by Sarah Atwell
I went reluctantly to the door. At least the dogs were not barking frantically, which I had to hope they would do if it was someone evil on the other side. “Who is it?”
“Matt.”
Shit. I stalled. “What do you want?”
“May I come in?”
Reluctantly I opened the door. Fred and Gloria sniffed his feet, then gave him the equivalent of a doggie smile. Traitors. “Come on in.”
Once inside, Matt surveyed the scene. Cam had remained standing, and he looked about as casual as a tree. He nodded a greeting. “Matt.”
Matt returned it in the same style. “Cam.”
Men. I turned back to Matt. “Is this business or social?”
He hesitated before answering. “Business, I guess. I just wanted to let you know that we’ll be getting the truck out of your way shortly.”
“Oh. Thanks.” He’d come all this was just to tell me that? He could have had one of his officers call. Or he could have just hauled it away—after all, it wasn’t my truck. “Anything else?”
“I had a few more questions for Allison. Is she here?”
Ulp. We hadn’t had time for a cover story. “Uh, no. She’s out.” Nothing like stating the obvious.
“She’s not at her place,” Matt said levelly.
“No, she’s still staying here with me. She should be back later. She said she had some errands to do. I can tell her you want to talk to her, when she comes back. Is it urgent? I mean, do you need to reach her in a hurry?” Which wasn’t exactly going to happen anytime soon.
Matt looked at me for a few seconds. Good interrogation technique: Skewer your subject with that eagle eye and make them squirm—then babble. I wasn’t going to fall for that. “Nope. Just some follow-up. We’ve learned a bit more about her late husband’s activities, and I wanted to see if she could add anything.”
“We?”
Matt’s mouth twitched. “Agent Price has kindly provided a few details.”
“I’ll bet. Do you have any idea why Tim is dead?”
“I’m afraid not. All I can figure is, he must have seen something he shouldn’t have. Or interrupted a burglary.”
“Matt, why would anyone break into my place? I don’t have anything worth stealing. Well, I like my glass pieces, but they aren’t going to bring a lot on the black market. And you know I don’t keep money on the premises. So I’m not buying the burglary idea. Did you get anything from the neighbors?” In my heart of hearts, I hoped that Matt had gotten a line on the thugs, and might at least know who he was looking for. Not that I expected him to find them. At least, not in time to do us much good.
He shook his head. “Nope. Like you said, not many people around back there at night. And there wouldn’t have been much to see—whatever happened, the truck would have blocked it pretty well. But you know your lock’s busted again?”
Damn—I’d forgotten about that. What the hell was I supposed to say? “Didn’t that happen when Tim was killed?” Play dumb, right?
Matt gave me a long look. “The officer at the scene didn’t notice it, but it’s possible that he missed it.”
Time to take the offensive. “Speaking of officers, I thought you were going to have someone keeping an eye on this place. They seem to be falling down on the job.”
“Sunday night, the truck blocked their view. They never saw anybody.”
“Are they out there now?”
“Yes. They come on after dark. I figure you’re safe enough by daylight, in this neighborhood.”
I fought back hysteria. The damn truck was still providing good cover, and nobody had been watching when the thugs had barged in and snatched Allison. But now they were in place—too late. In fact, they might just complicate our lives if they saw us sneaking around in the dark. Great. At least nobody had mentioned our mystery guest, Frank. I certainly wasn’t about to bring him up.
“Em? You all right?”
I must have been silent too long, thinking. I summoned a smile. “Yeah, sure, just tired. All these dead bodies, you know. A lot of cleanup. And I was working in the studio today. Listen, thanks for coming by. I’m sure you have crooks and murderers to catch.” Might as well get him on his way so we could start plotting and scheming.
Matt fixed me with the eagle eye again, and I wondered what he was thinking. “All right. Listen, try to keep a low profile, will you? Both of you?” He looked over at Cam, who hadn’t said a word. Cam nodded briefly, and Matt turned back to me. “I’ll let you know if I find out anything. And tell Allison to give me a call. Tomorrow morning’s probably time enough.”
“I’ll do that.” If Allison is still alive tomorrow morning. No, Em, you can’t think like that. “It was nice of you to come by yourself, but I’m sure we’ll be fine tonight. And I’ll see about getting that lock fixed tomorrow. If your guys are on duty tonight, we should be safe enough, right?”
“I hope so.” Matt looked as though he wanted to say something more, but finally he gave a small shrug and moved toward the door. The two dogs stayed put and stared at him gravely. “Good night.”
I shut the door carefully after him, and waited until I heard his footsteps move away. Then I leaned back against the door. “Why is it you can never find a cop when you need one, but now we’ve got too many?”
Cam didn’t smile. I watched as Frank emerged from the dark hallway.
“Copper, eh?”
“Chief of police,” I said tightly.
“Ah,” Frank nodded. “You two have a history?”
I stared at him. Was the guy psychic? “Past. Very.”
“Still, can’t hurt to have someone watching your back. Now, kiddies, let’s get down to business. I’ve got some ideas. . . .”
Chapter 17
marver: an iron table on which the gather is rolled into an evenly shaped mass. It can also be used to embed trailings into the surface as the glass is rolled. The marver is also used as a pickup surface when working in pellets of coloured glass (Phoebe Phillips, ed., The Encyclopedia of Glass)
I looked at my watch. Barely seven. Darkness had fallen. And despite all the crises of the last couple of hours, I was hungry.
“Frank, you have any idea when these guys are likely to get in touch with us?”
Frank shrugged. “I’d bet they’d give you a couple of hours to stew.”
To my surprise, Cam broke in. “It’s dark, and they don’t know Tucson. Where would they go that they’d feel safe? And they’ve got to have someplace to put Allison while they wait.”
“Could just stuff her in the trunk,” Frank said. But when he saw the expression on Cam’s face, he retreated. “Don’t think they’d do that. And they’d need a place to sleep, wouldn’t they? So they’ve got to have a hotel or motel hereabouts. I suppose there’s more than one or two?” The last question was addressed to me.
“Tucson has a population of half a million, give or take. I can give you the phone book, but I don’t think calling every hotel and motel in a twenty-mile radius and asking if there are two louts and a redhead staying there is going to get us very far.” I stopped for a moment and considered the options. I didn’t like any of them.
I took a deep breath. “Frank, let me ask you this. You are convinced that these guys are not going to harm Allison, right?”
Frank looked as serious as I had seen him in our brief acquaintance. “I’d bet the bank on it. Like I said, that crowd looks out for its own. They hurt her, they’ll have to answer for it back home. So I’d say she’s safe. Relatively.”
Before Cam could interrupt, I went on, “And if we believe that, you’re saying we should just wait until they get in touch with us? And then tell them we have the diamonds and are ready and willing to trade for Allison?”
“I am. No need to get the cops into it—they’d just screw things up. Pardon my language.”
I waved a dismissive hand at him. “Then can we please eat something? I’m starving.”
Cam looked appalled at my insensitivity. �
�Jesus Christ, Em! Allison is being held God knows where by a pair of violent thugs, and you want to sit down to dinner?”
“Cameron, my boy,” Frank said promptly, his tone kind. “Army travels on its stomach, right? We can’t do squat until we know what they’re proposing, so we might as well be ready, and that means fed.”
Cam slumped, outnumbered. “You haven’t tasted Em’s cooking,” he countered. “I’ll fix something. And you’re crazy if you think I’m going food shopping right now—I plan to be here when they get in touch. So it’ll have to be whatever we have in the cupboards.”
“Go for it,” I replied. He was a scientist—surely he could figure out something. “Can you listen at the same time?”
“No problem.” Cam started rummaging through the refrigerator and cabinets, flinging boxes around with more force than was called for.
I threw myself into a chair and faced Frank. “So, Frank, how does this work? I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of experience with hostage swaps.”
“And you think I do?” Frank grinned, his teeth very white in his tan face. “I’m flattered. But I do hear things, now and then. Right, then. Point one, we’ve got the diamonds.”
I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I remembered how and where we had found them. “Frank, stop right there. An unknown quantity of those diamonds is currently embedded in glass, and it’s going to take some work—and some time—to get them out. Plug that into your plan. Assuming, of course, you are planning to give them back?”
“Too right. Doesn’t pay to get too cute with these boys. Simple trade—the woman for the stones.”
“All right.” I wasn’t sure I was convinced, but it would have to do. “Say we get the diamonds out of the glass. What next?”
“These guys are from out of town, right? They don’t know the territory, the lay of the land.”
“So?”
“Most of the time, they’re gonna want to pick the place for the swap. Someplace people won’t see what’s going down, or at least not notice. After all, they don’t know what Allison’s likely to do. Is she the hysterical type? Screamer?”
I looked at Cam, and he looked stricken. “I have no idea. I’d say she’s more likely to faint than to scream. But what you’re getting at is, would she be the type to make a scene in a public place, attract attention, try to run?”
Frank nodded. “Bang on. You say no, but our pals can’t risk it anyway. They’d want to pick someplace either well away from people, or surrounded by their own kind of people. And they have to be able to tell you how to get there. And they’re not on home ground.”
“Frank,” I said with some impatience, “do you have a point?”
“Gettin’ there. I don’t know the place any better than they do. Put yourself in their shoes. Where would you go?”
I sat back in my chair and thought about it. My perspective might be a little different, since I was a woman, and I didn’t have a weapon, but there must be some basic principles. What Frank said made sense. If I was a stranger in town, with no ties to anyone, and I needed a safe place to do a dirty deed, what would I do?
“There’s a part of South Tucson,” I said slowly. “I don’t know it, but I know enough to stay out of it. But then, I’ve lived here for years, and you get to know these things, reading the papers, just paying attention. It’s a place you don’t want to find yourself after dark, at least if you’re an unarmed woman. Heck, I don’t want to find myself there by daylight either.”
“Grand. So how would our friends get a handle on that neighborhood?”
I searched my mental data banks. “There’s this bar, sort of on the fringes. I’m told—and believe me, this is just hearsay—that if you want to find anything nasty, like drugs, or hookers, you can go in there and, uh, make your needs known, and somebody will point you in the right direction.” I’d also heard that the cops kept a patrol car parked nearby 24/7, but that was neither here nor there. “So I’d bet they’d make for the bar. Tell me, Frank— would these guys have planned ahead, checked this all out ahead of time, or are they making it up as they go?” After all, they had been in town a week now—time enough to find the local thug Welcome Wagon.
“Hard to say. They’ve been busy, haven’t they? What with killing Jack, and searching places, and then that poor delivery man, and a kidnapping.”
I wish he hadn’t reminded me just what we were up against. These were people who had no scruples about killing anyone who didn’t give them what they wanted.
But Frank didn’t seem concerned. “If it was me, I’d guess they’d lay low as much as possible, when they weren’t whacking people. And they’ve probably been keeping an eye on this place.”
“Gee, thanks. That makes me feel just great. By the way, Matt said the cops have been keeping an eye on me too. Neighborhood’s getting a bit crowded, wouldn’t you say?”
Cam couldn’t contain himself when he heard that news. “Jeez, Em—you’re telling me that those guys just grabbed Allison out of here right under the nose of the Tucson PD?”
I shrugged. “I guess so. Shift change, or maybe they couldn’t see around the damn truck. Now’s not the time to go around blaming people.” Although I would probably have some choice words for Matt when all this was over. The police department was not exactly covering itself with glory here. And that just drove the point home: Bringing them in on the kidnapping, which they’d managed to miss when it happened, would just muddy the waters—or worse. I trusted Matt, on a professional level, but I wasn’t all too sure that I trusted the rank-and-file officers on the street.
“Let’s stick to the point. Our thugs have not been cruising around town, scouting dark corners. First they were trailing Jack, and then Allison, and now me. And we have to assume that somewhere in there they made contact with their local peer group and scoped out the lay of the land, in broad terms. And I’m guessing that means South Tucson somewhere. Do we all agree?”
“Food,” Cam said tersely, carrying plates to the table. I made a mental note to ask how he had produced a real meal for three people in the ten minutes or so we had been talking—and he hadn’t even used the microwave. Maybe he’d leave me instructions. Frank and I joined him at the table.
When we were all seated, Cam answered my question. “If that’s the best we’ve got. I’m just as lost here as they are—although I think I made a wrong turn once and ended up in that end of town, and I didn’t like what I saw.” He turned to Frank. “Listen, pal—why are we supposed to believe you’re on the up-and-up? You seem to have a pretty good grasp of the mind of the criminal element.”
Frank took a bite of food and chewed before answering. “Good job, mate.” He pointed toward his plate with his fork. “But you’re right to have doubts. You don’t know me, but it’s a little late to ask for references, eh? You’ll have to take it on faith that I’m who I say I am, and right now, I’m Allison’s uncle first and foremost. I’ve done my share of deals that I wouldn’t want the law to look at too hard, but nothing outright illegal—and I’ve never killed anyone. But it’s enough to know how these guys think, anyway. And I think I’m right in saying that blood comes first, always has. Allison’s family, see? And she’s a woman. They’re just using her as a bargaining chip. They don’t want to hurt her—bad enough they offed Jack and mislaid the diamonds, and their higher-ups aren’t going to be too happy with them if they come home empty-handed. So, bottom line: We give them what they want, and they let her go.”
Cam subsided into mutterings and focused on his own plate.
I wasn’t as easily put off. “Okay, Frank, so what happens? They call us, and they set a place to meet. Who makes the swap?”
“You, most likely. They’d figure you’re no threat to them.”
“Great. That’s so good to hear.” My sarcasm was back, with a vengeance.
Cam sputtered. “Hey, wait a minute. They’ve already got Allison, and you want me to let Em walk into God knows what? I want to be there.”
/>
Frank eyed Cam with an amused gleam in his eye. “I don’t think they’d have a problem with that. They’ve already seen you, and I don’t think they’re too worried.”
Cam glared at him. I sympathized. I knew he hoped he had outgrown his nerd image, and here it was being shoved back in his face. At least the bullies were more credible now than they had been in high school. And they had guns. And I didn’t want to see my brother get hurt either.
“Focus, guys. So they call and set a place, and Cam and I show up with the goods, right? And where, pray tell, will you be?”
“Me?” Frank grinned. “I’m your proverbial ace in the hole. They don’t know I’m here, see. So I can give you the element of surprise. And tip the numbers in our favor—if need be.”
That helped. A little. I ran through the scenario, then was struck by a doubt. “Frank, you are going to let them have the diamonds? I mean, you’re not just playing us, and you’re really planning to snatch the diamonds and disappear?”
“You insult me, dear lady,” Frank replied. “I’m a businessman. I’ve been paid. And, frankly, I intend to go on doing business with the crew in Chicago, so there’s nothing in it for me if I take back the diamonds.”
“Sorry,” I muttered. It was hard to know who to trust at the moment. Not that I had a lot of choices.
“Don’t be. You’re right to ask. It’s your hide you’re risking out there.”
I straightened my back. “So, we meet them and hand them the diamonds and they give up Allison. And we all go back to our lives, right?” And that was the best-case scenario?
“Close enough.”
“Then let’s go back to details. We’ve got to get the diamonds cleaned up, unless you want to hand these guys a bunch of glass shards, and I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t make them happy.”
“What’s that going to take, Em?” Cam asked.
I proceeded to explain the process. He had some familiarity with working with hot glass, while Frank had none. But Frank would probably be good at distinguishing diamonds from frit in the hot glass. We could find a way to work together. Still, even with the three of us, it would take an hour or two to extricate the diamonds— and even then I wasn’t sure how long it would take them to cool. We’d just have to find out.
