Page 30 of Gem Warfare
When Garrett and I stepped out of the shop onto the sidewalk, he blinked in the midday sunlight and his hand went into his pocket. “I feel nervous carrying this stuff,” he said. “I’m going to take Claud Bridge’s advice and return these to the evidence locker. That’s the strongest safe I know.”
“Are you sure? A lot of people have access to it.”
“I think keeping this as quiet as possible is in our best interests. The fewer people who know about the gems, the better. People won’t go looking for what they don’t know about. Plus, I’m going to double seal the box. However our guy died, someone took great pains to conceal the body. I wonder if they knew what he had on him.”
“We don’t even know if this is a crime yet. Although it probably definitely is,” I finished, my stream of consciousness bringing me around to the glaringly obvious: people didn’t randomly get buried in backyards with a pocketful of priceless jewels.
“I see no other plausible reason why a person would carry upwards of twelve million in cut jewels and be buried underdubious circumstances,” said Garrett in echo of my thoughts. He indicated I should walk with him to his car. When we reached it, he paused to lean against it. “What I don’t understand is why the jewels weren’t removed from the body prior to burial. That seems strange.”
“It seems like something I’d want to snatch,” I said. “Perhaps whoever buried him didn’t have time to search his pockets.”
“They had time to bury him in a residential neighborhood. Although that seems more like opportunity rather than design. It might have technically been a shallow grave but it was deep enough to lay undiscovered all this time. It might not have been discovered for even longer without the Dugans’ landscaping.”
“Then perhaps the gravedigger intended to return at a later date and retrieve the jewels? And for some reason, they couldn’t?”
Garrett rubbed his chin. “Also possible,” he said, nodding.
“What if they didn’t know he had the jewels on his person? Or maybe it’s not about them at all?”
“You think it could just be about getting rid of this guy?”
“It could be. I don’t think we should rule it out. Oof,” I squeaked as a group of young men jostled past. When I stepped back, one of Garrett’s hands was pressed against his pocket. The other was hovering over his gun.
“Get in,” he said, and pulled open his door. I hurried around the other side and got into the passenger seat before Garrett hit the lock button.
“When did you say the ME was examining the body?”
“Some time this week.”
“What are the odds that Roger died by natural causes?”
“Low. If that happened, a person would either call an ambulance or they’d disappear and leave him to be found by someone else. No. Someone made an effort to conceal the body. They didn’t want him found.”
“Perhaps they wanted him to appear alive so they could claim benefits in his name? Or something else?”
“Also possible. As soon as I’ve logged these jewels back into evidence, I’ll search our databases for anyone missing from the jewel trade. It’s a long shot but you never know. It might narrow the search from thousands of missing Caucasian male adults.” Garrett’s phone beeped and he glanced at it then tucked it back into his pocket. “Gotta go. One of my detectives is ready to make an arrest on another case. What’re your plans?”
“I’m going to visit Alice and see if she knows Carrie Dugan. I’d like some background info on my client. Pete Dugan works from home so he doesn’t have any colleagues to quiz,” I said, hopeful that our sister-in-law would have some useful information.
“Alice and Carrie know each other?” Garrett was surprised.
“Maybe. Carrie’s a doctor, Alice is a nurse. Even if they don’t know each other personally, they work at the same hospital so Alice might know some gossip.”
“The Dugans are in their thirties. If this guy was killed twenty years ago, that makes them teenagers when it happened.”
“Lily said even in their twenties, Carrie would have been wrapped up in medical boards.”
“True. Do you know how long they’ve been together?”
“You mean could they have been teens or young adults bonded through a murder in their youth? This isn’t a teen horror movie, Garrett.”
Garrett laughed. “Weirder shit has happened. Maybe one is lying to the other. I still don’t buy it though. I think they’re innocent. All the same, let me know what you find out.” Garrett’s phone buzzed again and he raised his eyebrows. “This is the parole officer overseeing our forger. He says they’re due a check-in at four today. We can drop in and he won’t alert him in advance. After that, we’ll need to wait another week.”
“I can make time this afternoon,” I said, knowing I would miss out if not.
“I’ll call later with an address.”
I hopped out, waving to Garrett as he promptly joined the traffic, and jogged back to my car.