Page 114 of Gem Warfare
“Was it gross?”
“The case?”
“The body.”
“Not really.” I’d hardly seen it in the morgue. I’d hit the deck too fast.
“Dad told Mom you puked. He said it was spectacular. Mom laughed.”
“I would never,” said Traci, Sam’s mom, as she zoomed past in pursuit of her youngest child, Chloe. “Garrett didn’t say a thing.”
I sighed. Of course that story was going to make the rounds.
“Patrick said he plans to go to medical school and see dead bodies all the time,” continued Sam.
“Okay,” I said.
“Do you think he can bring one home?”
“Uh…” I grimaced.
“They must have spares,” continued Sam. “It would be like having a cool pet.”
“A dog would be nicer.”
“Maybe we could get a dead dog. Grandpops wants to know if you want a hotdog? Hey, this hotdog is kind of a dead dog.” Sam guffawed and chomped on the end. Ketchup squirted out the other end and he laughed some more.
“I’ll get food soon, thanks.” First, I wanted a lengthy lie-down in a dark room. Maybe some therapy.
“Okay,” said Sam before he wandered off again.
“Tell me you have good news,” I said to Garrett who was pretending not to have heard any of that.
“I do but I think we should tell the Dugans too,” he said, calling for them to join us. When he had our family and friends’ attention, he started. “Good news. Kelvin Huff sang like a canary. Huff had seen his buddy that he knew as Timothy Wright undertaking work that was not on their maintenance schedule and figured out what was going on. When the jewels disappeared, that clinched it. Yet Black hung around. It seems Huff was biding his time, trying to figure out what Black had done with the jewels and keeping an eye on him. When Black up and quit, Huff got lucky and figured out where he was going and followed him here. But the wait got too long; it was going to be too hard to keep tabs on Black so Huff got desperate and confronted him.” Garrett paused to take a sip, his audience fully captivated.
“It seems Black taunted Huff where the jewels were hidden and how Huff couldn’t possibly dispose of them. When Huff demanded money instead, Black mocked him that no one would believe him anyway so why would he pay him? They fought and the gun went off. According to Huff, Black died instantly. If Huff called for help at the time, he might have gotten a manslaughter charge or less but not reporting the death and hiding the bodychanged everything.
“Huff was convinced the jewels were hidden nearby and spent days searching for nothing. Despite Black trying to convince him the jewels were in a safe deposit box, Huff gradually came to the conclusion while he was inside that the jewels were still somewhere in the house and once he was released, he would be able to recover them. The unearthing of the body created a problem in his plans. The discovery of the jewels ruined it.”
“So he’ll go back to jail?” asked Carrie Dugan.
“Yes. There will be a trial but it’s an open-and-shut case,” said Garrett. “His ex will testify that he tried to rub a huge payday in her face. Plus, the woman he tried to hoodwink here remembered that he boasted about hiding a gun in a basement once. She called in the tip. With the Dugans’ permission, we were able to locate a weapon that we matched to the bullet that killed Charlie Black.”
“You never said any of this,” said Solomon softly to my ear.
“It’s news to me too,” I said, enjoying Garrett’s moment of glory.
“Well done,” said Mom. “You’re a brilliant detective!”
“This case was truly a team effort,” said Garrett. “Without Lexi, Lily, and the tip from Ruby, we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere close to the truth.”
Lily and Ruby high fived.
“Good job,” said Mom and gave me the thumbs up. Before I could reply, she hurried on, asking, “What about the ruby? I’ve been hearing all kinds of rumors.”
“Us too,” said Carrie Dugan excitedly. “We thought we found it, then turns out it disappeared again, and the thief was killed at our home! A TV producer called us just this morning about being in a documentary that details it all.”
“We’ve had several calls from journalists too,” added PeteDugan. “There’s going to be a big story inThe Postabout the mystery of the ruby. And we’re eligible for some of the reward money.”