew up. They just started shooting at each other. You can’t expect bullets and bombs to live in harmony. Sooner or later something’s going to explode.”

  “I’m not talking about the building. I’m talking about the kiss we had at Lenny’s office. After all we’ve been through I think you owe me another one. Although this time I’m going to kiss you without your friends watching. I hate short kisses.”

  Oh, boy.

  ~~~~

  Five minutes later, Tony DiCenzo came into the room. Milo and Sophie followed him. She was carrying a bouquet of flowers. My heart was still pumping double time from my conversation with Max.

  “Hey Laura, these are for you,” Sophie said, laying the flowers on the table by my bed. “I thought you’d never wake up. We’ve been in here most of the night and all morning. The doctors say you check out OK. You can go home anytime you want.”

  “Tony,” I asked. “Is everything OK?”

  “It’s been a long night for all of us. Everybody’s been very busy. Milo, would you mind escorting Miss Rodriguez back to her place of employment so she can pick up her car? Max and I need to talk with Miss Black for a few minutes longer.”

  Milo acknowledged the order and turned to leave.

  “Looks like I’ll be seeing you later,” Sophie said.

  From the look on her face and the tone of her voice, I doubted she would let Milo stop at just taking her back to her car. I hoped Milo had a good strong heart.

  When we were alone, DiCenzo pulled up a chair and positioned it between Max’s bed and mine.

  “We’ve had us quite a time yesterday and last night,” He said. “I thought those guys were going to conduct business with some honor. Maybe I shoulda known better, but I’ve dealt with them before and everything went OK. Of course, if somebody goes into it with the intention of stirring things up there isn’t a lot you can do about it.”

  “Did everybody get away OK?” I asked.

  “Everybody but Reinhardt. We knew the cops had been trailing him so we had set up a diversion to free him up. After that, he drove his car to within a few miles of the buy. One of my guys then shuttled him back and forth, I thought that would do the trick. Unfortunately, the cops weren’t fooled as long as we had hoped for. One stopped Ice just after he got back to his car and had driven about a mile. Ice didn’t have anything incriminating on him when he was stopped, of course. The cop questioned him for a while, wanted to know what he had been doing all afternoon, and searched his car. Then the cop let him go. They might later try to tie him with the explosion and the bodies, but I doubt it. When the cop stopped Reinhardt he was a good five miles away from the building that blew. They might not even make the connection at all. But, in the end, they’ll have nothing.”

  “Won’t the police make a connection with the guys in the building and you? They must have come into the country using passports. They stayed in your hotel. Doesn’t that leave a trail?”

  “Fortunately, none of them were traveling under their real names. The police won’t have a clue who they were. We show them as checking out the day Alex disappeared. How could any of this be out fault?”

  “What about your building?” I asked. “Buildings don’t just blow up by themselves.”

  “We had a team in the building before the fire department arrived. They scattered enough money and drugs around to give the cops something interesting to think about. I don’t think we’ll have any problems there. They know the resort belongs to me, but other than there is nothing to tie our guys to it. It’ll just go down as another drug deal that went bad.”

  “Won’t the police find the diamonds scattered in with the bodies?”

  “Fortunately, my guys were able to recover most of the diamonds. The steel briefcase they was in took most of the explosion. It was burnt and ripped but still mostly intact. We’ll be able to turn over all but five of the diamonds, including the three Alexander sold. The Consortium is sending over a couple of new guys to pick ‘em up. Max will lead the team in charge of the handover.”

  “You’re still giving the diamonds to them? After what happened?”

  “Sure, they paid for them. We’ve found out the Consortium never authorized the reduction in payment. As far as they knew, the full sum was transferred. Smith and Jones decided to skim on the deal themselves. The loss of the bag made too perfect of an excuse for them to pass up. With the help of an accomplice in the Consortium, they diverted the two million into a private account in the Cayman Islands. Fortunately, the deal was set up so quickly they were
sloppy about it and the transaction was easily traced.

  The Consortium has already wired the remainder of the money to Moscow. They’ve apologized to both the Russians and to me for their irresponsible men. They even offered to buy me a new building to make up for the one that blew up.”

  “Are the Russians in Moscow OK with the apology?” I asked.

  “OK enough to wire my fee. Our two Russians left their phone line open after they had finished receiving instructions. Moscow heard the whole thing. There’re convinced our two dead Consortium friends were acting independently and both paid for their stupidity with their lives.

  What I can’t believe is Smith and Jones thought the Russians would accept less than full payment, or they could steal all those diamonds just because they had a bomb. If that were the case, guys would be bringing bombs every time anybody made an exchange. They made a serious miscalculation and it cost them.”

  “I’m surprised Moscow and the Consortium aren’t more upset.”

  “Actually, the deal went down pretty smoothly, all things considered.”

  “Tony, people were killed.”

  “Yeah, but the brothers brought it on themselves. You can’t walk into a deal like that, ready to double-cross everybody and expect to come out clean. Their superiors were more than happy to wash their hands of them. The two Russians died with honor. Moscow considers the two guys you called Boris and Ivan to be heroes. Their pictures are probably already up in a bar somewhere in Moscow.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Dead serious. And I imagine their families will be well taken care of.”

  DiCenzo shifted in his seat and looked at me.

  “We’re almost done here, but we got something personal to settle between us. I ain’t ever had my life saved twice in one day before. Max and me have helped each other out more times than I care to remember. He’s the only person I completely trust and that’s saying something. But you, Laura Black, that’s completely different. You stuck your neck out to help me. I won’t forget it. We now have a bond between us that’s formed in blood. As such, I owe you a favor. For me to repay this debt, you may come to me at any time. Whatever you ask of me, if it is in my power to do so, I will. Now Laura Black, this is not something to be taken lightly or to be used without desperate need. Once the favor is used, it can never be used again. Of course, as a friend, you can come to me anytime, in case something minor comes up.”

  Yikes! It was like talking with Don Corleone.

  “Tony, is Danica alright?”

  “Your co-worker, Miss Rondinelli, did a good job of getting her out of the building where they were holding her. She’d been roughed up a little and got bruised in a couple of sensitive areas, but she is otherwise all right.

  She came in and spent the night in Alex’s room. He had a broken nose, a couple of cracked ribs, four broken fingers, and a lot of bruises, but he wasn’t otherwise seriously injured. They were both released this morning.”

  “What about the police? There was a dead guy in Alex’s apartment then he disappeared. They’re going to want to know what happened.”

  “Alex knows he stole a bag from three guys in the Blue Palms two weeks ago. He knows in the bag were three diamonds. He knows he fenced the three diamonds and made a nice chunk of change. He knows the same three guys met him in his apartment four days ago, only one of them was dead. He knows they grabbed him and broke his fingers until he told them he had given the bag to his girlfriend. When Alex is questioned by the police that’s all he’ll know. He’s smart enough to know he stole from the wrong people. He also knows what’ll happen if he guesses too much about what happened.”

  “What are you going to do to him?”

  “The toughest thing I had to do last night was to figure out what to do with that little prick. I got the diamond he sold to the Iceman at the Tropical Paradise, but the first two diamonds he fenced came out of my commission. Plus he almost got me into more trouble than I knew how to get out of.”

  “Tony, please let Alex off the hook. You can use that as my favor. He didn’t know he was doing anything against you. He was just stupid.”

  “No need to use your favor on that. I’ve already made an arrangement. Last night I called Muffy Sternwood and let her know what had happened to Alex, well, the basics of it anyway. I wanted her to know the actual truth of the matter. Her late husband and I used to do business together in the old days. She knew what a tight spot Alex was in. She reminded me she owns a prime piece of land in north Scottsdale. She also knows I’ve wanted to buy it for years. She’s been sitting on it, even though I’ve always offered her a good price for it. She said she’d let me have it to build a new resort on, but only on the condition we split ownership fifty-fifty.”

  “Muffy Sternwood? You and Muffy?”

  “Yeah, go figure. I hate having partners, but that’s how the world works.”

  DiCenzo stood up. “I know you’re both anxious to get out of here, but walk with me for a moment, Laura Black.”

  I stood up and we walked out to the hallway. At the end of the hall were two goons. One was near the elevator and one was posted at the stairs. Down at our end of the hall it was just Tony and me. It was the first time I had ever been alone with him. It was kind of a creepy feeling.

  “Now that business is out of the way,” DiCenzo said. “I think you should consider going out with Max. Do you know he’s mentioned you a couple a times over the past few days? He’s a great guy. I think the two of you would work out swell.”

  “Thanks Tony, but I think I’m already in a relationship. He’s a Scottsdale cop.”

  At that, Tough Tony DiCenzo starting laughing. An honest laugh that came from deep down.

  “Well, Laura Black, I won’t comment on your choice in boyfriends, but I’m truly happy for you. Of course, these things sometimes have a way of falling apart. If that day comes, then I think you should consider Max.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind, Tony. I really will.”

  With that, Tony stuck his head back into the room. “Max would you mind driving Miss Black back to Lenny’s office? Her car is still there.”

  ~~~~

  Twenty minutes later, Max and I were sitting in the parking lot behind Lenny’s office.

  “Before you go,” Max said. “Tony wanted you to have this.”

  He handed me a small white envelope, the size of a thank-you card. There was something lumpy in the envelope, along with what felt like a card. I fingered it and wondered what was in it. Tony had said if everything worked out he’d give me a cut. My first thought was it was too small to hold cash. My second thought was it was probably also too small to hold a check. That is, unless it had been folded two or three times.

  “Do I need to open it now?”

  “It can wait.”

  “Good, I’ve had all the excitement I can handle, plus the explosion ripped my favorite shirt. Tell Tony thanks for whatever it is.”

  “You did great yesterday,” Max said. “Not many veterans could have done as well as you did in your first time. If you ever consider a career change, we could probably find a place for you with us.”

  “Thanks, but I hope you understand I only helped out Tony because I didn’t have a choice. If Alex’s life wasn’t on the line, I never would have done it. The type of work you do isn’t for me.”

  “I understand. It’s not a lifestyle for everybody. But what about you and me? Would you like to get together sometime? Maybe see where it could lead?”

  “Well, yes, but no. I’m becoming involved with a Scottsdale cop. I need to see where it’s going before I can get involved with anyone else. Besides, I think I told you, as a rule I don’t get romantically involved with organized crime figures.”

  “True, you did. Nevertheless, I’m still not going anywhere. Go and find out if you and this cop are right for each other. If you are, then I’m happy for you. If not, then give me a call.”

  “It’s a deal,” I said and I held my hand out. Instead
of shaking it, he bent over and softly kissed me. His kiss was brief but had the effect of igniting every nerve in my body.

  How can he do that?

  Max leaned back and saw my reaction to his kiss. “Yeah, it’s a deal,” he said.

  ~~~~

  I checked in with Lenny and gave him an edited version of how we found both the bag and Alexander. But Lenny wasn’t interested in hearing the details. He was thrilled things had worked out so well and really didn’t care how it had happened. He was going to get a huge fee from DiCenzo for finding the bag and an even bigger fee from Muffy for finding Alex. He even made a vague reference about giving Gina, Sophie, and me a bonus for the great work we had done, like that would ever happen.

  I then drove home for a shower and a change. As I drove, the events of the past few days kept replaying in my mind. I think I was looking for an explanation for everything that had happened. By the time I pulled the car into my parking lot, I had decided I needed a Scotch.

  A good Scotch.

  ~~~~

  I took the elevator up and unlocked my door. As I walked in, Marlowe greeted me with a rub against my leg. I apologized for being gone for so long and opened up a can of Super Supper to make up for it. He sucked down the entire can of food, then walked to the corner of the kitchen and threw up. Things in my apartment had returned to normal.

  I stripped off my shirt and blue jeans with relief. The shower I took next was hot and delicious. I felt the tensions of the day drain out of my body. By the time the shower was over I decided in addition to a good Scotch, I needed Reno.

  He answered his phone on the first ring. I suggested we meet at Frankie Z’s at seven o’clock for drinks and conversation.

  “I heard Alex turned himself in,” Reno said.

  “He had apparently been kidnapped by the two men who killed the dead guy in his apartment. The two men have since disappeared. Lenny is representing him, so you know he won’t let Alex say a word.”