by J A Whiting
Brad answered. “No, I’ll be here keeping an eye on her.”
The paramedic nodded and continued to work on Olivia. They heard sirens approaching. A team of police and detectives entered the living room and Joe took them to the garage. He didn’t come back.
“I think Joe should call our lawyer,” Olivia said to Brad. “Is he still in the garage?” Brad nodded.
Two detectives approached and one took Brad aside for questioning while the other pulled a chair up alongside Olivia. The paramedic was finishing with the bandages.
“I’m Detective McDonald. I need to talk to you about tonight’s events.”
Olivia scowled.
“You’re Olivia Miller?”
“Where’s Joe?” Olivia asked.
“He’s with one of the officers,” McDonald replied.
“Is the officer a friend of Brown’s?” Olivia’s voice had an edge to it.
“The officer is questioning him.”
“Does Joe need a lawyer?” Olivia asked.
McDonald didn’t answer right away.
Olivia’s eyes flashed. “Your detective friend tried to kill me. I believe he had a hand in killing my aunt.” Olivia narrowed her eyes. “How do I know you’re not going to try to kill me, too?”
The paramedic finished with Olivia and stood. “She needs to rest,” he told the detective, as he gathered his medical supplies.
The police chief overheard what Olivia was saying to the detective and walked over to them. “Ms. Miller, how are you doing? I’m sorry about all of this.” He waved his hand in the air. His face was drawn. “You can trust Detective McDonald.”
“How do you know that?”
“He’s my son-in-law.”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
The chief shrugged. “You don’t. I guess you’ll just have to have faith in some people.” His shoulders slumped as he crossed the room to see Brad and the other detective.
McDonald asked Olivia to describe the evening’s events. She went through things, beginning with Brown arriving at her door until she locked herself in her Jeep in the garage.
“He shot out the car window. I was afraid he was going to shoot me next. The sound was deafening. My ears are still ringing,” Olivia said, bringing her hand up to cup her ear.
The police chief had returned and pulled up a chair. He was listening to Olivia’s description of what had happened. Olivia rubbed her temples. “I can’t tell you any more. I didn’t see anything after that.” Olivia leaned back. Her stomach was churning and her vision was blurring. “I need a break. If you want to ask me anything else, it will just have to wait until tomorrow.” She raised her head and looked about the room at the people milling about. Some were taking photographs; others were writing in notebooks.
“Where’s Joe?” Olivia demanded. “I want to see him.” Nobody answered.
“Brad,” Olivia raised her voice. “Will you go find Joe? And will you hand me my phone, please?”
Brad excused himself from the detective and brought Olivia her phone. He headed out to the garage to see what was happening. Olivia called the number of the lawyer who handled their affairs. He had been a friend of Aggie’s for years. When he answered, Olivia told him what had happened, and he agreed to be at her house in fifteen minutes.
The lawyer arrived and Joe emerged from the garage. He sank into the living room chair. The police were none too pleased to have one of their own killed with a nail gun.
“I’d like all this business behind us,” Joe sighed. “But I’m afraid that a reason of self-defense doesn’t fly that well when someone kills a detective.”
Olivia’s face was creased with worry and anger. “Then they shouldn’t have a dirty cop in their midst.” Her voice was hoarse. She thought of Brown’s hands gripping her throat.
“Brown was a good actor,” Joe sighed. “It’s not the police department’s fault.”
Olivia sat up straight. Her eyes were wide. She remembered what she saw in the den when Brown was choking her. “Brad…on the shelf in the den is a red box that I made for Aggie when I was little. Would you get it for me?”
“Sure thing,” Brad said, getting up from the living room chair.
“What’s with the box, Liv?” Joe asked.
“I thought of something earlier.” A cloud passed over her face. “When Brown was choking me in the den.” Her throat constricted at the thought of Brown’s hands on her. “I just remembered.” She swallowed hard to clear the tightness in her throat.
Joe looked quizzically at her. Brad bought the box in and handed it to Olivia.
“Thanks,” she said. “I hope I’m right.” The law enforcement officers watched what was going on. Olivia closed her eyes and said softly, “Please let me be right.” She opened the lid of the box and peered inside. There was the picture of Olivia and Aggie taken years ago at the beach. Olivia lifted the small square of red cloth that was under the photo. A smile worked at the corners of her mouth. She held the red box out to Brad. They exchanged glances and he looked inside of it.
“What? What’s going on?” Joe asked, getting up from his chair and walking over to Brad. Brad reached in and removed a red flash drive and a small silver key.
“It’s Aggie’s,” Olivia said. Her eyes glistened with tears. “It’s Aggie’s flash drive. I made the box for her. When I was little. It’s a red jewelry box.” She looked at Brad and Joe and a smile spread across her face. “Red jewelry box. Red Julie.”
Brad and Joe stared at her with their mouths partially open. They blinked at each other.
“Really?” Joe asked.
“Red Julie…jewelry, not Julie,” Brad said. “That’s what Andersen was trying to tell you.”
Olivia nodded and said, “That’s what he was saying to me. ‘Look in the red jewelry box’. He knew Aggie hid this here. She knew I would find it. Eventually.”
“It’s been here all along,” Joe said. “Right under our noses.”
Olivia gestured to the flash drive in Brad’s hand. “Let’s see what’s on it.”
Joe hustled to get Olivia’s laptop. Brad called the police chief over. Olivia slid her legs back against the couch so Brad and Joe could sit down with her. Brad inserted the drive and opened the latest saved Word document. It was saved as ‘Livvy.’ Olivia and Joe peered over Brad’s shoulder. The three of them held their breaths.
Livvy Dear
If you are reading this, then something has happened to me. Bring these pictures and documents to the FBI. NOT THE POLICE. You can trust Martin Andersen.
The music box is in the treasure chest.
I love you.
Olivia covered her face with her hands and hunched over, rocking. Brad put his arm around her. She straightened up. Her face was wet and she wiped the tears with her sleeve.
“I’m okay.”
Brad’s face was lined with concern.
“Liv, honey, what does she mean ‘the treasure chest’?” Joe asked gently.
“I’ll show you in a minute. Keep looking on the flash drive, Brad,” Olivia urged. “I’m okay.”
Brad scrolled through the pictures that Aggie had saved. Numerous pictures were of Siderov and Brown exchanging objects and riding in a van together. There were pictures of the suspicious florist making deliveries to Siderov’s house. The last pictures showed Siderov, Alexei, and Brown pulling two men out of a van and, holding, what looked like guns, to their backs, pushing them towards the Victorian. It was clear that the pictures had been taken from Andersen’s decks.
Further down was a list of sales for the antique shop with scanned copies of bills of sale. One showed Aggie’s purchase of a music box and another was for the sale of that same box to Martin Andersen. There were pictures of it.
Brad turned the computer so that the police chief and two of the detectives could see the information that Aggie had saved for them. Their faces showed the strain of betrayal. The police chief cleared his throat. “We’ll need the flash drive.”
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Brad nodded. The lawyer instructed Brad to copy the files to Olivia’s laptop before he removed the drive and handed it to Detective McDonald.
“The treasure chest is in the basement. We need to go down to the basement,” Olivia said.
“Liv, you need to stay put,” Joe said, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth he knew they were useless.
“I’ll carry you,” Brad told her. He lifted her from the sofa and they went to the basement, accompanied by two detectives and the chief.
“It’s the old Christmas trunk,” Olivia said. “We called it the treasure chest.”
Joe moved an old straight-backed chair next to the old steamer trunk that Aggie kept the Christmas decorations in and Brad eased Olivia onto it.
“Check the decorations. Aggie must have wrapped it in some of the decorations. Look and see,” Olivia requested.
Joe, Brad, and two police officers carefully lifted out decorations, one by one. Tree skirts, boxes of ornaments, bags of ribbons and tinsel.
Joe held a box marked “ornaments” and lifted the cover. “It’s here.” He was holding a wooden music box. He set it on the concrete floor. Everyone stared at it.
“That’s the cause of all this?” Brad asked.
“Smash it,” Olivia said angrily. “Just smash it.”
Joe lifted it up again and handed it to the chief. The music box, the old chest, and the basement were photographed by a member of the police department. They dusted different things for fingerprints, which Olivia thought was useless. They all returned upstairs, where the box was inspected more closely. There appeared to be a place on the bottom where a key could be inserted.
Olivia’s eyes widened. “Chief, the key. There was a key in the red jewelry box. Brad, where did you put it?”
“It’s on the coffee table,” Brad answered.
The police chief put on surgical type gloves and carried the music box to the coffee table. Everyone huddled around to see. The chief placed the bottom of the small key into the grooves on the box. He wiggled it to adjust the fit. There was a click from the box. A small door in the bottom of the box sprang open and, making a tinkling sound, hundreds of sparkling diamonds dropped from inside the box onto the table. The six people around the coffee table simultaneously sucked air in audible gasps. They stared transfixed by the bounty before them.
“What the…?” Joe said.
“My God,” the chief said without moving his eyes from the diamonds. “We’ll be needing photos of all this.”
Chapter 31
The next morning Olivia was returned to the hospital, where they fixed her up for the second time. This time on the car ride home Olivia didn’t complain about having someone stay with her. It wasn’t because the events of the last few days had frightened her into wanting company. It was because she was glad they were all alive and she liked just being able to look at them. When she got home, she ate three pieces of blueberry cake and downed a big glass of milk.
“Thought you were allergic to blueberries,” Brad said.
“It was temporary,” Olivia said.
“I see,” Brad said.
“Brad and I were hoping to have the cake all to ourselves,” Joe told her.
“Too bad for you.” Olivia smiled.
***
Smuggling diamonds was added to the long list of crimes allegedly committed by the Siderovs. Alexei was interrogated by the police and he revealed that Brown had been an accomplice of theirs for some time. The FBI was investigating and they discovered a foreign bank account in Brown’s name containing close to four million dollars. Joe and Brad had no charges filed against them.
The Sullivans were reunited with Mikey and Lassie. Mike Sullivan recovered from his wounds. While working at the Siderov place, Mike had entered the storage room filled with drugs. One of Siderov’s men saw Mike leaving the room and pursued him. Mike was shot in the shoulder but he made it to his truck. He tried to drive to his home, but passed out and hit the tree a few miles from his house. Liz Sullivan’s wound from losing her ring finger required attention from a plastic surgeon but it healed well. The emotional wounds from the trauma would take longer to deal with.
Detective McDonald invited Olivia, Joe, and Brad to the station so that he could tell them what Alexei had reported to the FBI. McDonald, Olivia, Joe and Brad sat at a wooden conference table in a small, muggy room at the police station. Rain pelted the window.
“The cross necklace belonged to Siderov,” Detective McDonald told them. “The night Martin Andersen returned from London he drove up to his beach house. That same night, Alexei, Siderov and two of Siderov’s employees showed up at Andersen’s place and demanded the music box. Martin pulled a gun on them. He killed one of them and shot and wounded the other one as he escaped to his car. Martin and Siderov fought in the garage. Martin pulled the necklace off of Siderov’s neck in the fight. Siderov shot Martin in the stomach and Martin shot Siderov in the shoulder. A car chase ensued with Martin losing control and flipping his car over right before the highway entrance.” The detective paused and took a sip of his coffee. He took a deep breath. “Then Siderov cut out Andersen’s tongue.”
Olivia grimaced. “I must have pulled off the exit ramp right about then,” she noted.
The detective nodded. “Siderov heard your car and took off before he could locate the necklace. Siderov was afraid Martin would survive his injuries, so he sent his man back to finish Andersen off. That was the guy you saw, Olivia. The authorities showed up before he could act.” The detective looked solemnly at Olivia. “And it’s a good thing the police arrived when they did. No doubt he would have shot you too.”
A chill went through Olivia’s body.
Detective McDonald continued. “Alexei also revealed that Siderov planned to send one of his men to the hospital to kill Mike Sullivan to keep him from talking about the drugs he saw at the house.”
“Just eliminate anyone in their way,” Olivia said. She shook her head slowly.
“So how did the diamonds get in that music box? How did Aggie have it?” Joe asked.
“The Siderovs and their contacts used unsuspecting antiques dealers to move their inventory. In this case, the diamonds were placed in the music box and given to a dealer who had a legitimate business but who also moved illegal items. That dealer sold the music box to Aggie. Right after the box was shipped to her, the Siderovs were contacted and told when the package would arrive at Aggie’s shop. Usually one of the Siderovs or their representative would appear at the shop and would pay full price for the item.”
“Aggie must have known that Martin Andersen would be very interested in the music box and obviously contacted him about it. She knew he was a collector,” Olivia said.
“So it seems,” the detective said. “Alexei was too late to the store to make the purchase of the box. Occasionally this happened, and Siderov would arrange for one of his men to pay a visit to the purchaser of the item. The item would be located and taken into possession. If the purchaser got in the way, he would be eliminated. Martin knew he was in danger after Aggie died.”
“What about Aggie?” Olivia asked softly. “Did Alexei know anything about her death?”
The detective nodded. “Alexei reported that Brown and another of Siderov’s men went to Aggie’s house on the night she died. They broke in but couldn’t find the music box. Aggie tried to escape them by sneaking out of the house and taking the bike. Aggie and Andersen had joined forces and had figured too many things out. Siderov wanted them eliminated because he knew one of them had the box and was keeping it from him. We assume that as soon as Martin found out Aggie was dead, he figured he would be next, and so took off for London.”
“What happened to her?” Joe asked quietly. “We need to know.” Joe reached for Olivia’s hand.
The detective cleared his throat. “When they caught up to Aggie, they injected her with a combination of cocaine and digitalis, which caused the fatal heart attack. Vials of the drugs were fou
nd in the Siderov home.”
Joe stared out the window. His eyes were hollow, his face drawn and pale. Olivia swallowed. Her cheeks were flushed with anger. Her eyes glistened with tears. Brad looked down at his hands.
“I’m sorry,” the detective said. They sat in silence for several minutes.
“There’s one other thing,” Detective McDonald said. “Alexei Siderov died last night at the hospital. Sepsis. From the gunshot wound.”
Olivia’s eyes went wide. She squeezed Joe’s hand.
“Good,” Joe whispered. “They can’t hurt anyone else now,” was how Joe looked at it. “Monsters and murderers; let them reap what they sow.”
***
During the following month, Olivia regained her strength. Her doctor suggested that she and Joe make appointments with a counselor to address the grief of losing a loved one to violent death and to deal with the feelings of guilt that could arise from having taken a life, even in self-defense. Olivia and Joe went to talk to counselors, but after three sessions each they stopped going. They figured that the road to healing was a road they would travel together. Joe and Olivia were both grateful that the monsters responsible for Aggie’s death were now dead. And neither one of them felt remorse for having had a hand in some of it.
Following weeks of high heat and humidity, an early August day dawned clear and cool, and Joe, Olivia, and Brad drove to the cemetery to visit Aggie’s grave. They placed red carnations, her favorite flower, in the bronze vase next to her headstone. Olivia told Aggie that it was over now. A tide seemed to break in Joe and his body was racked with anguished sobs. Olivia held him in her arms as the grief poured out of him, a heavy stone of grief deep in her own heart.
***
Brad took a night off from the store and they bought pizzas, made a salad, and sat around Joe’s fire pit watching the sky darken and the stars twinkling over the Atlantic. At midnight, they raised glasses of champagne and toasted the gift of being alive.
